Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Thoughts on the new vendor changes?
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Straker_Atrella
Fri Feb 11, 2005 2:39 pm
#1
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/content.jsp?page=Galaxy-wide%20Vendor%20Search
I'm sort of torn, in some ways it may attract new business, yet at the same time, I bet some major undercutting will start.
Location will be meaningless as well, you can sell droids from the basement of your house on Loc.
Obo_alCan
Fri Feb 11, 2005 2:44 pm
#2
Was excited at first, but I think it could do with a few tweaks all right.
Like make the buyer go to the location to pickup. Also, apply a fee to the ability to advertise this way (like registering on the map), and perhaps limit it by Merchant skill too.
Like make the buyer go to the location to pickup. Also, apply a fee to the ability to advertise this way (like registering on the map), and perhaps limit it by Merchant skill too.
Message Edited by Obo_alCan on 02-11-2005 09:45 PM
Kaasi
Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:46 pm
#3
This is a nightmare to those of use who dont sell our droids for more than 3 cpu. Undercutting will run rampant. Worst idea ever SOE...sheesh.
Ani_cul
Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:52 pm
#4
Please read links from and then post in merchant feedback thread here.
And think of how great it will be that everyone no longer travels to your shop,
that only the lowest sellers get sales
that the impulse buys from browseing a vendor are gone
that player cities that are clinging to exist via their vendors are no longer visited...
Talmor1
Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:01 pm
#5
100% totally opposed to it on many levels. In particular, people trying to undercut other players. The gap between the Elite Masters and everyone else will become huge.
For instance, right now nobody wants the second best items (even if it is just a 1% less difference). They all want the best. And rightfully so. Therefore the Crafters that can make the best will be competing with each other price wise. There Crafting items will be similar in quality so that will not be a differentiation. Therefore, their weapons will come down. The weapons that are just a little less or second best will then never sell. They would have to price theirs even less than the Top Items and will get very little profit due to the price wars above them. Crafters would then need to get better and better quality items to produce theirs until a max is reached.
Prices will level eventually and then Crafters would need to find the cheapest base materials they can buy. Would need to decrease Overhead. Players with Guild Support or multiple accounts could harvest their resources more effeciently and the players that are casual will not. This would become even worse.
Resources Sellers would loose a lot of business or would have to drastically reduce their prices because other than grinding persons, little amount of players would want to pay these prices when they can try to harvest themselves. The players with large caches of particular resources would be set. But again, the gap between the Long Time Master Crafter and the Noob, or short term would become even greater.
The Short Time Master Crafter would then have to start selling smaller priced droids (Like MSE Storage Droids and Kits and the such).
The economy could really get interesting. There will be a major deflation of prices. People can no longer use a "Well Stocked Vendor" as a selling point any more. All it would depend on is price and quality. Pricing wars are going to become fist to fist.
Gron_DM
Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:01 pm
#6
Overall ok, dont like the fact items can be picked up anywhere. they should have to goto wp and pick them up....if not this will severly hinder player cities. There are always allot of negatives and positives to any big change....this one is designed to make the game faster...so overall i approve, there will be some undercutting but it can only last as long as the items can stay in stock.
Drashk
Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:01 pm
#7
Here is something to think about, when the concept of undercutting the market is brought up.......
The rules of supply and demand will still be in effect. If someone decides to set up a vendor that is selling droids for Xcpu, and registers to sale their product for this price, the product will be bought out rather quickly, if it has some demand. I order for the person to keep such prices, the person will need to keep a constant supply of goods. This leads to a lot more 'work' not only in actually producing the good but also listing the good for sale on the vendor. This will eventually lead to the person selling the good to either
- increase the production of the good being sold
- increase the sales price of the product being sold
- limit the number of goods being offered
There is another scenario that many will over look, with this change. It would promote an increase in resale of underpriced goods. If Xmerchant lists their product for Xcpu, Y merchant can easily buy the lower priced good and then resale the product at a mark up that is closer to the true market value of the item. In the past, X merchant could simply ban Y merchant from having access to their vendor by banning the PC from their shop. It would appear that there will be no such ban on Bazaar based vendor system.
Yes, there could be some reduction in prices for all goods; however creating such a change will actually help to promote an increased volume of sales for all products, since one of the largest complaints from those looking for a good is the inability to find the good in the first place.
Forgot to add....
The ability to retrieve a product from any Bazaar is the only part of this suggested change that I can see really hurting business. The process of galaxy-wide shopping on the Bazaar should be limited to seeing what is available and being able to purchase the item. The item should still require the need to be picked up from the vendor, as it currently occurs with Bazaar sales. Unless, some other delievery function is added such as additional shipping fees, or the use of Delievery Droids.
