Merchant Archive

Hia guys and gals.

Im not a merchant. I dont have buisniss skills, and I dont plan on getting any. I make guns and stuff to mess up other beings with, and I figured with all this player interaction thingie I should be able to. But Im not.

Granted I did not start the game at day 1, I do not have all the materials to make the utter top class guns, but still Im able to make some decent stuff for much less money. I would prefere selling engros to merchants but appreantly I have problems finding some.

So my question is realy are there any merchants at all that dont make their own stuff or sell for their friends ? I figured there MUST be someone running around cursing because he/she never findsa supplier for stuff.

Im not here to build an empire, but I do need some sort of movement in the wares to get more metals to make more wares, right ?

Or should I just bite the bullet and set up my own shop, like it seems are the common way ?

I run a Mining buisness Along with a Shop and I buy my Weapons Bulk from a Weaponsmith to sell and I have a Architect and BH Partners who make Deeds and Bio-Pets to sell.


So Yes Many merchants will buy your items depending on the prices just remember you dont charge full price for bulk orders you sell to a merchant whos gonna sell your stuff you sell for bulk rates and the merchant adds on a percentage to that on top of it and depending on the prices and quality of weapons you make will affect wether you sell a lot or not.


What Server do you Play on? I am always looking for smiths and other professions to start buisness relationships with if the prices and quality are right.


BTW I am on the Kauri Server.

Yes. They are rather scattered, and tend to congregate on this board. These are what tend to be called 'real' merchants... ie merchants who take the profession as their primary skill and sell for others and themselves, rather than supplementing their crafting with merchant skills here and there. (Not to say anyone who does that cannot be a dedicated merchant, but let's face it... full time merchants are simply going to be more dedicated to that one profession)

What server are you on? In this thread, you might want to post that, and look for merchants here from your server. Most of us that post here are full-time merchants who sell goods from others. Also, make a post on your server board. Those threads go by much quicker than here, but it's best to reach merchants on your server.

Good luck!

Well, I'm on eclipse, but I didnt want to go server spesific to avoid that being the issue. I was just wondering if there are merchants who do in fact buy and sell stuff from other than themselves and friends.

I do understand that lovering the price is a must, I made a factory run of vibro knucklers with close to max damage and have some trouble selling them (my asking price was 4k pr unit so they could be sold at price sell say 7k to be a far better deal than the equal stats sold for 8-10k or the advanced ones sold for 10-12k).

I also realise that they are perhaps not the hottest sellers, but thats only because novice unarmed people dont know how valuable these are to them

There MUST be someone in my opositte situation, being merchant without being able to find suppliers ?

Well I am looking for a weapon supplier. Feel free to offer to my vendor. I will even set up a specific vendor for your merchandise.

There are many types of arrangements that you can strike with a merchant. Be creative. If the merchant seems reluctant to buy your flying womp rat detector for 40k each, maybe offer one at a very low charge as a consignment to see if they can sell it. If it sells the merchant will be sending you tells 2 minutes later asking you when you can deliver more and can they be blue..

I get many people coming in and asking me if I will buy merchandise to sell from them. If it is something I know will sell I have no problem paying up from the 90% of the value I think the item will bring. If I have never sold it and don't know how much it will sell for I am less likely to give you 90% of a price I don't know I can get. I may however agree to sell a couple of them on consignment and give you 90% of the sale. My risk is low and yours is too, if it doesn't sell and you get impatient you can always ask for it back

If you get a good fit between you and a merchant your sales will go way up and the merchant will be very happy with their commission.

Tho a big issue for me is determining just what market price is, with the huge price ranges often out there. So many factors to consider... bazaar dumping, local competition, the higher prices masters generally charge, quality (if it is a factor), your brand name value. Just a matter of constantly fiddling with prices, which could easilyimpact profits with margins as narrow as 10-15% - for better or worse.

When I sell bulk to distributors, I have generally cut 50% off what I sell for on my vendors. But after reading this post, perhaps I should raise thatup some...

Actually I have a few question as well, might as well post it here rather then cluttering up the board with posts.

I've not done anything with the merchant line of skills yet, but me and a friend are opening up a shop (she's a weaponsmith and I'm going to be a taylor).

Since I'm the owner of the house, I assume I'm going to need to be the one to take the business ranks. Or can any admin place vendors?

Who can put items on a vendor, just the owner of the vendor or any admin on the house list?

I read in the FAQ thread that you get business experiance per time period. Do you get experiance for that even when your offline? I assume not, but I figure I would ask anyway.

Do items on your vendor count against your houses maximum number of items limit?

Thanks for the help,
Masou
Bestine, Tatooine - The Valcyn

Only the person that created the vendor can place/administer that vendor. You cannot give a friend rights to your vendors. So, your weaponsmith friend can offer the items to your vendor for 1cr each. Then you can access that vendor, accept the offers, then have your vendor sell those items.

You gain merchant XP for each hour of real time your vendor exists. You do not have to be logged into the game to get this XP. You get 50 MXP/hour from each vendor, so if you are looking to master the Merchant line, go up the skill tree that gives you additional vendors first (though I would advise getting the first skill box that allows you to use NPCs instead of droid vendors, since droid vendors are insanely expensive to maintain atm).

Lastly, items on your vendor do not count against the items you can have in your house.

I hope that helps!

One person with admin in the house can place a vendor if they have the skills. You could in effect both get basic business skills and each place 1 vendor.

Then the one that enjoys being a merchant most, can follow the merchant line.

As for the 1st posters question. My bread&butter is buying and selling. I play Merchant as my primary proffesion and thats the tag i wear. Even with its problems, it has been by far the best part of this game for me.I also actively search out mid skilled crafters, for mid level wares, they sell at a lower price, but the sell just as well if you know your customer base.

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That 1st line should read " Anyone with admin rights to the house can place a vendor if they have the skills"

typos, and no edit button

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I think the answer for you question is Yes, yes merchants DO infact sell for other people. They dont just run shops of their stuff, or their friends stuff.

I personally resell stuff for many suppliers .. some friends, some customers .. some just strangers I ask.

My suggestion is to run around looking for shops that you like, have space, and good locations that are well stocked. Then send that merchant a tell or email asking if he would be interested in selling your wares. Most (if they are true merchants) probably wont turn you down, unless they already have a good supplier they like. But it never hurts to ask.

On a side note, they are merchants, dont expect to have them pay retail for your wares, I often have players wanting to sell me stuff for retail (what market price for the item is), but I cant very well turn around and mark it up .. it wont sell, then I not only dont make anything .. i just wasted money on something I really dont need. As a rule of thumb I usually buy items for 10 to 15% of retail (wholesale if you may). Then make the markup. This way if I have to lower the price I know how much to lower before I dont make a profit.

Hope this answers your question

Sosumii

Master Merchant

AR Vendor Mall -4219, 2395 Bria/Tatooine

Thanks for the replies all.

90% market value ? yaiks. I was planning on giving better deals than that

Well, happy sellingto you all, might we all go to sleep with a little profit.