Merchant Archive
Thread: Renting out vendors.
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hakk
Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:45 am
#1
I am thinking about dropping tailor and don't really feel like doing another crafting profession at this point. But I don't want to drop merchant so I was thinking about renting out my vendors for a monthly/weekly fee. What would be a reasonable price for it? Consider that I have to restock the vendors for everyone. I was thinking about renting out 10 vendors with 300 item limit on each.
Tirgwystraff
Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:52 am
#2
I think most crafter are looking to go with % of what sells, rather than a straight fee. In addition to supplying my own vendors with clothing, a guildmate supplies 2 of his vendors with my clothing for half price. Of course, I only supply him with our most popular items, rather than total variety. He sells about 1/3 of his stock daily. You not only have to stock for them, but keep track of the sales and pay accordingly. ( I check his vendors visually, but it doesn't tell me that 10 of the same item sold in an hour, while the rest took most the day). For this I'd figure out how much ingame time this is going to run you. Then charge based on that time. ( Not just based on Janta missions, but heck, I coulda been hanging out in the cantina chatting instead!).
Fred75
Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:22 am
#3
Hopefully dowm the road, they will add 'rental' as an option for vendors. The big thing will be how will they implement it to charge the renter? It could be a % of the listing fee (which I'm for). Once the item is listed the fee is paid right then, this will cut back on getting a friend that's a master merchat to 'rent' you space for storage. If the item doesnt sell in the first 30 days, you'll get to pay another rental fee for that item if you want to relist it. If you sell it, you'll get the amount that you sold it for. I think something like that would work. You could limit numbers of items that someone could list so they couldnt take up all your spots (possible grief). You'd make them an admin of that vendor, but they could only mess with items that were theirs. If you wanted to pull an item off a vendor (the seller), you could but no refund on the fee that you initially paid (ie: you priced it wrong the first time). If you relisted it and explained to the merchant what happened, they of course could refund that % if they wanted to. Something like that would make it merchant profession more of a profession then 'just placing vendors' as most people seem to think it is.
joined42904
Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:28 am
#4
I haven't seen much support for vendor rental (in terms of place it and let the other person do everything) in the merchant community.
It would lead to cross-server vendor trades. I would find that undesirable.
Merchants need to be involved in all transactions through their vendors on a per-transaction basis. And DocSavag agrees with that.
MaDuece
Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:31 am
#5
Since rental, in its pure form, is not an option, you should consider the pros and cons of your business.
You could sell on consignment, but that is a bit more work and wouldn't advise that you even consider it unless you are dealing with people that you can trust andthey trust you.
The plan with the least amount of headaches is purchasing the goods at wholesale and reselling. The money issue between you and the crafter is handled up front and therefore leaves no room for arguements about fees and payments later on. You have to have suppliers that are willing to sell to you at wholesale prices and can keep you supplied regularly and reliably. But this is the best way IMO because you don't leave the chance of getting into a "he said, she said" arguement later on.
Andymantium
Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:33 am
#6
Given the current interface, it's not very desirable. I'd even say it's not desirable at all. Though, I don't think cross-server vendor trades are much of a worry...I doubt that any large-scale crafter/seller would be willing to turn over a sizeable chunk of their inventory to a virtual stranger (who may or may not log in again), and not receive any money from the item sales (you'll have to hope the person logs back in and tips you the credits). Also, factor in the time to gain the appropriate merchant skills, and I don't think many will even consider this a worthwhile effort.
joined42904 wrote:
I haven't seen much support for vendor rental (in terms of place it and let the other person do everything) in the merchant community.
It would lead to cross-server vendor trades. I would find that undesirable.
Merchants need to be involved in all transactions through their vendors on a per-transaction basis. And DocSavag agrees with that.
joined42904
Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:48 am
#7
Andymantium,
You think it's hard to skill up merchant?
Let me give you 20k of metal. I ask you to make repair tools and come to me when you need training or I give you 50-100k for training expenses. You hit business 3 and 4 placing vendors in a vendor area I've put you on the admin of.
Soon you are at novice merchant. You only log in to place more empty experience vendors as you go up the management trees. Soon a lot of exp is coming your way from the vendors.
I guess you need to go out and get ranged support 1 so you can get your 620 app points. And presto you are at master merchant.
I wager your total time investment not counting the time it takes your computer to load the character at somewhere between 2-3 hours plus maybe another 3 hours max fighting stuff in loaned composite with a doc buff to ranged support 1. Maybe that's more like 1 hr. I haven't timed it.
Now you have access to all the vendors of master merchant and can "rent" them to your friends. They have repeated the process on your server. Item limits? What item limits?
The current interface is what prevents cross-server vendor trades. Because under the current system of non-rental the merchant has to put up each item. That takes time. And the merchant should be compensated for that time.
