Merchant Archive
Thread: A question on Merchant Etiquette
A little while agoI responded to a post on reselling items on another boardand I thought I might bring up the discussion to the Merchant board.
There seems to be a strong opinion out there that buying and reselling items crafted by someone elsefor profit is wrong. In a player driven economy, I don't understand why there is such a problem with this.If I am a merchant, it ispart of my profession to search the galaxy for items that I can resell on my homeworld for profit. If I find anicely priced set of armor, shouldn't I be able to buy it and resell it on my own vendor? Now I do believe in some form ofetiquette that I shouldn't empty out someone's vendor if I want to buy in bulk. I would accept having to contact the creator if I wanted to buy large quantities. But If there are just a few items I want to buy, do I necessarily have to contact the creator to tell them that I am reselling their wares?There seems to be a stigma attached to this, and I don't understand it.
If I buya crafter's wares and resell it,I see it as a win-win situation. I make a small profit and the crafter gets more publicity since their name is always attached to the item. Theconsumer will always have the option of buying directly from the crafter if he/she wants to cut out me, the middleman. The consumer does not have to buy from me. I think it is a great opportunity for crafters to distribute their wares to off planet merchants. Isn't reselling these items what merchants do? If I run a coffee/tea shop, and I buy mytea from Costco, I don't have to contact Lipton to tell them I am selling their product as long as I am not passing it off as something I made. The name Lipton is always attached to the teabag.
I do it all the time. I buy stuff and resell it. Most times they know I am going to do it, sometimes I run across something in the bazaar priced very low, I will pick it up and resell it.
Nothing Wall-mart sells is made by Wall-mart.
BUT - I do think it is wrong if you come across a low-level vendor, and you empty it, and resell the items, that is wrong, you make people mad at them if they come to an empty vendor. Unless you tell them you are going to.
There seems to be a strong opinion out there that buying and reselling items crafted by someone elsefor profit is wrong. In a player driven economy, I don't understand why there is such a problem with this.
You bring up two different issues.
Nothing wrong with buying for resale. It's a very hard way to make a living I think, but all the power to you if you can stick at it long enough to make it worthwhile. I think the majority of crafters are in it for the fun of crafting items and selling them. Just crafting is, well, something better suited to a macro program ;-)
Buying items off vendors or the bazaar though, I really don't care for. I would never create items "by Karai" for a reseller because I think i've built a pretty reputable name. I'd be annoyed if someone was buying stuff of mine retail and reselling at over retail.
"Retail" is that you paid for it. Your "retail" may be diffrent than mine. Do not take it as a rant, it is just a thought. If you think it is worth 100 credits, and I agree with you and buy it, then it is worth 100 credits. If I can convence another person to pay me 1000 credits, then the item is now worth a 1000 crdits.
A ruler 236of Economics 101: Nothing has worth, until someone buys it. You might think that is is worth a million credits, but if no one buys it, then it is not worth a what you think.
By retail I mean that if it has my name on it, I have a "manufacturers suggested retail price." It bothers me to see my things marked up, particularly on the bazaar where people don't think "oh this is someone marking up Karais' things" they just see "travel back by Karai 5000 credits"
If it has my name on it, and my things do, reselling them has an affect on the reputation of my shop.
I'm sorry, I have to say there is NO problem with buying something from someone and reselling it.
I also don't see a problem clearing out someone's vendor. Why not? You're not breaching any ettiquette. If they put the items up for sale, don't you think they want to sell them? Does it matter if its one person or 50 people that buy them?
I'm a pure merchant. I do not craft a single item. I've succesfully made over 6M credits by buying and reselling items that others have crafted. I have over 3M+ cr worth of inventory on my vendors at any given time. I have bulk arrangements with over a dozen vendors. But, I also spend time flying to different planets looking at the bazaar, other vendors, or listening for the tell tale shouts near the starport of someone offering something for a "really good deal" (tm).
Its funny too, 'cause I have people who buy off of ME in bulk to resell elsewhere. I've even gone so far as to purchase something on Tat, take it to Naboo to sell, have it bought out and resold on Tat on another merchant's vendor. By the time it went the gambit it had doubled in price 3 times.
A living breathing economy is a fun toy to play with.
I've only had 1 disussion with a 'supplier' over this. He was a DE grinding his way up to probots (pre-nerf) and so was just chucking stuff on the bazaar at stupid prices to move it (pre-practice mode)
I think the give-away was when all of his droids (15 maybe) sold within the space of 1 min to the same guy (me) when you can only have 5 droids in your datapad and you can only use 1 (so its kinda pointless having 15 the same)
He was actually very good about the whole thing, since he wasnt interested in the money he was happy with the fact that his 25 bazaar slots were being freed up so quickly and I was happy to then sell at 'the going rate' at a massive profit (300% IIRC)
We did talk about him just selling direct to me but with the economy being the way it is right now I dont like to get bogged down with lots of stock that may suddenly become worthless (I'm still sitting on 33 bone armour chest pieces I need to move for 500 cr each to break even)
I did sort of upset one guy though, he was selling probots (post-nerf) at a bank and let himself get haggled (publically) down the a low price at which point they sold like hotcakes, I bought 3 and it was only then when I went back for some more a few days later he twigged I was reselling and refused to sell at that price (I dont have a problem with this, but by the same token I refused to buy at that price)
Now I have to give the guy credit, he was still offerring me a better deal because I was buying bulk, unfortunately I didnt feel I would be making enough on them to justify my time (I dont tend to put alot of high value stuff on my vendor because it ramps the maint up too much and I cant advertise on the map yet so most of my sales are street hawking and advertising my shop at the same time) and gave me little room to haggle or price match if needed. The final thing that killed the deal was his request that I send my customers to his shop??? Now I dont quite know why he suggested this (have the middleman cut himself out of future business) although he did offer a kickback on referal sales - the problem here is I have no way to verify who bought what off him when and for how much to see if I'm not getting my kickbacks - needless to say I walked from that deal.
