Merchant Archive
Thread: Tired of Being Run Down
DocSavag wrote:
The issue for many merchants in this forum is that they have been here for months and months and they have answered easily 2000 posts asking the same question....Questions that are answered in our Guide. Questions that are answwered in 3 other posts on the front page. But still the question comes..and comes...and comes. They get frustrated and they lash out. Its not fair to the innocent but it happens.
I would never go into a professional forum and ask questions about how to keep someting from it after I left. If I wanted to know I would look around and search and see if the answer was there before I asked people to answer those kinds of questions.
This is all off topic however. The point of this post is that the author of it is a traditional merchant. He buys and sells items. He is retailing and managing a business. He should be an example for those who want to do the same thing. More and more of them will help ease the pain of these changes as they can help crafters sell their merchandise. It CAN be done. It is BEING done. We have to get the crafters who are open to the idea together with merchants who are willing to provide the service.
EevylX wrote:
Can say the same thing, the other way round.Every time someone comes in here and complains about the fact they will lose the use of vendors even without having Artisan, automatically they get branded an exploiter, even though that person innocently wasn't, just a victim of the game mechanics.
I have been branded an afk grinder, and this is just not true. Most of you Merchants are accusing innocent people of things they have never done. Then they respond back in defense and then its viewed as being trashy
Not every one views these forums and website, which is where the information about the vendors being an explot have been.
The people who have used the vendors unknowingly as an exploit need assistance and guidance in finding a resolution, not sarcasm, or accusations of things they haven't done or have done thats against the merchant profession.
Novock wrote:
Thanks for you sun shinny post there. Always the rays of positive feedback. Anytime you deal with people you run the risk of being scammed or taken adavantage. How bout all those vendors who lost money because their merchandise was bout with douped credits... its going to happen. Thats why its worth the time to create business relationships and not just throw thousands of doallars fo merchandise to people on credit or on consignement.
You can't say it won't work I can prove it can. You can say it doesn't work or you don't want to make it work but the reality is I'm out there doing. Going to expand my business and take care of both my suppliers and my customers. Wish you well in your journey.
Anyone bothered to ask merchants why they are merchants? I'll guarantee - for every one that wishes to play Walmart - or be an accountant dealing in others goods - there are 100 others that have the skills to JUST sell their own wares. I did a little reselling, but usually when I found good deals on *gasp* - other VENDORS, of course there is no possible way that's going to happen now.
There is a good reason you don't see them here - they have the skills as a utility - they don't consider themselves MERCHANTS - they identify themselves by WHAT they sell - not the obvious fact that they want to sell it. Or if they do identify themselves as merchants - it's crafter/merchant - connected.
I'd wager a good percentage of them don't follow the boards - or if they do, not THIS board.
Elioi wrote:
I'm not having fun! I'm working to hard to play a game!
Excel is your friend. Scrap that legal pad.
Its great that you are going through all this to help out your friends, but just because they can't have vendors doesn't mean they can't help you out. After all, its their stuff you're selling for them. The least they can do is help you keep track of the business.
Even though this game doesn't support the book keeping involved in running such an operation, with a little help from these friends, your experience at running a merchant business can be much easier than you just described. You just need to explain to them how its curbing your fun and that they need to help out a little more.
I would suggest creating an excel spreadsheet with all these things you are trying to keep track of. Use RL email and get them to fill out the things that they want you to stock and sell for them. Create your own inventory system on the spreadsheet; to include name of item, price, number of items, etc. Everyone can print it out on paper for quick reference while the game is running. When all the goods on the sheet are sold or out of circulation, just throw away the paper. This is great as well because you will quickly find out what doesn't move so well, so you can make fewer items or make those items as custom orders only.
Encourage your friends to add intentifiers into the names of the goods that they craft. This can be a set of initials or numbers so you can easily identify what belongs to whom when its time to take inventory. When you inventory, use the items filter on the vendor and take it one class of items at a time. Rather than trying to sort out which is who's, just look at the item name. If the identifier system is working properly then you should be able to quickly go through the entire vendor system without having to bring up the details screen. Using this system to take inventory, you don't even have to be the owner of the vendor to know what needs to be stocked.
When it sells, just check it off.Forward those vendor sales notices to them as soon as you get them and make them check it off on their copy of the spreadsheet. You can also use/mailsaveto balanceupdate the spreadsheetlater when your offline. When its time to balance the books, email your running totals back to each other and make sure they match. Create your own schedule.
OR:
Using the same system, create a duty roster. Take turns balancing the book and pass it on to the next person when your turn is up. As the owner of those vendors, you can simply log on to that account and just forward every vendor sales notice to whomever is keeping the books that week or month or whatever.
Unfortunately, they can't stock the vendors for you. But they can certainly help you make it easier by having everything ready when it is time to do so. Placing them on the admin list to your tent or house can make dropping off and picking up goods to be stocked much easier. That way they can do the delivery part of the time as well. The initial stocking of a vendor isn't easy when you are just starting out, but restocking can be easier if you use the item limits in the structure as the offering point rather than the vendor itself. As for keeping track of whats being offered: thats what the spreadsheet that they have to fill out is for.
What I'm trying to say here is you can be creative and make your own system whereby your friends become involved in the business end of it and help shoulder the load.
Its still a chore, but it doesn't have to be all yours to manage. Afterall, they ARE your friends and they should help you out. If they are truly your friends, you should be able to trust them to handle the books for awhile so you can enjoy whatever it is that you enjoy about this game.
Message Edited by MaDuece on 08-26-2004 12:31 AM
Message Edited by MaDuece on 08-26-2004 12:34 AM