Merchant Archive

I'm going to admit right off the bat that I don't know a darn thing about this profession. I'm working as an armorsmith/tailor on the Chilastra server. But I have considered jumping into this class, and just wanted to provide my two cents.

I've seen a number of posts on moving vendors up to Business IV or removing it from the artisan class entirely. Honestly that's not a bad idea. I do like the idea of Merchants being able to sell vendors as well, with the merchant gaining a percentage of the selling price of the item, which is split between the seller and the merchant (say a 10% cut?). Or perhaps the crafters sell their own items in a merchant's store, with the store getting a piece of the action (same concept). Or, barring that, all maintaince fees on the vendor go directly to the merchant, rather than to some nebulous SWG economic black hole.

Maintainance on vendors and any public building that is not the delcared residence should be next to nothing for high level merchants. Ok, perhaps not next to nothing, but for someone who has level 4 in efficency, perhaps owning 5 stores costs the same as owning one, as you gain economies of scale.This would allow merchants to set up stores easily across a large region, or spanning several planets, as large corporations do. A master merchant should be the equivalent to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

I don't have any ideas for advertising, other than perhaps, like lots are, you have the ability to set up a certain number of signs (and different kinds) to advertise your stores.

Anyway, that's just my thoughts on improving the merchant profession. They may not even be feasable, but I think the class has the potential to be really cool, but the devs should spend a little more time on it. This should be one profession where people are making money hand over fist.