Doctor Archive
Thread: hunting contracts and the pricing of them......
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Kyreal
Tue Sep 07, 2004 9:24 am
#1
i have noticed a disturbing trend lately in the way doctors handle their hunting contracts for the hard to obtain meat that we need desperately to craft with.
doctors are literally trying to hurt each other on Starsider by trying to price everyone else out of the picture when a decent quality meat shows. I can understand why this is going on but do you actually think that only 1-4 crafting docs are going to supply the entire server's demand for buffpacks?
all that i ask is at least look over the trade boards and see if anyone else has already offered a contract, and if you want to increase on it, then be reasonable about it, you dont have to go doubling the price of meat just to make sure you get a share of the gets...... most docs have a hunters list and all you do when you go putting the price up near top notch grade for only a decent quality meat is overprice its worth.....
just be thoughtful instead of greedy, not everyone has the capital to pay for an outrageous price for a meator meats that are needed constantly, and doctors have been overpaying for such meat for a good while now, hence the slow rise of buff prices from 5k to 10k to 15k on average and the cycle will continue to escalate if we continue to let it.
its up to us docs to be sound business dealers, competition is all well and good and should be tough, but it should be with thoughtful insight and knowledge not by pricing a meat out of its worth range just to get a supply.
ZeroK0ol
Tue Sep 07, 2004 1:02 pm
#3
Kyreal wrote:
i have noticed a disturbing trend lately in the way doctors handle their hunting contracts for the hard to obtain meat that we need desperately to craft with.
doctors are literally trying to hurt each other on Starsider by trying to price everyone else out of the picture when a decent quality meat shows. I can understand why this is going on but do you actually think that only 1-4 crafting docs are going to supply the entire server's demand for buffpacks?
all that i ask is at least look over the trade boards and see if anyone else has already offered a contract, and if you want to increase on it, then be reasonable about it, you dont have to go doubling the price of meat just to make sure you get a share of the gets...... most docs have a hunters list and all you do when you go putting the price up near top notch grade for only a decent quality meat is overprice its worth.....
just be thoughtful instead of greedy, not everyone has the capital to pay for an outrageous price for a meator meats that are needed constantly, and doctors have been overpaying for such meat for a good while now, hence the slow rise of buff prices from 5k to 10k to 15k on average and the cycle will continue to escalate if we continue to let it.
its up to us docs to be sound business dealers, competition is all well and good and should be tough, but it should be with thoughtful insight and knowledge not by pricing a meat out of its worth range just to get a supply.
Bria's crafting Docs have already done this. We saw the top price of avian go from 75cpu on week to 250cpu the next. And now since avian has jumped. people are thinking that carn meat, insect meat, herb meat should all be over 100cpu easy... INSECT MEAT OVER 100CPU? are you insane? its not even used in any items that are sell worthy... hunters look at the qualities and think they should get insane amounts of cpu now. Insect meat should top out at 15-20cpu but now its going for 40-45cpu.... insane
Marzuk147
Tue Sep 07, 2004 1:32 pm
#4
What can I say, if people can gouge people to the tune of 2000 credits per mob killed, people will.
Im a novice pistoleer with some Scout skills, and I get 50 meat off of most anything I kill on dant at least, even with my mediocre skills thats 1000cr per mob.
I could understand it if it were on something that only gave 10 meat, but some things that people kill give upwards of hundreds per.
Im a novice pistoleer with some Scout skills, and I get 50 meat off of most anything I kill on dant at least, even with my mediocre skills thats 1000cr per mob.
I could understand it if it were on something that only gave 10 meat, but some things that people kill give upwards of hundreds per.
NabooHippy
Tue Sep 07, 2004 1:57 pm
#5
I'm a cheapskate when it comes to these contracts.
Offer per 1k of resource up to 20k, if the Combined OQ & PE
<1600 = 25cpu
>1600 & < 1700 = 35cpu
> 1700 = 50cpu.
I increase the cpu by 50% for contracts up to 50k and will double for 100k.
I will also pay in advance 10 round trip tickets from cnet to the world where the resource is. I will also give one free buff for each 10k in contract.
NabooHippy
Tue Sep 07, 2004 2:01 pm
#6
I should add thati have a few really low quality BECs that I have named Buff Token. I will give in a crate the number of tokens that match the 10k/buff in the contract. This way if they don't use them up during the contract, they can use them anytime they see me buffing. What really sucks is that 3 of my rangers have left the game for FF. 
Ledao
Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:32 pm
#7
Kyreal wrote:
i have noticed a disturbing trend lately in the way doctors handle their hunting contracts for the hard to obtain meat that we need desperately to craft with.
doctors are literally trying to hurt each other on Starsider by trying to price everyone else out of the picture when a decent quality meat shows. I can understand why this is going on but do you actually think that only 1-4 crafting docs are going to supply the entire server's demand for buffpacks?
all that i ask is at least look over the trade boards and see if anyone else has already offered a contract, and if you want to increase on it, then be reasonable about it, you dont have to go doubling the price of meat just to make sure you get a share of the gets...... most docs have a hunters list and all you do when you go putting the price up near top notch grade for only a decent quality meat is overprice its worth.....
just be thoughtful instead of greedy, not everyone has the capital to pay for an outrageous price for a meator meats that are needed constantly, and doctors have been overpaying for such meat for a good while now, hence the slow rise of buff prices from 5k to 10k to 15k on average and the cycle will continue to escalate if we continue to let it.
its up to us docs to be sound business dealers, competition is all well and good and should be tough, but it should be with thoughtful insight and knowledge not by pricing a meat out of its worth range just to get a supply.
