Business And Economy Archive
Thread: Merchants and Vendors
I am now making clothes that I don't want to put on the bazaar because of the 3000 credit cap, but which I am pretty sure would sell well. I am trying to figure out what to do about it, though. One option is to just wait for people to approach me with requests and only make custom orders. I could go to the startports and cantinas and try a hard sell on people, but that is really not in my personality and I don't think I could pull it off. I could find a merchant to sell my clothes, although that could get very complicated. I could also make my house a public building and put a vendor in there. Unfortunately the maintenance on the vendors I can get is outrageous and I would go broke very fast. What is everyone else doing as far as vending goes?
You may need to try all of those things to see what fits your style best.
I run 6 NPC vendors (trying to get more) with 1000+ inventory. This is my staple as opposed to custom orders, which consume alot of time I don't have. The vendorsbring in quite a bit more each day than I spend on maint. for a fleet of large harvs andhousesin a week, which is the main reason I focus on them at the moment. But I do have a growingbase of regular "custom order" customers as well, but I prefer to keep this small since one custom-made coat can easily turn into a 1 or 2 hr session into the wee hrs of the morning. 
This works fine for meso far,if it were not for two time sinks:
- Vendors: inefficient interface, 7-day limit, and the somewhat lesser problem of the 72-hr disappearing inventory
- Zero inventory or expense/income tracking: Due to the huge selection for tailors, I need to maintain detailed figures, just so I know what works and what doesn't and optimize my inventory accordingly.
Downside of this is that I do spend alot of time crafting and even more time managing vendors. But then, I like the shop better than wielding a gun. 
I do about the same. I have one vendor (don't have the points to spend to get more and my vendor being in my PA hall I don't have room for more anyway), with 1000+ items. I make sure to have every kind of clothes in 5 different colors (up to 12 for the popular bustiers/slippers etc), so most of my time is spent crafting and restocking (especially with that ^%&#^ 7 days limit $^#@^). I do custom orders when someone asks me of course, but the advantage is that if I am busy I can just send them to my vendor where they will prolly find what they want anyway. I also refresh my bazaar sales every week (they are still a very good source of income, not that I need it but hey, you get used to having a regular flow of money coming hehe). I will not hang around in town waiting for orders though.
My main reason for maintaining a well stocked vendor is that when I started I could not find what I wanted at all, and tailors were never on. For example the first patterned slip dress I actually found on sale was the first I made. I have had a lot of compliments from customers about the selection I have on my vendor.
I constantly debate the whole "should I have a vendor, should I have a merchant" so I did both.
A guild mate of mine is a Master Merchant and runs all the guild's vendors in our shopand in my own house (which I have spent hours upon hours decorating and still not done) I placed a vendor titled "Custom Orders" and place the items therefor people who have ordered something from me. Usually I am near the house anyway, so I don't worry about other people taking their clothes and my house is not advertised... so it hasn't been a problem.
Hope you figure something out! Good Luck 
Message Edited by Derp-on-Flurry on 02-08-2005 08:52 PM