Chef Archive

I was just reading the old thread about the guy not charging over 85k for anything and I got to thinking. How do you all feel about purchasing "the cheap chef's" items and reselling them at a more "normal" price?

I've seen several new people trying to get business by being cheaper than the next guy, and up until now I've always figured they'd burn themselves out and end up quitting (as more than half the people that started when I did already have), but I'm starting to think, "Heck, if they want to sell it that low, I'll take all of it and move it out of my shop for a profit." They're still making the money they wanted, and it's really not my fault if they're underpricing their items. Whether it's me or somebody else buying it all up, they still make the money they anticipated making from their sales, and hey...it's all in one lump sum!

I haven't done it yet because my little conscience meter red-lines every time I get close, but I really have thought about it. I haven't banned a single person from my shop for buying up all of one item, whether they're doing it for resale or not. Even if somebody was reselling my items, I don't know that I'd really care. I made it. I priced it. If it all went because I priced it too low it'd be my fault and I'd quickly figure it out.

I'm tempted. I'm really, really tempted.

Discuss.

Oh no, I didn't mean making my shop a wholesale place. Goodness no. lol. I have a regular shop where I sell regularly priced (if not on the high side) foods. I keep seeing these new chefs cropping up and selling *their* items for way too cheap.

I was asking whether it was a good idea to buy all of their items and resell them on my vendor at a markup of what they were charging, thereby making them a wholesaler of sorts; possibly an unwitting wholesaler, but a wholesaler nonetheless.

Yeah, see...I put my name on everything I make too. It's not about being mean, it's just about business. I make a lot of food. I sell a lot of food (yes...my own food). And really good food, at that. It may be mean, but then, what do you call the chefs that are out there trying to undercut everyone else? Most really don't have intentions as pure as one would hope or think they did, a la helping the global economy. Unless they're someone extremely wealthy, the only reason for such a "charitable" act is to garner business and make money; not that they can be making all that much with such low prices. So, the way I figure it, they price it low enough so that they get lots of business. I can give them a huge lump sum in a matter of minutes from buying everything. They make their money. I make mine. All is well with the world.

I don't know. It was just a thought. I may or may not act on it, but I really am still curious about this. I ran across some older threads where people said they'd done this very thing. Just sort of wanted a general consensus on everyone's feelings on the topic.

So nobody else has any feeling on this, positive or negative?

I price to stop this happening and stop me selling out in a day, i also put my -CI- tag on all my foods.

It's a complex subject. If someone is selling at dumping prices, I don't see a problem with it. They are deliberately undercutting everyone else and they must be content with the price they get for it. Whether or not you want other people's produce on your vendor is another matter.

Personally, I try to keep my prices around the going rate. I don't charge 10% of everyone else, nor to I sell at 4 x the going rate. I've had a few people buy me out and have had three different scenarios:

1. Person bought me out and I saw him selling my stuff at 3 x the price in coro star port. I considered him a rip-off merchant and shop-banned him. I'm located in the front row of houses from coro, so his 2 minute trip there and back hardly merrited a 300% increase in price.
2. Person bought me out multiple times and got shop banned for it. She then contacted me and we discussed it. Turned out she was selling at 10-20% over my price from another different planet, at a less central location. We agreed on her placing bulk orders, so that my regular customers didn't find an empty vendor every day. This worked fine.
3. Person contacts me and wants a 50% discount because they will buy and re-sell lots. Flat no to this one. Why work twice as hard, for half the money?

The moral of the story? If it's fair, most people won't have a problem with it. TBH, I'm surprised he has much stock though, most pepole would snap it up PDQ.

I'm with Ylara. Reselling is fine, hell there's a Merchant class in the game for that exact reason. What qualifies as gouging or dumping is a matter of opinion, but I don't have any kind of moral problem with you reselling another's wares. The major issue seems to me that most of the people selling way below normal market rate are selling pretty crappy food that I wouldn't want to resell. I pride myself on selling quality foods, and most McChefs aren't up to my standards.

Yeah, that's the kicker. For the most part, the foods I'm seeing are almost at the same levels as the things I'm selling. I can't even make it for as cheap as they're selling it. On the other hand, I'm not particularly fond of the idea of selling something with somebody else's name on it, so I don't know. It's still an idea I'm toying with, but I can just imagine all the talk that will come of it on my server if I actually do it. lol.