Merchant Archive
Thread: A sidenote regarding the 6k Bazaar cap and the state of the economy.
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RagemanStoo77
Tue Aug 17, 2004 10:00 pm
#1
It was noted by me that someone was argueing on these forums about why would someone sell something worth 10k on the bazaar when 6k is the max they can get for it. Well after playing with harvesters I figured this... is it really worth 10k? for a rifle I dont think so.
The very base cost to the person crafting an item is the cost of the resources to make it. If you bought resources at 2cpu which seams to be the very base rate on some galaxies an item such as a droid battery can be made for as little as 38 credits, now considering i've seen these sell for 250 per battery easily. That is more than 5 times its actual cost to make. You can factor in things like build time, factory costs and even the expense of arriving at the skill level to be able to craft the item... but 5 times the cost to make?
Looking deeper into the economy, the resources, 2cpu? How much does it actually cost to produce that single peice of ore? well... say you've scored your first personal harvester and a wind power generator with the harv at ber 4 plopped on a 75% rich source. So thats 3units per second dug up, and after an hour 180 units. So you pulled 180 units outa the ground and it cost you... 25-30c for the harvs maintenance and (not going into the math, im tired
) even less than that for the power so, being generous we say 180 units for around 35c. So the actual cost per unit is... around 0.19c per unit, and someone sold that for 2cpu? thats an incredible ten times the cost to produce. Working on those values the 250c price tag of the battery is now looking pretty comical.
So when you whine about selling you're 10k item on the bazaar for a mere 6k. Think seriously at how much it REALLY is worth, and whether you should of thought more wisely about where you get your resources.
The very base cost to the person crafting an item is the cost of the resources to make it. If you bought resources at 2cpu which seams to be the very base rate on some galaxies an item such as a droid battery can be made for as little as 38 credits, now considering i've seen these sell for 250 per battery easily. That is more than 5 times its actual cost to make. You can factor in things like build time, factory costs and even the expense of arriving at the skill level to be able to craft the item... but 5 times the cost to make?
Looking deeper into the economy, the resources, 2cpu? How much does it actually cost to produce that single peice of ore? well... say you've scored your first personal harvester and a wind power generator with the harv at ber 4 plopped on a 75% rich source. So thats 3units per second dug up, and after an hour 180 units. So you pulled 180 units outa the ground and it cost you... 25-30c for the harvs maintenance and (not going into the math, im tired
) even less than that for the power so, being generous we say 180 units for around 35c. So the actual cost per unit is... around 0.19c per unit, and someone sold that for 2cpu? thats an incredible ten times the cost to produce. Working on those values the 250c price tag of the battery is now looking pretty comical.So when you whine about selling you're 10k item on the bazaar for a mere 6k. Think seriously at how much it REALLY is worth, and whether you should of thought more wisely about where you get your resources.
Moepple
Tue Aug 17, 2004 10:59 pm
#2
If if this topic is discussed another 5000 times, your arguments doesnt become true just because of that.
The "worth" of an item is not defined by the cost of the ressource.
I cant hear it anymore, those "you sell to expensive" whiners. If you dont like it when others sell their batteries for 250 credits, then dont buy it. On Gorath you pay 400 for that Battery.
In fact, there is a range for Powerups from 1500 to 4500 on gorath as well. Guess what people are buying? yes, they buy those things for 4.5k (however, not in my shop).
There is no "too expensive", there is only dumping or no dumping. Everything else is up to the buyers, nobody forces them to buy, they most often choose the expensive stuff on their own.
Danaih
Tue Aug 17, 2004 11:05 pm
#3
A problem arises when the crafter wasn't around or lucky enough to harvest an 'uber' shift of some obscure resource for producing high-end weapons or armor. Yes it may cost half a credit or less per unit to the person harvesting it, but after it's shifted out it's a matter of how much was dug up, how many people aren't hoarding it for themselves, and how much people want what is being sold.
For droid batteries... Would you waste the same amount of time making a 38 credit droid battery to sell on your limited bazaar items as opposed to an item worth5 times that or more? Heck that 38 credit droid battery would cost 20 credits just to list on the bazaar. That's over half what you valued it at. He'd be in the hole before leaving home. Most people who don't make a profit tend not to continue selling/making goods. Would you rather see 250 credit batteries on sale in a steady supply for whenever you needed them, or 38 credit batteries in an erratic supply, sold by new players who don't understand the game system and very quickly stop crafting or quit the game altogether when they realize how not fun selling at or below cost is?
And on the whole 10k item selling for 6k... If I wasn't a master merchant, I'd find someone I could trust to sell the item for me, or advertise it on the bazaar or galaxy trade forum,assuming I wouldn't be happy getting 6k for it.
Avair
Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:07 am
#4
Business's are in Business to make money. If you don't turn a profit, you don't last too long as a business. Profits are used to expand the business further through investements. With a BER13 Harvester, powered by radioactive fuel, the actual raw cost to extract the resource is actually under .2 cpu. A droid battery requires 18 resources to make. Assume I sell at a naive price of 2 cpu, total sale price 36 credits. This of course ignoresvariable costslike labor costs, listing fees, factory power, and fixed cost likevendor fees,factory maintence, shop maintenceand other overhead. And the fact theI could probably sell the resources themselves for that price.I would have do a huge volume of business to sell enough batterys to make it worth it. Here's the break down.
36 $/unit- ($.2* 18 units) = $ 32.4 profit/battery
Let's assume I can sell 1000 batterys a week (40 crates), one full factory run. Note that this is a dubiouslyhigh demand.I haven't seen this yet in my business.
1000 units/week * $32.4 = $32,400/week
For all my work, I'd earn a whopping $32.4k. Now thats about 1-2 high missions which might take an elite combat profession all of 30 mins, if they stopped for tea along the way.
Since I've delibrately left out all overhead, subtracting that from the profit business brings that profit down considerably. The question is that worth my time? Answer is heck no. And I'm certainly not making enough credits to reinvest in better Harvesters, more factories or grow the business. And shooting stuff is going to be more fun. This why low ball crafters don't last. Pricing this way, I'm paying a huge oppurtunity cost, subsidizing other player's fun at my own expense. That gets old quickly.
Bottom line is crafters want to have fun too. The fun is building a profitablebusiness, one customer at time. Growthcomes from profits, not charity.If you think prices are too high, you are more than welcome to drop all your combat skills so you can come over and try to undercut us.
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