Merchant Archive

I've been reading a few threads here, and I want to ask a question of the folks who are non-crafting Merchants, or Merchants who don't supply themselves. (For example, I'm a Master Weaponsmith, and I use the Merchant class to bolster my own, self-supplied sales. I do, however, sell items in bulk to other Merchants, who are not self-supplied).

What is your business practice? Do you pay for items up front, getting a nice discount for having bought bulk? Do you expect your customers to "trust" you ("Hey, D, gimme 30 Scouts, I'll sell em and give you some money later.")? Or do you have some other type of arrangement?

I'm starting to wonder if the majority of the folks here want to work on the "trust" system, and are being frustrated because a lot of people are a lot smarter than they look.

I pay for items up front for bulk pricing.

Ebap

Ebap's Market -- Food, Drinks, Droids, and alll Artisan items.

Tarquinas, Tatooine, South of Mos Espa at -2603, 1195

I use both. I buy bulk items to turn a profit on the greater margins

I also do consignments. You have to start slow with this..Take a few items and do great with them..take a few more, ect.

I now do business with many people this way. And boy do they smile when they see me coming. They know I'm about to drop several hundred thousand credits on them.

Consignment has allowed me to really leverage my cash, but it means i have to keep emails and hand-written notes by the computer to remember what I paid for everything, what I owe to who and what I priced things at last time I carried them.

Too bad we don't havea tool for consignment in-game...

Depends.

If the crafter is a PA mate, he'll gladly give me the stuff FOC, and let me tip him the profits back later.

If I also got stuff from non PA people, I wouldnt dream of asking for them up front to send the cash later, I would have to pay them an agreed Bulk fee, and take on the risk of maintennace / price fluctations myself - Isnt that what a merchants supposed to do anyway ??

One other thing.. I have a "newbie" merchant that novice crafters can come and drop there stuff on it. I give them a price sheet of what i'm willing to pay and only take up to 10 items a day from them. I also run exclusive vendors for my good suppliers.

I run a "franchise" vendor for one of the best weapon crafters on my server. He is on corellia and my shop is on naboo. I sell at his prices (same at his shop) but he offers me a discount + vendor fee to cover maintenance.

Cool, so at least out of the 4 (or 5) responses, most of you guys pay up front...I was starting to worry that Merchants were expecting merchandise first, and would pay later.

Csin, your idea of consignment sounds good, though...however, you do build up a good report with the people you work with. I think if I had enough faith in a Merchant, I would be willing to front them some goods and have them pay me back later. However, do the people you consign with have a minimum return they want listed somewhere? For example, I'd give someone 50 guns, valued at 5K market price...I'd expect 2500 back for every gun sold, and I would take back unsold guns (at 1000/1000 condition, of course). So, at the end of the deal, the Merchant would return to me maybe 75K for 30 guns sold, and the 20 guns that didn't sell.

I have 6 vendors in 3 shops and have NEVER paid for a thing up front! Why should I, if I dont have to?

I think that trustmay have a lot to do with your PA; even if not members your reputation. I remember you people from AC; I'm sure others do.

You are correct D'Tox, I always work out a flat rate for items when I take consignments.

On occasion I havetried "minimum X and 50/50 over" deal, but those really suck because you really are working for your consignor instead of for yourself.

In the case where I have sold many of the weapons in a box (for example), but not all of them I will typically take my profits and buy out the remainder of the crate so I can pay off the consignor all at once. Then if I need toI can blow them out at cost and recover my cash, or price them down at least so I can see more movement. This makes consignors happy.

I guess I'll have to sit down this weekend and make up a nice 'guide' for merchants.