Artisan Archive
Thread: No business WHATSOEVER!
I play on 6 Servers, of those I have 3 toons that are Artisans, 2 are Master Artisan. Of the 2 Master Artisans 1 is what I call a Professional Miner. I pull in 200k-500k a week when the spawns are right and all i do is sell resources. The cost to do that is about 40-60% of sales depending on the spawn and the demand vs supply at the moment.
I know there are the hardcores that will say that we are crafters and that making money is not everything. Well after I make 400 Million then I will have that frame of mind. Untill then I do everything I can to maximize the bottom line.
The Armor/Weapon repair tools I put on the Bazzar. Put 6-8 of each on the Bazzar, priced for that area. What is priced to sell at Bestine might not sell at Theed. Find a place that uses them and that seems to have a shortage of them. If yours are 98.91 and someone has 99.99 tools on there.. dont bother.. you will never sell unless you underprice or all the 99.99s are gone.
Crafting tools, not sure there is much of a market for some. Food and Chem seems to be the common sales. Again put them on the bazzar and price for that area.
Get yourself a barker droid and place it at Cnet Starport, or even at Theed to let people know about your WP. Most are had for 30k-65k with crafting stations and extra storage. A must have for Artisans that dont want to stand AFK and bark for hours on end. Sadly you can not redeed your droid, and if you have a JTL Astromech Droid, then you only get 1 other, so pick it carefully and make sure it's what you what.
If you are not Master Artisan then you will have a tough time making it if this is your first profession on this toon. Get some Combat, like 2hand, and go do missions from a player city that is a "Improved Job Market" city. They will be close by and a whole lot faster than doing artisan missions. (most are broken atm anyways) I know you said you will be making Swoops ( have to be Master to do that ) but to the other Artisans reading this I thought I would add that.
Good Luck.
1) Barker droids are only useful if you have Advertising 4. Otherwise you can't use them
2) You can actually have up to 5 droids in your datapad, but only one out.
now, back to the question at hand.
I think you have low demand items truthfully.
Repair tools and crafting tools arn't normally big sellers. As an artisan, I'd recomend mixing in some higher demand items, such as Droid Batteries and Weapon Powerups (Melee and ranged).
Where you sell
The price you sell for
The market for your items
Your marketing skills
And the fact that its the holidays
Normally i do 20 crates of grenade sales a day. For the last 4 days i've done 1-2. Its the holidays this will happen.
Have you checked your prices against other artisans in the area?
Have you promoted your vendors on your servers trade forums?
Does the sign out in front of your house clearly state whats inside?
Have you tried selling on the bazaars?
Do you have an entrance fee on the house with the vendors? If so get rid of it
People dont magically appear at vendors unless they are literally next door to a POI. Being a crafter is as much about being a salesmen as a creator of items. Find a successful artisan and work with him. My artisan items sell in batches. My grenade powerups can sit on the vendor and then 40 crates will sell at 9k per in one day. Some of my powerups went almost to 60 days old before selling. BUt i knew i was overcharging for them because of the dantooine tourist trap tax. Artisan items have a very very limited market. You have to pretty much find the buyer.
Message Edited by Fodder650 on 12-26-2004 10:22 AM
KevikTharr wrote:
So Ive go over 400 crates of Weapon/Armor repair tools stocked and over 300 crafting tools stocked! I advertside on the forums and in coronet. My shop is in a good location. Just 1000m outside of Theed. I get absolutely no business! Nothing! the only business I got was a guildie. Is the problem maybe not having Advertising 3, which gives the ability to the make my vendor visible from the map... Im also worried cuz Im gonna be running my FIRST batch of swoop bikes which will be 96% efficient, and I dont want those sitting in my vendor.
My crafting tools are priced at 1k each tool and 5k for a crate.
Repair Tools are priced at... I cant remember, but under 3k for a crate of 5.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?!
I would suggest, if your shop is 1000m from Theed, advertising in Theed. Otherwise, people in Coronet will see you barking for your shop, think "I need some repair kits" then forget by the time they get to Theed. If you bark in Theed, they'll hop on their bikes and jet over there. Coronet might have more foot traffic, but you want to sell to people's desire for convenience.
