Merchant Archive
Thread: Imagine..
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TK-SixNine
Sun Oct 03, 2004 7:55 pm
#1
..If every retail store and outlet you knew of had every item out for sale dissappear into their back rooms every 14 days.
Now that the DEVS have "Tweaked" Merchant to curb the practices that they found unsavory, can anyone please explain why there is a limit for an item to be up for sale at all? They are my employees, and I say it sits there for sale until I tell them otherwise. This is by far and away the WORST part about being a merchant.
With over 1900 items for sale acrost my vendors, it is WORK and not FUN keeping them stocked.
Please, for the love of your perticular diety if there is one.. Please get them to get rid of this timer now that they have made their grand changes. Prove to some of us that they don't just listen to jedi's complaints.
Sorry folks, this is really getting to me. Logging in every day and having to delete a small but substancial mountain of useless emails telling me that this went off sale.
Ugh.
Thanks for all your time and attention.
Now that the DEVS have "Tweaked" Merchant to curb the practices that they found unsavory, can anyone please explain why there is a limit for an item to be up for sale at all? They are my employees, and I say it sits there for sale until I tell them otherwise. This is by far and away the WORST part about being a merchant.
With over 1900 items for sale acrost my vendors, it is WORK and not FUN keeping them stocked.
Please, for the love of your perticular diety if there is one.. Please get them to get rid of this timer now that they have made their grand changes. Prove to some of us that they don't just listen to jedi's complaints.
Sorry folks, this is really getting to me. Logging in every day and having to delete a small but substancial mountain of useless emails telling me that this went off sale.
Ugh.
Thanks for all your time and attention.
TK-SixNine
Sat Oct 09, 2004 6:21 pm
#2
I am not talking about the bazzar. That can stay as is since it dosent require maint or skillpoints to use.
But this 14 day limit on vendors has to go. Do the math, 1900 items all on a 14 day timer. Thats 135.7 items that have to be reloaded PER DAY. Thats absurd.
I personally see it as the biggest change needed at present.
So what do I need to do now? Start a petition to get this change even considered?
Whats your opinion, i'd like to know.
Bright blessings.
But this 14 day limit on vendors has to go. Do the math, 1900 items all on a 14 day timer. Thats 135.7 items that have to be reloaded PER DAY. Thats absurd.
I personally see it as the biggest change needed at present.
So what do I need to do now? Start a petition to get this change even considered?
Whats your opinion, i'd like to know.
Bright blessings.
Elyssa
Sat Oct 09, 2004 6:25 pm
#3
That 14 day timer is for vendors that go unused. If your vendors are getting customers or you are actively placing things on sale, the items will sit for 30 days.
I'm not sure what the game time to real time conversion rate would be, but imagine if a "real world" retail outlet went 14 weeks without having any customers.
Odds are that they'd go out of business.
This simulates that on an accelerated scale.
TK-SixNine
Sat Oct 09, 2004 9:54 pm
#4
All i know is every single day when i login, I have a small but substancial mountain of useless emails to delete. And at least an hour of restock to do. The argument about "I'm not sure what the game time to real time conversion rate would be, but imagine if a "real world" retail outlet went 14 weeks without having any customers." i cannot follow because the whole 14 week issue is new to me. I am talking 14 DAYS.
At some level it shouldnt matter. Using your analogy if I was a wealthy person and kept the bills paid who cares how much I sell? Yes, the DEVs dont want it as storage and thats fine. But i still fail to see where there is a timer on an item being for sale at all. Think of all the resources the systems have to delegate to tracking every items timer on your galaxy of choice. Seems to me it would be mutually benificial to do away with it all together.
I have yet to hear anyone who enjoys this aspect of being a merchant. And since we all pay to have fun, I feel this timer goes against what we are paying for.
Thats all.
Thanks for your input just the same.
At some level it shouldnt matter. Using your analogy if I was a wealthy person and kept the bills paid who cares how much I sell? Yes, the DEVs dont want it as storage and thats fine. But i still fail to see where there is a timer on an item being for sale at all. Think of all the resources the systems have to delegate to tracking every items timer on your galaxy of choice. Seems to me it would be mutually benificial to do away with it all together.
