Artisan Archive
Thread: Baseline price for vehicles for all around profit maximization
oh yeah, after the initial first week rush, prices should certainly drop to something reasonable
Fleet Skyhawk, Corbantis
Some very good points have been made in this thread!.
I would like to add that it is all dependant on the economy of your server. Like anything else you sell it all depends on what the customer is willing to pay. If they are not willing to pay you enough to makea profit when compared to selling the resources on the bazzar (or your vendor) than sell the raw resources and make money that way.
My gut feeling is that the peoplesuggesting100k to a million are closer than the ones suggesting 16k. The problem with high prices is will people feel it is price gauging when comparing to the current mount prices.
Pricing for things on Chilistra
Kaadu sold premounted 20k
"decent quality" resources when spawning 3cr/unit, perhaps 2cr if theres lots around
"decent quality" resources after despawning 5-10 cr depending on quality and how long ago they stopped spawing.
We have a steel that is "uber" in most respects and quit spawning a cuple months ago. selling well over 50cr per unit.
Bottom line is I wont sell vehicles for less than 8cr per unit because I could either hold on to the stuff and sell later, or turn it into armor and sell it now for even more.
Alright, let's give this some thought. (not like there hasn't already been)
Something that's already been mentioned is that there are no government type regulations on product production and selling. I think it's extremely important to keep this in mind. Also, keep in mind that, when prices get near "break even" point, it becomes very difficult to be an artisan. There are a few ways to keep prices high enough to not only make a profit, but also to expand your artisan business (isn't that why we became artisans in the first place???).
First, makeand sell something in demand. This may be obvious to some, but overlooked by others. It also means that, as intelligent business-creatures, we should realize that flooding the market is the death of profit. In other words, if everyone starts making everything that's in demand, the prices will drop so low that everyone will be able to afford the product. Then, everyone will have that product. So, it will become less profitable, if at all, to make the product -- not worth our time. I'll give you an example: small houses. True, you can make a little profit off of making a small house, but the extremely low prices don't make it worth your TIME. Why not think for a moment about the scene of this game: Star Wars. In the SW movies, how many of the characters had, or could afford, a house? Let alone afford and keep three or four? Maybe a medium? Very unrealistic for EVERYONE to be able to have a house. But, why are the prices so low? Because someone concentrating more on grinding than being a merchant, this someone being many many aspiring artisans with LOTS of grinding resources, doesn't have the time or effort to be a merchant and sell for reasonable prices. So, the artisan sells the houses for 3k a piece. Houses on the bazaar sold for 3k disappear in seconds. So, the artisan isn't totally losing out by practice grinding, and doesn't have to spend quality time/resources with vendors and whatnot. So, that basically makes being a puritan merchant very very difficult. I know the response to this: a puritan merchant (at least a smart one) will buy those 3k houses and turn around and sell them for 7k, 11k, or whatever, and make a nice profit. The problem there is, there are more artisans grinding out houses (and things like that) than there are merchants doing that. All in all, it makes life very hard for the aspiring artisan or anyone without the capital to put into being a merchant. So, individual merchant price-fixing is one way to "up" the price of products, but this benefits merchants, not necessarily artisans who make the stuff in the first place. Moral: be a merchant and an artisan.
Another way to keep prices in a reasonable range is worldwide price-fixing.In other words,to create a monopoly. For those who don't know, a monopoly is an agreement between multiple businesses to control a particular commodity. Here's an example, but don't take it as a proposal: Imagine all the artisans on one server agreeing that they won't sell any vehicles for less than 10cpu. I actually like that idea. Everyone in that scenario will profit, and not everyone in the game will have a vehicle on day 1. Better yet, here's another take on an agreement: all the artisans agree to start selling at 10cpu (or greater, depending on quality, etc.), but reduce the price by .5cpu per month. That's basically what a modern-day company does anyway with its products. The company has to sell the product at a very high price at first, just to pay the costs of being able to create the product in the first place. I feel too many people here limit their idea of costs to resources. Imagine a car manufacturer with a boatload of materials, enough to make millions of cars, but not having a factory, tools, or the personnel to make even a singlecar. You have to consider the fact that your time, effort, and materials (resources AND tools, crafting stations, factories, houses, harvesters, etc.) are going into every single product you make. This should ALWAYS be reflected in the price. As I was saying, when a company pays off that baseline cost of production, it can start lowering the price. But a company is NOT going to sell a product at break-even or at a loss until there is absolutely no more demand for that product.
All of this kind of thinking can (and should) be applied to SWG! I'm not saying everyone needs to climb aboard the capitalism train, but, as mentioned by a few people, this game is not only to have fun, but also to see something come from all our effort (and a lot of us put in a lot of effort into this game!).
