Merchant Archive
Thread: is reselling evil?
You sell a product on a public vendor with a retail price.
Someone buys the product at your asking price.
How is that bad?
If you want to limit quantity then sell chance cubes or something that entitle the customer to buy up to a set quantity at a certain price. Or do private sales. Or sell on the trade boards. Or ban the people who buy you out. Or raise your prices.
All I know is, if I come across your vendor selling below market price, you're gonna log into an empty vendor.
The exception to this are guild/town vendors in marked houses and people who are obviously selling to newbies at cheap prices for basic items. But if you just put things on a vendor, and people like the price, they're gonna buy it.
Don't like that? Raise your prices.
The problem here comes from every crafter and his dog having a vendor, they use it to sell just their produce at their prices, but the don't think like a merchant.
Merchants buy as low as they can, usually in bulk and sell for as big a profit as they can, they advertise so people can find their store, they ensure that they have good levels of stocks and a range of qualities to fit everyones purse.
Being a merchant is about providing a service in return for cold hard cash, okay some people also do it as a service to the community, but the bottom line is still going to be making a profit.
Crafters who want to be able to sell their products straight to the end user, keeping their prices low and all the other arguments put forward for being upset with being bought out on mass by a reseller are not thinking like merchants and most of them are probably not merchants anymore (though that is not accusation at anyone in this thread)
If you want to be treated as a corner shop for the locals in your area then act like a corner shop and charge retail prices, not wholesale. If i walk into a wholesaler and buy them out of a product they would smile and thank me for my business, i can then re-sell it for a profit. There is no good reason for me to go to another retailer to buy my stock theres no profit in it, the only time to do this is if i am adding value to the item and need it with a great urgency and am unable to reach my wholesaler, i might be delivering it, or combining a loot item into a weapon or any number of other things.
The other time when you can buy retail and sell for a profit is when you are importing those items to a high traffic area that has poor merchant vendor coverage. Selling StimB's in the starport of Yavin IV or Endor might be above retail because the audience is captive. They are there they have a need and they will pay extra to avoid having to leave the planet and find a vendor. (This is just an example of course)
But I agree for the most part if someone can buy your entire stock and resell it for a significant profit your prices are too low. You can continue to sell them at that price but people will make a profit off them even if they do so only 1 or 2 items at a time.
DocSavag wrote:
Just for kicks whywoulda Merchantcare so much?If hesold them for whathe thought they were worth..someone bought them and sold them for more. *shrug*
It doesn't botherhim when doctors buy them and use them for a profit does it? They are making a profit offhis efforts too
Message Edited by DocSavag on 05-20-2004 07:45 AM
The people that goes in to a shop and buy out all decently priced items to resell them is not really a merchant. The best description would be self claimed distributor. The seller of the goods have the right and the ability to do business with you, and a true marching would not choose a slightly higher profit now for a steady profit over a long period of time.
I"m always dissapointed when someone buys and resells my stock. I work very hard to service my entire customer base and enjoy providing them almost anything they might be looking for. Some of the foods I make are harder to make than others, others are a particularly good run -this time- because I had good creature food, etc. I am less interested in profit.
When someone comes along to take my hard work away from everyone else, I'm not thrilled by it. I accept that it happens and will continue to happen, but I think it is bad form. I work so hard to keep up with BE Tissues (lots of creature foods) and to have 30-35 food choices, that when someone waits for me to make the run and then buys me out - it is frustrating. Why don't they go out and try harvesting 16K meat themselves? Because I care about my customers, they take enjoyment away from me as I will have to spend another week harvesting creatures without a guarantee that they won't do it again.
It's not a bout the profit, it is fake money. It IS about satisfactory gameplay. People who resell take the game out of it and I wish it would stop. My customers wish it would stop.
The first time someone does this to me, they get banned from my cafe. If it happens again, they get a merchant barker droid outside their shop that diplomatically and politely lets people know they can get the original food at the original price at the original location.
In my case, I've even caught a reseller spamming a starport that he just finished working really hard to create the best food in the galaxy. LOL That is a whole 'nother level of despicable I think.... 
Tarnak_Archvold wrote:
If you se a merchant simply as someone who buy low and sell high, they you are very wrong. A true merchant forges mutual beneficial trade agreements with suppliers, to ensure a steady supply. They look for niches in the market where there is little competition, and is the access to these niches markets that they can use for profit. There might be a higher need for stim-b's on lock and talus, but it would be easier to get talusian water and lokien wild wheat. With thoughts two the merchant can make deals for advanced stim-b's with a doctor or two. That is how a true merchant operates.
I know full well a merchant does more than buy low, sell high, i even mentioned several of these things in my post... But all these things you suggest that a merchnt needs to do are done for one reason... To make money!
