Ranger Archive
Thread: Guide: Ranger Vendors 101
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Cryos_Merovingian
Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:44 am
#1
Ranger Vendors 101
This guide is meant to help those entrepreneurial rangers out there who are keen on running their own business. It will be useful for those who need help just getting started as well as those who are veterans and looking for ways to expand/improve their operations. I invite others to contribute to this and I will be pulling from other posts to create as robust a guide as possible. Thanks in advance for you input and feedback and I hope this is useful to you.
Expectations
Before getting started, is important that you set your expectations about what you will be getting out of this. Running a vendor can be fun and rewarding in a variety of different ways. However, Ranger Vendors are not notorious for bringing wealth and riches. You will make a bit of money, yes, but you will not be one of the “wealthy” crafters on your server. You will likely derive the most enjoyment out of running a vendor if your goals are to provide a service for the other rangers and have a good group of ranger friends on your server to help you and shop from you. If you goal is to make money, you will surely be disappointed. Now, onto the fun stuff.
Getting Started
To get started, there are three things you will need:
1) A vendor: Before you can start selling your wares, you need a vendor! At the VERY minimum, you need to have Artisan 0/0/3/0. For more information on starting and running a vendor, please see the link in the following post.
2) Resources: All of the ranger-made goods you sell require resources, so make sure you have LOTS of bone, hide, and meat. A recycler will help you have big stacks of the same resource for you factory, especially since for most items, you stats don’t matter. You will also want to have plenty of resources for camo kits for each planet. Be warned, this part is time consuming.
3) A factory: Part of the real value you provide to your customers is that, although your selling stuff they can make themselves, you’re selling it in crates! Therefore, get a factory (with patience and planning, you’ll fine with just 1) to start making camps, traps, and camo kits. For good information on using a factory, please follow the link below in the next post. Note: You will need a "Weapon, Droid, and General Crafting Station" and the same name tool to make "Manufacturing Schematics" for the factory.
Types of Vendors
Each and every Ranger will run their shop differently. All vendors will be unique with their own special charm. However, there are a few different styles of vendors that you will run into:
Ranger-Made Goods: This is the basic ranger shop. It will carry everything a ranger can make, including traps, camps and camo kits.
Bait and Tackle: This is a fun little shop (with about 0 profit) that sells fishing poles and bait. You can sell custom named fishing poles, which is fun, and you’ll be surprised at the number of people that actually buy bait. Not every fisher is a l33t forager like us rangers!
Ranger Wear: Get a good tailor friend who can make a full line of BE ranger clothing. You can get creative and carry outfits for each planet or just have the basics, it's up to you.
Resources: These shops will usually sell either grind quality resources just for rangers, or open up and sell all resources to all people and profs. I consider this to be a bit beyond the scope of this post (and a “ranger vendor”), but dropped it in here just for good measure.
One-stop Ranger-shop: This vendor will sell everything a ranger could want, including clothes, food, SEAs, and anything else that is specific to the Ranger profession. Some will include weapons and armour, but personally, I don’t see this stuff as being specific to rangers so again, consider it to be beyond the scope of our discussion here.
Resource gatherer ProbablyBethya'ssingle biggest success has been her resource gatherer. The idea is simple - provide a vendor with nothing on it except for a list of organic resources you are buying and their price. Scouts and Rangers go and collect the resource in whatever quantity they can manage (big or small) and offer it to the vendor. I buy it and sell it on as one amalgamated stack. Everybody wins. Customers earn good cpu money even on small stacks that would be worth little on their own. I get to add one or two credits and sell on to grateful crafters to make a profit for myself. It also drives people to my shop as they drop their stacks off at the vendor. Lastly the crafters get the big organic stacks they crave. I keep a special mailing list of rangers who want to be informed of new shifts and my buying price so that those who haven't stopped by recently still get the news and go hunting. At the moment I tend to average 40k to 60k stacks and aim for a 2cpu mark-up for me which means I can make 80k to 120k per resource.
Inventory – “One-stop Ranger-shop”
I will try and be as comprehensive as possible here, but surely your vendor will some of the items here and likely some that aren’t posted. Post items that you think I’ve missed, and I’ll add them in!
