Doctor Archive
Thread: To docs who think we should charge 10k minimum for buffs
Rex yes I do indeed make my own buffs.. and here is where that I do you a favor.. you do me one comes into play. I get many of my high end resources for VERY cheap and sometimes free for showing them that I do care about them and the rest of the community by not tagging them with a 10k charge. I tell people selling resources for 50per to go fly a kite Ill wait for the 15 & 20per... and they laugh.. sure its np I say. But then tomorrow they hit me up for it again because suprise suprise.. they couldnt sell it and I tell them I found all I needed for no more than 20per or 15per whatever it was.. Im talking meat here BTW Avain sorry. If I dont buy the meat I have no problem going to gather it either. Just grab a few friends and go get 10k or so.
TandisJargin, your story may be true indeed... but like Ive been saying I dont have a problem with 10k buffs on advanced planets.Youseem to bealuding to the ideathat perhaps because I charge 4k a setmy buffs are crap, I assure you my friend... mine are every bit as good as yours. I do find your story hard to believe since I have never seen something even remotly similar to this, but just because I havent seen it doesnt make it not true...
Good for you Purple. Buy your avian meat for 15-20cpu.
If you were on my server, you would get squat offering that little. That's probably why you can get away with selling buffs so cheap, but on other servers, we don't have that luxury.
Fengo
I use my buffs to pay for all the free group healing I do.
Buffs not only pay the factory time and materials for themselves, but for all my stims and cure packs as well.
There are bigger issues here then just buff packs... the total value of Docs overall is in question.
-T
The real point is, If people are willing to buy buffs for 10K without question, why the hell sell it for less?
Its just not smart to sell a product for less than what people are willing to pay, if this was a real economy that would bankrupt you, because everyone else would make so much more money they could double thier company and then end up taking your customers...who are waiting around for your products that you can't produce fast enough due to high demand. If you can't produce, you will lose the customers to people who can produce, even if it costs more.
Since this isnt a real economy and everyone's income can be subsidised in other ways like stim sells or missions then the real penalties of mis-judging prices really doesnt drive the market the way it does in real life.
In a College level Microeconomics class you would learn that the people who judge supply/demand correctly are rewarded with profit and gain more contol of the market influence, and those who dont are given little to no share of market influence.
So the larger the profit you make the more control you have on what happenes in the market due to feedback and ques of the customers, and your ability to keep providing a good and service to the customer.
Never underestimate the value of time... I predict 10K is not where the average buff price will stay, I see it rising some...when everyone is charging 10K someone whith shorter lines will charge 15K and some will flock, till a equalibruim is found.
anyhow, the point is lower pricesRARELY means more money in the long run, only when your prices were inititaly too high, and if people line up for 10K buffs, then your prices are not too high, infact they may be too low. The customer, in the end, sets the price.
welcome to Microeconomics.
Purple:
You're a troll and nothing more. You have YET to respond to my question about WHY you care so much. Yeah, you go on and on about how this is a GAME. So, its a GAME and people are giving me IMAGINARY money for an IMAGINARY service. So W.T.F. do you care *SO* much what I charge? You're the only one on this thread arguing against people routinely tipping as much or more than we're asking, so why do you care what we charge?
BTW, hide behind that self-conceited 'we're not curing cancer' red herring all you want. My point is simple, and I'm sorry if you can't understand it, my monthly fee is no more or no less important than anyone elses. If they can make 100-300k in 3 hours, then my time is worth just as much IMAGINARY money as theirs. If you honestly can't see that pure combat classes can make 300k in the 3 hours our buffs last then once again I have to question you being a doctor.
LOL on one side you talk about it being a GAME and nothing as important as curing cancer and then on the other side you're flaming others for being price gougers... It isn't like we're selling buffs on E-Bay for real life dollars..
Get a life and least be consistant in your whining/trolling/flaming.
"Not hitting customers with a huge charge for something so cheap to make and easy to do..."
man that made me laugh...I dont think he makes his own packs if he thinks gathering the High End resources needed for buff packs is an easy chore....
Price fixing is always bad in a supply/demand type economy in fact there is a name for it,a Cartel.
However, I dont see a group of Doctors (who do not control the entire market) agreeing that a defacto standard of 10K min. price for buffs as price fixing...
Lets call it a "convention"of like proffesionals who are trying to determine maximum effeceintcyfor thier goods and services.
Personally, I think were ripping ourselves off by charging less than 12K a buff set for the time money and resources consumed, not to mention the research and development effort it takes to understand Doctor medicine crafting, which is indeed intricate and confusing
If this still makes me look like a greedy pig, then..Oink! Oink!
Here it is,
If you dont like me charginf 10k, dont whine I wont lower prices, you have any idea how hard // expenisve it is to make these packs?
