Merchant Archive

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xKhaziCx wrote:

Just a question for the community. I know it was nerfed...but the current limit (4000) seems too low for my buisness.

I run an armorsmith buisness out of 3 different shops. I do well enough I guess, but when each suit of armor is 9 spaces, I can hardly have a decent selection on my vendors. Its all just composite, different types to be sure, but still just composite.

Anyway my concern for this is with the upcomming CU, people will want to see different types of armor, in a varity of styles. I cannot possibly focus on more than one type of armor(with all the different combinations that people like) and PSGs as well....

Think maybe we can get a bit more room here?

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They wanted it lower than we got. I think you better angle is pushing to get a container that you can put a suit of armor in that counts as one item. That has merit and doesn't allow everyone to store 400,000 items on their vendor instead of 4000.

That's just my personal opinion of course.

I have the same problem. I sell sets of resources used to make lightsabers. Each lightsaber takes between 6 and 8 different resources, depending on the type. So I'm really limited to about 500-600 items on my vendor (as a master merchant). There are 10 different lightsaber kits, depending on the type and generation. So 50 of each type (assuming I don't stock peripheral stuff like lightsaber tools and crafting foods). I've sold thousands of these kits, so my stock moves relatively quickly. I've sold about twice as many lightsaber peripherals. And this is just for me as a medium sized merchant selling 1 weapon type to a niche market on 1 vendor. 4000 items might be enough for a master merchant - 500 is not. As is, I have to re-stock this vendor every few days. As a master merchant, I shouldn't be nearly this limited.

Compounding the problem for me is that I also sell other resources on another vendor. But because each set of resources counts as 1 item there instead of 8, it doesn't significantly affect my storage limit. I'd have the problem if I just had the lightsaber kit vendor. And I don't use vendors for storage - I have houses for that.

Unfortunately, the attitude on this forum has been that it's not a problem - get over it. And if the merchant community doesn't support their merchants, there's little chance of any change. Doc's suggestion is a good one though - make backpacks count as 1 item again, and make it so that people can see what's in them. You sell it as 1 item - it should count as 1 item in your vendor inventory.

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Dimear wrote:
I have the same problem. I sell sets of resources used to make lightsabers. Each lightsaber takes between 6 and 8 different resources, depending on the type. So I'm really limited to about 500-600 items on my vendor (as a master merchant). There are 10 different lightsaber kits, depending on the type and generation. So 50 of each type (assuming I don't stock peripheral stuff like lightsaber tools and crafting foods). I've sold thousands of these kits, so my stock moves relatively quickly. I've sold about twice as many lightsaber peripherals. And this is just for me as a medium sized merchant selling 1 weapon type to a niche market on 1 vendor. 4000 items might be enough for a master merchant - 500 is not. As is, I have to re-stock this vendor every few days. As a master merchant, I shouldn't be nearly this limited.

Compounding the problem for me is that I also sell other resources on another vendor. But because each set of resources counts as 1 item there instead of 8, it doesn't significantly affect my storage limit. I'd have the problem if I just had the lightsaber kit vendor. And I don't use vendors for storage - I have houses for that.

Unfortunately, the attitude on this forum has been that it's not a problem - get over it. And if the merchant community doesn't support their merchants, there's little chance of any change. Doc's suggestion is a good one though - make backpacks count as 1 item again, and make it so that people can see what's in them. You sell it as 1 item - it should count as 1 item in your vendor inventory.

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That wasn't my suggestion. No 50 item backpack counting as 1 item is going to get it done. That is multiplying your item limit by a factor of 50 even for your busienss thats overkill. I suggested there be a way to make armor sets that counted as 1 item. That cannot be a 50 item backpack. It has to be limited to get past the potential for massive expansion of item limits though.

400 suits of armor or 500 kits of resources is a lot of merchandise for most merchants in " a few days" if its not profitable enough then maybe you should change business models and sell something else that takes up less space. If it is profitable then what's the problem?

It is very profitable. But it's not about the profit. It's about providing a reliable service to my customers. I really don't like a vendor that is out of stock of what I'm looking for, especially if it's the only vendor on the server that would have I want. I try to keep my vendor stocked with some of each type of saber. If one of my saber types is out of stock, then I've failed the next customer that comes in looking for it. I could price my sabers higher and make more of a profit - the reason I'm a merchant is because I enjoy providing this service to the jedi on my server. Re-stocking my shop isn't all that fun. And credits are credits. The real joy for me comes in providing a unique and valuable service to people who appreciate it.

That said, it's important for me to keep stock on the shelves. I never sell out of all 500 items in just a few days. But in order to manage the 10 types of sabers, I need to re-stock certain types every few days. Not always the same types - I know which types sell faster, so I keep more of those in stock and fewer of the others. But the only reason I have to babysit my vendor so much is because of the low vendor item limit. As a master merchant, I should be allowed 4000 items. That would be plenty. 500 lightsaber kits (fewer once I add other lightsaber crafting stuff) is not enough for me to go on a short vacation and keep stock on the shelves. I'm just saying that I'm 6-8 times as limited as you because of what I sell. It's my choice to sell these items, but that doesn't mean the artificial limit is good. As a master merchant, I shouldn't be so hindered in what type of business I can run.

This is particularly annoying to me because of the problem they're trying to solve. They don't want people storing stuff. Who cares? If they want to keep other people from storing stuff on their vendors, fine. But don't hinder me as a master merchant running a legitimate business in the process.

Bingo! Thats exactly it! Dont take this personally, please, but I really dont think it was ever the intent of the dev's to have a 1-man production giant. What good can it possibly do the game *at large* for there to be 1 person who can provide every single type of armor to the whole server?

