Ranger Archive

I've seen several folks post messages here and in the Scout forums looking for pricing guides for their animal resources. So I thought I'd share mine.

CAVEAT: There is nothing special about the pricing guide that follows. I make no claims that my pricing structure is superior to any other pricing structure. I basically wanted a guide that I felt comfortable using, that seemed to reward me for my time, which factored in market competition, and which gave a fair price to the customer based on the quality of the resource. So I poked around with some numbers until I got one that I liked. I didn't do any cost/benefit analysis or study the supply/demand curve or anything of that nature. Basically I just plugged some numbers in until it "felt" right. So far, it has worked, which is all that I wanted it to do. But there may be others which work just as well, or even better. So don't take the following guide as anything other than "How this one guy on Tempest does it." Because that's all it is.



A Brief Economics 101 Lesson


When the customer pays you, the procurer of animal resources, they are paying for four things:

1) The resource itself.

2) Your time. The time you spend hunting animal resources in bulk is time you are not spending running Critter or Faction destroy missions, both of which pay significantly more per hour than does hunting. Also factored into this are any expenses (getting to/from certain planets, getting heals, and so on).

3) Their time. The time you spend hunting animal resources is time they don't have to spend doing the same. You are relieving them of having to do their own hunting, at least for the resources you're selling.

4) The opportunity to buy the resource. High-quality animal resources are in demand, and will always be in demand. The competition is fierce. People are offering 50cpu for average quality Herbivore Meat. I think that's a little excessive, personally, but it's clear that the market will support higher prices for animal resources. If some crafters are willing to pay your price when others are not, those crafters reap the benefit while the others are left sucking the hind teat.



The Price Guide

Step #1: Know how your resources will be used

Herbivore Meat, Fish Meat, and Dathomirian Insect Meat go towards making stimpacks. Avian Meat goes into making enhancement packs.

Other meats go toward Bio-Engineer tissues. Theoretically, Chefs are also a potential market, but until SOE decides to give the Chef class the Luvin'(tm) it so richly deserves, they're not really much of a market.

Hides and Bone are for armorsmiths, in the main.

These are not the only uses for these items, but this is a good way to focus your efforts. You can sell high-quality Yavinian Wooly Hide to a Tailor or an Architect, for example. But neither one of those will be interested in paying you for the quality of the hide, since quality doesn't matter in their schematics. An Armorsmith, on the other hand, will gladly pay you a higher price for high-quality Yavinian Wooly (since it's a specific requirement for Padded Armor Segments). Likewise, Insect Meat goes towards making Disease Packs for Combat Medics. But I'm not sure how big this market is.


Step #2: Know how to assess the quality of your resources

You can get a weighted average for any resource you have, provided that you know how the stats are weighted in the schematics. The following formulas will tell how whether or not the stuff you have is outstanding quality or crap quality.

For Herbivore Meat, Avian Meat, Fish Meat, and Dathomirian Insect Meat:
(OQ + OQ + PE)/3

For all other kinds of meat:
(OQ + PE + FL)/3

For hide and bone:
[(OQ * 7) + (MA * 3) + (SR * 3) + UT]/14



Step #3: Calculate a price based on the quality of your resources

For a weighted average of 0-500:
5 cpu (This is how much I figure my time is worth. I won't sell for less than 5 cpu.)

For a weighted average of 500-800:
(Avg. - 200)/60

For a weighted average of 800-900:
(Avg. - 700)/10

For a weighted average of 900-1000:
[(3 * Avg.) - 2500]/10

If it's Fish meat, multiply the result by 4 (since it takes so long to get fish).