FOR ACRDM X2
20 cpu for good herb meat (2 ACRDM 32 units of herb meat required for buff X6)
20 X 32 X 6 = 3840
Class 4 liquid petro anywhere from15 cpu - 100 cpu depending on amount available
aprox 3000
FOR ABEC X2
Tatooine Fiberplast 5 CPU
Lok Wild Wheat 5 CPU
(5+5)X36X6 = 2160
FOR ASDS
Good Domestic Oats 5CPU
Good Dolovite Iron 5CPU
(5+5)X18X6 = 1080
FOR PACKS
30 cpu for good avain meat (22 per pack X 6)
30 X 22 X 6 = 2640
Reactive Gas greatly varies, 10 - 50 CPU
aprox 3000
Total cost for 6 buff packs with aprox 25 uses = aprox 16k
Ok here is the cost of the buff packs, not alot i will agree but their are many other expensive, for the 5 CPU it would meen you had to buy a harvestor, you cant use personal anymore not effienct you need to buy high quality ones with 12+ BER for 100k+ each
Now for the droid 20k+ the batteries (100 batteries for 3k)
House // factory and etc cost about 2k a day and each harvestorand stuff cost money to move as well
Bio clothing, 20k
Profit ...? people who do this on a large scale can make huge profits however for the starting doctor this is overwhelming the only reason i was able to start a new char on my galaxie and be successful was because i had another job! it is nearly impossible to do doctor // cm fromt he start with the rarety of these resource it is very difficult
and in the end it all goes to this
IF YOU WANT THE BUFFS PAY 10K or find someone else, this si what i say to people who say i charge too much, I say master doctor and I will buff you for less after you try and make your own packs!
Please respect doctors more as only the pros can afford to charge 5- 8 k for a set
And besides doctors CANT hunt so they should be able to make money somehow
purplebooks wrote:
- Maybe you think of yourself to high and value your own time too much? Afterall its just a game were talking about... and I never had to get over it. My stance now as it always has been was if you wanna act silly and charge a grip of money for something that was cheap and easy to make go ahead.. but Im gonna complain about it just like I get complained to that Im "undercutting" everyone just because Im not looking to make 3000% profit only 300%...
Heres something Purple that probably hasn't occured to you. What about the docs that don't have the time nor inclination to hunt down the very best resources, and instead settle for what they can get more easily with the time they have? The power on their packs will more likely be 600-700, and they won't be hitting numbers like 3k with their buffs. Yet they will still want to charge the standard 5k. And most will agree that buffs hitting between 800-2k+ are worth 5K credits.
Then along you come charging 4k and handing out 3k+ buffs. Others see this and immediately assume that you are the standard and the other docs are con-artists.
With your attitude you don't hurt the well-off master doc that has more credits than he'll ever need. You are actually hurting the docs starting out, or those who don't have as much time to play the game.
I don'tgo and sit in a med center and heal all the wounds in there, thus depriving medics and novice docs of their med xp. And I won't take away the business of the docs who don't have the best buffs.
jgr wrote:
I've never paid over 6k for buffs and never will, good luck getting people to pay 10k as I'm sure some do but the more reasonable docs will make far more money in the long run through a much higher customer base.
i know a guy who makes buff pack D'sand sells them on his vendor for 15k each. he just jacked up the price to 22k each and they are flying off his vendor. with hologrinders and doc being the secondary flavor of the month profession feel fortuneate if the 6k gravy train stays that way. i dont even like buffing people anymore, id rather save my expensive, time consuming-to-make buff packs for myself and any friends/groupmates im with.i use the best resources, a 110 med droid and BE enhanced clothing when i buff and i swear the next person that **edit** when i give a mediocre buff is going to getfinishedoff with A's. Once word gets around that i give the crappies buffs on the server maybe i wont get anymore plZ buffz0r me spam.
Caliwyrm wrote:
Purple:
You're a troll and nothing more. You have YET to respond to my question about WHY you care so much. Yeah, you go on and on about how this is a GAME. So, its a GAME and people are giving me IMAGINARY money for an IMAGINARY service. So W.T.F. do you care *SO* much what I charge? You're the only one on this thread arguing against people routinely tipping as much or more than we're asking, so why do you care what we charge?
BTW, hide behind that self-conceited 'we're not curing cancer' red herring all you want. My point is simple, and I'm sorry if you can't understand it, my monthly fee is no more or no less important than anyone elses. If they can make 100-300k in 3 hours, then my time is worth just as much IMAGINARY money as theirs. If you honestly can't see that pure combat classes can make 300k in the 3 hours our buffs last then once again I have to question you being a doctor.
LOL on one side you talk about it being a GAME and nothing as important as curing cancer and then on the other side you're flaming others for being price gougers... It isn't like we're selling buffs on E-Bay for real life dollars..
Get a life and least be consistant in your whining/trolling/flaming.
