Merchant Archive
Thread: Q&A, Merchant Powers, Etc.
Thank you, RKA, for being gracious in the forum. It definetly is a breath of fresh air.
I would not necessarily have a problem with vendor leasing, assuming the leases are resonable, say no more than a max of a few %. Otherwise I could see us moving to the other extreme, that of what many of people that do not mind the vendor poach have been saying: A greedy profession that wants to be the conduit of the economy. A responsilble merchant would ask no more than 1-2%.
Who gains the Merchant XP from that vendor?
Who has access to this placed vendor?
1.Vendors cannot be traded
Message Edited by Balkstar on 04-22-2004 12:50 PM
Thank you for the VERY prompt information.
Does the merchant community agree that merchant trading is a good idea? Maybe offering merchant deeds for a set price with a potential percent tax applied to items or some such?
Olanthe wrote:
1-2 percent isn't a whole lot, actually. I've run vendors for five people besides myself. The architect averages about 1 million gross per week. The bartender in an RP cantina sells a few hundred credits worth of goods per week. The droid engineer and two BE's range from 100k to 600k per week.
At 1% commission, if I rented out all six of my vendors, I'd earn about 25k per week. It is an insult to the merchant profession to put a value so low on mastery of our skill. Masters of combat professions can make more than that in a few minutes running missions. Even rank newbies can rent out their 10 lots for 10k each and earn 100k per week with no skill at all.
I charge 10 percent commission, capped at 10k per week per vendor. The folks I work for are getting a bargain and they know it, but they are all friends and I'm doing this more as a favor. I would never work for so little for someone I didn't know.
If vendors are ever able to be leased, our commission should be at least 5%, probably higher, and we should be able to set minimumamounts. The folks who are good crafters and hustle their business will be able to afford us. Those who are lazy about restocking, sell poor quality or overpriced goods, or otherwise don't make many sales will have to think hard about whether having a vendor is worth it - as they should!
I could care less about getting a reputation as a money-grubbing egotist. Most people who run a successful business already have that problem.
Capped at 10k? Wow..I never let them off that easy. My weaponsmith sales averaged about100k a day. (in profits for me..) But I worked like dog for that deal. Spent HOURS everynight doing the books and restocking.
DocSavag wrote:
Capped at 10k? Wow..I never let them off that easy. My weaponsmith sales averaged about100k a day. (in profits for me..) But I worked like dog for that deal. Spent HOURS everynight doing the books and restocking.
Olanthe wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
Capped at 10k? Wow..I never let them off that easy. My weaponsmith sales averaged about100k a day. (in profits for me..) But I worked like dog for that deal. Spent HOURS everynight doing the books and restocking.
Yup, these are more casual crafters - they sell maybe a dozen items a week, and their goods don't have near the demand or profit margin that a weaponsmith does. Like I said, they're friends/PA mates and I'm doing it as a favor rather than for profit; I'd never work for so little for a stranger. Even with a dozen items per week, it's a significant amount of time spent restocking and bookkeeping. But even the pittance I charge them is more than the 1-2 percent suggested.
The problem that I have with this business arrangement has been what opponents of mine in my arguments of vendor poaching have been saying. That the XP model that merchants have do not represent how many goods you sell, but in how well you maintain your vendors.
I'm trying to avoid the notion of Merchants getting into this easy profession to level up in soley for the financial gain of being able to stranglehold the economy. With low commisions on leases of vendors, we can eliminate that argument. At least until SOE changes the XP structure to be more representative of selling items.Once that would be taken care of, 10% seems like a great commision.
Message Edited by Balkstar on 04-23-2004 12:16 PM