Artisan Archive
Thread: What is lot renting? how can i expand my business?
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JedimasterSlugg
Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:58 am
#1
Hey, i've got my own power business that has 8 fusion generators running, and i want to expand. I've heard about renting other peoples lots, but i'm not sure about how exactly that works. Is it an exploit, and is it encouraged by SOE, or is it just a cheat that people use to get more harvesters. Please tell me any information about this you can, or any other ways that i can expand my business. Thanks a lot.
Staarn Ral'skar
owner and operator of Notfar Power Station
Notfar, Tatooine, 3460, 680
Happymob
Thu Jun 24, 2004 11:20 am
#2
Lot renting = having another player place the structure (harvester, factory, house) and grant you admin rights on the structure. You manage maintenance and pay the person some amount for use of their lot.
Low swapping = having a player on another server create a character on your server to place harvesters and grant you admin. You then create a character on their server and do the same. In lot swapping, no money exchanges hands.
Almost everyone agrees that lot renting from active players on your server is a legitimate use of lots. There is much debate over whether lot swapping is intended and/or is an exploit. There is no need to re-hash the arguments in this thread.
Both of these strategies work best for static structures. If you need to move harvesters (which you will in a power business), you may want to consider a model where you simply "hire" other miners. You tell them of good power shifts, you buy the power off of them at some price, and they are responsible for placing the harvesters and maintaining them. You are then responsible for selling the power.
JedimasterSlugg
Thu Jun 24, 2004 11:50 am
#3
Thanks, but what percentage of my selling price should i buy the power for from the miners? I don't want to pay too much, because i only charge about 2-2.5 CPU for power anyway, so i would have to pay the miners very little for me to make a profit, and they probably would rather sell their power for a higher price than sell to me for lower. Would this strategy actually be worth it, or would i have to sell a ton of power before i saw much money?
HalasterTheBlack
Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:14 pm
#4
There's an organization my server that has this down to a science.
They have a corporate lead, whose job is to oversee all mining operations. Below that corporate lead, they have managers for each of the various types of resource - mineral, power, chemical, flora. Each manager has several miners reporting to him.
The managers and lead decide what to mine and sell. The managers then find waypoints (or direct surveyors to find them). Once waypoints are found, they direct their miners onto it. Once all miners have placed, they estimate draw and solidify sales.
Once the spawn is gone, the miners loot their hoppers and pull their harvs. Resources are sold to central vendors at fixed prices per unit. Managers and the lead buy the resources from the vendors and deliver them to their customers.
At each level, there is profit. The miners sell for something more than cost and actually make a pretty darn good living (most have 5-8 lots to do this with). Surveyors are typically miners as well, but also get bonused for finding waypoints. Managers are often also miners and/or surveyors, but they get paid a cut of the gross of all material sales they manage.
The distribution of wealth closely follows the distribution of effort, yet this particular organization charges reasonable prices (just a tad higher than the lowest available on the server).
As they become more efficient, it's only going to get better for them.
Happymob
Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:17 am
#5
If you are doing the business on a large enough scale, it's absolutely worth it to both you and the miner. Let's say you sell at 2 cpu and buy at 1.5 cpu. At wind harvester levels, it probably isn't worth the effort for the miner. But at fusion levels, the miner can easily pull in 100,000 radioactive units a day off of 7 lots at insanely low cost to them (0.2 cpu or less). This is too much to sell on the bazaar and they may not want to deal with the sales side at all. So you providing them an easy way to quickly raise cash is well worth it. Who wouldn't want 130,000 credits a day in income for moving fusion harvesters once or twice a week?
Now from your perspective, you need to be able to move the product. People need to know your shop exists and they need to know that you will always have power in stock. You will get a lot of repeat business if you maintain stock and have a competitive price (doesn't have to be the lowest). For every 100K stack you sell a day, you get 50K, the miner gets 130K, and the system gets 20K in maintenance.
You are right that you need to move volume to really make hiring miners worthwhile, but several people have created power companies doing just this. You can also try it with rented lots (this is lower risk), but you may find that it's a lot more work since you have to manage more harvesters and deal with all the movement yourself.
ThothTheWise
Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:21 am
#6
Having done the "power thing" in the past before Mining, WHat i had done was sub contract out to a mining Co. I made him a deal to sell 2 million units of power to him each week for 2cpu. (this was approx around the height of the holo grind so its not going to be as easy as then)
Having 3 accounts of my own, i then borrowed the Lots of 3 others to drop close to 50 fusions. I gave them a 1cpu price tag guarenteed income per week. To make it much simpler on myself tho..I made a very early decision on finding a few people who i had become friends with in game and Trusted as much as can be done...and we all agreed to swap our account information so that when they werent on I could easily facilitate the moving of harvestors as well as upkeeping them. This worked quite well.
We both then took the upkeep cost and divided it between them and myself and did quite a good business.
IE: i sold for 2cpu (tho currently on My particular server it seems to go for 1.5 I still sold out weekly) 1cpu for myself and 1cpu for my "lot renter" AFTER upkeep costs had been delt with.
While I did all the actual work...the split i deemd should be 50/50 simply because the trust values involved in our particular relationships in dealing with the account information value. As such we all made a nice bundel of capital.
Fusions are best done by someone with close friends...or multiple accounts simply because they MUST be moved and the overall value in credits of the material pulled are not a big ticket item. If your charging 2cpu and they have to come move them and upkeep them...why shouldnt they sell it themselves for 2cpu?
You may wish to consider setting up more of a Co-Op and fence the power for a larger group of INDIVIDUAL power harvestors. If you have a decent amount of Capital at your disposal....Buy power for 1cpu and sell it for 1.5 cpu and there by secure Market share. This allows you to make a profit from others work of .5 cpu as well as 1.5 cpu profit (not taking into account expensis) for what you yourself harvest, and setting up predetermined numbers to buy from each supplyer each week guarentees them a certain amount of capital each week as well...plus the "banding togeather" allows your collective vendor to become known as selling power for a decent price and always being stocked.
Another thing to do is watch your Tade forums. When you see people in need of capital and selling power for 1cpu buy up all you can for resale. I play the markets often even now as a miner. Its like day trading and futures projecting in some ways.
JedimasterSlugg
Sun Jun 27, 2004 9:38 pm
#9
Thanks a lot guys, since first posting this question, i have since rented 10 lots from a combat type, and am paying him weekly to drop harvesters for me. I have expanded my business to 18 harvesters, and hopefully more in the future.
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