To me its a very simple equasion, if the manufacturer wants to make top dollar on his products then he has to deal with the customers, buy a house, deal with getting at least Bus III, pay maintainence on the above, put the work in advertising the shops location and accept the rate of sales that comes with it (all of which cuts into his crafting and advernturing time)
If he wants to offload all his goods in short order, not have to spend skill points on Business skills (and possibly Merchant) not have to maintain a vendor (and maybe house) not have to deal with customers and not have to drive business to his vendor then he has to accept thathe will have to sell to the Merchant at a reducedprice -it a fair tradeoff forthe work the MErchant is saving him from.
I think it is perfectly fine to buy and resell at markup. The item owner is always listed as the seller so me reselling a trademarked item doesn't reflect on the creator i think since it is my name as owner.
I do think cleaning out somebody's vendor is poor form because when others visit their empty vendor, they likely will never return since that person is now known as 'never having any stock'. If you wish to purchase in quantity, set up an arrangement as a special order. They can be your supplier, but it is a nice courtesy to do this as an arrangement rather than unexpectedly whiping out somebody's inventory.
I know i'd be happy for the sales, but a littleupset too that other customers may have been disappointed and potentially cost me future sales since that person may never return from the experience of one empty vendor.
But if it does happen, don't get mad. Mail the person and offer to do bulk special orders for them if they are interested. It's a nice courtesy.
I personally am really enjoying the merchant class. despite the ghost inventory on an old vendor, destroyed weeks ago.
Esidrix
Naboo and Tatooine
Wanderhome.
Esidrix wrote:
I am doing nothing but reselling, I have all but quit crafting and I have 4 crafters who come by at least everyothter day to drop off products at 'Wholesale' prices. I mark 'em up and resale them an competitive prices. I offer them a garanteed outlet with out the hassle of maintaining vendors. I take care of the marketing and fees. It is a pretty much win-win.
I think in time MOST serious crafters will go this route. - It makes sense for everyone really.
Once the bugs are ironed out and merchants can work as they are supposed to, then crafters and customers will regain the confidence in using merchants / vendors..
This is why I'm not too upset at the moment with the percieved lack of usefullness of our class. It will come, it will just take a bit of time for artisans and crafters to see our worth.. -There are so few of us, and even fewer who are well on the way to Master that people just havent seen what we can do yet !!!.
All I say to crafters is imagine if you had a whole player dedicated to advertising your goods.. - They often say "that would be cool" - and then I remind them that that is actually what we do !!!! hehehe 
I'm dong a lot of reselling too, but meeting some resistence from some crafters similar to what the original poster put up. I don't let it get to me, as there always another supplier, and most typically the best suppliers are in the worst retail places ... for example, you'd be amazed what people will pay just for 30% powerups in the Bazaar of distant places like Danthomir, let alone is a real pioneer economy like Mos Tieke.
It will work itself out in the long run.
It is my observation that there are 2 types of crafters in this game.
Carfter One: Must get to the top as fast as thet can, so they can sell the "new" thing at a very high price before other who can craft it bring the price down (bone armor). This type of crafter is a slowly being lost, because now there are many who can make the same thing. They will all leave for another server, or game.
Crafter Two: Just likes crafting, I am a Master Art-person, I hate crafting. I love running a shop (2) and I have crafters who work for me. I have even funded crafters and taken some of the products.
Example: I had a guy looking for resources to make Sim-B's. He did not have any money, so I made him a deal, I would give him the materials for 100 Sim-B's, 50 were mine, and 50 (-failures) were his. We sealed the deal with an email (just so we were clear on the deal) and the next day there was a pack full of Sim-B's left in my vendor for the price of 1 credit, and A thank you email, he was able to sell his and has money now.
Because I sell the mundane, and I sell it cheap, I have found this agangment to work very well. I do not have to craft anything, and people who are "grinding" have a buyer for some of there wears, giving them UXP. Some even brand it for me with my logo ][
I have noticed this: Master crafters run around AFK because of all the /tells (Yet still have their title on, and char serachable) and can get NO crafting done because of all the clients crap, so they turn to a merchant, I can field questions, send in special requests, give those people a tell when it is ready, and make the deals, and the crafter can just craft!
When they fix the wear on clothing and what not, and people want something more than what is in your vendor, or looking to replace an item with a like Item, you are going to beg for someone to be the middle man.
It is my observation that there are 2 types of crafters in this game.
I would agree with your two types. I think the former will disappear very quickly. I'm already seeing a few disappear. Others are developing a bad reputation because they relied only on monopoly power and can't sell anything now that there's competition.
I think you really underestimate the power of vendor malls though. Vendor malls let you craft at home and sell in a place with good advertising and traffic, without having clients bugging you in your house, but retaining control of your own vendor, pricing etc. We haven't seen this yet, but I think it will change the merchant (little m, the job not the game system) profession a great deal.