Merchant Archive
Thread: A Week In The Life Of A Merchant: Reflections Over Tea
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Pipeur
Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:10 am
#1
As the galaxy goes to bed for an extended nap, Pipeur brews some of her special Zabrakian Blue Tea as she reflects on her week. Her storerooms still have over a thousand items, even after hours of trying to teach her vendors to simply remember the prices and just put the damn things back on the shelves. As she sips the fresh tea, she smiles as she thinks of her simpleton vendors.
Pipeur opens the master ledger, hidden in a false drawer on the side of her desk, and opens the book the Imperial Auditors will never see. Her thoughts are immediately filled with the events that transipred in her Bestine shop earlier this week. Since space parts became available, Pipeur prided herself on being one of the first vendors to offer ship parts on Tatooine and now the small complex between Bestine and Anchorhead held the esteemed position of having the oldest surviving ship parts vendor on the planet. Her eyes scanned page after page of sales, all on one day, all to one Shipwright. 284 parts, all gone. While she couldn't help but smile at the large profits at the end of each page, she dreaded the fact that her vendor was now, for the first time, dismally empty. True, the shipwright had cleaned her out of only non-reengineered parts, but the other sales this week were unlike anything she had seen before. All 4 shops had record sale, all due to her listing them on the global bazzar.
Pipeur fires up her holonet and contacts her bank, accessing her account quickly. The week's profits are staggering, but at what cost she wonders. She liked the pace of things before. Moderate sales meant moderate efforts in purchasing. Now, she must double her efforts or face having sub-standard vendors. But purchasing this week was neraly impossible. She had visited her favorite factory direct outlets, only to find that their stock too was reduced. And those lovely loot vendors that she so enjoyed going to, had no bargains at all.
As she leans back in her chair and replaces the ledger in its hiding spot, Pipeur wonders if her long run as a pure merchant now draws to a close. She has enjoyed the time spent scouring the galaxy for deals to bring back to her shops, so that she could offer the widest selection of goods possible to her customers at reasonable prices. As she finishes her tea, Pipeur looks at the new pistol she bought yesterday. Yes, maybe it's time to consider moving on. Being a merchant has been fun, but now the strain of the extra work demanded to continue in providing fully stocked vendors may be just too much. Sure she could unlist her vendors from the bazzar, but isn't making sales the point of being a merchant? Confused and frustrated, Pipeur picks up the pistol to confront the rats she hears scurrying outside.
Pipeur
The HI Shop
A division of PanGalactic Industries
Pipeur opens the master ledger, hidden in a false drawer on the side of her desk, and opens the book the Imperial Auditors will never see. Her thoughts are immediately filled with the events that transipred in her Bestine shop earlier this week. Since space parts became available, Pipeur prided herself on being one of the first vendors to offer ship parts on Tatooine and now the small complex between Bestine and Anchorhead held the esteemed position of having the oldest surviving ship parts vendor on the planet. Her eyes scanned page after page of sales, all on one day, all to one Shipwright. 284 parts, all gone. While she couldn't help but smile at the large profits at the end of each page, she dreaded the fact that her vendor was now, for the first time, dismally empty. True, the shipwright had cleaned her out of only non-reengineered parts, but the other sales this week were unlike anything she had seen before. All 4 shops had record sale, all due to her listing them on the global bazzar.
Pipeur fires up her holonet and contacts her bank, accessing her account quickly. The week's profits are staggering, but at what cost she wonders. She liked the pace of things before. Moderate sales meant moderate efforts in purchasing. Now, she must double her efforts or face having sub-standard vendors. But purchasing this week was neraly impossible. She had visited her favorite factory direct outlets, only to find that their stock too was reduced. And those lovely loot vendors that she so enjoyed going to, had no bargains at all.
As she leans back in her chair and replaces the ledger in its hiding spot, Pipeur wonders if her long run as a pure merchant now draws to a close. She has enjoyed the time spent scouring the galaxy for deals to bring back to her shops, so that she could offer the widest selection of goods possible to her customers at reasonable prices. As she finishes her tea, Pipeur looks at the new pistol she bought yesterday. Yes, maybe it's time to consider moving on. Being a merchant has been fun, but now the strain of the extra work demanded to continue in providing fully stocked vendors may be just too much. Sure she could unlist her vendors from the bazzar, but isn't making sales the point of being a merchant? Confused and frustrated, Pipeur picks up the pistol to confront the rats she hears scurrying outside.
