Merchant Archive
Thread: Real Merchants? Do they Exist?
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Gooney
Wed Jun 23, 2004 5:08 am
#1
Howdy folks,
Crafting was my first love in this game (Im not a crafter at the moment though). Never had I seen a better system for item creation. The ability to mine resources, set up factories and produce oodles of player usable items.
There was also the possiblity for you to set up your own vendors to sellyour goods. This was a neat and hardly unique ability in MMOGs but this one is despite its warts a pretty functional system.
Then theres the Merchant Profession. These people have the ability to set up whole malls of vendors and advertise etc.
Why is it that so few "Merchants" actually play as merchants? I'm not saying that none do but the majority dont. Due to an unhappy bug, many crafters had taken up merchant solely for the benefit of setting up their shops and then promptly dropped the profession. So now you have manufacturers working as fully functional out-lets for the sale of their goods. This is not how it should be.
The merchant should seek out manufacturers buy his product then act as a reseller. A lot of this has to do with the craftsmen themselves, but most is due to this "Bug/design flaw".
Soooo the question is... Are there any true merchants? And if so why arent we seeing more out cry about the merchant bug? I mean this should be the number 1 concern of any merchants. If its not I can only assume that the profession in all reality should be removed from the game and simply "bake" in all of these abilities into each crafting class so we can despense with the none-sense that is the Merchant Profession today.
-Gooney
Ethalsar
Wed Jun 23, 2004 6:56 am
#2
I suppose that at the moment I fall under your 'pseudo' merchant type. I sell my own goods through my own vendors in my own shop (haven't surrendered skills, I've got all the requisite boxes!). This wasn't my original aim, though...
I've set up a shop on the outside of Mos Eisley on the Euro-Infinity server, the Mos Eisley Plains General Store. The idea was that the core of the business would be to sell my own weapons, but in addition to that supply loads of clothes, crafting equipment, etc, and all targeted at the new player (so masses of DL44 pistols, not a laser carbine in sight!). I'm really interested in making the weapons - not a grinder at all! - and this is what I like to spend my time doing, so I was wanting to get suppliers to be able to provide the clothes etc.
I've tried to find other people to supply me, but with no success at all. I really hoped I'd be able to provide an outlet for newbies coming up the artisan tree - would make their game more interesting and profitable if they had a chance to sell their stuff on the open market, especially clothes etc which don't rely on quality.
So I end up spending time churning out wookiee hoods and pocketed work-pants and hide boots in addition to my weapons... and have ended up as exactly the sort of 'sole trader' I hoped to avoid being.
[Any ideas on how to attract suppliers of this sort are welcome!]
Bazalan
Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:18 am
#3
I think it's going to stay this way for a while because merchant makes a cash cow for SWG. You can't be a merchant without being a crafter, so that eats up an account. If you also want to partake in the game content and use the items you create (armor, weapons, etc) you need a second account. Likewise for Mayor, you pretty much eat an account to be one. I don't know any crafters or mayors that only have 1 account. SWG loves this duplicate income.
OckVofad
Wed Jun 23, 2004 3:44 pm
#5
There are not many "real" Merchants in this game. It is probably possible to find crafters who would sell products wholesale and have a Merchant resell them for their actual retail price.
I actually would not mind selling my droids wholesale if I got a bulk order with at least a 50% prepayment.
Its really to easy for me to just plop down my Coke Machine and sell them myself.
DragonScout
Wed Jun 23, 2004 4:08 pm
#6
It is because it is not worth it to be a 'true' merchant.
A 'true' merchant -- someone who relies upon just the business tree and merchant... and only buys goods from other players to sell on his vendors.. or just digs resources up to sell -- is close to impossible. Some, like Dingoboi come really close.. but in a game where merchant gives you nothing but vendors.. you won't find a 'true' merchant very often if at all. If only for the fact that you have no income potential to use on buying goods/harvesters without branching out and using other professions.
The only reason most people have merchant skills at all, is to sell their own crafted goods. And that won't change. It is unrealistic to expect people to go through the work and hassle of moving items that they just spent days working on to a merchant -- which can be a pain if you have over 50 or so items -- and then have the merchant stock a vendor.. and have to lose even 10% of their profit when they did all the work. Especially when as a crafter, you can throw 9 extra points into business 3 and do it all yourself. In a game like this, where dabbling is a necessity... you are never going to find a huge number of 'true' merchants.
