Chef Archive
Thread: Pricing and why I charge 75K for BIO-enhanced Brandy
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.
Iplyvi wrote:
....Yet, I've managed to get the cost down to about $36/crate. and YOU, my god, you have gotten it down to, what, $30K?? That is superb!!!!!! I have something to shoot for. Now we just need to challenge others to work their price down as well.
Right now, you are my hero!
Iplyvi
Oh whoops dear I was using 35k only theoretically... for that "moment of perspective" 
.
I had originally included a sentence about what I really charge but must have deleted it before posting, so here it is, but first a word about myself: I have been a chef since launch day, and I love it. I love being able to interact and joke with customers, to RP-bartend in my cantina, cater weddings ,throw pies at Imps, etc.No matter what MMORPG I play, I end up beinga crafter for that people-interaction.
The folks I know that charge 300-450k for a crate on my server did not start out charging that much.They became burnt out from overwhelming customer demand/vendor turnover. Asa result they decided to hike prices (just on brandy) just so the crates would stay on the vendor more than an hour. They did it in order to have less sales, not more money.
If you do the math, people that have high-profit-margin/low volume rate actually make lessmoney per week than someone that has a low-profit-margin/high-volume biz.
Trying to decrease your volume/demand may sound odd to an up-and-coming chef trying hard to get sales!!!!.... but believe me there does come a time when no matter how hard you work you simply cannot keep up with demand.
There are two ways you can handle that -- increase your pricesto lower demand back to a manageable level, or increase your production to keep up with current demand.
I'm a little of Column A and a little of Column B.
Column A: I charge 250k for a 525-use crate of med-enhanced high quality brandy.
(However my crates sell out within an hour of being put on the vendors. If it even gets to that -- as most of my customers know, I usually have to take advance ordersbecause there is already a waiting list. I have had to institute a 5-crate limit on all orders that require additives or the wait (and the waiting list) would get even longer.)
Column B: I run 7 factories 24/7, and I spend5+ hoursingame every day surveying, making schematics, buying resources, etc etc to keep them running.I don't think I can really increase production further without going insane most folks think i already am
Because of this supply/demand/time/sanity issue for brandy, I don't think you can judge a chef's fairness or "gougability" simply on their brandy prices alone, unless that is all they sell. Most chefs (including myself) have much lower profit margins on their regular foods.
Well I've droned on long enough. If you do indeed have a character on Tarquinas then please drop by sometime and we can have a cup of coffee (or if you're a Cerebus fan, a bucket of scotch) and talk shop.
I didn't read the whole thread but i agree with 75k a crate. thats what i sell mine at and the stats are fair i think. 400+, 35min, fill is 50, and 21 drinks. the whole problem is the BE's all the shops i seen people wanted 50k to 100k for some additives. and the bad thing is the components needed to make the additives are easy to get. but once you find a way around the bio's who charge so much you can make a pretty good profit. those of you who are asking for 200+ a crate are out of your minds!!
P.S. i also do a buy 4 get one free deal on any item on my vendor. so stop by (LOK) city X cantina on ahazi if anyone is interested
cors wrote:
KiIIgore wrote:
Intrepid has gone NUTS ... 250k for a crate of brandy ... i wish it were 75k
Heh Killgore, I pay 75k just for the BE nutrients which then I have to process into my additives. Chef foods on Intrepid won't drop till the BEs start charging less.. and producing a lot more.
I have to beg BEs to make additives for me. A lot of them turn me away and say "sorry I only produce for my guild chef"
Hypothetically, say you sell your crates currently for 250k, after paying 75k for the BE crate. If I sold you a crate for 25k, would you drop your price to say 80k? 100k? 200k? Keep it the same?
Kindred.
Why should Chefs be the only ones totally independant of other artisans?
Price discussions have certainly changed since the patch. It's all due of course to our proffession being tied to the BE proffession.
People who have gone the BE/chef route either through one character or multiple accounts or have BE's who sell schematics at a very low cost have a vertical monopoly. They don't pay profits at every step to other people and therefore can easily sell cheaply and make a very good profit.
But I still see additives as a resource if you have a resource that you could sell at 50k or put it into an item that you then sell for 35k, why would you do that? Obviously as people have posted in this thread they think its actually the fair thing to do.
Wouldn't itbe nice to see weaponsmiths do that with krayt weapons if they happen to harvest their own tissues. Maybe a little far fetched of an example, but i think it still pertains.
Are you equating one skill box in tailor and a component that has no experimentation, to a hybrid profession like master BE in which experimentation and scout resources are paramount? And you're a BE?
Most of the crafting professions have *no* dependance on the other professions, aside from requisites in the base class, artisan. No other crafting profession needs a master *anything* to play such a huge role in making his best stuff. Chefs aren't (and weren't) the only ones totally free and clear of dependencies - and now, they have the most reliance on others, uncontestably.
Wasn't making any comparisons on the level of the artisan skills needed, just that there was indeed dependancies.
No other crafting profession needs a master *anything* to play such a huge role in making his best stuff.
I'd disagree - if I want to make my best stim/vitality packs, I have to get Master Doctor made components.
Kesig,
cool! I'll definately find my way to your place the next time I'm on Lok. What is your process for the buy 4 and get 1 free? Do they buy 5, and you then reimburse them? Just curious, sounds like a neat sales incentive.
Iplyvi