Chef Archive

Hi Iply,

Cas here. Hell of a topic you started.

I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents here, I charge what could be considerend to be gouging to many chefs who have posted here. But I've yet to have a complaint from one customer that the price is too high for my brandy. The reason I see this is, I package my product so almost everyone can afford to use it. For reference, my brandy tends to be around +410 49 fill 46m and 21 in a cask for enhanced, and +218 50 fill 45m 6 in a glass for my regular. For these drinks I charge 250k a crate for the enhanced (525 servings) and 26k a crate for regular (150 servings). On my vendor I make sure I always have crates of both types available and single 21 serving stacks for enhanced. So when you come to my shop you have a choice buy my econo-brandy in a crate for 26k or a stack of 21 BE brandy for 10k. If you have a lot of money and want to buy over a month's worth you have the option of buying a crate of enhanced. I don't think everyone on the server has some right to afford the best items on the server in bulk, I also think that being able to buy a 10k stack of some of the best brandy available is great.

I try my best to harvest everything I can myself. I also try to find the lowest meat prices I can. But as a pure crafter, I have to be able to afford to buy my own meats. On my server the doctors seem to control the meat prices, so when they decide to post a offer to hunters for avian meat at 125cpu. I need to be able to pay at least 1/3 of that to hopefully get some to hunt whatever meat I may need. I know my food costs a lot, but I do believe it's accessible to most if not all. I know some chefs have more connections to resources at much lower prices than I do. But in my situation... I'm not making money hand over fist, but I'm making enough of it to buy meat and some extra to feel like I'm making some profit.

Iplyvi, if you are concerned with not gouging your customers, I don't understand why you aren't equally concerned with paying your suppliers well.

You say quit paying 50k/crate, find a BE willing to sell schematics. To me that doesn't sound much different than trying to charge the highest price you can. Don't BE's have as much right to sell products for a profit as your customers have to cheap liquor?

Sure, not all BE's want to sell tissues, but some do. And if every chef insists on getting schematics, it will kill that aspect of their profession.


Mutton

Mutton, your thoughts hear are alien to what I have posted about my arrangement with BE. Or maybe you are equating everything to money when you say I'm not paying my suppliers well.

If you were to read back, you will see my BE arrangement is mutual. The BE would rather not have to hunt down the resources that would be required to make the tissues. I am doing that already. And since I am getting the resources, I would rather not pay 50K a crate for tissues. It's a win-win nobody holding a gun to our heads situation. He makes 50K for 15 minutes of work and then he is off to play his game the way he wants. I get less expensive tissues from a BE master.

So shame on you for our assumption, no? And yes, for every BE like him, there are several that would NEVER do it and will demand 50K a crate. That is the nature of things.

Iplyvi

Hi Cas !

You are absolutely correct that I am surrounded by a great quality of players/friends (including yourself!) and that they contribute to keeping the costs lower. I don't feel I have not taken that into account, however, but instead feel it is part of the gameplay and the challenge of reducing our costs. There is a limit to how low you can get our costs if you are a force of one. By nature, this game is a social one, having us rely on tailors and BEs etc. encourages us to be social and to make friends. Getting in a guild that embraces cooperation is part of that social gameplay. And as our guild proves, you don't have to be a large one to benefit or help one another succeed in your chosen game path.

When the guild has tailors and BEs and hunters - it all helps. We've also managed to always have a person or two with 'harvs for hire' as well.

And I am forced to agree with your take about how the money is made here - that there ARE two philosophies and that they do heavily conflict. I am OK with that. For my tastes, I hope that it might one day even out to a 50/50 split, as I definately feel I'm in a small minority with my viewpoint. (But what a view!! haha)

Iplyvi

well unless you get your be mods for free, which most of us dont. I pay usually around 40k a crate JUST for the medium mods. So no, not everyone can sell as low as that. Two, I only use uber resources to craft my foods. I refuse to make food unless I would use it myself. And honestly, I wont use brandy that lasts under 40 minutes. 32 is just way too short. So the reason, my fellow chef, taht we charge more is because our out of pocket cost is MUCH higher per crate. I sell 175k a crate for a longer duration of casked drinks. I feel strongly that this price is fair. My fellow chef's charge more or less and so what. Different market's call for different prices. LOL I was recently compamred tot he Gap of chefs while there are Old Navy chefs and mah favorite chef is the Banana Republic. If there is a market and they can sell brandy for 300k a crate than GREAT. We are not here to dictate to other people how they run their business. That is why we love free trade. Gl with your inexpensive brandy. I wish you well.

Message Edited by Ek-LadyFox on 03-25-2004 02:56 AM

Iplyvi, Ahazi must have a different economy. On Kettenmoore, the majority of players seem to be completly saturated with money. There was a "who has the most money" thread, and a number of players surpassed the 100 million mark. There were also litterally dozens of players with over 25 million. And that was in December! The majority of those were NOT crafters, but fighting types who were grinding missions and/or selling skill tapes and/or selling resources and/or selling loot (like Kryat scales). Most of them were complaining that they now had nothing to spend money on.

