Ranger Archive

There are different types of buyers, it seems. Just wondered what type other rangers prefer to work for. Have you noticed any "creative" or helpful types of buyers, or do you find too many demanding people who don't realize that you have a life in the real world and can't spend 24/7 filling an "order".. or do you get too many requests from grinders to find you junk hides/meat when you could be spending that same time hunting something that will give you a fair or excellent price? Sorry for the long post, but I'd really like to hear some other ranger comments.. These are just my opinions, but here's what I've found:

There are smart buyers that will buy a certain resource for high or fair priced CPU, and will take ANY amount, from ANY hunter. These people are easy to work for.. because they're flexible, they end up having many hunters working for them, and they end up getting a few hundred thousand of that resource within a few days. Both parties benefit. I like these people

Then, there are those that think hides and meat are as easy to come by as checking the hopper on a harvester. They want 100k or more units, and they want it fast. You're bombarded with tells and emails every 30 minutes with queries as to your current unit count and an ETA when they can expect it. Don't bother trying to sell it to them unless you meet the minimum 50k or 100k unit offer.. 40k units is useless to them as they're trying to do a factory run. (It never occurs to them to hire SEVERAL people to hunt and take whatever they have -- it adds up and they'll get it quicker). I don't like these buyers.

There are creative buyers who will pay you more CPU for incentive if you bring them in larger stacks. Maybe 30cpu for 1-10k, 35cpu for >10k-50k, 45cpu in stacks of >50k or something similar.. They'll offer to throw in a suit of ubese for every stack of 40k, or a set of composite for every 80k for example. I had a very inventive email sent to me from a similar buyer who actually kept track of who offered what, and if you turned in small amounts but eventually reached 40k or whatever, you'd receive a set of armor, or he would start paying you at increased CPU. Brilliant! Maybe they'll offer free buffs if they're a doctor, or vegesh and brandy if they're a chef.

Then, there are others who want to pay you less the more you harvest. They ask you what you'd charge, and suggest that if they ask you to hunt more, that you should reduce your cost. Nevermind that you're spending longer time, mind numbing time, hunting insects on corellia for a 100k stack.

Then there are grinders. My last offer - 80k hides (any) at 2cpu. No....

Does anyone really want to spend their game gathering junk resources that don't do anything but help another player set up a macro to grind through a proffesion? I'd rather hunt something of good quality, to help other players craft something useful for the community, but that's just me.

Anyway, I realize not every crafter can pay high amounts for resources. I'll gladly hunt stuff at 15-25cpu for some buyers who I know will never pay more than that. They need resources too. I just prefer to find buyers who are flexible.. I find "contract" orders somewhat restrictive. After all, this is a game.. not work. Sometimes there are real world things that interrupt my game time, believe it or not. I guess the point of this is that it seems more beneficial for a buyer to say "Here's what I'm paying for X, and here's my WP", rather than saying "I'd like to hire you, and ONLY you to get me 200k units of X, and I need it before the weekend".

At first: I only hunt decent stuff unless I'm asked by a PA mate for grinding stuff (rarely).

The usual good stuff hunting is like this: I notice a new decent huntable popping up somewhere (swgcraft or RIN helps there usually), if it happens to be on endor, yavin or dathmomir I start hunting it (otherwise I ignore it), make contact with crafters from my PA that might be interested and deliver to them at rates massively below what the open market has to offer. Once their need is fulfilled or if noone wants that stuff inside the PA at all (*very* unlikely as there is not a single crafing profession we don't have ) I monitor the galaxy trade board and sell to the person with the best offer (except that person is someone I don't like, then it's the next best offer usually ).

Works ok for me, and I don't have to figure out pricing schemes and whatnot .

Oh and I never, ever take contracts on a 'fixed' amount, I deliver what I can and want to get, if it happens to 'fill' an amount someone is aiming at so be it, but noone can expect to be able to put me under "pressure" with asking for fixed amounts .

Message Edited by darmokVtS on 07-13-2004 08:41 PM

I am a lazy Ranger. When something good spawns there are usually a bunch of people on RIN, the trade forums, and the spaceports offering prices for certain amounts. I jot down their names in my little black book and go hunting. If I end up collecting a good amount I go down my list and ask "are you still offering ___ for the wooly hide?" If they say yes I sell to them. If I DONT collect a good amount due to RL reasons or whatever I will stick the resources into my "resource house" that all my guild has access to.

My gaming times are too unpredicable to form good client relationships sadly.

Great posts guys (and girl) These ideas are exactly what I was looking for..

BTW, I love the concept of a ranger terminal for buying and selling resources.

Here's one of the more interesting buyers I have (who is unfortunately on vacation for 6 weeks). He found me a few months ago when I sold a bunch of scrap meat on a bazaar. He doesn't speak much english, but it's not a problem. His vendor is located near coronet, and he buys meat, eggs and milk for BE stuff. He doesn't pay much, but he's great to work for.
His only minimum requirement is 1k, but he has lots of hunters selling to him so it accumulates. He has a fixed price structure according to the combined stats of PE, FL & OQ. 15cpu >1800, 20cpu >2100, 25cpu >2400 and about 35cpu for >2700. That's just an average, and he raises or lowers the amount depending on how many credits he has left in his bank, but he always keeps you up to date on what he's paying.

The best part is that it doesn't matter where this meat comes from as long as it meets the combined stats. He sends out an email at least once a week to keep his hunters informed of what's out there, along with planet, resource type, price, and all of the creatures that drop it. He's always on top of resource shifts and posts often to SWGcraft. It leaves you free to hunt what you want, and if you're hunting something for someone else, he doesn't send you /tells and emails. Easy to work with and a good constant source of credits.. (when he's not vacationing)

On Eclipse we use a channel, RIN, for this kind of thing. We usually cherry pick the most lucritive and open-ended requests (really not quite fair to call them contracts). I have folks I have hunted for and they mail me all the time if a good shift shows up.

In every case, I try to at least get them started with a 10k stack. I tell them that more then that will come as is possible. I try to get my friends that I have sold to before up first, followed by requests from RIN. In all cases I tell them to send a g-mail so that I can use it as a database of orders. In the g-mail is what they want and where to drop it off (vendor). I then go through them, in order, and try to get what they want. After the hunt I drop off to that vendor and then "courtisy reply" to that g-mail the amount and the exact name of the vendor and the price.

On the original order I never "garentee" they will get anything, or even close to a factory run amount due to the vageries of time and luck. As has been mentioned before, if they do not understand that we are not even close to being as dependable as a harvestor then I don't speak farther with them.

I do periodic scans of the galaxy and try to get ahead of shifts sometimes but that never lasts more then a day as the merchent finds out (often at the same time I do) what is good in a hurry.

PS. I never price higher then 20 Cr/U for any meat/hide/bone.... except fish meat. I have a pricing calculator spreadsheet that I use to determine the price.