CUEmu - Thread Posts

Happymob

Mon Mar 28, 2005 4:30 am

CristineA wrote:

I'm a business partner in the ole mining business, and have noticed increased sales do to this.

I would caution anyone currently rejoicing at increased sales that the surge in sales might be temporary.

There will be some increased sales purely to meet built-up demand. Some people have a shopping list of stuff they previosly hadn't bothered with, simply because of the pain in finding it. So the new patch is great for them (and the merchants with those items), but that demand is short-term at best.

There will also be a surge of sales for those merchants who price below the average price of the mega crafters. There is no question that many smaller merchants are being "discovered" with this patch. As long as the mega crafters maintain their pricing, the increased sales for the small crafters might be permament. But if the mega crafters start dropping prices, the business will shift back to them.

5 days into the patch is simply not enough time to know what the long-term effects of the vendor search will be. But by all means, enjoy the sales spike!

Imadoh and Ikiecobi
Quality Resources and the Corellia Butcher - NoCo
NoCo Trade Center, Corellia (just northeast of Coronet) 796, -3076

Jereck

Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:53 am

#28

Well i still have mixed feelings about it, its helped me locate, and compare some very nice resources that i need to for my crafting so thats a plus. Because its such a pain to find all the resource vendors and go through which ones have a decent selection and those that have 400 of some random 55 oq resource... My concern really comes from the potential for price wars on a massive scale. All servers have gone through little ones and everyone had their loyal customers till a medium was foun that appealed to everyone.... but now that everyone has the ability to shop and compare with such ease and convienance then it will be a hard fought battle to retain customers without potentially altering your prices/product and perhaps even to a severe extent.

Karras - Lowca
SWG - We know drama

Sasee

Mon Mar 28, 2005 7:58 am

#29

Well said.

I am fairly new to merchant but I do have one or two observations:

First I make some stuff, such a swoops, primarily for the members of my guild. If others come along and buy then so be it. When I put these swoops on my vendor I did check the bazaar vendor search and found some better ones for less. Even so mine still sell well.

Secondly some merchants, in my 9 months experience of playing the game, charge way way over the odds for certain things. I am a great believer in that something is worth what someone will pay for it and I am often happy to pay a higher price locally than having to travel all over the galaxy but some prices were ridiculously high and this search ability has shown it.

Thirdly it is really hard sometimes to find even the most basic items. I spent an hour once looking for a vendor selling crates of good quality brandy. Being able to find it on the Bazaar is a godsend.

Finally, as with all professions, some people have cornered the market and this certainly opens things up. These are the people who are really worried about this. I know anarmoursmith who I would take as read anything he said to me about what hisarmour was worth. Others did to. As it happens this new search shows he was charging way over and he has had to reduce his prices to compete.

If you want tosell morethen check prices and undercut. Simple as that. In the real world this happens all the time. I sell some stuff on my vendors at very low prices simply to attract buyers. I make a loss on these items but 1 buyer out of 3 will also buy something else which makes up for it.

Sasee

Vendor: Sasee's Extra Specials

Marketplace1 - Rhuidean - Tatooine
-5361 -5753

Marketplace 1 is the building directly opposite the shuttle. My vendor is the last on the left in the main hall.

If I win an auction, please drop off at this vendor.

freedomwarrior

Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:38 pm

#30

I think my biggest problem is with the how the search is implemented. Most of the players I know on chilly, have been doing planetary searchs on corellia as this is the hub for our server. This has resulted in sales tanking on my vendors on naboo. Now, all and all im still doing business because of 1 vendor on corellia, but this begs to the question, why even have shops on other planets. This search is encumbersome and most ive talked too dont even go past page 10 on their searchs.

I tested the search on my vendors and to my dismay, didnt have any of my stuff even showing up in the first 30 pages for armor. Now a friend of mine who has a hodge podge vendor has a pair of gloves he got from me on his vendor. Not only did these pair of gloves show up in the first 5 pages, but it showed up on page 7, 10, 12 and 16. Not sure whats going on, but with over 600 armor items on my vendor, you would think the armor would show up in the first 30 pages, and with him only having 1 peice of armor showing up on 5 pages, how lame and illthought out is that? SOE needs to get a clue, otherwise I will be taking my 43 a month and putting it elsewhere. Guildwars is right around the corner.

-Ackire-

THE Retired

dMaster Armorsmithd
Located on the wonderful Planet of Naboo
Now located at -3256 3748, outside of Theed

-=X=-

cl0kwerq

Mon Mar 28, 2005 4:53 pm

#31

EldritchArms wrote:

I'm just going to wait it out.

