Merchant Archive
Thread: Consignment is the Solution for everyone
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Alanis
Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:39 am
#1
A simply way to make everyone happy would be to add a Consignment option to vendors. A Merchant would simply set his Consignment % like 5%-50%. Anyone could offer an Item at the price they want and either the Consignment would be added or taken from the price the Person offered it at. The item would go up for 30 days and the merchant could not pull this off for himself. This way everyone would in theory have a vendor to use and the Merchant would make something for his skill. If the merchant had an extremely high traffic are he could require a higher %.
Wagadodo
Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:48 am
#2
I kinda like the idea of consignement. The Merchant gets thepercentage fee at the start of the listing. The merchant though would have to be able to choice the person that they wish to have put things on the vendor. And would have to have limit controls to the number of things that are put on by that player. So they don't take up all their aviable selling options. A minimum price addition to it to so people don't put 1 credit things on it... Though that wouldn't make much sense.
joined42904
Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:52 am
#3
Please explain to me how this option will not lead to massive cross-server vendor swaps at the lowest possible consignment fees.
Alanis
Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:54 am
#4
Items would be offered to the vendor just like they are now and the Merchant would have the option to Accept it or not just like they do now.
If you think about this in a Guild only one person would need Master Merchant and they could place 12 vendors and all the guild members could offer thier stuff there. The Person has Control for what thier Itemsare Sold for. And depends on how mcuh they want they have the option to pick what shop they want to use. I have one of the highest Traffic tents in my Area. If i set my % at 25% they could go to a Discount store that only asked 5% and offer it there. This means the merchant taht Advetizes and drive his traffic up would get the most offers.
Alanis
Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:57 am
#5
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Please explain to me how this option will not lead to massive cross-server vendor swaps at the lowest possible consignment fees.
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I dont understand what you are asking? And even if something like this happens what difference would it make? Vendors arent lots so how would they trade?
joined42904
Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:07 am
#6
Here is what happens.....
Make reapair tools to business 4. Have vendors giving you merchant experience from the moment you hit business 3.
Merchant skills can go up passively with extra vendors. The more vendors...even if not in use...the more merchant experience you get. The new changes mean merchant will be even quicker to level up.
So...why don't you and I agree to do this... You start a new character on Kauri and I'll start a new character on <your server>. We'll both go up in merchant to master. Then we will put vendors out in the locations the other person designates on the lowest possible consignment percentage.
Unless the merchant has to do something for each item, this will be done. If the other crafter gets to push all the buttons and the merchant doesn't have to actively do something at an interface for each item individually the first time it's listed then you will have this happen.
What's the downside of this? Folks get all the benefits of having a merchant with zero skillpoint investment of any legit character on their server. And someone else gets the same.
Merchant skills become something which, just like lots, can be exchanged across servers.
Not a good thing.
Alanis
Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:13 am
#7
But they do have to do something with each item. They have to accept the offer for a Consignment deal. This means if you cross Server swap that person would have to log on everyday and accept each item offered for consignment. This simply wouldnt happen. They would also have to watch what they accept or you would soon reach your Item limit thats set and would have to wait 30 days for space to free up before you could accept more items. And to top that off they would be making millions. If you had someone place 12 vendors and they realy did sell a ton that Cross server person would be making a ton even at 5%.
Vrond
Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:28 am
#8
Well running a merchant on 2 servers would be very time consuming tho I guess some folks will do it but then some folks have non static lot trades too which tome is an insane amount of time to invest in a game.
joined42904
Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:31 am
#9
If it's pushing 2-3 buttons per item and if backpacks get to count as their total number of items, I wouldn't oppose a consignment arrangement.
For consignment to work out for the good of merchants, the total number of items needs to be rather more limited than it is at present. 4000 items is practically unlimited. If the item count were reduced so that it had greater value I'd be more in favor of consignment than I already am.
What the merchant does needs to be something other than highlighting a field and clicking an "accept all" button. That would be too little involvement in the process.
