Merchant Archive

Hmm I would say anyone could offer something to a vendor, choosing if it's a direct offer or an indirect one. Direct offers would be the same way as now, indirect offers would imply that the item needs to be sold first. Then the merchant can either refuse the sale or set a % over what the person asked for the item, and put it on sale. When the item is sold, both get their money.

Then, as said above, merchants could just set a % per person, and put everything on sale at the same time without having to go through those options.

------

Novice Lekku Stomper

I did a fairly complete write up on it quite a while ago. Doc had coppied it into one of the request lists.

It followed the model Songe describes, but went through all the dialog boxes and emails needed. It was probably a waste of time, since there is some evidence that the coders work largely on the basis of hallway conversations with their boss instead of actual documentation.

I think the markup should be chosen item by item, not a flat % for the supplier. I would want more markup on slow moving or cheap items than on large high volume items if I have a limited number of vendor slots.

There has to be a way to refuse to take an item for consignment, some things I wouldn't want on my vendor or the"wholesale price"might be larger that I think it will sell for.

There are several email notifications necessary to make things run smoothly.

I'm still not sure about whether the supplier should be able to cancel the sale and get his item back at no cost. I would rather he could not, but I am flexible. I would rather that, when the sale expired, it went back as though it had been just offered.

I've seen it being tossed around in here, but if anyone gave any details about how they think it should work, I've missed it.

I think Merchants should be able to have a permissions list on their vendors, and putting someone's name on that list allows that personto offer things for sale on the vendor. The merchantshould also be able to set a fee percentage for each person on the list, that way you can offer better percentages to friends and guildmates. When the item is sold, the vendor sends the money to the person who offered it, minusthe percentage that is sent to the merchant.

What do you think?

Sounds good to me. The thing I'd emphasize is a minimum of UI wrangling needed to accomplish it - don't make the merchant manually click through every item (though he should have the freedom to "reject" individual items and so forth if he does want to), and make the process as easy for the supplier as possible, since the supplier is the merchant's "customer" in this case.

That last point is important - if selling an item via consignment ends up taking as much or more time and effortthan selling an item off one's own vendor, the merchant is providing a skill point bank rather than an actual "service" worth paying for, and some players will simply use an mule account instead.. (Kinda like buffbotsright now.)

Making things sufficiently easy for the supplier that the merchant is providing a tangible, time-and-money-saving service is the tricky bit. Perhaps that delivery system we were discussing in another thread? Make it an ability attached to the merchant (or enhanced by having a merchant involved)...?

"Prettiest shim on Bria!" - Sev
Certified "cool" by the Darth Vader of Bria
Blue glowie.