Yes Caliwyrm, you've nailed it. Purple doesn't actually address any points, as much as s/he uses that phrase. Everything s/he's posted has been regurgitation or double-speak. Circular logic and whatnot. Purple "doesn't care and won't try to stop people charging that much" but on the other hand "any /reasonable/ doctor will charge whatpurple charges". S/he makes accusations of price gouging, which can only exist when one person or cartel completely controls the market. Obviously Purple's there, so there's no monopoly. Then s/he accuses folks of cheating people. Nobody here is advertising 5000 point buffs and only delivering 500. Anyone that pays does so willingly, so obviously the service is worth as much as is being charged.
Purple's claims that no doctor will get business with him charging less are also erroneous, I know from personal experience. I have had doctors set up shop not 20m from me at the Coronet starport and shout every 30 seconds thier lower price. I still got more business than them, and they quickly moved on. Sometimes I welcomed the breakthough, and started directing people to the new guy/girl. 
The language purple uses reminds me of a recent non-customer I had. [long story alert]
I was hunting on Dantooine, grinding some pistol exp. I don't believe that I should be forced to turn off my MD tag just to get some peace, so naturally I get lots of tells for buffs. At first I just said "Not now", which led to people offering "rediculous" amounts of money: 20k, 30k for buffs, they'd come to me, blah blah, etc. That led to me putting up an AFK message while hunting. This didn't stop the people that actually saw me in the outpost getting missions though. Some were offended that I'd put up the AFK to "ignore" them, and one helpful individual (sarcasm there) explained that AFK meant "away from keyboard" and wasn't intended to be used as a "do not disturb" sign.
So, when I finally got annoyed at my message being useless, and not being able to hold a conversation with it on, I turned off my AFK message and decided I'd name a "rediculous" price to buff people. Hell, if so many thought that money was the only issue here... well then I guess I'll allow myself to be bought.
So, in comes a tell for buffing. I name 3k per stat. The guyis at firstshocked. "3k per stat?!", then quickly gets over that and offers me 6k per stat if I come buff him at the Warren, and follows that up with "that's 36k."... no sh-- Sherlock? I tell him no deal, I don't feel like traveling. When an explanation is demanded for my refusal I tell him that I'm busy, and I'll buff him if he comes to me (mining outpost). He doesn't want to travel and won't accept that I refused more money. "The money isn't what's important to me," I respond. This set him off all the way. "Obviously it is important or you wouldn't charge 3k per stat, instead of 1k per stat like any /reasonable/ doctor". "If you didn't want to buff you should have just said so," he claimed. "People would leave you alone, dumba--" he continued. When I shared my contrary experiences with him all he could say were more insults. "Imbicile, idiot, moron," are the least of what he called me. So I ended the conversation and /addignore-d him.
I've not had another experience like that. I hope I never do, but I won't lose any sleep over immediately and irrevocably /addignore-ing anyone else that assaults me verbally.
Ruda, Master Doctor, Naritus
Zelig:
That's exactly why most of the Master Docs I know don't have their tag up. 
I make no apologies for how I play this game. I play to entertain myself and no one else. If I'm entertained buffing people, fine, if I'm not in the mood, fine. I have yet to flame any combat class for using a crafting tool instead of their flame thrower if/when they want to craft instead of fight. However, doctors routinely get told we're "selfish" "rude" or whatnot for asking for the same consideration. I do feel there are silver-linings in the storm clouds around us though. I routinely have one person who travels to me (no matter where I am) and offers 15-20k for a set of buffs and wound heals. They're always respectful and pleasant to be around. In return if I happen to see him in town while I'm running around I'll pop a set of buffs on him for free and be on my way before he loads/returns to the keyboard and he'll insist on tipping me each and every time, even if I tell him something like "This ones on me for being nice".
I've never had to advertise buffing becaue people assume I'm a willing Buff-O-Matic any time I have almost any medical tag up. It's sad but alot of people pretty much DEMAND I buff them with no tact or manners at all and, I too, have made up ludicrous prices to get disrespectul people to leave me alone. I remember one K00l d00d on Talus spamming me with tells and /yelling BUFFZ ME KTHX for 5 mins straight so finally I told him it would be 25k -- he paid it too! He went out and quickly died within 15 mins and wanted another set of buffs for free. I told him it wasn't my fault he agrod a nest of Grand Wrixes and my buff packs didn't suddenly become free to make and that the price was 25k for another set -- yes he paid that too. For awhile I was a regular at the Imperial Outpost there on Talus and he would see others asking for buffs and I'd tell them 10-12k depending on my mood, how well I knew them, the pack strength, etc and he asked me why he was charged 50k for 2 sets. I told him that anyone who treats me like that gets an incredibly inflated price and the reasons why. To this day he's one of my recurring customers and is now polite and respectful (I can only assume since he has probably ended up on a Doc or 3's /ignore list).
I've started using the pricing formula mentioned above...
"0 - 999 = Free
1000 - 1999 = 1k
2000 - 2999 = 2k
3000 + = 3k"
With no problems, even though I am not yet a Master Doctor (I need the extra money for crafting) with what I've spent on packs, travelling to pick them up, BE clothing, droid etc... I believe it's not that bad a price - they get what they pay for.