I appreciate your responses although still dissargee because yes, I do want to get to 25 million credits, and if that makes me greedy then that's my RP perogative, but have this one thing to say:

If a fighter type can spend one gaming session on an advanced planet like Endor, they will have enough cash to get them a crate of 200,000 credit Brandy. That one crate would last them (estimating 4 nights of 3 hours per night for an average player) 10 full weeks of gaming. In other words, "work" for one night for 10 weeks of freedom with which they could use for PvP or running to POIs. The average player really doesn't need a ton of brandy...

Also, the costs of resoureces are way higher on my server. The going price for avian meat is 50 cpu. Most floral resources are 10-15 cpu (although I harvest my own for almost no cost). BE Tissues are going for 500 per unit. Trim for 3500 per crate (and that's cheap).

This all said, I am in the process of doing my last runs as a Chef. I will maintain my price, and store an estimated 15 million credits worth of food on my vendor that will finance my move in profession from master chef/master smuggler into master smuggler/master TKA/master pistoleer. I really enjoyed the chef profession and have had a TON of fun role playing it, but am a little tired now of the constant "harvest-manufacture-custom order-harvest" cycle. After 3 months, I'm content. So who knows... maybe I'll have a "50% off going out of business sale". ...but then I wouldn't get my 25 million.

Iplyvi,

When I say you aren't concerned with paying your suppliers well, I don't mean that your current suppliers are unhappy. I mean that you search out suppliers willing to sell at below market price. I just don't see a difference in that and targetting customers who will pay above market price for your product. Either is fine if thats how you want to play the game. It just seems inconsistent with your philosophy of not wanting to gouge anyone.

In your opinion, anyone paying 300k per crate for brandy is being gouged. In my opinion, anyone earning 5cpu off of good meat is being gouged. Well, I don't really believe either is gouging - as long as they know what they are getting, it's their decision. But I don't see why you object to one but not the other.

You said something about having fun being a chef. There are people who find it fun to make and sell BE tissues also. Why not support them by paying what they consider a fair price for their work, instead of seeking out someone who apparently doesn't enjoy the job and ask for schematics?


Mutton

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KiIIgore wrote:
Intrepid has gone NUTS ... 250k for a crate of brandy ... i wish it were 75k

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As an Intrepid seller of Brandy (at 200k an enhanced crate), I'll say this. Get off your lazy butts and HUNT. There is a severe shortage of intelligent hunters on Intrepid.

If it did not cost me 600k creditsfor 10kmeat to make a run of enhancers alone, the prices would be better. If I have to pay 30cpu for meat - you're gonna pay me more for my products.

Just thought id add my 2 credits worth...

Im a master chef and a master BE, novice tailor on farstar. At present the market for BE vas brandy is around 150-200k a crate.

As an MBE/MChef i actually have pretty much ZERO combat skills, or to put it another way, i log in, make schematics, start factory runs, chat for a bit and log off. However, despite how little i can now do in the game, im pretty much self sufficient in that i can mass produce pretty much anything i want at base resource cost only.

At a guess, allowing for all my costs i would have to say a single crate of BE Vas Brandy probably costs me no more than about 5k, in terms of factory, vendor and shop maintenance.

However, in keeping with the market I still charge the market rate for my brandy, 150k per crate (although my guild mates do get it cheaper in exchange for free meat )

How then, can i validate charging 145k above cost?

Quite simple...... at present my character is incapable of joining my guild on a hunt...at all. If i see an aggro animal, i have to run, i cannot use a weapon or fight at all. Im basically playing a character that is 1 step above an NPC. This is through choice, i must point out....my guild needed a chef, so i became one. I just felt it more prudent to become as self sufficient a possible, so that i dont have to pressure BE's for additives or schematics, or rely on tailors for trim.

To me that 145k represents the 2+ weeks of solid grinding i spent on my own, bored and fed up whilst working on 2 non-combatant classes.

that 145k represents all the time im continuing to miss on hunts, or guild raids, or even completing simple things like themepark quests or COA missions.

It represents the earnings i can no longer make for myself through any other means, and all the rare drops i might gain, and all the unlikely friends i might have made.

In short, that 145k is my personal pick me up, my little reward, for playing a character that is only different from an NPC because it can move and talk and logout.

Yes, the price for our product is high. I put it to you that perhaps there are more costs than you realise.

I could mass produce BE Vas Brandy for 6k a crate and silence you for good, youll never match my price nor the stats on my brandy. But i wont.

I wouldnt do this because I unlike you have the respect for the work you and all the other chefs out there have put into working at this profession and making something for themselves with it. If all a chef wants is a little extra profit after putting so much effort into getting the skills for it, who am i to tell them no?? Personnally im not so narcissistic as to believe i have any right in that matter at all.

I await your purile retort with interest.