Doctor Archive
Thread: Selling different strength buffs
Just contemplating sales strategies here. Sometimes I buff for cash, and am likely to do more if I drop artisan so mining is harder. I am wondering if anyone has some good ideas on offering a variety of buff qualities at different prices.
I generally have 2 different sets of buff packs, since I have had to buy the best ones. The weaker ones I use to buff friends for (essentially) free and buff my pet -- nothing like a well buffed pet as a tank. I carry bivoli as well, but have been having to pay quite a bit for it. That means I have 4 different buff strengths for sale when I set up. Once I eat the Bivoli, I am down to 2 until it wears off.
Now in practice, I start by advertising the strong buff with no bivoli and offer an extra charge upgrade on inquiry. Once I have eaten bivoli, that is what I advertise until 2 min before it runs out. I have been just offering the weak ones to customers who say they can't afford my price for the good ones. In practice, the customers almost always want the best available.
BTW, I pick low density times/places, don't spam much myself (never more than once/min), and charge fairly high prices for the quality. Noisy crowds bother me, so I rarely have a line.
Now my experience is that an 1700 buff is almost as good as a 2400 most of the time, but there is sure a lot of difference in cost. For an ordinary hunt, I think many would rather pay 6k for the former than 12k for the better one, and my friends certainly prefer the weaker ones. I would like to offer the variety, but wonder if anyone has found a way to do so successfully
IMO 9 times out of ten they will pay what ever you ask for what ever your offering. They my **edit** about it but they will pay. It is simply too much of a pain to go buff shopping.
I do the same thing btw. I have crappy buffs that I use for myself but if someone is buying then I try to give them a good buff. Not becuase they need it but becuase it keeps the whining down.
I have been toying with this idea myself as I generally have "public" buffs around 2300-2350 and "guild" buffs at 2400+ on hand at any given time.. I figure with the call to eat bivoli at the start of EVERY buff will ensure that the bivoli is eaten and almost guarantee a good buff (you have to watch for under 2 minutes left on the buff time though), since the game wont let you eat more than one bivoli at a time
You -could- have it try to eat a bivoli before each step of the buff process as well to bypass the chance that your bivoli runs out before a buff is done (hmmmm)...
I think the people that whine about paying extra for buffs would whine regardless of what your prices were.
The failure of people to realize the value of a buff is what causes this for me. You can run two Piket missions on Dantooine and make almost 19K in about 10 mins when you are buffed (Maybe 15 depending on your combat template). Take into account that most buffs last between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 hours and if they get to it the normal combat toon could easily pull in over 200K on one set of buffs. To give up 5 - 10% of that for the buff that makes it all possible is a good tradeoff in my opinion but for some reason those players that like to whine always disregard this simple truth.
As I say to most people regarding their pricing.... price it at what you want and that brings in business at a price you are comfortable with. If people have a problem with it, tell them to go find their buffs elsewhere.
The_Strider_Family wrote:
[snip] You can run two Piket missions on Dantooine and make almost 19K in about 10 mins when you are buffed (Maybe 15 depending on your combat template). .[snip]
Yeah, but my point was that this works just as well with 1700 buffs almost as well as with 2400's for most people, and my costs are a lot lower.
While I don't object to paying the chefs and crafting intensive docs, I think a lot of folks would appreciate the choice. I get the same margin either way. But it is a pain to try to explain that choice to people, unless I macro some gigantic spam message.
BTW, my cheap buffs vary in strength between stats , but I buy perfectlymatched sets. My cheap action is actuallystronger(but a little shorter)because I can use some great rice and water I have a lot ofinstead of needing avian and gas. Seems a shame that the customer doesn't get the advantage of the better action buff, but it just so much easier to explain what they are going to get.