Bio Engineer Archive

Thread: Some BE-WalMart openend right next door *sighs*

Ocura
Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:09 am
#1
I was doing pretty well, my pets were decent and the prices fair. Then all of the sudden I drop to ZERO sales on my vendor - its been like this for 4 days now.

My husband told me hey look what i found: GUARANTEED CHEAPEST PET VENDOR IN THE GALAXY !

When I ask my husband to tell me the prices I almost wanted to sit in a corner in a fetal position and cry.

CL 28 Cat, with Light Armor 10k ish HAM 35ish resists, 2 specials and ranged for *whimper* 10k !!!! Next thing that made me cringe was a CL 40 Rancor with 11kish HAM 40ish resists knockdown and dizzy for 25 or 30k ( cant remember I blacked out this very moment )

He is also selling NICE non CH pets for 5k.


I am starting to hate this kind of competition, why do people always have to dump prices even lower than you possibly thought it was possible ?

Facing my travel costs, heal costs, Muon, Fishak, Insure, buff whatever costs - I am NOT willing to jump that boat and lower my prices just to get a little income.

Anyone else encounter probs like this ?





---^--- Naburi Nas'Naburi - Kettemoor ---^---
one of those bad things that happen to good people
----^----------------------------^----------------------------^----

Arez_Olympus
Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:20 am
#2
Well since he is selling crap pets, just look at those stats , i would advice you to go for quality, not quantity.

Just make better pets than he, and don't forget: Have fun.

I haven't made a pet for weeks (waiting for next update)and am having a blast! Only 8 pets left on my vendor and have started to try out making tissues (city just became research center )



*
Arez Olympus
*
Brandy: 400 MFW, 40m, 49%, 21 uses only 150K
Vendors in Mall in Dunes of Fury, Tatooine


Chaice
Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:21 am
#3

thats a problem in every prof... I kept my prices the same, but ensure my vendor was ALWAYS stocked... The other guy would take the multitude of ignorant customers and their questions... I would usually be left with people that asked thier questions from him, but his vendor was out of stock! so while he sells 10 items to my one he may make a litlle more then me, but I invest much less time and make a very decent profit...


So let walmarts and kmarts come and go... Saks will last forever... *so far I have seen kmarts and montgomery wards go out of business b the dozens, but the saks is still running strong...*


MissileToad
Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:34 am
#4
They'll burn out, you'll see! I garauntee you that you will be the last BE standing by making superior pets with a business sense.



Octavius - Mad Genius, Forgetter of Pants
Gillespie - A Fish of the Farce

- So long, and thanks for all the fish! -
- Oct and Gill, under TheInsane management -

NancyJ
Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:47 am
#5
Next door to me the most expensive pet I've seen for sale - 1.7k, the only things left on her vendor are a 2 level 5 kaadus and a level 13 kaadu.



Nyria's BioShop
-51 -5732 Tatooine
200m South of Anchorhead


Nyria - Farstar



Chaice
Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:55 am
#6
Keep your vendor stocked... with quality product and you will see... I still have down cycles in business, but when the upswing comes... it is insane... Restocking my vendor everyday.... selling vehichles not pets, but business is business... You can make a ton of creds... alot of people dont get nearly as attached to their pets as I do... none of my pets have ever gotten below 98/98 vitality.... MCH.... I just deleted my first pet ever tamed and sold a pet that I had before I was MCH.... I have useless pets in my datapad... sentimental I guess...
Eater-of-worlds
Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:29 am
#7

MissileToad wrote:
They'll burn out, you'll see! I garauntee you that you will be the last BE standing by making superior pets with a business sense.




/agree

in the long run its impossible for him to supply the markets demand with thoose kind of prices. unless its an guild made up of 10 people DNA sampling and one MBE who makes the pets. Then i can understand that he can dump the prices.



Tsibi Osvo
-"If it moves. Kill it. If it does'nt... make it move."
Master cannon fodder and MDK applier ultra
MilleSabor
Fri Feb 06, 2004 5:19 am
#8
Hehe, I know exactly what happens here: From real life! Try to sell high quality IT-stuff to people, explain them what they need and how it works - and see them buy from one of those college-kids who sell cheaper (because they can [no rents and such] and don't do this for a living)... And rest assured: As soon as this guy busts you'll find the next one as your competitor!

Only chance in this game as in real life is to specialize and become known for a small but high-quality range-of-goods IMHO...

Despite all rants: The economy of this game seems to work (if one claims that real-life-economy works that is )!

CU

Mille



--

+++ Out of Cheese Error +++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Redo From Start +++
+++ Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++
GFoyle
Fri Feb 06, 2004 5:37 am
#9

Wal-mart works provided you have a decent business plan and aim for the correct 'niche' market.


I got my 'starting capital' by producing mid-quality stims and selling them in bulk. I didn't compete with themass of people producing high quality stims and concentrated on keeping production costs to a minimum and volumes high.


