Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Undercut by my own...
I have been on a mission recently to build up a customer base of BH's on my server to supply with seeker droids. I have been fairly sucessfull in reaching different BH's and entrering negotiations with them.
I'm a Novice DE. So I dont have TONS of viable options to make steady money. So I look at the seeker droids and say, well if I sell them from 800 a pop, Thats pretty good, even though I won't much profit, if any, I will still be getting exp, but droid and genereal (Im trying to reach novice architect as well).
Well it turns out that every BH I have spoken to says "Oh, I have an offer of 250 a piece from another DE, Im sorry." Now granted they could be BS'ing me, but they don't come back after I say I can't match that.
What am I supposed to say to that? It hurts to know that some DE's would value their products so low as to sell seekers for 250cr. I wish we could help eachother out. Its bad enough we face so much adversity from outside our proffesions, but to give to eachother within is just sad. Just my 2cr.
</Rant>
IN closing, I love being a DE, and will be patient for better days ahead.
Cheers,
Zeheeba Lorne, BSD
got this from swgcraft, it says both BH droids costs 172 and 179 to make of course they can be wrong, but if they weren't then 250 isn't more than 2 times of 170ish
MadCat0911 wrote:
250 credits is still slightly more than 2 times the amount of resources put into the thing. Lets take a look at the math here, you get at least 3k of resources from a medium harvester, so if you sell stuff at 2 times the resources, you get at least 6k for that one harvester alone. Does it take 6k to run a harvester? No, it's a little over 1k, if you count running your own solar gen to power all of the harvesters you have. So do you really lose out by selling "that low?" No, not really. I for one sell the seekers at 250 and the arakyds at 350. They're cheap, easy to make, and quick to make too. So what's the point of hiking up prices on them?
That's all well and good MadCat09011, but what about costs for maintaining shops and vendors? How about travel costs to get to your harvesters? What if you crit fail a final combine?
I gavea fellow DEan earfull earlier today for selling an Advanced MSE droid with medical I for 250 creidts.
Selling 2.25 credits per unit is pointless, unless your plan is piss other people off. I mean, people will even laugh at you when you charge so little for anything, let alone a one of the most functional droids available in the game! When I fall down in Kor Vella I usually find more than 250 credits just laying there in the street!
I would almost be happy if SOE instituted a 3 credit per unit minimum price on things just to stop morons from ruining the in game economy. Sure, you CAN run missions all day to pay for harvestors and a factory that will produce droids for 0.75 credits per unit, but you know what, not all of us have time to run missions and not all of us care to run missions. In fact, some of us would like to earn a living selling items to other players for a profit.
How's that for an early morning rant?
I guess I would be considered an "undercutter", because I charge low for my droids. And there are a few reasons for that. The main one is, I would rather guarantee myself a customer by selling my droids cheaper than everyone else, and make sure that they will come to me, than to lose a sale because I am charging the same as everyone else, and there is nothing else that makes my droids stand out from someone else's.
-ESPECIALLY- when I am only 1 / 0 / 0 / 1, what would make someone come to me instead of someone a lot higher who can make Probots and beyond?
If you want to complain about people undercutting you and stealing your business, then I am going to complain about the people who can make higher level droids and taking mine. Do you know how frustrating it is when I shout that I am taking orders for droids, or selling droids, and I get in touch with a potential customer who ends up leaving because they can get an R2 unit instead of an R5?
So hell yea I am going to sell my droids for cheaper. It guarantees me a sale, guarantees that I can support my harvestors, guarantees that I can have a supply of resources to actually advance in my class, guarantees that I will have some money. And if I am undercutting your business, then I suggest you change your sales strategies to be able to make profit, instead of just trying to juice someone for every ounce that you can get.
Nell2ThaIzzay,
All the while you are setting the presidence that everything you sell will be cheap, always. Go ahead and sell Probots for 3k if you feel that you have to, but don't be surprised when a DE like me buys them and resells them for 30K!
I can buy way more than you can sell, because it wont just be me buying your crap!
This is what the Architects on Intrepid do and it seems to work well for them.
Falacy, go ahead and buy my droids and sell them higher. I've still made the money I want haven't I? Plus, every deed has my guilds name on it, and my name as the creator, so MY name gets out and not yours. Think about it. I still get everything I want from selling low.
As for how do I maintain my harvestors/factory/house/vendors... I've never had a problem maintaining them if I sell at roughly 2 times the resources, and I still come out witha profit. As long as my goals are met, who am I to care if another DE doesn't like my prices. First of all, it's economics, and as long as I'm making more money than I can spend, I'm doing good. Second of all, it's my game, and I'm paying for it, so I can do as I please. If I wanted to just give out free droids, I can. No loss of my sleep.
If a DE is undercutting prices, so what? That's their choice, really. Maybe they don't put a pricetag on their time or resource costs, that's their deal. But it doesn't really affect me. I have my prices, and if someone says "Well so-and-so sells for cheaper," I say, "Fine then, go hunt down so-and-so and get it cheaper. All the same to me."
As far as the Medical MSE going for 250 goes....I give extreme lenience to that situation. I mean, come on. Every DE has to grind through a billion MSE droids. They have no choice. So, they can either throw away the resources entirely, or at least make some scrap of profit from them. The droids have to be made anyways, so why not make money off them?