Chef Archive

I just reached Novice Chef on Naritus and I am trying to determine a pricing scheme for individual stacks. I implemented one that I got from swgcraft.com, but then was told by a very rude individual that my food was severly overpriced.

I have given up looking at prices on the bazaar as I refuse to sell food for 50 or 100 credits. That is just stupid. But I have also been unable to locate any other Chef's to find out from them.

Ex. Wastril Bread (sure, not the greatest item but I have to make a living somehow) priced at 700 for a 3-use stack. Is that vastly overpriced?

- Jason

I wouldnt sell anything until you get Sunburn. You might come across a few other useful items while skilling. Some people have told me they like ormachek, but that one is a pain on resources.

No offense, but that seems like a cop-out answer. There is more food out there and I see no reason why any of it cannot be sold. Sure, Sunburns are very popular. But there are others.

And my question has still not been answered. What is a good method of pricing that people use? Even if I did wait until Mixology 2, I would still need a formula that was fair.

- Jason

Have you been reading the boards..our profession sucks. Tell you what..go try to sell every food you have...and see what sells. Whats more valuable to someone..70 to constitution..ot 1800 to strength and stamina (Very nice for dancers,BH, Commandos with action problems)?If you wanna roleplay..sure...sell whatever food you have for small credits just for interaction..if you want to make money...stick with the cop-out answer until you get some tier4s or master..cause not much else sells well..at least not on my server. Maybe you have more luck on yours.

My pricing method is (resource_units) x (total_uses). A wastril bread that has four uses would be 280 credits. If you're making a multi-stage item, like Blap Biscuit for example, include the resources needed for the dough and carbosyrup. The idea is that eventually you'll become a better chef and be able to charge more when you produce more use out of the item. Of course, with items as ridiculous as the Tatooine Sunburn, you might want to charge ridiculous prices.

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Salore_Sokoth wrote:

Ex. Wastril Bread (sure, not the greatest item but I have to make a living somehow) priced at 700 for a 3-use stack. Is that vastly overpriced?

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Technically, something's only overpriced if absolutely no one will buy it.A CH rolling in money needing some pet food might buy it. Still, 700 credits for a +180 stamina buff (eating all three doses) is a bit excessive. I sell "Pet Treats" (Stewed Gwouch experimented to max quantity) for 350, although I'm thinking of raising that.

I've been looking at all my prices with an eye to adjusting them. What I plan to do (so no information on how successful this idea is) is this:

Price = 1 credit per resource + 1 credit per stat point buffed(when food is eaten until full - 0.5 credit per stat point subtracted (again when eaten until full).

So using that formula, a Wastril bread that you can eat three doses would be 45 + 60 * 3 = 225. Meatlump would be 30 (counting the resources for the soypro) + 100 * 2 = 230. An Ormachek (+75 to each Mind/Focus/Willpower, can eat two) would be 50 + 150 + 150 + 150 = 500. Durindfire (+230 Mind, -80 health, can drink two) would be 50 + 460 - 80 = 430.

Sunburns obviously won't fit this formula, since it'd be 100 + 3000 + 3000 - 90 = 6010. Once the big patch comes in (since the buff bug appears to be fixed on TC), I'll probably be charging 1500 for my "Sith Sunburns": +1870 Str/Stamina, -75 Focus, 430s, 4 doses. Hmm, maybe 1750...

You can also check the pricing Liv uses, she seems to be a pretty successful chef businesswoman: http://www.banthamart.com/catalog.php?id=1

Any other successfulchef sellers want to comment on my pricing idea?

I think everyone uses different pricing methods. I have two chef characters on different servers, and I use slightly different methods of pricing for each of them. Many people say you should charge whatever the market will bear. However, when you are determining starting prices, it's nice to have a method on which to draw.

For one of my chefs, I price items at novice chef at 5 credits a resource, tier 1 items at 5.2 credits a resource, tier 2 items of 5.4 credits a resource, and so on. I also add 20 credits for each factory produced itemto cover my factory costs. Then, I add another 20 credits to the totalif I am selling it on the bazaar. So, a wastril bread would cost 245 cr.

Idiscovered early on that there was a shortage of certain materials (e.g., meat) on the server where my other chef lives. Consequently, I price everything at 5 creditsper "common" (e.g., cereal) resource regardless of skill level. Then I add 10 credits for every "uncommon" (e.g., meat) resource used.

The two methods give very similar prices, but I want to be sure that neither character loses money because I'm using a cookie cutter formula that works forthe other character, onother server, in another city. You might want to start with someone else's formula. However, look carefully at how much you are spending and earning after about a week. If you find that method of pricing isn't working, consider modifying it or starting from scratch.

Well without cooking 4 you won't be selling much, food is just terriable without being expermented on.

I perosnaly only sell stuff that people will want to buy: BoH, icecream, Fishak, sunburns. Stuff like that. I charge between 5 to 25 credits per resosource used depending on quality and demand. With 10 per being my average price.

But 700 per W. Bread is overpriced. Espcialy when, for example, I sell tat sunburns for 1600 for a stack of 8 that far better. Don't expect to make money till you get mix 2 cooking 4. And you still won't make good money till you get master.

Thank you all for the answers. I apologize for my original reply as I did not mean it to sound less than appreciative. I was just hoping for a more detailed answer.

-Jason

I wouldnt wait to sell anything, but I think as you get more cooking experience you will eventually raise your prices because your food will become better.

Saitek! You're on Naritus too! Finally proof there are chefs on the server. Heh.

- Jason

Yeah, selling stuff that's not pet food is hard until you get culinary master (which is why I got that right after I got mixology ii), but that doesn't mean you can't try. Ignore the naysayers. If you're persistent, I'm sure you can make a business of it.

My pricing is this: # of resources x 2 x number in the stack

So take wastril bread for example. Mine buffs stamina +180 for 4.5 minutes in a stack of five. It takes 45 resources. So I sell it for 90 creditsper bite, or each is 450 credits. You can eat two on an empty stomach, three if you wait a couple seconds, so they get a buff of +540 for360 credits. I think that's fair.

However, wastril bread doesn't really sell that well. Most people are looking for a lot of buffs at once, or with the advent of doctors being able touberbuff action/health for a long time, just mind food. So even though I keep my price scheme the same for all food (resources times 2 times stack), I sell more Ormachek, which buffsall mind stats, than something else. I'm sure asI get morechef schematics,things with better buffs will sell better, but they'll usually be more expensive because the higher up you get, the moreresources things take.

I'm still not making a living offchef, but I'm not good at promoting my store.Sometimes Ishout to advertise in cities but most of the time I rely on sending emails to people that buy my food on the bazaar, or people that stumble over it outdoing missions. So business is ok. I keep saying one day I'll get around tonetworking and making customers, but what I really need to do is find a good merchent.

Good luck.

Oh, and also, sell anything made with milk for at least 10,000 credits.