Merchant Archive

ed

I would also like sales tax above the current Dev Proposal.

Its fair and keeps Items we want to provide but dont have large demand for but can always provide.

And...

I would very much like to know what you plan on giving the Merchant with Efficiency skills relating to changes.

Thanks

st

Um...on second thought I just ran through the posted formula...

someone double check my math please.

300k of items on the vendor = 9600 credits a day?

Thats just about exactly what I'm paying right now with my vending machine.

If my math is correct...then PLEASE ignore my above post. Thats what you get when you try to do quick calculations in your head (I'm a bothan, not a mon-calimari).

If correct, then I'm actually a testiment that the formula you are proposing is sustainable, because like I said I pay 10k a day already on maintenance.

--Ssauron

stGrwat, hurt the architectural profession even more. How is it fair that it has to do with the total value of goods on the vendors? Weaponsmiths are the richest in the game and their items sell for much less, they just sell way more of them. The vendor maintenance should be the same for everyone.

ed

I have just the basic Vendor atm and it's too high as it is, IMO. I got the vendor to sell my higher priced "leftovers", plus some Slice and Spice, but I'm losing money based on sales vs. upkeep. I'm actually going to drop my Business line and dump the vendor, just use the points elsewhere. Having a Vendor that costs more than I'm selling is not quite the ideal business profiteering I was looking for.

The problem is that Regular Joes can't easily sell anything worth over 3,000. We have to either stand around town yelling all day, or invest lots of skill points to afford a vendor, or try to convince Merchant Jane to carry our wares on their vendors on "consignment". But now that you're proposing a hefty "money sink" solution, I see a problem with non-vendor folks being able to trade/sell their 3k+ items without standing around Starport XYZ shouting "/shout selling blahblahblah, pst". That's kind of a mickey mouse econonomic approach and defeats the entire purpose of having Merchant class and Vendors.

Yes, Vendors should cost some sort of fee, but as much as you propose? That's assuming that the average hourly intake will be higher than the hourly maintenance fee. Unless the vendor is well known and/or listed on the Global Map.... odds are the poor merchantwannabe is going to lose money badly, until they get the skill to get "listed".

I honestly think that there should be another way for SOE to implement a "money sink" into the game. Tax travel tickets more, but messing with vendors is not a good idea for the growth of the overall economy, IMO. Merchant Milly is not going to want to consign my 25k crates of Molecular Clamps if it's going to raise her vendor maintenance costs. Where is the goodness to this? It's already way too difficult to find PC Vendors, unless they are high level and listed on the Global Map. (which very few are)

Another Bad Decision (tm) Sorry, I know you said you didn't want to hear it, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

st

Vendor Fee's come on...As an Architect/Merchant this will totally kill these classes...it's by far easier in this game to make money as a fighter class then someone actually trying to run a business, my costs are enormous just from house/harvesters and let alone including a severe vendor fee...The prices on objects will sky rocket and nobody will want to pay them. It's hard to push a small house for even 9k now aday....say good bye to architects and merchants if this happens.

edHaving some sort of "tax" would be a better idea. Don't punish people who are trying to sell stuff, but may be unsuccessful. A tax system will only affect those who are actually making money, thus not discourage people from trying to start a business.

ed

This kills all the low volume vendors. Yet another barrier to entry for the person trying to complete with the established, high volumne vendor in the same market..

A moderate flat maintenance fee plusa salescommision would be far more effective.

- Ckratide

edMaking NPC vendors charge the same rate as the other kinds would be absolutely catastrophic for me as a tailor/merchant. This will essentially force tailor shops to either field only a tiny, minimal sampling of their wares on vendors, or to get out of using vendors altogether.

I can't stress this enough. Tailors *need* to have a great many items on their vendors, because we have so many different items and color combinations to choose from. I fear that we'll be uniquely punished for this now, along with our customers, who will no longer be able to do any meaningful shopping at tailor vendors.

edI've hit master merchant now, and based on the projected formula I will go broke... and fast...

A percent of sales is fair because it allows merchants to pay after they've taken in the creds. If we're forced to pay whether or not we make any sales that day it will force us to pursue another skill.

PLEASE let us pay a percent of our sales.

Z

ed

No way as a tailor can I afford that. Maybe if the cities were in (So what 2 months?) I will have to do mission after mission to afford that. I have to pay maintenance on a PA hall and 1 harvester, now I have to pay 1000 creds for 45 mins or depending on my stock. Bah to that, I am gonna get rid of those vendors, and sell it by email. Too costly. Us tailors have to put TONNES of stock in the vendors to even think of getting a good selection for customers. I don't wanna see the fees that big.

ed

I really think they just don't want every other body to have a house with a vendor in it and be a merchant in addition to whatever their main profession is. All right. I can see the logic in that. But as it is now, the Merchant Class does not provide enough benefits nor features as a stand alone class except for the very driven and non-casual/solo gamers and those lucky few who attained Master very quickly and have a major slice of the market pie pretty much locked up, leaving dribs and drabs for the lower tiered seller/crafters. And even the celebrity masters will have to bite the hard bullet to afford those fees! That and babysit their vendors and not ever have enough time to play any other parts of the game!

If they want more crafters, miners, CHs, and BEs to make deals with merchants to sell their wares and cut down on how many small independent shops there are out there...

This is not the way to do it.

This will kill the small business class. There's no way a casual/solo gamer can keep make enough to cover those fees. I guess that guy that wanted all vendor skills moved out of Artisan and allowed only in Merchant got his wish and then some huh? With this maintenance fee system, even the pure Merchant can't afford to "do business."

Back to the bazaar terminals for me. "Coming Soon. A Master Tailor who's shop is the chair in the corner of the cantina. Custom orders only." Yeah, that makes me want to keep playing a Tailor. Sooo fun, yeppers. Bah.

ed

This worries me a LOT, because it could potentially put my vendor out of business, thus hurting the furniture and housing market. I will admit that most of the housing that I sell is through various tells. Nobody is going to keep a vendor stocked if it costs them more. Why should I list a 150k house on my vendor, when chances are it won't sell before the really outrageous maintenance rate on my vendor causes me to take a loss on the house. Go with a flat rate for the vendors. If you want to combat people storing items on their vendors, give them storage. Don't hurt the people that actually use the vendors properly. There's no way anyone is going to sell anything by vendor when it costs them an outrageous amount of money.

I honestly can't think of anything intelligent to say except that the thought of paying 133 maint/hour for a 100k item makes me sick. That's 3200/day mind you, just to keep an item up for sale that I MIGHT sell once a month. As one of my guild mates pointed out, if someone has 100 items at 10k each (not hard to imagine for a weaponsmith) they have to sell 1 every 7.5 hours just to break even. (I checked the math)

edBTW, one thing that ain't gonna work is "raising our prices to cover the additional costs." In fact, if you think about it, this would be directly counter-productive, as it will reduce sales volume *and* increase "inventory value," which is precisely what's being taxed so exorbitantly in the first place. Prices in general may or may not be "too low," but this change isn't going to affect that much, except in the sense that prices might have to be increased, because so many people will not be using vendors anymore, as they can only sell person-to-person from now on.