Droid Engineer Archive

Slythe,

Each server is different. If I tried selling protocol chassis for 25K each, I'd just lose the business to someone else who sells 'em for a lot less. On Corellia, Kauri, my prices are right in line with what I've seen around at other droid shops, sometimes I'm higher, sometimes I'm lower, but in any case I make enough profit that I honestly cannot complain.

I'd rather not sell it than lose that much on it.

I sell a few every week. I don't really care to sell many more.

I get 20K/pop.

I charge 30K for the full deal, and I usually consider frames at about 70% of the full droid price.

They sell quite reliably, and I've never had an architect think twice. Usually when I quote 20K the next /tell I get is, "I'll take four."

Ditanium didn't show up until like September on my server, and it's not very common today.

Audio

I charge 18k

Schematic Protocol ADV Droid Chassis
Total Resources needed: 719

Is that correct?

Someone was complaining about undercutting prices???

Even pricing the 70 Ditanium at 1000cpu I think we'll make a pretty good profit on it.

Droids are WAY overpriced on most servers.

Charging 30K or 50K for less than 1000 resources most of the time?

Not many professions can charge 30-50cpu for their products.

Especially if they aren't uber weapons or armor.

Don't worry, I do it too.

But if DE becomes popular, don't come crying to me when you have to drop your price to 15-20cpu to compete.

Armor and weapons are both 50 to 100 cpu for high end stuff.

The protocol requires rare materials, and factory parts.

Pricing by saying "total resources = 719 so price = 2500 credits" is insanity. It's a bit more complicated than that.

But hey, if you like doing charity work, knock your socks off. I'm doing just fine at reasonable prices.

Depends on how you define "reasonable" Slythe.

I have a formula that I use to determine price. The basis of the formula is 5 CPU for normal resources and 10 CPU for rare resources, plus added cost for factory-made components, plus added cost for my time, plus a profit margin. My prices are on the low end for Ahazi, but I'm still making good money and am perfectly happy with the result. The people who charge more than me almost uniformly have better locations. A better location means you can charge more because it is more convenient for the customer.

However, 50k for any droid except a Binary Load Lifter would probably get you laughed out of town on Ahazi. Even the more "expensive" Droid Engineers on Ahazi are only charging in the 20-30 CPU range.

---

Droid_Engineer_Rho wrote:

Putting that aside, I sell them at a a variety of prices, from a high of 16K for a custom-crafted chassis with name (for home display purposes) down to 11K per unit if purchased as a crate of four or more for shuttleport building by an architect with whom I have a business relationship.

---

Same here 10-15k depending on volume.

ONE MILLION DOLLARS
/pinky

Sorry... I dunno. I got a request for droid furniture the other day and I don't really have a set of prices ready. I donated a chassis to my city's chief architect for our shuttleport. I'd guess I'd wind up charging in the 15-20k range. Once you start making everything out of factory crates, a lot of things don't seem as much of a pain to make.

---

Kollos wrote:

Depends on how you define "reasonable" Slythe.

I have a formula that I use to determine price. The basis of the formula is 5 CPU for normal resources and 10 CPU for rare resources, plus added cost for factory-made components, plus added cost for my time, plus a profit margin. My prices are on the low end for Ahazi, but I'm still making good money and am perfectly happy with the result. The people who charge more than me almost uniformly have better locations. A better location means you can charge more because it is more convenient for the customer.

However, 50k for any droid except a Binary Load Lifter would probably get you laughed out of town on Ahazi. Even the more "expensive" Droid Engineers on Ahazi are only charging in the 20-30 CPU range.

---

50k is for a protocol (master chassis requires factory parts for subparts and rare materials) with 110 med (level 6 med) and food/chem craft.

Basically the medical module and food/chem craft are the most valuable combination of modules currently. I sell any droid chassis with 110 med and food/chem craft for 26k. You are paying for the functionality.

Now add to that the advanced protocol chassis (25k) and you get 51k, so I sell at 50k. I am content with the number of sales I make. These aren't meant to be fast moving items. If you choose to treat them that way and cost yourself tens of thousands of credits in profit that's your choice.

There's nothing unreasonable about knowing the value of your products. I see DEs put a 110 med and food/chem in a probot and sell it for 25k, and I think that's just insanity. There's no reason to do that. People who need these droids have plenty of money, and you sell the value of your own products and abilities short when you do this.

To each his own, but I want people to know that the money is out there to be made. You don't have to be like architects who are guilted into selling for 3cpu.

---

Slythetove wrote:

50k is for a protocol (master chassis requires factory parts for subparts and rare materials) with 110 med (level 6 med) and food/chem craft.

Basically the medical module and food/chem craft are the most valuable combination of modules currently. I sell any droid chassis with 110 med and food/chem craft for 26k. You are paying for the functionality.

Now add to that the advanced protocol chassis (25k) and you get 51k, so I sell at 50k. I am content with the number of sales I make. These aren't meant to be fast moving items. If you choose to treat them that way and cost yourself tens of thousands of credits in profit that's your choice.

There's nothing unreasonable about knowing the value of your products. I see DEs put a 110 med and food/chem in a probot and sell it for 25k, and I think that's just insanity. There's no reason to do that. People who need these droids have plenty of money, and you sell the value of your own products and abilities short when you do this.

To each his own, but I want people to know that the money is out there to be made. You don't have to be like architects who are guilted into selling for 3cpu.

---

I don't see how you think that selling more quantity at a lower price is costing us profit. Yes, you may make more off each droid, but we have a more steady income and will end up making about the same amount (and a considerable amount more if we get a bunch of new DE's sometime). You sell for what you want to sell at, we'll sell at what we want to sell at, whatever floats your boat. Just don't complain if another DE takes your sales because he sells for less, thats perfectly acceptable.

I'd like to know the formula you use Kollos.

Currently, I use Yakk's spreadsheet, but I fiddled the multipliers to what I thought was reasonable.

I also need to compare notes with Woodrow so we price at the same levels.

Last week I sold a fully loaded R3 (no exploits :robotwink for around 64k using Yakk's formula.

I don't know about his but if you're interested in general pricing formulas I've got one I'll share. I just do resource cost x 5 (or x 6 if there's some rare resources involved) x 1.5, then some are modified according to difficulty and parts and that kind of thing (usually not more than 1k modification), then add 1k per module they want on it (all at level 6). This would bring a fully loaded R3 out to 20k for me.