Merchant Archive

I have come to realize that I like making my items more than I do trying to sell them. I am also planning on heading down a professions combo that will take as much of my skill points as possible, so I will probably be giving upthe Business skill tree. What I am wondering is how the system works for me to sell my product through a Merchant and how much it will cost. I am looking forward to the added benefits of going through a Merchant such as the advertising.

There can be any range of costs associated with going through a merchant. You could sell in bulk to a merchant at 70% market value (or whatever you and the merchant agree the item is worth), and then the merchant gets the extra 30% when he sells it. This is the best way of doing it (in my opinion) since the crafter gets his money right away, and the merchant doesn't have to worry about making the crafter angry if he doesn't sell the items.

EX:

Joe the Merchant buys 10 pistols from Bob the Crafter for 2k each.

10 x 2,000 = 20,000 cr. paid to Bob

Joe then sells the 10 pistols for 3k each.

10 x 3,000 = 30,000 cr. in sales for Joe

This results in a profit of

30,000 - 20,000 = 10,000 cr. for Joe

Another option called 'consignment' has the potential of making the crafter angry if the merchant can't sell the item (whether or not it's because the item is bad, or the merchant is bad will obviously be an area for argument). Basically the crafter gives a list of items (or item) to the merchant who then tries to sell it at a certain price. After selling the item the merchant keeps a % of the sale, and repays the rest to the merchant.

EX:

Bob the Crafter gives Joe the Merchant 10 pistols expecting a return of 2k per pistol after sale.

Joe takes the pistols and sells them for 3k each.

10 x 3,000 = 30,000

Joe then pays Bob back the expected return

10 x 2,000 = 20,000

Joe makes: 30,000 - 20,000 = 10,000

and Bob makes the 20,000 Joe pays him back with.

Sorry if this is overly simplistic of an explanation, but I am not sure how much everyone knows about this kind of stuff. There are more complicated types of arrangements but those are the two basic ones.

A good profit margin for a merchant depends completely on the type of items you are supplying him with. Will the items sell quickly? Will they take a lot of work to sell? Is it an expensive item? Cheap? All those things can affect how much the merchant expects as a cut. I can't really tell you what to expect to pay without knowing what you want to sell, or what the market is like for that item.

I think there a few factors you should consider.

1. How well do you know the merchant, you can make a good deal for both of you if you know each other


2. How well does the item sell. If an Items is going to "fly off the vendor" you may be able to get 85% or more of Market rate, because the Merchant is going to make his money in volume.


3. Price of the item, 10% of a PA Hall is a lot of cash, so a mechant may go for it (I would)


4. Last, and I think the best one is this...

Make deals with Merchants. Like this one I made, I meet a crafter she did not want to sell her stuff, she just wanted to craft and chat while she danced in the cantina (Odd but hey).

She and I worked out a deal, I would buy her stuff at 90% of market value, but, she was only to have limited direct sales to friends, and if someone asked her for one of her items, she was to send them to my shop. She also branded the items ][IooCam Brand. It has worked out very well for the both us us. I get a slimmer profit margin, but I also get Ad time, from her, she gets stuff sold and does not have to pimp it herself.

My 2 credits...

Thanks for the info guys.

As of yesterday I was running a vendor on consingment for one of my PA members, that is untill today when all my vendors were deleted somehow.

well the way I set this up is:

Item had to have a name Identifying the maker, person would "offer" it to my vendor and email me there price list, as items sold I would forward the sales message to them and keep track of what I would owe them. Now there were 2 way's the person would get paid, either they would be at my shop while I was online, or they could "offer" one item on the vendor at the price of what I owe'd them and they would get payment that way.

BUT here is the catch, forwarding email will show what you sold the item for, I do not profit from my PA member so this doesnt matter. another catch is her Items were flying off the shelf so I just counted up the items and sent her a dated email with the total and deleted all the sale's messages up to that point, of corse she trusts me on this.

We both profit well this way. I sell Armor she sells clothing, I have planetary advertising for both vendors so I can attract people looking for either items.