Chef Archive

Let's say that I'm an armorsmith. Other armorsmiths are selling a suit of composite for 100k, with 35% resists. I make a set with 45% resists. Now should I charge based on a per resource cost and sell it for the same 100k, or should I expect to make more than that due to the quality of the product?

Let's say that I'm a weaponsmith. Other weaponsmiths are selling 60-122, 1.7 speed scout blasters for 10k. I make one that's 45-95, 2.4 speed. Should I charge the same, since it's using the same amount of resources, or should I drop the price due to the lower quality of my product?

Let's say that I'm a doctor. Other doctors are selling stim Bs with 250 base heal and 21 charges for 500 creds each. I make some with 250 base heal, but 27 charges each. Should I charge the same, since they've got the same base heal and resource cost, or should I charge more because my customers will be getting more heals out of my product?

Let's say that I'm a resource seller. Other people are selling water for 5 cpu that has the stats 784, 922. I collected some that's 359, 17. Should I expect to sell this at the same price, since it's the same type of resource which cost me the same amount of power and maintenance to collect, or should I lower my price to reflect the lower quality?

I am a chef. Am I going to sell a stack of 8 use Sunburn for the same that I would sell a stack of 4 use Sunburn? No, because the customer is going to get twice the uses out of the stack of 8. Therefore, it's twice as valuable to that customer, and even more so because it will take up less inventory space than 2 stacks of 4 would.

If you're going to sell per resources used, and you're not going to sell master level items, then you might as well drop the cooking line and spend those skill points elsewhere, since there's no point in experimenting to make a better item, since the better item is worth as much to you as the lower quality item (ok, I may be overexaggerating, but I'm trying to make a point here).

The only time I will sell for a flat rate is if I'm going to specially make an item for someone to maximize the duration or buff size. For that, I'm probably still going to have to charge a premium, because I'm going to have to get fantastic resources to produce it.

This isn't meant to be a flame. It's meant to be a constructive post to demonstrate why I think that a better quality item is worth a higher price. Please feel free to comment, but I would appreciate it if those of you that are going to disagree with me present a thought out counter-argument. Thank you.

I wish this was the case...I agree with you...but I think that it will not turn out this way.

The factory crate fix chaged many variables, the biggest one being supply. There is more food and drink available to people with less effort (due to factories).

I have been a Master Chef for a while now and I know the effort that was involved to sell a big order before the factory crate fix. I have grinded out an order in the past for 250 Angerian Fiskah surprise that was comming out in stacks of 5 (because I wanted to have them at +500 mind). That is 50 of them...that I had to put in a back pack and convince my customer that he needed 50 inventory space free to trade the order.It was not fun.

Now providing resoures are available, that task is much easier and takes up only 2 inventory space.

The truth is, many people might have passed on the first option and would not take the order in the first place....or they can take the order, make them in old crates and lose a ton or resources.

I use to sell Angerian Fishak Surprise @ 900/serving. Having said that, if i have a crate of 25 with 9/stack, that is 225 servings. That crate would sell for 202,500 credits. As much as I would like to dream that I can sell ot for this...I know that it is not realistic. I know if i was a consumer I would not buy it myself.

We have to ask ourselves the question (in a non-biased manner) "What am I willing to pay for a crate of that Angerian Fishak Surprise?"

As a Chef I have to use this approach...If this customer does not buy it from me (due to price) how readily available can someone else supply it the them (at a cheaper price). The anwser is fairly easy.

As chefs we have made huge markups in the past (and in the early stages of this game) if one was willing to grind out the order. Now it is not the case, that is a fact. We need to accept that.

Instead of thinking whatSHOULD we be getting from that crate of Angerian Fishak Surprise, we need to ask what CAN i get for that same crate. Remember "Supply & Demand" effects everything both positive and negative....we just need to deal with it. Everyone is in the same boat.

I will join this little Bloodfin master chef chat...

My view on pricing is resource qualitymust tied to product price. Good resources provide a better product and take a lot more effort to track down and gather. If I never had to leave Naboo to harvest, believe me, food would be cheap at Ed's place.

I think that once more people learn what food can do and wantto buy it, prices will stabilize somewhat as more chefs get into the business. Right now, I get people who tell me I have the best prices they have seen, and others who want to know why my food is so expensive, that says volumes about the range of prices right now.

The huge flood of cash from last weeks exploit probly isnt helping things settle down either, I had one guy take 7 crates of Fishak of my vendor at once..that means there is too much cash floating around.

Master Chef Eddy, TAO

Bloodfin

A bump and a point to be made, at the same time.

I was selling things for a while pricing them on what I would pay for a said item. Needless to say, this was pretty low for most things. After making a couple of combat oriented friends, I showed them a couple of foods without telling them prices and said, "So what do you think those sell for?"

I was shocked by the answers I got. It was anywhere from 2-5 times what I thought they were worth, as a non-combat oriented character. So what I have to say, basically, is this. Yes, you can sell things at xxx creds apiece, but have you tried to sell them for more? There's a chance that it will sell just as well at the higher price as it will at the lower, because our perceived value of an item is much lower than another classes perceived value of the same item.

Of course, food/drink is pretty undervalued at the moment due to the bugged stacks. I'm going to check the discussion boards here soon and see if there's a thread about it, and start one if there isn't.

"After making a couple of combat oriented friends, I showed them a couple of foods without telling them prices and said, "So what do you think those sell for?""

Ask them "How much would you pay?" and see if you get the same answer.

While I agree that food and drink is undervalued, I don't necessarily agree that sticking to a strict per use pricing model is the best in all cases. The best example I can come up with on a moments notice is in a wholesale/reseller scenario.

Eventually we will all price based on what the market will allow, so alot of this discussion is merely academic. That would of course be dependent on Chef's products being a useful and needed part of gameplay.

Cyene