All Ranger-made goods – in crates and/or single
Camps
Traps
Camo kits
Droids
Harvester Droids
Droid Batteries
Clothing
BE Pants
BE Shirts
BE Shorts
BE Cloaks/Dusters
Ranger Gloves
Ranger Boots
Ranger Hat
Rebel Signet Ring (+3 Camo)
Spec-ops field agent pack
Light-weight military backpack
Foods
Veghash: +creature harvesting *Always keep veghash stocked*
Jawa Beer: +mask scent
Dweezle: +trapping
Travel Biscuits: +terrain neg.
Terrata: +camouflage
Fishing Gear
Fishing Poles
Bait
Resources – make your own ranger goods!
Grind Quality Bone
Grind Quality Hide
Grind Quality Meat
Grind Quality Metal
Other
Armor Attachments (camo, cover, conceal, etc.)
Clothing Attachments (camo, cover, conceal, etc.)
Tanned Hide
Aroma Screen (+10mask scent – looted stim
CustomNamedItems
Custom named Tanned Hides - e.g. Tanned Krayt Skin, Stretched Goax, Heathen Wookie Hide, Ewok Pelt
Custom named Knives - e.g. "Hunting Knife", "Ranger Ceremonial Knife", "Whittling Knife"
Custom named Food - e.g. "Kreetle Kabobs"
Pricing
Pricing will vary for each server and each vendor. Keep in mind that you will want to cover off the cost of the resources, time, factory costs, and vendor costs associated with selling your wares. For items that other profs make for you, such as clothes and food, the provider can help you set prices and there will likely be other vendors on the server to help you benchmark against.
To help start you off, here is how I price my goods on my server:
Traps: 20cpu
Camps: 5k for a crate of basic through to 25k for a crate of HTFB
Camo kits: roughly 25k – 30k per crate.
Just to show a contrast with a different server, here's Bethya's pricing on FarStar:
Traps I sell for 1k with a crate for 25k.
Camo kits are 100 credits a use, so a 10 use camo kit would be 1k.
Camps are a sliding scale with basic camps at 15 credits up to HTFB's at 90 credits with crates just that individual figure multiplied by 25.
Marketing
Although the new galactic vendor search is a really boon for specialty shops such as these, it is still very important that you advertise your shop. There aren’t many ranger vendors out there, so your biggest problem won’t be about competition so much as it is about just getting people to know you exist. Here are some ideas:
Bazaar: put items (camps, traps, camo) on the bazaar and in the description not that these same items can be bought for cheaper by the crate you your shop. Note: This is less useful now that the galactic vendor search is in place.
Global Bazaar: Obviously making sure that your own vendors are visible under the new search system is important, especially in a trade where the number of practitioners is limited server by server. However, you can also usefully promote your business by placing camo kits on every planet's bazaar.
I do this by placing two single kits (of whatever uses) in ten bazaars - one for each planet. So Endor kits on Endor, Rori kits on Rori and so on. My price is four times the normal price in my shop and in the description for each item on the bazaar, I say exactly that and give the waypoint for my main shop. I am selling at a premium for the convenience of not having to go offworld, it provides a useful service(how many kits do you see locally on each bazaar?), and it promotesmy main shop.
It obviously means you have to do a weekly circuit of the planets (possibly more if they sell) which some might find a pain. Personally, I help myself by only doing one city per planet and usually the busiest so Theed on Naboo, Coronet on Corelliaand so on.
Server Trade Forums: Be sure to post on your server trade forum that your shop exists and provide details on what kind of stuff can be found. Keep the thread updated and bump it when there are changes, addition, or updates. You will find links in the following post to some of these types of posts.
Networking: Rangers are generally a pretty good community and your best customers will likely also be some of your best friends. Therefore, make sure that you’re involved in your server’s RIN and hunting lots with other rangers. This will likely be natural and something you’re already doing, but if you’re some new ranger who pops into the RIN just to say “hey, shop here”, business will stink and so will you.
