Bio Engineer Archive

I have been working on a cost+ basis for most things I make or sell for some time, and I am more than adequately wealthy for doing so, because my customers get a reasonable explanation of why I charge what I do and why I will not sell for less. Most are quite happy with my prices in general, and I often receive requests for regular "contract" supplies.

I set myself basic target prices for organics and inorganics, and make my own advanced components for stims (I am also a novice doc, with points in the crafting line for better experimentation on schematics for these items.)

My best advice is to harvest your own materials whenever possible, at least of the specific types used for tissues and stims. A Deep crust chem on a good spot for Dantooine Fiberplast will get you months worth of a good spawn of it in a week, and will get it at less than a quarter credit a unit. Set the harvester up for a week's maint and power and let it run, make a sampling trip the day you set it and the day you return to empty it, and you have all you will be able to use for quite a while. If you do not have survey skills, hire a novice artisan for the cost of a few pet stims or a good mask scent/camo or stun/melee tissue.

These are the target prices I pay when buying materials.

Organics - 10 C/u
Inorganics - 8 C/u
Reactive Gas - 8 C/u (if I am not harvesting it myself)
Dantooine Fiberplast - 8 C/u (if I am not harvesting it myself)
Milk - this is a rare need, but 100 cr/u is about what I will normally pay.
Bone - 10 C/u
Eggs - 25 C/u, though I generally collect plenty on my DNA safaris and harvester runs.
Fish - 30 C/u but I do this myself
Mollusk - 100 C/u when I have a specific order for the tissues
Scaley Hide - 10 C/u
Flora Structural / Flowers - 6 C/u but I generally harvest my own

With those ingredient prices in mind, here is a cost breakdown of the Stims, Vit packs and Clothing tissues - I have not done a similar breakdown of food additives yet with the scarcity of requests for them.

Stim A - 702
Stim B - 794
Stim C - 1202
Stim D - 1730

Vit A - 622
Vit B - 712

Active Biosensors 700
Active Tranquilzers 3050
Coagulent Agents 810
Confidence Cloth 680
Constrictor Cloth 460
Enhanced Myoflex 1000
Fear Release 1270
Mimetic Circuitry 2020
Myoflex
Passive Biosensors 570
Passive Tranquilizers 2950
Scent Camoflage 470
Scent Neutralization 620
Tensile Resistance 760
Toughened Fibers 700
Visual Camoflage 520

These are all basic credit costs for materials. I generally sell maximum stat tissues for 3x costs, or provide a customer with a schematic for 50 units with their supplied materials a 50x my normal cost to manufacture, 1/3 of the price I sell the tissues themselves for if they are providing the materials and running them in their own factory.

The cost per point of enhancement is a quite reasonable model as well, but I prefer knowing what the item costs me to make so I have a good expectation of the value of materials I consider buying and a solid justification to a prospective buyer of my pricing, from which they can decide if they feel it is fair or not, and buy or not accordingly. I may cut regular customers a deal of 2x cost or something, but I can safely do so knowing that I am covering my costs adequately in doing so.

I hope this helps the ever popular "what the h**k do I charge for this" question.

LLan Farseeker - Farseeker's Muppet LLabs
Building the Gnorts of Tomorrow, Today!
BadgerSett Emporium -7171 5522, 2 minutes from the Theed starport on Chilastra

excellent analysis, 5 stars for ya