Also, how good are your repair kits and tools? Repair kits should be as close to 100% as possible, and tools should be as close to 15.00 rating as possible. Both of those attributes requires Non-ferrous metal (copper/aluminum) as close to 1000 Conductivity as possible.
The Swoops will be a higher demand item, so don't worry about them not selling. Visit other vehicle vendors and see their prices, then compete. Even 1k cheaper price can get folks to buy from you.
Definitely put up some droid batteries (any ol' metal will do). People always need those.
Advertising 3 will DEFINITELY help you, for when you're not online. Consider getting it, to put those vendors on the map. Then people riding by will see your vendor on their overhead map, as well.
Finally, for when you're barking while at the keyboard, consider barking with Swoops on-hand, and some repair kits. Even some low-priced Landspeeders. That way, you can bark that you're selling repair kits and crafting tools only 1000m away, and even vehicles to get you there. Build a reputation for low-priced stuff by helping out new people who really want a vehicle but can't afford it because they're too new. Taking a one-time loss of a few thousand credits just might gain you a vehicle customer for life.
Good luck!
Warryyr wrote:
KevikTharr wrote:
So Ive go over 400 crates of Weapon/Armor repair tools stocked and over 300 crafting tools stocked! I advertside on the forums and in coronet. My shop is in a good location. Just 1000m outside of Theed. I get absolutely no business! Nothing! the only business I got was a guildie. Is the problem maybe not having Advertising 3, which gives the ability to the make my vendor visible from the map... Im also worried cuz Im gonna be running my FIRST batch of swoop bikes which will be 96% efficient, and I dont want those sitting in my vendor.
My crafting tools are priced at 1k each tool and 5k for a crate.
Repair Tools are priced at... I cant remember, but under 3k for a crate of 5.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?!
I would suggest, if your shop is 1000m from Theed, advertising in Theed. Otherwise, people in Coronet will see you barking for your shop, think "I need some repair kits" then forget by the time they get to Theed. If you bark in Theed, they'll hop on their bikes and jet over there. Coronet might have more foot traffic, but you want to sell to people's desire for convenience.
Also, how good are your repair kits and tools? Repair kits should be as close to 100% as possible, and tools should be as close to 15.00 rating as possible. Both of those attributes requires Non-ferrous metal (copper/aluminum) as close to 1000 Conductivity as possible.
The Swoops will be a higher demand item, so don't worry about them not selling. Visit other vehicle vendors and see their prices, then compete. Even 1k cheaper price can get folks to buy from you.
Definitely put up some droid batteries (any ol' metal will do). People always need those.
Advertising 3 will DEFINITELY help you, for when you're not online. Consider getting it, to put those vendors on the map. Then people riding by will see your vendor on their overhead map, as well.
Finally, for when you're barking while at the keyboard, consider barking with Swoops on-hand, and some repair kits. Even some low-priced Landspeeders. That way, you can bark that you're selling repair kits and crafting tools only 1000m away, and even vehicles to get you there. Build a reputation for low-priced stuff by helping out new people who really want a vehicle but can't afford it because they're too new. Taking a one-time loss of a few thousand credits just might gain you a vehicle customer for life.
Good luck!
The other thing that sells is fully experimented weapon powerups. I've had a great deal of success selling crates (5 per crate) of 32% speed, 16% action ranged/melee powerups.
'Opportunity' sales right now are easy to do, steel or fibreplast in large quantities, and the fplast can be total junk. I sold almost 200k of <100 OQ fplast to budding starship engineers at 3cp in less than ten minutes in Coronet a few days back.
- Advertise in Theed, not another planet
- Quality is not high enuf, either get better resources, or sell the resources themselves for 2-to-3cpu per, make more money
- See the item above, proly sell better at a good profit than selling vehicles
- If you're going to sell artisan goods rather than resources, partner with another vendor that will draw similar customers to your location, such as Architects selling crafting stations, deeds, furniture
- Sell Powerups instead