Merchant Archive
Thread: Does anyone play merchant without being a crafter?
I'm a tailor/merchant, but I also run a little Museum filled with rare, wierd junk. I keep a vendor in there that sells odd loot, uncraftable clothes, and all those strange little decorative items that you can sometimes pick up cheap on the bazaar. All my customers know they can find these things cheaper themselves, but they say they'd rather come to one place with a decent selection than run all over themselves. I also have a "sale clothing" vendor that's full of clothes crafted by others, or clothes that are damaged or looted. If I ever give up tailor, I'm still keeping at least a little merchant so I can still run those shops.
The main problem with pure merchants is that most crafters don't seem to understand them. We often have someone come in the Tailor boards and start a post saying "OMG!!!!! I am soooo ticked off! Some jerk bought a bunch of my items and is selling them! For more than I charge! And my name is on them so it's making me look bad!!!!" As if our customers aren't smart enough to know that once an item leaves someone's shop the creator has no real say in its fate. They get all angry and ban the reseller from their store and then whine about it. And those of us who have heard it all before just sigh and try to explain the concept of "merchant."
Personally, if I was going to re-sell, I'd contact the crafter and check with them, mostly because I'd be hoping for a volume discount. It is a little rude to clean out someone's entire stock without warning so their vendor shows up empty to any of their customers who happen by. But reselling is a natural thing in a player economy. If someone is selling at a low enough price that it's worth my time to buy and resell, I'll do it.
I'm probably 90% pure merchant right now
When I first started I was 100% pure merchant (while I am a crafter I never bothered to sell anything I made on my vendors). ButI now list a few items that I make, however 90% of my stock is still produced by other players
donnah42 wrote:
The main problem with pure merchants is that most crafters don't seem to understand them. We often have someone come in the Tailor boards and start a post saying "OMG!!!!! I am soooo ticked off! Some jerk bought a bunch of my items and is selling them! For more than I charge! And my name is on them so it's making me look bad!!!!" As if our customers aren't smart enough to know that once an item leaves someone's shop the creator has no real say in its fate. They get all angry and ban the reseller from their store and then whine about it. And those of us who have heard it all before just sigh and try to explain the concept of "merchant."
Personally, if I was going to re-sell, I'd contact the crafter and check with them, mostly because I'd be hoping for a volume discount. It is a little rude to clean out someone's entire stock without warning so their vendor shows up empty to any of their customers who happen by. But reselling is a natural thing in a player economy. If someone is selling at a low enough price that it's worth my time to buy and resell, I'll do it.
I'm a Master Merchant/Master Tailor. I /love/ shopping, so I'll often scoop up anything that I see on the bazaar or on other shops that is underpriced. I also sell for my roommate, who /hates/ the merchant side, but loves to craft furniture. Between the two of us, we've managed a very, very good symbiotic relationship.
The weird thing here is that since day 1, I've been open to people reselling my clothing, and my factories are even tagged with 'Wholesale Opportunities, Mail Illiya!', but no one ever has. I've had a couple of people sheepishly admit that they buy my clothing and resell it elsewhere, but my response has always been 'That's not a problem, that's what the merchant class is /for/'. They always seem shocked. 
I don't necessarily agree with having to inform someone that you're buying from them to re-sell, though. They're putting that item up for sale. What you do with it is your own business. I haven't, however, ever bought someone out. 
So from the other side of the fence, I'd /love/ to work with more merchants who were willing to sell my clothing. It's a bonus for me because I get to sell my goods in more places than the four shops I have running right now. It's just that everyone is so gun-shy because of the people who are militantly against it that I've never had a chance.
My second account is a True merchant. Even though he is a Master Artisan, he sells no wares of his own.
I make deals for resell not by buying whatever and reselling, but rather by finding crafters without the merchant skills. I then make arrangements to buy in bulk at a discount and sell at normal price. In many cases I also set up and decorate a shop for them on my lots. Everything is in their name. No one is able to tell that I actually run the retail. It's all about branding and I brand in their name. Its been extremely lucrative so far and have 5 of 6 vendors 'leased' in this way. I haven't even decided what to do with the rest of his skill points being that I am so occupied and entertained by running my businesses this way.
What do I sell on the vendors? Everything and anything. I target a merchant for loot, one for resources and the others for different varieties of things. For example, I see a merchant's store selling X for 10 credits when I know I can sell them for 50. I buy that merchant out and sell them on my vendors.