I have yet to hear anyone who enjoys this aspect of being a merchant. And since we all pay to have fun, I feel this timer goes against what we are paying for.
Thats all.
Thanks for your input just the same.
Elyssa
Sat Oct 09, 2004 11:58 pm
#5
It's a game.
Games have mechanics that must exist to insure the system stays in flux and does not become stagnant.
This means that you have to actively be using your vendors or they're just cluttering up the database and will be removed.
The "real life" example was merely for the sake of analogy and has no bearing beyond that.
As for the item time limit (it's 30 days), you should ask yourself why it hasn't sold in that amount of time. Are your prices too high? Is there no demand for the item? Are you overstocked? Do you have a bad location? Are you just using the vendor for storage?
If your prices are too high, try lowering them.
If you're overstocked, lower your prices or just keep restocking until they sell.
If there's no demand, maybe you should just destroy the item and be done with it.
If your location is bad, consider moving.
If you're just using it for storage, the 14-day "untouched" rule was put in place specifically to discourage this.
Note: Relisting from the stockroom does NOT reset the 14-day timer. Only placing an item on sale from your inventory will do it.
The timer is annoying, yes, but it is necessary.
Without it, items would just clutter the database forever.
Just imagine how bad you'd have had it back when the timer was only SEVEN days.
Now imagine how good it'll be when they finally give us that magic "relist as before" button. (Scheduled sometime betwen the combat revamp and hell freezing over.)
LadyGrey
Sun Oct 10, 2004 7:25 am
#6
Even the IRS, an entity that is not known for their ability to empathize with people, can accept a business that continues to lose money (usually you can only lose money in a business for 3 years running). It has to meet several standards, though, in order to not qualify as a hobby, rather than a business. You have to show that you make a serious attempt to advertise, that your prices are within reasonable limits (neither too high, nor too low), that you carry sufficient stock to offer potential buyers a reasonable choice, and that your merchandise comes up to the same quality as that of successful businesses.
My vendors are are registered on the world map (not that it matters, since if you don't get customers, the vendors don't show up, because you need at least one customer coming in to reset the world map). I have put out barker droids numerous times, with very limited success.
My prices are quite reasonable, and in some cases are the lowest I have seen.
I carry sufficient stock so that people have choices, both of number of items they choose to purchase, and when possible, different colors and styles. I carry merchandise from several crafter lines, so my store has a wide variety of items.
For merchandise where quality is possible, I try to always carry the best-quality merchandise that a year of collecting good-quality resources can achieve.
If this was RL, then the IRS would agree that I have done everything I can to make my store/vendors successful, and would accept the fact that my store/vendors just don't get much business. However, since it is Sony, and since it is a game (isn't this supposed to be fun?), I am penalized with the threat of having my vendors disappear unless I do some jumping-through-the-hoops type of gameplay, of actually pulling items off the vendor, out of the storeroom, into my inventory, and relisting them, just to keep my vendor from disappearing, with all of the items on it. And I must do this with all of my vendors at least once per week, because nobody is really sure of what the timers are, or how they get reset, because part of the gameplay and game content and immersion is to not tell us a single blasted thing about how the game really works!
My location is possibly what has kept me from having much of any success with my store and vendors, but I always thought that the purpose of registering on world map, and using barker droids,was to level the playing field, because there are not many "successful locations" for setting up stores. Most of the crafters that I have talked to have the same problems that I do, of just not getting customers to come into the store.
It is very fine and good for someone who just happened to find a good spot, and just happened to get a customer base, to come in and tell us poor stupid bad merchants how to do it. But, in reality, in this game it is more a matter of luck, than skill, that allows you to become a successful merchant. You can say allyou want about how hard you worked at developing your business, but I have done all of that, too. I have worked very hard, and I know other people that have worked very hard, and we haven't been able to do so much as to break even. I support my store/vendors with my sales on the bazaar. That is my gameplay and game content and immersion.
So, my vendors are just cluttering up the database? Give me some real honest way of advertising them, and I will accept that argument. Otherwise, I am at the mercy of the daily server reset, and barker droids that barely last 30 minutes before needing another battery shoved into them. I think it is ironic that the IRS would be more sympathetic than Sony is.
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