From Bethya: I Fully support Cryos' comments here. One small thing - many servers have Guilds of Antarian Rangers and if you are not in a guild, you should seriously think about joining your local AR guild to be able to network with a core group of Rangers. Even if you don't join the guild, get pally with them!
Location: Put the vendor wherever it makes you happy. I chose to put mine the south coronet business area because I knew it was convenient for customers and I wanted it to be accessible as possible. I know of some great vendors on my server on tatooine and Lok too though, so do whatever makes you happy.
Trainers: If you have your own house in a player city, have the mayor place a Scout and Ranger trainer out in front of your place. This will draw more attention to your house, give an additional reason for rangers to stop by, and enhance the overall offerings of your business.
Forum Signature: Check out my sig! Every post I make on here advertises my shop and I know for sure than many people become cognisant of my shop via my sig.
Mailings
Swgmail.com offers the ability to track your sales by storing the mails and then creating mailing lists of previous customers. It means that you can build your relationship with customers by mailing them to inform them of news, restocks or new lines. Even better if you give them some bonuses - perhaps a headstart on your announcements to the main trade forum or even special deals just for them.
Remember that business gurus estimate it is seven times cheaper and easier to keep an existing customer than to get a new one.
Profession search
SWG allows you to search for all Rangers online and near you. I have a standard mail advertising the shop in my inbox and my first job on reaching a starport or shuttleport is to do a search and mail any new Rangers that the search finds with details of the vendor. I get lots of appreciative mails back from people who hadn't heard.
Thankyou mails I have a second standard mail in my inbox that I use to say thanks to anyone who buys from me. I include a waypoint for them to save in their list of waypoints with a nicely formatted name (including colour) so it looks much better than the standard one that comes from the SWG vendor system. It takes ten seconds to senda mail like that and is usually much appreciated. You can do a similar mail for people who buy your camo kits from the bazaar - just in case they don't read the descriptionyou provide.
Merchant tools
Although some merchants feel their skills have been devalued by the recent Bazaar changes, I have to say that I think it is still worth making use of the skills if you have them. Register your vendors on the planetary map - some people will be visiting your town for other reasons but if you are on the map, they may spot you and pop in! Don't lose that passing trade.
Use the adbarks cleverly to provide a nice ambience to your shop. Be witty but avoid in-jokes and do use adbarks sparingly (I think)... it's a bit overpowering to have five vendors all shout at you when you first walk through the door!
Décor
This can be a pretty fun part of running a vendor. Although this can be difficult to do if you’re located in a mall, but if you have your own place, decorate away! I had lots of fun decorating my shop and almost all new visitors send me a /tell about how nice my place is. I’m am going to completely steal (cut and paste) a great post by Bethya and put a set of links to different ranger décor images. This is all found in the following post. Thanks Bethya!
Tips, tricks, and advice
Partnerships are Key: There are two types of partnerships that will be critical to your success. The first is with other rangers. These partnerships will be key to selling anything and will also be very useful when you need to go collect resources for a full run of camo kits from any given planet. The second key partnership is with various crafters. If you selling ranger clothing, you need a great tailor friend. For food, a good chef up your sleeve. You’ll also want a droid engineer in your back pocket for great harvester droids and an artisan for fishing poles. So there; tailor by your side, chef up your sleeve, a DE in your back pocket, and an artisan thrown into the mix.
From Bethya:
Like Cryos, I can't stress enough how important it is to strike good partnerships. Few things to add - for fishing rods, find a Master Artisan. Don't make them yourself. A Master Artisan can turn out 99.0 quality rods which is much better than you'll be able to do.
I always ask for a small discount on my partner's usual prices for my bulk buys but then I make sure I sell on at the same price they sell for on their main vendors. Don't undercut them! Secondly, do all you can to promote their shops in your shop! Make sure they get plenty back for their efforts on your behalf and lastly, don't sell everything. If it's clothes, just sell Ranger clothes, if it's food, just sell Ranger food. Promote their shops and let them sell the vercupti and vasarian brandy, other outfits andhawtpants! <-- had to Bethya 
Selling Camo Kits: will usually sell one crate of each planet type to first or second time visitors. After that customers, will really by these only on rare occasions and usually only for Dathomir, and maybe Tatooine.