The question is - do you go for small numbers of premium 'product' or large amounts of not-so-good product ("pile it high and sell it cheap")? Both ways work, either way your business plan is critical.


Of the two strategies,the low-volume premium market is easier since your profit margins are much higher. At the 'budget' end of the market profit margins are tight and the only way to make money is to keep production costs to an absolute minimum and produce in massive volumes. This is why most 'Wal-marts' are fly-by-night affairs - the people who run them don't usually have the skills to turn a decent profit from them.


That said, I'm a 'Wal-Mart' for stims and consumable supplies (these I can make from harvested resources, keep costs low and volumes high). Pets represent a significant investment in time and effort. The only time I sell pets cheap is during a limited period sale (like currently). This has 2 purposes - disposal of the 'not-so-hot' pets that have been hanging around for months and getting in new customers.


By far the bulk of my sales are to 'regular customers' who come back and recommend me to thier friends. That client-base will not go running to the next Wal-Mart that opens.



Gully Foyle
All SOE game accounts cancelled - and this time I'm gone for good
elBogg
Fri Feb 06, 2004 6:05 am
#10
well, that's also why i make most of my money in tissues. you see, those are actually a bit of a pain to get done, especially well, since you have to go out and get resources for them . . . pets will unfortunately never be a money-maker, at least not on my server, cuz any joe shmoe can go get some dna to make good pets, it doesn't really take any talent or time (obviously i'm not saying it's easy to go make the awesome ones like with mutie dna). the worst part is the way these idiot ch's think about it, too. i mean, these pets act as armor, weapons, and special attacks all rolled up into one, and these folks still whine about having to pay 50-60k for them. hmm, let me see . . . 200k min for a set of good comp armor, 50k for a good gun, +knockdown/dizzy/poison/stun/intimidate/whatever else you like = you tell me . . .



Terrell el'Bogg
Retired Holo-Whore
Kevie
Fri Feb 06, 2004 8:10 am
#11

the best way to remedy this is to go out and make some connections... i've given away free pets, discounts, free pet stims


i always send e-mails to whoever buys from my vendor saying thanks


i'm always very patient with special orders and try as hard as i can to give them what they want


i just got into a business arrangement with a chef and will be selling mostly all my food additives to her exclusively


and my vendor's in the middle of rori lol


just keep at it and make quality items and be really nice to everyone, i'm telling you it'll go far



Oaceen Tunaisea (Ow-seen Two-nay-see), Kettemoor
There is no command, mood, chat type: smuggle
"#*% damnit, no. Caboose; I'm not cold, I don't want a hotdog, and if you
put mustard in my #&$^ing sheets again I'm gonna kill you." - Tucker
-

fantoq
Fri Feb 06, 2004 11:54 am
#12
Go for quality at a fair price, it still beats wal-mart.


But the scenario could be more like this:

one day, go do missions, make your 25-50K and collect several K in resources.

next day, spend a few hours getting DNA

next day, craft a few pets and put em on the vendor. Sell 50K worth.


So, you've cleared 50K. Go buy 10K worth of supplies and repeat. Is my time worth anything? It is when I'm billing clients IRLbut they wouldn't appreciate me billing them for playing a game. But even my char isn't going to live a heck of a lot different with 10 million credits vs 100K. Maybe they like sampling DNA and don't care about the money?



fantoq
MCH
former Medic
App. Carbineer
Society of Interplanetary Mercenaries[SIM]/ stargate/ naboo
ArthurDentOnBria
Fri Feb 06, 2004 12:24 pm
#13
This is always a problem, and it really sucks when it happens to you. I've been fairly lucky so far in regards to this, particularly as a BE, but the competition between architects (my first profession) and tailors (my other current profession) has always been fierce.


I'd recommend one of the following actions:


1) Move. Just move and forget this idiot. It's true that he'll probably burn out, but it may take a while and you're bound to go through a lot of pain if you stay there, and conflict is generally not good. He's going to make you look bad no matter what. Even if you make a better pet, the price difference is going to cause you a lot of grief.


2) Buy him out. Every time he makes what you consider is a really nice pet that is competitive to what you make only much much less expensive, buy it. Preferrably re-sell it in another city or whatnot. This does two things. First, it give you more capital. There is no easier way to make money then buying underpriced items and reselling them. Second, it means that he's never going to have anything in stock that is any good, thus he's no longer competitive.


Personally, I'd probably do #2, but that's my style, lol. I used to do this a lot when I was a novice tailor and struggling to make it.



ArthurDent - former Bio Engineer, Tailor, and Droid Engineer
Account cancelled 7/8/05 due to game breaking bugs in these professions that have been neglected for FAR too long. Last day July 27 2005
custom tailoring and droid orders welcome. "making Evil products since July 2003"
Achiever: 80%, Explorer: 60%, Socializer: 46%, Killa 13%


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