A 'true' merchant -- someone who relies upon just the business tree and merchant... and only buys goods from other players to sell on his vendors.. or just digs resources up to sell -- is close to impossible. Some, like Dingoboi come really close.. but in a game where merchant gives you nothing but vendors.. you won't find a 'true' merchant very often if at all. If only for the fact that you have no income potential to use on buying goods/harvesters without branching out and using other professions.
The only reason most people have merchant skills at all, is to sell their own crafted goods. And that won't change. It is unrealistic to expect people to go through the work and hassle of moving items that they just spent days working on to a merchant -- which can be a pain if you have over 50 or so items -- and then have the merchant stock a vendor.. and have to lose even 10% of their profit when they did all the work. Especially when as a crafter, you can throw 9 extra points into business 3 and do it all yourself. In a game like this, where dabbling is a necessity... you are never going to find a huge number of 'true' merchants.
marqie
Wed Jun 23, 2004 4:33 pm
#7
I was/am I did my best to make deals with crafters and sell the h*ll out of just about anything. Before I left, I only made LOW level food and sold it, and other things (From suppliers). I have come back, and I am shocked (No I am not) that there are vendors everywhere. 
Songe
Wed Jun 23, 2004 5:49 pm
#8
DragonScout wrote:
It is because it is not worth it to be a 'true' merchant.
A 'true' merchant -- someone who relies upon just the business tree and merchant... and only buys goods from other players to sell on his vendors.. or just digs resources up to sell -- is close to impossible. Some, like Dingoboi come really close.. but in a game where merchant gives you nothing but vendors.. you won't find a 'true' merchant very often if at all. If only for the fact that you have no income potential to use on buying goods/harvesters without branching out and using other professions.
The only reason most people have merchant skills at all, is to sell their own crafted goods. And that won't change. It is unrealistic to expect people to go through the work and hassle of moving items that they just spent days working on to a merchant -- which can be a pain if you have over 50 or so items -- and then have the merchant stock a vendor.. and have to lose even 10% of their profit when they did all the work. Especially when as a crafter, you can throw 9 extra points into business 3 and do it all yourself. In a game like this, where dabbling is a necessity... you are never going to find a huge number of 'true' merchants.
The problem is that, as merchant doesn't take 250 points, people often do some crafting as well so they have something they make to sell. Which makes sense.
There are true merchants, but they are often alt accounts setting up vendors for a guild.
For the sentence that I put in yellow though i don't agree - read all the people who came here to complain about how taking care of a vendor sucks - I'm sure that most of them would be glad to lose 10% to have someone do it for them. And no, if they ask someone to sell their things they didn't do all the work - just part of it.
morg1710
Wed Jun 23, 2004 7:31 pm
#9
I am a "True" merchant. I have several real life people (not ALTs) as suppliers. I run 3 main businesses. I run a resources business. I have in the course of my time play placed over 100 harvesters (lot trading). Although at this time I only manage 20 harvesters. The rest I have given to other suppliers.I pay all my resource suppliers 1.5 to 2cpu for all the resoruces they bring me and sell the resources for between 2.5cpu and 20cpu. I also run a business-to-business vender that has all the components I make for all my crafter suppliers at cost only and in an organized way. I also have a vender that sells every thing that my 4 crafter suppliers make (1 weaponsmith, 1 armorsmith, 1 chef, and 1 bioengineer) and looted Items that the group brings in. All of my suppliers of resoruces are combat professionals adn they bring me meat/milk as well. Most of my crafter suppliers have a combat profession. I do not have a combat profession. I manage shared factories, storerooms, and resoruces for my crafters. I use the program merchant's friend so divide the profits up.
I find it funny that every non-merchant says that the merchant profession is so easy and that they just rip out the crafters, becuase the crafters do all the work and the merchant makes all the money.
Every day I have at least 150 items drop off my vender which I have to resell, which can take an hour. The vender management system sucks.I keep an inventory of whats on my vender which takes memore then anhour to do. I use to do it daily but I have a real life to attend to.