Making Camo Kits: The biggest pain in the butt item to make and sell is camo kits. It takes 3 planet specific resources for each type (save Dant: 2) which can be VERY time consuming. Especially for planets such as Talus, Corellia, Rori, and Naboo which require resources that drop in low quantities. I typically coordinate a group ranger hunt for this, pay everyone for the resources they collect, and then toss a free crate of the given resource in for them too. This means I don’t make much money at all off camo kits (I may even lose money, not sure) but at least I can keep things stocked.
This guide is meant to help those entrepreneurial rangers out there who are keen on running their own business. It will be useful for those who need help just getting started as well as those who are veterans and looking for ways to expand/improve their operations. I invite others to contribute to this and I will be pulling from other posts to create as robust a guide as possible. Thanks in advance for you input and feedback and I hope this is useful to you.
Expectations
Before getting started, is important that you set your expectations about what you will be getting out of this. Running a vendor can be fun and rewarding in a variety of different ways. However, Ranger Vendors are not notorious for bringing wealth and riches. You will make a bit of money, yes, but you will not be one of the “wealthy” crafters on your server. You will likely derive the most enjoyment out of running a vendor if your goals are to provide a service for the other rangers and have a good group of ranger friends on your server to help you and shop from you. If you goal is to make money, you will surely be disappointed. Now, onto the fun stuff.
Getting Started
To get started, there are three things you will need:
1) A vendor: Before you can start selling your wares, you need a vendor! At the VERY minimum, you need to have Artisan 0/0/3/0. For more information on starting and running a vendor, please see the link in the following post.
2) Resources: All of the ranger-made goods you sell require resources, so make sure you have LOTS of bone, hide, and meat. A recycler will help you have big stacks of the same resource for you factory, especially since for most items, you stats don’t matter. You will also want to have plenty of resources for camo kits for each planet. Be warned, this part is time consuming.
3) A factory: Part of the real value you provide to your customers is that, although your selling stuff they can make themselves, you’re selling it in crates! Therefore, get a factory (with patience and planning, you’ll fine with just 1) to start making camps, traps, and camo kits. For good information on using a factory, please follow the link below in the next post. Note: You will need a "Weapon, Droid, and General Crafting Station" and the same name tool to make "Manufacturing Schematics" for the factory.
Types of Vendors
Each and every Ranger will run their shop differently. All vendors will be unique with their own special charm. However, there are a few different styles of vendors that you will run into:
Ranger-Made Goods: This is the basic ranger shop. It will carry everything a ranger can make, including traps, camps and camo kits.
Bait and Tackle: This is a fun little shop (with about 0 profit) that sells fishing poles and bait. You can sell custom named fishing poles, which is fun, and you’ll be surprised at the number of people that actually buy bait. Not every fisher is a l33t forager like us rangers!
Ranger Wear: Get a good tailor friend who can make a full line of BE ranger clothing. You can get creative and carry outfits for each planet or just have the basics, it's up to you.
Resources: These shops will usually sell either grind quality resources just for rangers, or open up and sell all resources to all people and profs. I consider this to be a bit beyond the scope of this post (and a “ranger vendor”), but dropped it in here just for good measure.
One-stop Ranger-shop: This vendor will sell everything a ranger could want, including clothes, food, SEAs, and anything else that is specific to the Ranger profession. Some will include weapons and armour, but personally, I don’t see this stuff as being specific to rangers so again, consider it to be beyond the scope of our discussion here.
Resource gatherer ProbablyBethya'ssingle biggest success has been her resource gatherer. The idea is simple - provide a vendor with nothing on it except for a list of organic resources you are buying and their price. Scouts and Rangers go and collect the resource in whatever quantity they can manage (big or small) and offer it to the vendor. I buy it and sell it on as one amalgamated stack. Everybody wins. Customers earn good cpu money even on small stacks that would be worth little on their own. I get to add one or two credits and sell on to grateful crafters to make a profit for myself. It also drives people to my shop as they drop their stacks off at the vendor. Lastly the crafters get the big organic stacks they crave. I keep a special mailing list of rangers who want to be informed of new shifts and my buying price so that those who haven't stopped by recently still get the news and go hunting. At the moment I tend to average 40k to 60k stacks and aim for a 2cpu mark-up for me which means I can make 80k to 120k per resource.