I think with a little effort, we artisans and merchants can do a lot to get the economy back on track, and make all our effort worth it. If you doubt the effort that goes into becoming an artisan, look at the total experience requirements for any profession that will get you anywhere. The experience required is tremendous, and the resource requirement is equally astounding.
WE control the economy, folks... We ARE the economy, folks. Let's all consider some of these things before we start selling vehicles for the cost of resources...
Sho'Risha
Master Artisan
Armorsmith 4-2-2-4
Etc.
ShoRisha wrote:
WE control the economy, folks... We ARE the economy, folks. Let's all consider some of these things before we start selling vehicles for the cost of resources...
Actually, the buyers control the economy... and ultimately they set the price.
That's why I say I'll probably just hawk 'em individually, asking for bids the first few days, just to get an idea of what people will offer.
After that, I'll set up a vendor with what I feel are reasonable prices and if they sell, they sell. If not, I'll stick to droids. 
Here's my price list:
Swoopbike
First Day Sale: 50k
Normal Sale: 36k
Speederbike
First Day Sale: 36k
Normal Sale: 27k
X34
First Day Sale: 26k
Normal Sale: 20k
These prices take into account the 3cpu is spend on resources. I refuse to pay more than that unless it's a special order and they are willing to pay more (10cpu is simply an outragious price for resources unless it's uber-rare. But then why use those resources on cars). I then multiply the cost by 1.5 for the usuall price, and multiply by 2 for the first day only (this is only done to reduce the number of /tells I'm sure to be getting on the first day). My projected profit for the first day or two (max) is 2mil.
Personnally I think these prices are more than fair for the amount of metal used, for the cost of the factories, and for the cost of my time.
For those of you that thing 60K is too high.
As the market stands right now, most Ferrous resources are being sold at 6cpu. Therefore,a speederwill cost 36K in raw materials (assuming you're buying yours). Now assume you build your speeders and there is a normal 10% failure rate. So, for 60K in resourses you get 9 speeders. If you sold the speeders at 40K you would break even. If you're going do that, just sell your resources outright and your profits will be higher and you'll have fewer headaches.
For you that mine your own resources, why would you sell your work for cost? The price of any item should be based on the open marketprice of the resources (which right now is between 5-6cpu). A normal profit margin built in so that you can remain in business is 10%. If you want to grow and expand, you'll need a 20% profit margin.
60K, is a faireveryday normal price,but not first day. The sky is the limit, for a fool and his credits are soon parted. Anything less than 60K is a waste of time.
My sales cry for first day will be, "Speeder bikes for sale. Make me an offer."
Goss
MDE, MA, Novice Pistoleer, Rifleman 4, etc.
My guess is that the starting price will be somewhere between 15-25 CPU. This means the price for the 3 vehicles at 15 CPU will be:
LandSpeeder 76500 cr
SwoopBike 120000 cr
SpeederBike 90000 cr
Seems fair compaired to the current prices on weapons/armor/structures ...
I got pre-orders for 28 vehicles and will sell to Crevasse Citizens for 8 CPU.
Klydes, Mayor of Crevasse
Master CH, Master Artisan, Driod Engineer
This whole conversation would make a lot more sense if there was consistency on a server with the 3 cred / unit standard.
Bottom line is it isn't.
Survey tools cost 16 resources yet happily sell for 100-250 thus being way over 3cr / u.
Small houses fall the other way and sell for less.
Also I keep seeing people saying that you need to have 3cr / u to make a profit, this just isn't true.
To make a very small profit you can sell for as little as 0.5 cr a unit depending on what rate harvesters you have and th % they are on. It would be slow going and hard work but it's quite feasible.
It's also not only about what you charge but making sure you make more money then you spend, this is all what profit is about and selling what is in demand and enough of them.
quote*
Seems fair compaired to the current prices on weapons/armor/structures ...
I got pre-orders for 28 vehicles and will sell to Crevasse Citizens for 8 CPU.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
no offence to you .... BUT they are dumbasses if they buy it for 8 CPU they deserve to get ripped off, some people is too lazy to do some reasearch on this web site to see how much doe sit take to make the vehicle
I have become quite pessimistic about getting a good price on these vehicles. I got a gut feeling that the market from the start will be literally flooded with low cost and low quality vehicles, because many crafters will use this as an opportunity to get rid of large amounts of now reduntant resources they have stockpiled during their careers. Personally I will make a trial run of 100 vehicles of high quality, sell them at 8-10cpu and see how it goes. If there is a market for that fine, if not, I'll just sell the resources which I will get at least 5 cpu for anyway. I really, really hope experimentation and the quality of the resource will make a big difference in the end product.