Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: REAL THREAD SORRY I took up a dare to from the Chefs to post this thread on pricing BE components
Samonrye wrote:
#1 - Would you sell me a case of Micro Nutrients for under 40k?
Yes, I price these at 30k on my vendor. Guild mates and friends get an additional discount. If you want a steady supply of them from me though (i.e. an ongoing partnership) I will need to get an understanding of your pricing structure to come up with a reasonable figure for mine. That could be lower or higher depending on the "chef gouge factor".
#2 - Would you consider just selling me the schematic at a fair price?
This is a trick question, lol. Of course I'll sell it at a "fair price", question is whether you'll buy it at a "fair price". Let me just say that chefs want to set the "fair price" based on the effort (i.e. none) required to make the schematic rather than the value that the schematic has. The value that the schematic has is easy to calculate. Thevalue is roughlythe price of food with bio engineered tissues minus the price without the tissues, minus the value of the ingredients that go into those tissues, minus a few other miscellaneous costs. The only trouble is, no chef will even approach that value number when considering purchasing a schematic, therefore I won't sell.
Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 03-25-2004 11:19 AM
One thing worth mentioning here in regards to prices and the "free market" (and the reason I go for "fair price"):
If items are more thansomeone can reasonably afford in quantity (like Vassarian Brandy for instance) - people will find alternatives to using it (I migrated my stats).
Consequently food and the like becomes a premium item only used by the well off - regardless of its "true" cost to produce. You end up with a small market rather than a far larger/low profit environment.
IMHO this is the real danger - an ever shrinking highly inflationarymarket driven by the greed of those charging "premium prices".
NikkiDial,
I appreciate your input and I am fully aware of my lack of the Great Stuff. I am coming off of a 6 month leave and lost my stockpiles of GREAT ingrediants so I do with what I have or can find without investing hours and hours into it....I like fighting too. I won't say I disagree with how much YOU have to spend but rather let you know that my costs are not that high for anything I do. Yes I am collecting top of the line goods and no I don't have to pay those prices. I agree with the Skill Tapes however that really doesn't justify 200k brandy in my opinion. The thing is Nikki that even if I made the absolute best Brandy it would still be priced fairly at 125K or so. Incidently, prior to my leave of absence I was very much on top of the resource, stocking, pricing, marketing game and did have a huge following. I always make the best food I am capable of making at a fair price.
The point of this thread was simply to show that there are in fact plenty of BEs willing to work with a Fair Price Chef and keep the additives fair price as well. Which going over to the Chef forums and reading the pricing discussions the high price sellers claim you just can't get additives at a reasonable price.
Thanks to the BE community for helping me see that I didn't just get lucky by finding the only BE in all the galaxies that sells below 20k for additives of 80%+.
Rueben
NikkiDial wrote:
Samonrye
Your brandy isnt even close to top of the line. Not trying to be offensive, just trying to share with you why others charge more. Good stats are often in this range.
Buff+420ish (max this out ALWAYS)
Duration 42-45mins (No more, No less)
Filling 50 or below (never experiment here, just get better resources)
Stack 18+ (really depends on how many experimentation points you have left. Its better to increase size than time
higher than the range of 42-45. 42 is about where you want to stop anyways)
to ge this type of brandy you first need to spend 2-3mill per point for 15 points so you can earn your 2 extra experimentation
points. Then you need to pay in the 50-100cpu for meat. Then you need to pay 10-20cpu for good flora. Then you need
to have large quantities of this so you can compete with all the other top end sellers. I often buy unlimited amounts of inshift
Flora and meat just for this reason. And I have 5-20million units of good shifts. After all that you need a huge and diversified
of foods just so people will show up and buy your stuff (cant just stock brandy) Lastly you need to be in a good mall, with
many other top end sellers. Otherwise you wont get the traffic to compensate for the high prices you pay to stock
up on inshift items.
Just my observatiosn from trying to compete with other top end chefs on Eclipse.
Stars/Sandy
Sounds like prices are out of control on your server. As a partnerof a high end medical resources seller in one galaxy, and a TK/Ranger who makes her living selling high quality meat in another, I can tell you that the prices you quote are double the highest prices we ever charge. It is certainly difficult for anyone to compete who has to buy all their resources at prices like that.
Just because Samonrye's brandy is not quite the top of the line doesn't mean that there is not a good market for it. I would buy it at that price in a heartbeat. Not everyone needs or can afford the ultra high end stuff. My combat character has quite a Brandy habit going, but she really does not need to have the awesome stuff every time. Depending on what I am hunting, I can even get by with the non BE stuff sometimes. I use the minimum possible, at the lowest cost. After all, I need to make a profit, too!
I've done quite a bit of Brandy shopping, and it seems like the prices are falling a little on Lowca, due to over supply. They still seem pretty high on Tarq.
Onecomment to the Chefs about pricing: As a Brandy consumer, I search numerous vendors looking for a fair price on a decent product. When a Chef has their Brandy priced at well over what I consider a "fair price", I literally cross them off my list, and will never return to their vendor. I think that in time, those that have indulged in charging the highest price they can get will find that their customers have moved on to Chefs that were willing to go the "fair price" route. If you want to establish a repeat business, I suggest that you keep that in mind.
Ditto. Loyalty is a big thing to me, so I like to find a single provider I like for whatever good it is that I'm buying and stick with them. Once I find someone I trust that has a good quality/value ratio, I won't even bother price shopping anymore I'll just always buy from that person. But like Lyekka said, when I run into someone with astronimical prices, I'll never be back. It just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. There is no question at all, I'd buy Samonrye's brandy over Nikki's brandy every time. That's a no-brainer.
Lyekka wrote:
Onecomment to the Chefs about pricing: As a Brandy consumer, I search numerous vendors looking for a fair price on a decent product. When a Chef has their Brandy priced at well over what I consider a "fair price", I literally cross them off my list, and will never return to their vendor.
Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 03-26-2004 08:59 AM
Why do ppl not get it? Those of you who are charging less for your stuff are actually just supplying a middleman with a way to make cash. Doesn't it become obvious when 50% of your stock is bought by one player? Did you think he had a alcohol problem or what?
You charge 100k for a crate when market price is 300k and then next week you'll be bitching that someone was hawking your stuff in front of the starport in Coronet.
Why do ppl continue to piss on their own shoes then complain that their feet are wet.......
NikkiDial wrote:
Samonrye
Your brandy isnt even close to top of the line. Not trying to be offensive, just trying to share with you why others charge more. Good stats are often in this range.
Buff+420ish (max this out ALWAYS)
Duration 42-45mins (No more, No less)
Filling 50 or below (never experiment here, just get better resources)
Stack 18+ (really depends on how many experimentation points you have left. Its better to increase size than time
higher than the range of 42-45. 42 is about where you want to stop anyways)
Gee Nikki, how much more would I pay for a couple of HAM points and 4-7 minutes?
I'll tell you.....not much. Maybe 100-200 per bottle.