Merchant Archive

First of all the economy is lame there is always someone giving away an item just to get UXP. They might not be the best item but a free item sells much faster. Anyone with BUSIII can own a vendor almost every house has one now. All crafters have there own vendor and it is hard as hell to find a bulk supplier. Anyone and just about everyone i see now buys items from other planets when they go and SPAM like crazy in cities selling them cutting out vendors use alot.Alot of people visit my vendor just once read who made items then just go buy from them for the rest of the time.Most merchant skills are worthless and some that might be cool dont work and nothing special for Master Merchant.(I really think we should get NPC vendors that follow us for this one.)Merchant has to be the most bugged profession around.I have had over 10 crafters move to my city from other planets because i buy out there vendors all the time.Once there are alot of master crafter professions everything is going to be so cheap there will be almost no profits at all just a big waste of time.Half my costumers never come back because thier item disappears(always just for a day at most)and are afraid thier next purchase will not be there.Others camp my house and try to undercut me even tho they have lower quality items but i notice i lost some costumers.It has been two weeks and no reply to the 1mil worth of items on my removed vendor now those items are worth 700k but another week it will be 400k etc.(i even had 4 different CSR'S in chat channel say they will help the last time one said thisi log in and instead of being in my shop i am all the way across the planet in the middle of no where in a place i have never even visited.....nice joke).

btw i have 3mil credits and another 2mil in items i QUIT before market crashes! I got ahead buy selling the best items from crafters before they became ledgends in game.I cant wait for all the /tells to end and go run solo destroy missions with my advanced probot I can make 100k a day and not beckon to every idiot that asks whats your best weapon. Peace i hope you all have fun with this profession i didnt but i made my mark err credits so now its time for me to at last have fun in this game trying to spend them....

Almost non-existent punctuation. No capitalized sentences. Whine, Whine, Whine...Perhaps it's time for you to try another profession. Yes, Merchant is broken. However, it's also true that we have seen posts by the developers in many of these threads (which may have not been seen by those who only troll the merchant board), that server stability is priority number one. Even knowing that server stability is the highest priority, occasionally there are changes and minor tweaks to things affecting merchants. No, they're not always in the right direction, but we are getting attention. The game hasn't yet been released for a month, let's give them some time to address the issues.

Since you aren't a master merchant RIGHT THIS **edit** MINUTE and don't have more credits than everyone else who may be working hard instead of whining, does not mean that the game is broken. Do you also still whine when your mommy doesn't let you have chocolate milk with your breakfast?

yeah the many bugs with items getting lost via vendors needs to get fixed. I also personally think allowing anyone with busIII strongly diminishes the role of the merchant as it is true... everyone does have their own vendor. Most architects and droid engineers must have master artisan and even if you don't go master artisan, it doesn't take much to get to business III, while not a complete fix moving it to business 4 would certainly help a little at the very least. About the only thing that can get the merchant solid crafter support is if you know crafters who have absolutely no inclination of dealing with keeping their shop up in stock and dealing with the tells that you get by selling yer own wares. (and I have been able to be lucky enough to have a few these behind me)

About the only saving grace for the merchant is that it is awefully easy to gain merchant xp (no real work involved if it isn't broken which it seems to be right now), we can list our shops globally (though I don't know how many players actually look on the global map) and we get cheaper vendors that allow us to make a profit on it.

I definitely think that merchants need more worth to allow us to be more viable than selling your own wares on yer own vendor. I Think the loss of NPC advertisers in cities might have hurt us here a bit as that did give us a bit of recognizability, maybe we will see it be added later. Stuff that makes our shops stand out would help, and even cheaper vendors would because then we might not have to charge crafters as much. I'm a personal fan of giving a merchant extra housing lots to encourage more shops than just a single one. And maybe player cities will bring us some lovin. I always thought that cities would be only able to be created by diplomats, but since they took the diplomat out maybe they merge what they had for the diplomat into the merchant? Or maybe they could just make it so that only we could place stores in cities or maybe we are the ones that can place banks and bazaars and cantinas and the like. Cities may very well be a godsend for merchants but that likely won't happen for a few more months=(

ok first off I must be doing something wrong....3mil in credits...OMG I have been ruing a place outside of Mos Espa and have a steady income but 3mil...hmmm...anyway yes its broken and yes its bugged...I dont think the DEV could see you getting to MASTER so quick or they should have made a bounus for that box...

Now the cause of my lack of 3 mil is as follow...I make things sell things search out things...and when i am not babysitting my harvestors....I go on missions - explore - help out PA members - go fishing - help NOOBs - and have a good time

So you Power Gamed to 3mil congrats - now you are bored - try something different - I personaly think doing missions for 3 hours is a drag and using a probot to kill a heard of mobs is boring...so like I reply to any post of this sort.

If you need structure to have fun in a game - BUY a game with structure - Think of it this way if you read a book in two hours and then write the author and complain you are bored because the book was not long enough...See my point

well as it is now its cheaper for me to sell my goods on the street. I mean who need Merchants anyway? They're just middlemen. It was a nice idea for an economy but the guy who started his post is pretty much right on the dot for accuracy. I'll admit i didnt go near as high up the tree before i lost faith. Bottom line is I can't afford the cost of maintenence, and nobody is buying.

Seems the best way for me to advance now (in my trade of architech) is to just offer my services for free; just bring the material. At anyrate merchants should be able to set up booths or just rent one in a city and bring their vendors with them and a master merchant should be able to rent a countertop in a city store/guildhall.

Not to mention there should be building zones in the player building areas; ie residential, comercial, industrial.

I have a great time as a merchant, even around the bugs. I just opened my second shop, I meet nice people and more.

I have many crafters that only sell to me. And if someone says, "Hey, I saw you made such and such for Ioo, can you make me one for cheaper." They say, "I am sorry, I work with merchants only, no direct sales." So I am happy.

Just fix the retrive defect, and I will be even happier!!!!!!!!!!

Personally, I make decent money through my vendor. I make my own items, and I have sold many of them at profit. In my strategy, I built a reputation for my items. Now, the reputation I builtis spilling over to my merchant business. So, buggy or not, I don't think it's that bad.

It isn't cheaper for you to sell your wares on the street it only appears that it is because you haven't had a good merchant working for you.

My shop is open 24 hoursa day (less server downtime of course) I advertise in the streets. I have people helping my by advertising in cantinas. I sell on the bazaar and generate advertising to everyone who buys from me there. I have a list of customers who I frequesntly email about merchandise I think they might be interested it. If you were using a good, competent merchant your sales would be higher. Yes you would have to give up a cut to the person bringing in all the business and providing the platform for you to sell your merchandise but you would be selling more of it. The foot trafic alone in my shop means that items that everyone wants sell quickly.

Even those of you who sell your items in you own vendor could benefit from branching out and selling your items in other areas of your planet or even galactically. Merchants are being under utilized because crafters are missing the importance of having your product in front of as many people as possible.