Message Edited by Drashk on 02-11-2005 03:12 PM
Ani_cul
Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:09 pm
#8
oh forgot to note, it isnt just the bazaar they can search from, but your vendors. Your own vendors can be used to search all the other vendors out there....
Kaasi
Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:15 pm
#9
To those who agree, I think this sums it up perfectly. Let the Devs hear it!
QFE
And think of how great it will be that everyone no longer travels to your shop,
that only the lowest sellers get sales
that the impulse buys from browseing a vendor are gone
that player cities that are clinging to exist via their vendors are no longer visited...
QFE
And think of how great it will be that everyone no longer travels to your shop,
that only the lowest sellers get sales
that the impulse buys from browseing a vendor are gone
that player cities that are clinging to exist via their vendors are no longer visited...
Straker_Atrella
Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:58 pm
#10
Drashk,
Respectfully, you are wrong.
Here is why.
Lets say that there are 10 DE's on a server who actually are pretty close on prices. They are in it for the long haul, they have been DE's for a while, and plan on staying there. As you and I both know, there is only a finite number of droids to be sold to the server. The same number of Droids will be sold as before, people will just have an easier way to compare price and quality.
Now enter 2 new DE's. These DE's are not very business minded. They can harvest their resources for .5 CPU, so if they sell at 2 cpu, they are making a 1.5 cpu profit. Who cares if people have been paying 20 cpu for the same droids before.
Now for 1 month these DE's crank the factories, putting tons of droids on their vendor (and the bazaar,) for 2 cpu. Let's say they focus on Storage, Med, and BHDroids. Now, exactly the same amount of people will be buying droids as before, the difference is, now they will just grab the cheapest ones.
Here is what will happen. Yes they may sell out, but droids don't move all that fast, so they may not. If they do sell out, they are all excited "WOW I sold stuff!!" thier prices must be good right? So they continue.
Now what will probably happen is that after about a month, they go "Holy crap, this sucks. I put in all this work, made all these sales, yet I don't have a lot of money." Customers bother them, crafting isn't as much fun or profitable as they thought. So now they give it up. They may even lower their prices more to have a going out of business sale.
So now all the normal DE's breath a sigh of relief and things go back to normal right? Wrong. Because next month 2 more of the same types of DE's show up and EXACTLY the same thing happens.
All that these changes will do is drive prices down. This will allow combatents to simply bank more of their money. The goal should be to spread the credits out to EVERYBODY, especially those like Tailors, Archs, and DE's. The LAST thing that needs done is to make it possible for combatents to hoard more money.
DarthRoe
Fri Feb 11, 2005 5:05 pm
#11
My response on Tiggs' thread:
As the system stands now, it is the worst thing that I have ever heard about as far as impact on my business. I do an average of one million credits in sales each day, and the main reason is that I spend hours upon hours of each week crafting so that I can have full vendors for my visitors.
My prices may be on an average a bit higher than some of the less-established Droid Engineers in the galaxy, but my customers have never complained. They know if they come to my shop, they will not find empty vendors, and they will be able to purchase everything they need during their visit.
The proposed vendor changes would allow a player to stand at the bazaar in Theed, and but a seeker from DE x, an Arakyd from DE y, Droid Batteries from Artsian x, and maybe a Detonation Droid from me, all without ever leaving Theed.
Merchants who have worked from DAY ONE OF LAUNCH building a customer base have all of their efforts wiped away, and are now without the hard-earned advantage that their longetivity brings. This is a total sucker-punch to dedicated crafters, and unless SERIOUS reworking is done to ensure that destination shops like mine are still destinations, I and many of the long-time artisans will most likely be gone.
Talmor1
Fri Feb 11, 2005 5:08 pm
#12
This is exactly what I am talking about above *5 Stars* Especially when new players come in and SEE those low priced droids and THINK that THAT IS THE NORM! Slowly but surely, some of the Mid-tiered Crafters. People that just want to sell droids may creep their prices down because they make no money.
Sooner or later devoted customers just will not pay the differences in prices. They will have to go to the lower prices because they want to save money to get high end loot that COMBATANTS FIND. Seriously, DE is like a cusp Crafting Class. We get decent sales, but not great sales. Some of the other Crafting Classes RELY on Repeat Business.
This is going to be Great for Armorsmiths, Weaponsmiths, and Crafting Classes that have a lot of repeat business but horrible for everyone else! It will be great for Looted items, yes... but there are so many problems with this that it is difficult to grasp...
Jenden
Fri Feb 11, 2005 5:20 pm
#13
Another aspect of this change for us is it renders yet another of our droids worthless... I know merchant barkers have never been a huge seller, but it would become just one more schematic taking up space that had no function anymore with this change.
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