Image Designer Archive

5 to 10k seems to be settling in for the 'norm' cost.

Although you'll be hard pressed to find some ID to do for that cost if they have any elite combat skills. A rather frustrating cycle .

And it's a trait of the disparity between the combat economy, the crafting economy and the socializing economy.

I actually am a fan of set prices. I know that, as a customer, I usually don't like it when people ask me to tip what I think is fair. It causes me all sorts of inner turmoil, hehe. I mean, I don't want to tip too little because I don't want to look like a cheapskate. But, on the other hand, I don't want to tip too much because to be honest, I am not overflowing in the credits and I pretty much need every last one I make. And, I also know that sometimes the times when I tried the "tip what you think is fair" as a dancer routine, I've had people hedge and haw and say to me, "well, I dunno what's fair" and become a little uncomfortable just like I have felt uncomfortable when presented with that situation as a customer. I would much rather be presented with a price from the person whose services I'm buying. And, then I can choose to buy the services or not. Or, even if I think the price is a little steep, being able to negotiate from the original price is much more preferable to me than having to come up with a number when I honestly have no clue how much something is worth in the game.

I suspect the original, poster, having never stat migrated before under the new system honestly had no idea what it would be worth to perform such a service, and 2500 credits seemed absolutely reasonable, even though from what I can gather, the going rate has levelled off to about 10000 credits. I only knew this because I was trying to do some ID myself, had some conversations with people, read the boards, etc. But, one cannot expect everyone to be able to do this or have the opportunity to do this with every single profession. The fact of the matter is, they were told "tip whatever you like."Or, even worse, actually, they offered a price andby all rights it looked as if the ID appeared to agree to it. And, then when they tipped, without having any information whatsoever about the going rate, they were insulted by being told that it was an insult. That particular image designer said, "tip what you like" and should have stuck to it. If he/she thought 2500 was an insult, they should have, upfront set a minimum price and allowed for an "extra" tip. I know that many IDs who say "tip what you feel" mean what they say. But, not all of them too, and because not every ID (or any other profession, for that matter) means what they say, it leads to discomfort on the part of the customer even in situations where the ID *does* mean what they say, because of the experiences of those who don't.

I can't remember what service I was trying to do get off the top of my head. But, a few weeks ago I was told "tip what you feel." And, I tipped 2K credits. I asked if that made me look like a cheapskate. I was told "yes." LOL. Well, then, why didn't this person tell me what they felt was appropriate in the first place? Because I felt bad and was put on the spot, I ended up probably tipping way more than I needed to, of my very hard earned credits. I would just rather people set prices and avoid the whole uncomfortable situation all together.

Message Edited by Drygo on 05-24-2004 04:59 AM

You told him in advance you were going to pay 2500 credits. If he wasn't happy with that, he shouldn't have told you to come over and should have replied with a "Well, the going rate is X, so I'd appreciate more than 2500c..."

I can only presume he'd sent a tell to somebody else in the meantime and somebody had offered him 10k or similar and he'd either confused you with the other player or he'd decided to try his luck and up the price to see if you'd pay it.

I always work from a fixed price list (stat migrations are 20k) and I'll happily do any IDing for free (or no more than 5k depending on the customer) during the stat migration wait, I also try to talk to customers during the wait as this at least passes the time.

However although I am always open to a bit of haggling and I've often dropped my prices to a small fraction of my list price for a newbie that wants to get rid of their atrocious haircut, or something like that. However all haggling is done in private in group chat or tells, as I have no problems dropping my prices for the poor, but if someone turns up in full composite carrying a power hammer or T21, they can't expect to get the same discount!

But I did have trouble last week with a French girl with very weak English last week. She wanted a few changes to her hair style and colour and the cosmetics, once we'd got through the language barriers on the exact shade she wanted, then settled on the change, she asked how much, I replied 5k. Then she said she could only afford 1500, so I tried to drop my price to 1k, but she kept insisting that she couldn't afford 5k and sorry to bother me. I just could not get her to understand that I didn't mind dropping the price, I was even offering to do it for free in the end, but she ran off saying sorry!

Wow you did get a bad IDer, IDing is a social profession but sadly there area few that are not social There are more then enough real IDers out there, I hope you find one and realize that he was just a bad apple and don't think we are all like that.

BUT 2500 credits is low, that does not even cover the Imperial Luxury Tax. I don't do just Stat Migrations I do full IDs which includes Stats, Sothat would be 20 -30k no matter if you use the ID services are not.

Good luck

t's strange that he didn't liek the price that you both apparently agreed upon. I'd say tht was a Bad ID.

However, I can also see the clash in 'styles' since you are a "Tip me whatever" dancer.

I stopped doing that a long time ago. And my income has increased enough that I am not constantly worrying about funding my cantina or homes anymore. Actually, I'm living comfortably. When I was a "Tip what you want" person I barely had enough to survive.

Yes, I know sometimes we get 20k tips for an average buff, but the thing is that if a person was going to tip you 20k for the buff, they'll do it even if you say "My set price is 5k" . And the people that wouldn't tip anything would be weeded out.

I find that it's the same with image design. Perhaps we maybe just click a button- however there are trade offs. We probably paid for every rung we learned. We also have to spend our time- and if I have a very good paying customer in line I'd rather work on them than the cheapskate who is never happy - but maybe that's just me.

2500 for a stat migration is LOW...

Remember that they have to spend 10 real time minutes doing nothing else than helping you with your stats. And for those who only wants to be an imagedesigner and has that profession as their living.. they sure need to make more than 15k pr. hour!!!

I myself are a master doc.. I have mastered more than 14 professions including Imagedesigner. I can tell you that most professions make a lot of credits.. Hunters make more than 100000k pr hour if they hunt the right meat.. they can easily make 60 k in 10 mins if they choose the right mission.

As a doc I buy mu buff sets.. paying 4k and selling them for 10k that makes a profit of 6k for each buff that takes less than 2 mins! and thos stat changes last only 3 hours.. People never complais...

But when a poor imagedesigner wants a reasonable amount of credits for their work they do not get a decent amount of respect from other players! People should start to respect that profession.. and REMBEMBER not everybody has powergrinded ID just to make the holo feel happy!

And about the dancer..! you do not charge for buffs.. well that is your own choice.. Personally I feel that everybody should charge for buffs and dancers deserve money for buffs! Problem is that there are so many hobby dancers and ids who just did it for the holo and play around with it now and then while their other Terras Kasi Artis half makes them a fortune! That really kills the marked for those dedicated people out there!

Shadow...

I won't go so far as to say 2.5k is low [it sounds reasonable to me, especially from a Novice level].

One thing to be careful about, for us IDs, is to remember not everyone is a combat profession or makes 'the good money' possible with crafting.

What the ID in question did though, sounds gashy. If you weren't rebel and I actually was going to log in this week, I'd offer to help ya out though.

That's just a tad bit embarassing behavior on the ID's part.