Basically, as a part time trade, I am a reseller of goods.
I am a Merchant/Mayor and I run two very successful Survival Supply Shops and will be opening three more.
I also role-play a smuggler/raregoods dealer. I do not have smuggler skills, but I am always trying to "cut deals" and move money and rare items around, especially weapons.
The keys to being a successful Merchant:
Location
Publicity
Stock
Quality
I have locations right near POI's. The holocron hunting boom has been great for my business.
I promote my stores like crazy. I spam people in game, and to make them LIKE the spam, I offer discounts for a limited time after I send the spam. I can usually generate 100-250k in sales by sending a well crafted e-mail to everyone on the /who list of whatever planet my store is on that I am promoting.
I give random discounts and freebies to people who are repeat customers, first customer of the day, someone who buys 100k or more at once. Basically I do everything I can to get repeat business.
I also decorate my shops in a very "themed" way to make the whole shopping experience as immersive as possible.
My stock, in order of how well it sells:
Stim B's (best I can find on the server) - 10% Markup
Tatooine Sunburn (I get custom sunburns made for me like "Jedi Juice" or "Lokian Liquor" 35% Markup
Sliced Flame Throwers and other heavy weapons 40-60% Markup
Sliced Pistols and rare guns 100-300% Markup
Spices 100-200% Markup
Sliced Composite Armor 30-50% Markup
BE Pets and pet supplies 20-40% Markup
All of these items are the best or close to the best I can find on the server. There are tons of rich players and rich hunters and they will gladly burn through their credits if you have good stuff to offer and you keep your vendors stocked. I sell stims and sunburns to the same people everyweek now, and eventually they buy full suits of comp armor or krayt guns.
Each vendor has about 300 items on it at any given time. It does take a lot of startup capital to buy everything you need. You also need to find good people to work with. It took me a while to find the best suppliers, and sometimes I just have to go around buying stuff off of vendors. Occasionally a crafter will tell me to stop buying up their stock and ask me not to re-sell. I send them my applogies, sell the stuff anyways, and don't do business with them again.
Basically, the only market I want is the high-end, rich players. There is no point in selling things that make you 100cr profit, unless you are selling resources which is just a game of quantity. Keep your harvesters on the right stuff and eventually you will make some good money, but that's too boring for me to play. With this style of gameplay I do a lot of negotiating, bargaining, deal cutting, shmoozing and anything else I can do to get items cheaper, and to get the rare stuff. I have 30 pre-nerf Krayt FWGs now and they are gonna make me a fortune over time.
Advice if you are just starting: Play a warrior/hunter class, and get surveying IV. Do tons of missions and get rich, get tons of resources and get rich. Save up enough money that you can buy crates of high-end guns, armor, super powered stims etc. etc. start relationships with the best BE you can find and scout out for hot locations. After opening your store, you need to promote the crap out of it for at least three weeks. Offer discounts, sales, grand opening party etc. etc. and spam everyone within 20,000m of your shop. Out of over 1000 spam's I have sent out, I have only gotten 2 complaints which I replied to with polite appologies. I have gotten close to 30 thank you's from people who just got the spam and said "Wow, now I know where to get such and such.. thanks" ... Don't be afraid to /shout either!
Hope any of this info helps. If you want more tips or want to chat, contact me in-game.
Mayor Sandoz, LokNLoad - Naritus
Owner "Sandoz Survival Supplies Stores" -Crytsal Caves Dantooine- -Kimogilla Village Lok-
My alt, Lorean, is a Master Merchant that deals in resources. I seldom harvest though and I don't craft items. My resource suppliers know I sell for a markup although generally, its just a matter of a few credits. It works out well for them and me. They don't have to run around attempting to find a buyer and I don't have to worry about servicing a bunch of harvesters. If I find that a resource is selling for considerably more than I bought it for, I offer kickbacks to my supplier. What I don't harvest with my Ranger in the form of Bone, Meat, and Hide, my guild supplies me.
Im a pure merchant . dont craft a thing. used to be an architect but gave that up a little while ago. i try to buy low and sell high. i mostly deal in drugs and womens clothing. i've set my mansion up like a burlesque house with the vendors in risque clothing saying provacative things. to give u a clear picture, one of my vendors names is sluh'T selina.
its called NABOO AFTER DARK outside of theed
on eclipse server.