I'm also not sure how low I would want that bar to go. I'm not sure I would want it to go below 20% or so as a consignment fee. That is of course my personal preference. I just picture a lot of merchants getting into low percentage deals and getting sick of it.
The other question is...do consignment items offerred to merchants count against the offeror's stream of commerce limit? I think they should but that the stream of commerce limit needs to be raised for elite crafters. This limit is to prevent you from using offers to other people's vendors for storage. (It's the same limit as the bazaar and it presently counts your offers to other people's merchants toward the limit.) Using a stream of commerce limit would further make merchants be the ones to break up crates and the like, which I think is more appropriate and mirrors present-day retail reality.
illovich
Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:34 am
#10
I think this is a good idea, but I agree that the merchant should have to accept each deal. Also, I think the merchant should be able to use a slider to decide what sort of markup they'd like on a per sale basis... after all, if some one is lowballing, why shouldn't the merchant be able to make out on the deal?
Playing devils advocate: In order to keep merchants from turning into another "bot" profession that jst leaves a bunch of vendors by theed and c-net and comes by once a day to approve all consignments, should merchants have to enter "deals" with consignees and add the consignee to their vendor?
I could see the merchants being afraid that their vendors would get flooded with crap goods, or backpacks full of crap, etc. Plus, the more automated a profession is, the less they interact with others. I think it would be better to add this feature, but have it that vendors have an add consigner feature, which would allow specified consigners to put sales up on the vendor.
Should consignments be limited to a certain percentage of the merchant's total number of possible sale items?
Playing devils advocate: In order to keep merchants from turning into another "bot" profession that jst leaves a bunch of vendors by theed and c-net and comes by once a day to approve all consignments, should merchants have to enter "deals" with consignees and add the consignee to their vendor?
I could see the merchants being afraid that their vendors would get flooded with crap goods, or backpacks full of crap, etc. Plus, the more automated a profession is, the less they interact with others. I think it would be better to add this feature, but have it that vendors have an add consigner feature, which would allow specified consigners to put sales up on the vendor.
Should consignments be limited to a certain percentage of the merchant's total number of possible sale items?
DocSavag
Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:38 am
#11
Any consignment system has to KEEP the merchant involved in every sale. Taking the merchant out of the sale is a bad idea. The merchant should be actively working the vendor and making the sales happen.
The true power of consignment systems is NOT the merchant's lack of involvement. It is secure transactions between merchatns and suppliers which will lead to more robust business relationshps.
The true power of consignment systems is NOT the merchant's lack of involvement. It is secure transactions between merchatns and suppliers which will lead to more robust business relationshps.
Alanis
Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:38 am
#12
This Idea also offers a lot of use to the true Merchant Skills. Find a good location and build a theme. Are you going to have the Kmart store or the Uber High End PvP Store? You have to watch what you accept to make sure it matches your Theme. You have to watch the person that offers your Armor vendor 100 CDEF pistol at a stupid price.You have to get out and advertise your shop to draw the Customers and the Items that fit your theme. If I had a Super Uber Item I wanted to sell for allot would I take it to a Kmart and try to sell it or to a Uber loot shop were I know it will sell fast and for the Most. If I want all the best Players to sell their stuff at my shop I have to go out and convince them I can sell it for them and get the most.
The bottom line here is this would still make a true Merchat.
joined42904
Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:43 am
#13
I think letting merchants decide markup rather than making it a fixed percentage is a better idea. It puts the merchant rather than the crafter in control of the sales price which is as it should be. The crafter can set a consignment amount which must be paid to the crafter at the time of sale. Crafters will judge merchants based on whether or not they can "move items" rather than on the basis of whether they charge a "too high" or "too low" markup in the crafter's estimation.
And yes add consignor I think is a nice idea also. Maybe let it open up 50 slots on the vendor for that person to offer consignment goods and not let the same good be consigned twice or something like that (so that it's impossible to use consignment as storage). These 50 slots (with maybe a two consignees per vendor limit) would count in some way toward the consignor's stream of commerce limit. Maybe each item offerred (counting things in packs as individual items) counts as 1/5 an item toward the stream of commerce limit or something.
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