I personally sell my 99.8% repair crates for 12.5k just as a convenience for city members, but thats niether here nor there.

These things can be made at master artisan and take almost no time to make a full run of 1000, not to mention the piddly amounts of resources needed in them. I've always seen these as a "filler" item, useful when you need it, but otherwise it just takes up space, so I price according to need and use.

The severe undercutting will happen and there isn't anything you can do about it. I would take some solace in the business models being used by these crafters. There's also a very high possibility that a great many of these super-low prices items are in less trafficed areas. The crafter probably dropped these prices to try and get people to his door. When he/she sells out quickly odds are they will adjust their pricing. If not they will eventually get upset that they arent making a noticeable profit and quit.

You've got my situation down pat. My city is competing with another nearby city, so I provide every little convenience possible to get people to come through our town as opposed to the other one. Not to mention we're so remote (near Ft. Tusken) that I pretty much only put PUP's and crafting tools and repair kits up for residents and guildmates who need them, whom I would give them away to for free, but can't put that up on my vendor because people would come and buy me out, so I put that as a reasonable comprimise. I also looked at who buys these things. It's not the rich NS hunter who goes through 2-3 suits a day, it's the guy who just started and wants to save that lucky buy he found on an ubese jacket that's his only means of protection. They're cheap to make, and easy to use. Charging a premium price for an effectiveness rating that doesn't seem to have any real effect on the outcome of the usage seems a bit dishonest to me, like those guys selling the PSG's with LS resistance. If you want to make a bigger profit, you have to make a better item, or rather one that is more useful.

I think there will be a series of market corrections but I don't expect things to get too bad. That may just be my own sense of optimism but I think it's too early to declare the sky is falling.

I'm with you. This thing will easily stabalize, so long as there is a good influx of items. Price cutters will do their thing, but when I'm on Tatooine and the Price Cutter is on Dantooine, you better believe I'll pay an extra CPU for something I need. Do not underestimate the power of the impulse buy.

So hang in there, youll come out the other side just fine.

-Corbantis-

-1091 2684 Dantooine, Just outside the Mining Outpost

::TEK:: Industries Receptionist Vendor

tek'rat[master Armorsmith=12 Point=R.I.S.Certified=]

-Flurry-

-1028 2362 Dantooine, Just outside the Mining Outpost

::PS:: Personnell Solutions Vendor(either)

Seik Rell'eef[master Droid Engineer/master Shipwright]

bluejanus

Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:22 pm

#32

Happymob wrote:

CristineA wrote:

I'm a business partner in the ole mining business, and have noticed increased sales do to this.

I would caution anyone currently rejoicing at increased sales that the surge in sales might be temporary.

There will be some increased sales purely to meet built-up demand. Some people have a shopping list of stuff they previosly hadn't bothered with, simply because of the pain in finding it. So the new patch is great for them (and the merchants with those items), but that demand is short-term at best.

There will also be a surge of sales for those merchants who price below the average price of the mega crafters. There is no question that many smaller merchants are being "discovered" with this patch. As long as the mega crafters maintain their pricing, the increased sales for the small crafters might be permament. But if the mega crafters start dropping prices, the business will shift back to them.

5 days into the patch is simply not enough time to know what the long-term effects of the vendor search will be. But by all means, enjoy the sales spike!

I instituted a price cut to compete with the lower priced architects and to help flagging sales. Btw cl0kwerq, I maintain three vendor locations on the hub worlds of Naboo, Corellia and Tatooine. I'm expecting a price war and taking steps to stay competitive.

Isander Aperin - Kettemoor Master Architect (home: Serenity, Naboo)

Structures vendor in the HorkCo Shop near Coronet, Corellia (CLOSED)

Structures vendors in the Mos Mesric Mall near Mos Espa, Tatooine (CLOSED)

Structures, jedi kit, crafting station and resource vendors in Serenity near Kaadara, Naboo (CLOSED)

Eerif

Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:37 am

#33

Personally, I am going to maintain my prices, even though they are higher than a few crafters. These other crafters will have a hard time maintaining stock, and probably aren't in it for the long run, having them sell at a faster rate just means more stress on their shoulders and off mine.

<~| Eerif Runningtide |~>
12 Point Chef
Vendor at (-795, 2851) Dantooine
Eerif Film Productions

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Thread: Is Vendor Search really a good thing?