Artisan Archive

I have to admit, I'm enjoying my artisan character immensely. I'm on a tiny moon, with a small number of people, and have already shot enough into prominance with bazaar and barking that I'm actually making a good living off of my crafting. Played for a few hours last night and rounded out Engineering II and Business II without too much hassle.

I don't know if we'd call this a general post, but I do have suggestions for people playing Artisan:

Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats a clientel. The Bazaar is great, you can surely sell a lot of excess there, but I think it's only good for excess items you have. I hawk my wares at the gates and mission terminals--one day I hope to have my shop. It seems to work better for several reasons, in my opinion:

1) Impulse buying -- people /will/ buy your CDEF pistol with 10-20% buffs for 250 credits, if you're right there as they're going to and from killing things. Regardless what's on the Bazaar (waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay across town), it's in front of them and a kind demeanor is usually worth half the price.

2) Customer base -- Most of my business (no lying) is repeat customers. They know I'm working my way up through Artisan, they know I'm getting better and better at things. By getting face to face with the customer and working out a relationship, they come back every once in a while just to see if I've got anything cooler. Sure, there's probably some Joe-Skywalker on Tatooine selling that rifle or crafting tool for less, but they know me and want to get familiar enough that in the future, if I make it big, I won't jerk them around. It's a two-way street that just can't be matched with souless Bazaar mass-marketing.

3) Training -- Because I'm out there hawking wares and macroing clever sale lines... artisans come up and want to train. I'm public. I'm visible. I've made too much money off of training other artisans (I am a loooooong way from Master, but I've nearly got my apprenticeship requirement done, too) to deny that "Roleplaying" and the social aspects of our glorious profession are paramount.

So, for experienced Artisans... please, please don't come to my little cornered market (lol); but for new and uninitiated ones, spend those first four or five skill levels out with the public. It keeps floods of cheap items out of the Bazaar (good for stabilizing the economy faster), gets your name and face out (good for your financial future), and helps us develope as a profession (can never find an Artisan to train you in Survey II when you need it).