Pipeur
The HI Shop
A division of PanGalactic Industries
Message Edited by Pipeur on 04-02-2005 05:11 AM
bluejanus
Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:35 pm
#2
Let me guess, this is fantasy roleplaying. Shipwright making you rich? Ha, that's a good one!
Smart_Darwin
Sun Apr 03, 2005 12:43 am
#3
Wow!
That is a wonderful post. I had to become a merchant as a way to reach any pruchasers for my architect good, not because a necessariliy liked the merchant proffesion. I never quite got what anyone would do as a "pure" merchant, but now I understand.
Pipeur
Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:08 am
#4
Meh, I was just bored waiting for the server's extended maintenance to end. And yes, the shipwright part is true. I have made more on that vendor than any of my others. SW's are now among my best repeat customers. I can't keep enough in stock for them.
Ani_cul
Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:16 am
#5
Pipeur wrote:
Meh, I was just bored waiting for the server's extended maintenance to end. And yes, the shipwright part is true. I have made more on that vendor than any of my others. SW's are now among my best repeat customers. I can't keep enough in stock for them.
I beleive that fully, I am a chatty person and always full of links and WPs for people.
One I constantly get asked for is a good SW.
Pity the ones I knew quit the profession last month, there is a huge market for them by people who LOVE JTL.
Sure they didn't need anything at first, but now they want bigger better ships, and noone is there to help them.
{speaking on Sunrunner of course}
I wish folks could learn to stick to it and hang on,
BEs who disappeared from slow weeks
SWs who traded profs to be 'more profitable'
Docs who think buffinf is all we want and don't heal any more
The list goes on..People gave up playing their profession and started doing jobs. 
Fobok
Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:13 pm
#6
Ani_cul wrote:
Pipeur wrote:
Meh, I was just bored waiting for the server's extended maintenance to end. And yes, the shipwright part is true. I have made more on that vendor than any of my others. SW's are now among my best repeat customers. I can't keep enough in stock for them.I beleive that fully, I am a chatty person and always full of links and WPs for people.
One I constantly get asked for is a good SW.Pity the ones I knew quit the profession last month, there is a huge market for them by people who LOVE JTL.
Sure they didn't need anything at first, but now they want bigger better ships, and noone is there to help them.
{speaking on Sunrunner of course}I wish folks could learn to stick to it and hang on,
BEs who disappeared from slow weeks
SWs who traded profs to be 'more profitable'
Docs who think buffinf is all we want and don't heal any more
The list goes on..People gave up playing their profession and started doing jobs.
I totally agree with this. Finding good SWs is hard even on Starsider, and our server's a hit with space. I've also seen people give up DE for the same reasons, Doctors giving up from the early hints of the combat update, tailors give up because too much competition (now leading to finding an active tailor being almost as difficult as finding a good SW, unless you happen to know someone), and so on. I can't believe people give up so easily, and sometimes over things like rumours. It's really frustrating.
I like making droids, so I make droids, no matter how profitable it may be. I may not go to a lot of work to stock my vendor when I know I'll have little sales, but I almost always keep my tag up to take special orders. While I'll admit I do buff lines with my doctor, that's only to make money for the present. I made a doctor as I just like playing healers.
I do like making money, of course. I work to make money, but I don't choose my profession around it. (Well, ok, I did choose DE to make money with JTL, but only on the 'stay in business' level. I dropped Architect originally because I couldn't afford to stay in business, but if I can keep meeting my costs I'll keep a profession I like. I'd love to get an AV-21 someday, but otherwise, I don't care about getting rich as much as just keeping myself going.)
The only reason I haven't tried shipwright on any server is because I know I couldn't meet the costs to get to master. There's no way I could manage that level of resources, and all the guilds that would support me already have shipwrights, or wouldn't trust strangers to keep active enough to meet their needs.
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