I keep track of customers and send out email reminders of sales and new items up for sale. I buy on average 300k of resources, every 3 or 4 days. I also buy resources from other resoruces seller for my crafters (i.e. vertex crystals, or what ever).
What ever....
I have this to say, They better not put a limit on the number of items per vender and at the same time do away with the venders for non-merchants. becuase what I run is what SOE suposely intended for merchants and I have 3 venders with 1300 items on the resource vender, 1700 items on the crafted items vender and 900 items on the component vender (including a bunch of packs with 50 crates in each pack). If they put a limit of item numbers on venders for real merchants, it will totally kill real merchants other then alternate chars.
I have only one account and I plan on only ever having one account. It isnot right for SOE to force me to have another account to be able to do anything.
That is all for now, no more ranting......
Ell Har'rah
Master Merchant
Master Chef, Master Artisan,a ComponentTailor
Andromeda, Corellia, Tempest
New Republic Order - NRO
Vermicious_Knid
Wed Jun 23, 2004 10:53 pm
#10
I have a non-crafter, resale merchant. I still have merchant skills.
Business is good and I'm expanding.
Cephalo
Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:12 am
#11
I think that one reason there aren't many pure merchants is that much of the appeal for crafting is to be able to show off some creativity and set up a shop. If you let someone else sell your goods, you lose that. I don't think you'll find many people who will consistently enjoy crafting just for the raw sales.
brentgueth
Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:54 am
#12
I am a true merchant (well at least 99%) I only craft about 1% of my total mechandise in my mall and through consignment deals and my own resales make a couple mill a week.
MightyDeuce
Thu Jun 24, 2004 12:05 pm
#13
At one time I only had one account, and the toon I played was a fighter/scout. When I did get a second account, I only picked up merchant to supplement my crafting profession and have held the master merchant title since!! I use onevendor for my master artisan/general wares and one for my droids. I set up one vendor to sell the animal resources my scout/combat alt harvests. I have a third set up in a hospital for a master doctor friend of mine, where I get a roughly 5-10% for each sale. I have 2 spare vendors that need a home, and I'm talking to a few other friends about setting up vendors for their use. I love merchant for the other bonuses I get too. Who doesn't dig a nice 20% maintenance discount? I actually spend more time merchanting than I do with my combat character, and not just stocking vendors. I love the wheeling and dealing and the RP opportunity.
As for why there's not more outcry, there's lots of reasons....
a)A surprising number of people aren't even aware that there is a problem with vendors, or even that they can exploit them. Mostly because they don't read the boards, and the forum jockeys can only do so much to educate them.
b) I have actually spent in game play time explaining to smacktards that vendor poaching is not a good thing. I'm not going to preach at them, but I figure it's on their conscience at that point because they are in fact informed.
c) There are probably a lot of merchants that read the forums, and think twice before posting. Have you seen the bonfires in this forum? And probably most of what they could say has already been said, over, and over, and over, and over....
I don't see any reason to remove merchant as a viable profession when a few fixes would make a world of difference. Quite simply, change the mechanics so vendor usability is a factor, not placement, and you give merchants a valuable tool. Make the sales interface easier to use, and maybe even joe noob can find the next items button. Give the merchants a consignment feature, and make a whole lot of people happy. I realize I may be one of the few that enjoy being a merchant, but consider the number of folks that have an opportunity to try it out while hologrinding, but instead drop the skillset as soon as they master and open a new holo.
The biggest problem I see with merchant as it currently exists is a misconception of a merchant's value. When Merchant is finally updated and all the poached vendors are no longer usable, you will see some folks pick it up and drop other skills, but no one is forcing them to do so. Selling through merchants and vendorsis not the only sales vehicle in the game. We've got public bazaars in every static city and if that's not enough, people can camp in Coronet and spam that they want to sell this or that. The only problem with these methods is that they are a far less efficient hastle, right?
No one is holding a blaster to anyone's head to force them to pick up merchant skills or sell through a merchant's vendors. Please don't insult my gameplay by starting a thread describing a design flaw the devs are hopefully working on then insist that the merchant profession should be removed and all skills "baked" into the remaining professions. They did that to the miner profession in beta, and you can check out the artisan forum to see the mess that's made. In a game where you can play anything you want but youcan't play everything, I chose to play a merchant.
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