The people that goes in to a shop and buy out all decently priced items to resell them is not really a merchant. The best description would be self claimed distributor. The seller of the goods have the right and the ability to do business with you, and a true marching would not choose a slightly higher profit now for a steady profit over a long period of time.
If a vendor is being bought out by a reseller then we are not talking about decently priced items, we are clearly talking about items that are at a price significantly below that which the market can bear, or a wholesale price. There is onlya fewreasons why a "merchant" would sell below the market price, to sell more item for a lower profit "stack them high, sell them low", to attract new customers, to clear out old stock etc. And generally in these cases it is there is not a large enough quanitity being offered to make it worth a resellers time to buy them out.
What surprises me is that people who sell their products deliberately cheap complain because people sell them out - I mean you ask for it by selling things cheap. Someone keeps coming to my vendor every 2 weeks and buys half my stock of Stims - I don't care what he does with them, I just make more. You complain about someone buying the product of your hard work and reselling it, but if your work was so hard why sell your items so cheap that you're not happy when they get sold? You got what you wanted for it no? I pride myself with a well stocked vendor too, but things got sold too fast so I had to increase my prices, now it doesn't sell so fast, I can keep a good stockand I get what I want for my wares.
Obviously I'm not talking about the persons who try to take credits for the products, I agree that it is bad form, but everyone can see who madethem and customers will most likely come back to the creator and not the guy who sold them.
Heck no. Reselling is business.
I'm a master artisian. I sell vehicles for 5-6cr/u. I see no reason why I should sell them for anything less seeing as I can sell the raw resources for 3cr/u. Therefore my vehicles are priced at 30k for an X34, 35k speedbike, 45k swoop. It seems pretty high, but I an still selling a fair amount. I used to use my own resources to build these. Then I started noticing people selling speeders for 2cr/u or less.Whenever I see someone selling an X34 for 10k, I'll buy them out and turn around and sell them on my vendor for 30k.
I wise bothin once said, "Too many people forget that the SWG economy is just another form of PvP".
Anyone choosing the second option is a jerk who deserves what ever is coming to him, banning from the shop with out warning as the least. Respect is a two way street, if someone do not respect others they should expect no respect in return.
I can make the same arguement back at you that those people who enjoy selling extremely cheap are making my game unfun. I am a heavy seller. I run a megacorp power industry and I do play the 'economic game'. I'm a merchant after all. This is my bit of fun.
Somebody undercutting my prices by half can fully expect to be bought out. Somebody banning me from their store can fully expect to be bought out by one of my minions.
I fully agree that it's great to provide cheaper than average goods... those I won't make much on and I wont bother buying them. Sell drastically lower and I'll buy everything you have because I know I can sell it for double.
I have done so and I will continue to do so to those that sell too low. If they have any problem with this, it's is theirs and theirs alone. Them selling too low as my direct 'competition' affects my business. PE 995 sells on my vendors at about 2.95 credits per unit. If a one-credit flat broker wants to sell that at one credit, go ahead but don't **edit** about me buying it up and marking it up for resale at 3x what I paid for it. Keep in line with the market.
Corporate Warfare is PVP in it's own regard
Message Edited by DingoBoi on 05-20-2004 08:18 PM
rexan wrote:
Heck no. Reselling is business.
I'm a master artisian. I sell vehicles for 5-6cr/u. I see no reason why I should sell them for anything less seeing as I can sell the raw resources for 3cr/u. Therefore my vehicles are priced at 30k for an X34, 35k speedbike, 45k swoop. It seems pretty high, but I an still selling a fair amount. I used to use my own resources to build these. Then I started noticing people selling speeders for 2cr/u or less.Whenever I see someone selling an X34 for 10k, I'll buy them out and turn around and sell them on my vendor for 30k.
I wise bothin once said, "Too many people forget that the SWG economy is just another form of PvP".
thank god there are other MAs out there that wont sell vehicles so cheap. i once had a guy ask to cut my price in half cause i was selling them too high i told him no i sell a fair amount of them cause i knew he was just gonna resell them,BUT if someone wants to buy my stock at the cuurent price to resell have at it here is a chair sit in front of that vendor. lol i put prices on my goods that i think is fair if you can sell it for more be my guest. if isee product on someones vendor that i can sell for more ill have at there vendor they get payed i make bank. and the last statment is very true lol the economy is a form of PvP so if you dont want to get pwned raise your prices u want to sell lower to your guild have them offer random junk to your vendor for a refund .
DingoBoi wrote:
Somebody undercutting my prices by half can fully expect to be bought out. Somebody banning me from their store can fully expect to be bought out by one of my minions.