See, in theory, the way it would work is that you would team up with 3 or 4 other AS you like and trust, and the group would form a company selling Armor. You each take an even share of the load. Maybe../gasp...you even decide you dont wanna invest precious skill points in Merchant, and the Company finds 1 or 2 decicated Merchants to run the vendor side of things. This could be one or 2 of your Company members, or an outsider you all trust.

So, post-CURB, I dont think it *is* reasonable for anyONE to be able to mass-produce... [qfe]mass-produce[/qfe] every single piece of armor in the game.

I would hope that you will settle into a niche market, providing the Galaxy with the best of a few different types of armor. People know to come to you for these certain kinds of armor.

Yeah, I know it might be a pipe-dream, but I have a lot of time to dream these days! hehehe. In this dream, the item cap is more than enough.

I dont recall is you said you were Master Merchant, but assuming so means that at 10 items per kit you can stock 400. 400 kits of 10 items that jedi want to buy. Are there that many active jedi buying a kit ever week or two that requires you to restock every few days? If so, it is really sad that there are so many jedi.

IMHO, being a Merchant... /drumroll... is about stocking and selling from a vendor. Its supposed to be time-intensive. Merchant is NOT a "module" you add on to the "real" part of the game. If you want to be sucessful (which it is obvious you are), then your game is working exactly like its supposed to. It seems to me that this kind of issue is geared to make it so a person can spend less time *being a Merchant* and more time doing other things. Again, to illistrate the concept, consider a Farmer. A Farmer works the fields because he is a Farmer! The Farmer does not ask for more land, better equipment, and more workers so he can go do something else.... he asks for those things because he is a Farmer!

I think your game is "working as intended", and I applaud you for finding an ingenious way to provide a service to your Galaxy.... as a Merchant!

Yes, there are lots of jedi. I've sold over 4000 kits, and have 845 customers at that vendor. And Shadowfire is one of the least populated servers. Not all of my customers are jedi - some may be alts of jedi or friends of jedi.

Merchant is my only elite mastery, and I've been a master merchant since May. I'm not even a crafter. I just provide a unique service for a good price to my server and am successful as a result. But this isn't about the time I spend as a merchant or the money I make. I'd spend just as much time restocking my shelves if I had a reasonable vendor item limit. I'd spend longer stocking each time, but wouldn't have to do it as often. I'm fine with a limit, but 500 items is too low for me. I'd be fine with 4000. Even 2000. I enjoy being a merchant and providing this service, but am frustrated by the low vendor item limit. I'm not a sell everything to everyone monster. Just 1 type of weapon to 1 profession. I shouldn't suffer from the limit as much as I do.

Currently, each saber kit takes 7-8 different resources, but I can combine some. For instance, a 2nd gen saber takes metal, non-ferrous metal, inert petrochem, inert gas, copper, steel, and gems. But the best metal to ever spawn on Shadowfire is also a non-ferrous metal, so I can combine them. So each kit for 1 saber currently takes 6-8 different resources, counting as 6-8 items on my vendor. Since I can't craft the saber for them, and all this is for 1 weapon, it should count as 1 item. The 10 item container was for the armorsmith, so 1 set of armor could sell as 1 item (helm, chest, gloves, left and right lower arm, left and right upper arm, pants, boots). Ok - maybe 9 items would do. I'd just like to piggyback my business on that idea by making this container hold resources too .

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LonelyGhost wrote:
Bingo! Thats exactly it! Dont take this personally, please, but I really dont think it was ever the intent of the dev's to have a 1-man production giant. What good can it possibly do the game *at large* for there to be 1 person who can provide every single type of armor to the whole server?

See, in theory, the way it would work is that you would team up with 3 or 4 other AS you like and trust, and the group would form a company selling Armor. You each take an even share of the load. Maybe../gasp...you even decide you dont wanna invest precious skill points in Merchant, and the Company finds 1 or 2 decicated Merchants to run the vendor side of things. This could be one or 2 of your Company members, or an outsider you all trust.

So, post-CURB, I dont think it *is* reasonable for anyONE to be able to mass-produce... [qfe]mass-produce[/qfe] every single piece of armor in the game.

I would hope that you will settle into a niche market, providing the Galaxy with the best of a few different types of armor. People know to come to you for these certain kinds of armor.

Yeah, I know it might be a pipe-dream, but I have a lot of time to dream these days! hehehe. In this dream, the item cap is more than enough.

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Exactly what I try and explain to people as it is about any profession.
Folks want to be the do-it-have-it-own-it-end-all player, forget that the game is created for interaction, grouping, and mulitple people.

I always cringe when folks say, "Ioffer it all"..this goes right along with hoarding in my book.
Resources shift not to annoy us but to allow a fluxuation in game as to who crafts what.
People should be doing the same with their crafting professions.
Let others craft what you cannot, and them you.
Let folks see that you want to be the best of something insted of just wanting to doit all.

I look forward to the changes and hope it means folks will realize they do not need 8 accounts nor do they need to be the cracker jack.

That is my philosophy in merchanting. I offer a little bit of many different craftable items. But I don't try to stock EVERYTHING in any profession. I stock the items I like to make and the items I know will sell. Occasionally I'll try something new and if its a good seller and aquiring it isn't too much of a pain I keep doing it.

My opinion is that one of the biggest issues in this game for crafters/merchants is the ability for one person to mass produce more inventory in a certain category than the server can possibly handle. This isn't good for the economy and it limits the opportunities for everyone.