Merchant Archive
Thread: Merchants and Suppliers
Of course, as droids are much much easier to build than compo and decay much faster it should be much cheaper....
And as far as I know, on all server, weapon and armor demand is much higher than droid demand, but so is offer.
On my server, you have about 1 DE for 10 WS and 20 AS.
WS have reasonable prices, but AS don't(200K for an helmet that will last a couple of weeks max is NOT reasonable).
There is a demand for cheaper lower armor, but you can't find it anywhere. For a simple reason : on Compo, AS can set whatever price they want, people will still buying because there is no other option.
Oh, and a merchant that have some basic knowledge of droid know what to buy. Best sellers haven't change since launch.
Gavvot wrote:
At all level market is driven by offer and demand...
WS have reasonable prices, but AS don't (200K for an helmet that will last a couple of weeks max is NOT reasonable).
These two statements seem to be conflicting.
The first statement I'd agree with- prices are driven by offer and demand. The second statement, however,seems to be implying that what determines a reasonable cost is the useful life of the product. This is in direct contradiction with the first statement: if the useful life of a high-demand product is shortened, demand increases, and if supply remains constant, then the prices increase.
Gavvot wrote:
There is a demand for cheaper lower armor, but you can't find it anywhere. For a simple reason : on Compo, AS can set whatever price they want, people will still buying because there is no other option.
IMHO, this is a problem that should be taken up with each servers' up-and-coming 'smiths, not the arch-smiths. The up-and-coming 'smiths (at least the ones around me), are offering less of a product for not much less cost. If the demand for lower-end, lower-priced armor is there, perhaps the buying public needs to make that clear the up-and-comers. If there truly is a market, someone will take advantage of it.
FWIW, I'd agree that there's a demand for lower-end stuff.I used unlayered composite for factional grinding almost exclusively. If I had time, I'd make it. As it stands now, I can't make high-end composite fast enough.
With a market price sky high far above a reasonable price, the demand should be reduced dramaticly.
But it is not what is happening because there is no other option.
The only other option is not buying it.
Without a droid, you can survive, and you can play the game.
Without armor, you can't.
So, yes, the market price is based on offer and demand, but offer and demand are in some market flawed.
And For the records, I use compo only if I have no other choice, the problem is that the more we go, more often I don't have other choice.
Gavvot wrote:
reasonable price and actual market price are 2 different things...
OK, I see where you're coming from now, and I agree.
For example, I get one, maybe two full suits of 40% stun, 85%+ base composite from a full run of roughly 45 unsliced suits. There's really no limit to how much I could charge for them, because the demand for armor like that is through the roof, and the people driving the demand could afford just about any pricetag I hung on it. I still sell it for just over 1.4 mil for the entire suit. It's gone within an hour or two of putting it on the vendor, but I just can't see charging more than that for a suit of armor (90% base is a bit different, I consider it a bit of a prestige item, and price it accordingly).
Again though, I think the players who want lower-end armor need to vocalize that demand to the 'smiths on the server who aren't at the top of the game. At the arch-smith level, we can't make armor fast enough. It's those armorsmiths who put out composite with 10%-20% less on base resistance, 30% more encumbrance, but only about 5% less on price that you should be driving the point home to. Make them realize if them redirect their efforts to something other than triple layered composite that those items will fly off of their vendors.
They don't exist.
See, with the current armor market, if I need energy protection for PvE, I en dup with a 40% stun suit.
Do you think that's normal?
I don't need stun protection.
I just need energy.
And I don't need 85%-90% protection, I can deal with 70%.
But that's the only thing available, so everybody is running in compo.
And if I ask AS to do other type of armor here is the answer :
Sorry, but I only do high end armor because it's insane profit and they do sell well.
Gavvot wrote:
I can't point them.
They don't exist.
So every single master armorsmith on your server is +12, and/or is using the best resources to ever spawn in the server's history?
I highly doubt it. The ones that aren't are the ones you should be trying to redirect to making lower cost, lower protection armors while they build up their bankroll and/or resource base.
Myself, I don't do because of time, not money. I only have time to make one or two full runs on comp every week, and only time to get one run sliced before sale. Lower rsesits don't make it any quicker to produce. If I sold lower cost, lower resistance armor, and the demand you're citing actually exists, then I'd be sold out within a day or two, and my reputation would fall into the crapper as my customer's got tired of seeing empty vendors five days out of the week. Selling high-end armor allows me to sell at a price that ensures a more reasonable pace of sales.
FWIW, I can tell you that most of my composite customers are in fact doing high-end PvE or PvP. I see their names in the forum's PvP flames and/or in the threads auctioning off high-end loot from NPC's that require high end armor. I'm not going to turn my back on my customer base. If another market segment is being ignored, it's up to the 'smiths without a customer base to fill it, not me.
Message Edited by DirthNader on 08-12-2004 07:45 AM
joined42904 wrote:
...That's how I've entered the AS market on my server. I sell 80/80/68base (base includes energy) which i hope to get to 69 base. I've had it derided as garbage by some of the oligopolist high-quality armorsmiths on my server. But it sells quite well. And I intend to continue making it. Who's to stop me?
That's truly poor form.
I'm starting to wonder if my earlier comments about you were justified, or if the armorsmithing "community" on your server leaves a bit to be desired. Maybe I take for granted that the dedicated 'smiths on Shadowfire are a tight community (and yes, there are some 'smiths that I consider dedicated that aren't hitting 68% base yet).
Still not with you on the possibility for the existance of oligopoliesinSWG though