I think there are a couple of forces at work here besides greed...
For one, there is a more or less universal awareness of the quick money to be made in solo groups -- and everyone has good enough equipment to do it. We've always been competing with the mission system for the combat players' time, but the competition has become more intense as high quality crafted items have become more prevalent (and cheaper, in terms at least of opportunity cost) and the player-base has become more skilled.
So, a hunter's time may well have been worth 50 or 75 cpu for avian meat a few months ago, and nevertheless be worth 200+ cpu now (or even 2k per choku, in the most extreme cases...). The specific increase can certainly be argued, but I think the increase in monetary value of a player's time is undeniable.
Now, that aside, there is no question that it is in the interests of the established doctors to inflate the price of avian meat. More money offered in shift equals more total supply, as simple as that. If I pay400 cpu for avian meat, and I make a health pack, I have just spent 11.2k on 28 of 300+ resources to make that pack. But, I can probably sell that pack for 25k. Do you think I can make money on the other 13.8k? Further, if I outprice the market by100 cpu,I'll also take in proportionately more meat... And so on.
On the other hand, it certainly seems like it would be easy to price-fix. On Valcyn at least, the conversation wouldn't have to include a great many people before we had 90+% of the market covered. Fewer than a dozen, would be my guess.
But, no such price fixing has happened. Not on any server that I'm aware of... Here's my guess as to the reason: higher meat prices discourage new entrants into the marketplace. So, price fixing wouldthen be agroup of people acting in a manner that benefits none of them.
Simple as that. Avian meat is the sine qua non of the crafting doc, and controlling the supply is good for everyone involved in determining its price.
Kyreal
Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:22 am
#8
while i understand the need to compete with the mission terms, yes the janta missions that net easy cash and all that. its just sad to see that we must cut each other's throats just to get a supply and thats exactly what most doctors are doing when a decent meat shifts in.
1 offers this much, the next doubles, the third adds another 50cpu next thing you know your paying 200-300cpu for a CURRENT shift meat. thats just ludicris.
inflation is exactly what is happening though, and people that are crying about 10-15k buffs are surely going to be crying when that price hits 20-25k due to poor supply of buffsets.
all i am tryin to say is be prudent with your pricing, theres no reason to artificially inflate the price so you get a share of the current meat, but if you wanna continue to cut your own throats then by all means do so. in the end there will only be 1-3 crafting docs left in the game on which ever server and prices for buffs will be skyhigh due to lack of supply and constant demand for buffs from regular players.
Ledao
Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:52 pm
#9
Kyreal wrote:
1 offers this much, the next doubles, the third adds another 50cpu next thing you know your paying 200-300cpu for a CURRENT shift meat. thats just ludicris.
inflation is exactly what is happening though, and people that are crying about 10-15k buffs are surely going to be crying when that price hits 20-25k due to poor supply of buffsets.
all i am tryin to say is be prudent with your pricing, theres no reason to artificially inflate the price so you get a share of the current meat, but if you wanna continue to cut your own throats then by all means do so. in the end there will only be 1-3 crafting docs left in the game on which ever server and prices for buffs will be skyhigh due to lack of supply and constant demand for buffs from regular players.
You're assuming things that you shouldn't.
Why is 300 cpu for in-shift meat "ludicrous"? You've got to do more than just assert that that's the case... I just told you that I can pay more than that and still make money. Further, I can do it within the confines of a retailpricing scheme that I established months ago, wherein both I and the doc buying my packs and charging 12k a set for buffs are making money.
Further, even if I (and the other big producers) start offering 400 cpu for meats in-shift, there will still be smaller docs out there who will either a) hunt their own meat;b) hire friends, guildies, or people who don't read the boards at a significant discount from the "going rate"; or c) do some combination thereof.
Anyway, call it what you'd like, but I assure you that it is neither inflation, strictly speaking, nor the stupidity of the doctors offering the big bucks for meat that continues to drive the increases in avian meat value.
mintas
Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:07 pm
#10
Hey guys and gals,
I look at this from two different perspectives I have 2 accounts 1 TKM/Ranger and a new second Doc/Merchant. I have had the TKM one for a while and I hate to say it but why would I go and pick up miniscul ammounts of meat when I could run Mokk and Janta missions. Basically the contract has to be worth my time cause hunting pereleks or some other low end mobb just isnt worth it for 100cpu. As a Doc, I am in business for myself and fellow guild members. I expect competition for my customers and would like to reduce my competition. The best way to do this is to make a particular item like meat so expensive as to force others out of the market. Thus increasing my bottom line. This tactic has been used through out time in the economic world and will continue.
Just my 2 creds,
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