These formulas will give you costs per unit a sliding scale, based on quality. Here are some reference points for non-fish items:

Weighted Avg. of 500: 5.00cpu
Weighted Avg. of 600: 6.67cpu
Weighted Avg. of 700: 8.33cpu
Weighted Avg. of 800: 10.00cpu
Weighted Avg. of 850: 15.00cpu
Weighted Avg. of 900: 20.00cpu
Weighted Avg. of 950: 35.00cpu
Weighted Avg. of 1000: 50.00cpu


MATHEMATICAL OBSERVATION: One of the consequences of these formulas is that it will be much, MUCH harder to get high quality hides and bone than it will be to get high quality Herbivore Meat. Herbivore Meat only has two stats to worry about: PE and OQ. And it's pretty common to get a resource with those two stats above 800. It's much less common to get a resource with OQ, PE, and FL all above 800. And it's REALLY FREAKIN' RARE to get hides and bone with OQ, UT, SR, and MA all above 800.

As a consequence, I have noticed that my prices calculated by these formulas often tend to undershoot the prices offered by Master B-E's and Master Armorsmiths. So I am thinking about adding a 1.25x multiplier to any resource which requires PE, OQ, and FL, and a 1.5x multiplier to hides and bone.


NOTE: It is probably not a good idea to have multiple prices for the same resource. That is, if you have Herbivore Meat (which Bio-Engineers can also use), don't have a "Doctor" price, which is based solely on PE and OQ, and a separate "B-E" price based on PE, OQ, and FL. The "B-E" price will almost certainly be lower than the "Doctor" price, and your Doctor customers will be wondering why they have to pay so much when B-E's can get the same exact resource from you at a cheaper price. This will be shortly followed by them getting their B-E friends to come buy the stuff from you at a lower price. So best to just stick with a single price, based on who would get the most use out of it.

This is a great guidline to use for our pricing. Thanks Volsted!

Volsted, You always have the most informative post i,ve ever seen thanks for your time in putting this together.

Drydin
Master Scout, Novice Ranger
Valcyn
Member of the Cowboys From Hell

You gonna do somethin'? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?

Volsted I love your posts...are you a mathemetician in real life or something?

This guide is great and I think I'm going to start using it all the time! One of the hardest things for me in this gamehas been to figure outhow to price my resources and the stimpacks I make as a part-time medic. I get widely differing opinions from people, depending on what they use. I've had architects and tailors tell me I'm over priced and docs and armorsmiths tell me I'm underpriced. I tried comparing prices on the bazaar to come up with a fair market value, but just got overwhelmed looking atthe bazillion containers of resources that are there...and the prices vary so widely, it's ridculous to even attempt to come up with anything consistent by doing that.

I was told that charging 5 cpu for low-average stuff was overpricing (this is on Sunrunner). I usually just pick a number between one and ten (most often choosing 2.5 - 4) and using that as my cpu. My stuff sellspretty fast, but most of the time I feel like I could have made more money just running destroy missions, unless I'm lucky enough to harvest a whole bunch of one particular resource that I get at least 4 cpu for.

This guide is at least a workable solution to my dilemma and I thank you for sharing it.

Xandrys Dar'Lakon

Antarian Ranger

Head Huntress of NRF

Darkstone, Lok, Sunrunner

Thanks Volsted...I vote float!

Good enough for me... Up it goes.

Nice guide.. I tend to decide on my own prices. But if I have enough of the product, I use the "Trade Forums" here to auction it off. That way you'll usually double your profits.

Well done, Volsted. Much easier than decidingrandom prices and shoving the stuff on the Bazaar

this is precicely what I was looking for. thank you very very mutch.

Just wanted to give a big thanks Volsted. I built a spreadsheet out of your formulas and now I can quickly calculate fair prices.

And the good news is usually customers aren't balking at them either. They seem to be agreeing with the values your formulas are producing.

--Arhnoldus - 4244 Ranger (gone camping!)

/bump this is good stuff people give Volsted his props.

Drydin
Master Scout, Novice Ranger
Valcyn
Member of the Cowboys From Hell

You gonna do somethin'? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?

A very nice guide indeed. I just printed myself out a copy of it for reference ingame. Thanks for another great guide, Volsted.

Kyyran Evagg'orr
Master Scout/ Master Ranger/ Rifleman
Chilastra

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Yowakdoe wrote:
Thanks Volsted...I vote float!

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I second that motion!