Merchant Archive

Please explain to me how the merchant experience is working. I have sold a few million dollars worth of stuff off of my merchant I am have got very little experience I think 3 boxes.

Is it set up for the amount per item? If so that is not right, I sell very few items but very high price tag items.

If it is per item I would be better off putting 20 dollar stimpacks to gain levels, instead of 300k PA Halls.

Common belief is as follows (But don't take it as gospel)

You get 50 MXP per hour per vendor that is initialised and has items for sale...

You get 50 MXP per time someone accesses your vendor (Note repeated accessing by the same person within a given time frame won't accrue additional XP) - Not dependent upon wether you actually make a sale or not..

You get 50 MXP per time someone pays an entry fee into your buildings.

Note: the above has been debated over and over and over.. And still doesn't seem to ring true, but that's the best we got right now..

The confusing thing is MXP doesnt update instantly like all other XP does so its very hard to verify what actions are giving the XP (Part of the above may be broken, or not even initialised yet..)

To conclude...

Slap as many vendors as you can down..

Charge 1 Credit to access your buildings..

Make sure you have at least 1 sale on each vendor..

Get a load of mates to "take a look" as often as they can...

I'm doing the above and getting about 5,000 MXP per day with 4 vendors Live...

I was told... And havent been able to verify this...

It updates each time someone accesses your vendor(s)..

It is definitely NOT by amount. I believe it is by item, but sometimes I get a lot of xp without anyone buying anything which tends to make me think it has to do with activity in general and not necessarily sales in particular.

If you are ONLY selling PA Halls you are not a merchant anyways and you would do better saving your skill points and making a deal with a merchant to sell them for you. Plus you help build a good merchant base, let someone else worry about the headache of running a vendor in the first place.

Maybe I misunderstood the advantages to a vendor. I thought it was so you didn't have to meet people to sell the item.

I hate waiting for hours while someone gets the money and travels to the planet or even worse they want me to do that. Like I said before I can get the experience, I will just sell cheap stuff. I just don't agree that someone selling something for 20 credits should get the same if not more experience than selling something for 350k credits.

And I think that expecting to getmerchant XP by the boat load simply because you have a few large items to sell is unreasonable. Being a merchant is about building a customer base and getting people coming back again and again. It isn't just about selling a few large ticket items.

What is it you are trying to gain out of the merchant tree? You can run a vendor without even being a merchant so why would you go for merchant? Why wouldh't you just partner with a merchant, build a relationship and get to the point that they can sell your PA halls on their vendors. If you are looking for advertising power a merchant who has an established business is the way to go anyway since they undoubtedly get 10 questons a day about houses, harvestors, and PA halls.

How can we as merchantsdo a better job of making it easier for others to understand the advantages of using our services?

I get 20-50 tells everytime I log on, that is why I don't want to have to run around. I have a good client base now. The problem is that soon architects will slow way down, since our product does not decay. Basically we have a limited market and an huge supply.

Anyhow at that time I will switch over to another profession (maybe weaponsmith since they make 10-20 times what I make per resource) at that time I want to have more advertising power.

To be honest it isn't that big of deal, but I wish I would of know before hand Now the cost for the vendor based on the cost of the item is killing me.

As a pure merchant Ill re-enforce whats said..

If vendor fees are killing you, don't sell them yourself..

If your selling them at 350k, but vendor maintenace is costing you 100k - Why not sell them direct to a pure merchant for 300k and let the merchant have the headache of vendor fees. Hell if your getting that much demand, a merchant would bite your arm off to be your front man. You just direct all your tells to the merchant.. - Sell all your stuff to a single point - and you both make a profit, hell you'll probably make more that way anyways, as you have no vendor fees.

Shame your not on Eclipse.. I would take everything you could throw at me off your hands.... I'm a "proper" merchant

As far as I know the hourly xp is gone. You only get 50 for access fee and 50 for someone using your vendor.

I will also add that from what I can tell after you gain your 50xp from someone accessing your vendor that if he goes to a different vendor right away you dont' get another 50 but I'm not positive on this. Just seems to be the case, I usually only gain 100 xp per customer. (am guessing there is a time limit for each player of probably 30 to 60 minutes on how much xp you gain from them accessing your vendors)...

With the hourly xp gone I do think they should give us an extra 50 xp for every sale, just seems fair.

Im on Starsider and I don't have a couple of mill to sink in to PA halls but I could sell for an Architect who wanted to work our an arrangement. I have been asked about PA halls like everyday for a month. I always pass them off to an Architect that I know. If he would sell through me I would arrange all the deals make sure the money was ready and then get the deal done.

Really people. USE YOUR LOCAL MERCHANTS!