But do you see the problem if vendor rental existed? It could be cross-server traded.
hakk
Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:24 am
#8
MaDuece wrote:
Since rental, in its pure form, is not an option, you should consider the pros and cons of your business.
You could sell on consignment, but that is a bit more work and wouldn't advise that you even consider it unless you are dealing with people that you can trust andthey trust you.
The plan with the least amount of headaches is purchasing the goods at wholesale and reselling. The money issue between you and the crafter is handled up front and therefore leaves no room for arguements about fees and payments later on. You have to have suppliers that are willing to sell to you at wholesale prices and can keep you supplied regularly and reliably. But this is the best way IMO because you don't leave the chance of getting into a "he said, she said" arguement later on.
Is reselling expensive? I understand that you get a discount as a merchant if you buy a lot. I've got over 1 000 000 credits. Will that be enough to resell? And I don't want all my credits to be spent on that since there is a chance many items will not be sold. I would appreciate if anyone who does resell can tell me about their experiences.
Andymantium
Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:29 am
#9
joined42904 wrote:
Andymantium,
You think it's hard to skill up merchant?
Let me give you 20k of metal. I ask you to make repair tools and come to me when you need training or I give you 50-100k for training expenses. You hit business 3 and 4 placing vendors in a vendor area I've put you on the admin of.
Soon you are at novice merchant. You only log in to place more empty experience vendors as you go up the management trees. Soon a lot of exp is coming your way from the vendors.
I guess you need to go out and get ranged support 1 so you can get your 620 app points. And presto you are at master merchant.
I wager your total time investment not counting the time it takes your computer to load the character at somewhere between 2-3 hours plus maybe another 3 hours max fighting stuff in loaned composite with a doc buff to ranged support 1. Maybe that's more like 1 hr. I haven't timed it.
Now you have access to all the vendors of master merchant and can "rent" them to your friends. They have repeated the process on your server. Item limits? What item limits?
The current interface is what prevents cross-server vendor trades. Because under the current system of non-rental the merchant has to put up each item. That takes time. And the merchant should be compensated for that time.
But do you see the problem if vendor rental existed? It could be cross-server traded.
That's exactly my point, it's too much effort.
As for your 2-3 hour estimate, well...I think that might be slightly exagerrated..
MaDuece
Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:31 am
#10
hakk wrote:
Is reselling expensive? I understand that you get a discount as a merchant if you buy a lot. I've got over 1 000 000 credits. Will that be enough to resell? And I don't want all my credits to be spent on that since there is a chance many items will not be sold. I would appreciate if anyone who does resell can tell me about their experiences.
That depends on what you want to sell and the business relationships you build with crafters. Some willbe much more generous than others. One way you can find out is to advertise that you want to start a resale business on your server trade forum. See what kind of response you get. I think that you will find a few crafters that are looking to get out of the vendor situation due to publish 10. You may very well be their saving grace.
The key is to start out slow and build a regular clientele. Get a feel for what they want the most. Even emailing those that buy from you for feedback will help. Then you can determine what to buy and stock on your limited budget. Start with the best selling items and cater to a specific market. When you build up your bank account you can expand. Who knows. You could be the next Galactic Walmart.
hakk
Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:39 am
#11
MaDuece wrote:
hakk wrote:
Is reselling expensive? I understand that you get a discount as a merchant if you buy a lot. I've got over 1 000 000 credits. Will that be enough to resell? And I don't want all my credits to be spent on that since there is a chance many items will not be sold. I would appreciate if anyone who does resell can tell me about their experiences.
That depends on what you want to sell and the business relationships you build with crafters. Some willbe much more generous than others. One way you can find out is to advertise that you want to start a resale business on your server trade forum. See what kind of response you get. I think that you will find a few crafters that are looking to get out of the vendor situation due to publish 10. You may very well be their saving grace.
The key is to start out slow and build a regular clientele. Get a feel for what they want the most. Even emailing those that buy from you for feedback will help. Then you can determine what to buy and stock on your limited budget. Start with the best selling items and cater to a specific market. When you build up your bank account you can expand. Who knows. You could be the next Galactic Walmart.
Well, I do have alot of clothes left that i haven't gotten sold yet. (Self crafted). It's over 700 garments...Could that be a good start?
MaDuece
Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:42 am
#12
hakk wrote:
Well, I do have alot of clothes left that i haven't gotten sold yet. (Self crafted). It's over 700 garments...Could that be a good start?
Sure starting with something that you already own is always a smart option. The start-up expense is small. However, if you want to branch out then inquiries into different crafted goods is also an excellent way to start. It doesn't cost you anything to ask questions and propose ideas.
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