Inventory – “One-stop Ranger-shop”
I will try and be as comprehensive as possible here, but surely your vendor will some of the items here and likely some that aren’t posted. Post items that you think I’ve missed, and I’ll add them in!
All Ranger-made goods – in crates and/or single
Camps
Traps
Camo kits
Droids
Harvester Droids
Droid Batteries
Clothing
BE Pants
BE Shirts
BE Shorts
BE Cloaks/Dusters
Ranger Gloves
Ranger Boots
Ranger Hat
Rebel Signet Ring (+3 Camo)
Spec-ops field agent pack
Light-weight military backpack
Foods
Veghash: +creature harvesting *Always keep veghash stocked*
Jawa Beer: +mask scent
Dweezle: +trapping
Travel Biscuits: +terrain neg.
Terrata: +camouflage
Fishing Gear
Fishing Poles
Bait
Resources – make your own ranger goods!
Grind Quality Bone
Grind Quality Hide
Grind Quality Meat
Grind Quality Metal
Other
Armor Attachments (camo, cover, conceal, etc.)
Clothing Attachments (camo, cover, conceal, etc.)
Tanned Hide
Aroma Screen (+10mask scent – looted stim
CustomNamedItems
Custom named Tanned Hides - e.g. Tanned Krayt Skin, Stretched Goax, Heathen Wookie Hide, Ewok Pelt
Custom named Knives - e.g. "Hunting Knife", "Ranger Ceremonial Knife", "Whittling Knife"
Custom named Food - e.g. "Kreetle Kabobs"
Pricing
Pricing will vary for each server and each vendor. Keep in mind that you will want to cover off the cost of the resources, time, factory costs, and vendor costs associated with selling your wares. For items that other profs make for you, such as clothes and food, the provider can help you set prices and there will likely be other vendors on the server to help you benchmark against.
To help start you off, here is how I price my goods on my server:
Traps: 20cpu
Camps: 5k for a crate of basic through to 25k for a crate of HTFB
Camo kits: roughly 25k – 30k per crate.
Just to show a contrast with a different server, here's Bethya's pricing on FarStar:
Traps I sell for 1k with a crate for 25k.
Camo kits are 100 credits a use, so a 10 use camo kit would be 1k.
Camps are a sliding scale with basic camps at 15 credits up to HTFB's at 90 credits with crates just that individual figure multiplied by 25.
Marketing
Although the new galactic vendor search is a really boon for specialty shops such as these, it is still very important that you advertise your shop. There aren’t many ranger vendors out there, so your biggest problem won’t be about competition so much as it is about just getting people to know you exist. Here are some ideas:
Bazaar: put items (camps, traps, camo) on the bazaar and in the description not that these same items can be bought for cheaper by the crate you your shop. Note: This is less useful now that the galactic vendor search is in place.
Global Bazaar: Obviously making sure that your own vendors are visible under the new search system is important, especially in a trade where the number of practitioners is limited server by server. However, you can also usefully promote your business by placing camo kits on every planet's bazaar.
I do this by placing two single kits (of whatever uses) in ten bazaars - one for each planet. So Endor kits on Endor, Rori kits on Rori and so on. My price is four times the normal price in my shop and in the description for each item on the bazaar, I say exactly that and give the waypoint for my main shop. I am selling at a premium for the convenience of not having to go offworld, it provides a useful service(how many kits do you see locally on each bazaar?), and it promotesmy main shop.
It obviously means you have to do a weekly circuit of the planets (possibly more if they sell) which some might find a pain. Personally, I help myself by only doing one city per planet and usually the busiest so Theed on Naboo, Coronet on Corelliaand so on.
Server Trade Forums: Be sure to post on your server trade forum that your shop exists and provide details on what kind of stuff can be found. Keep the thread updated and bump it when there are changes, addition, or updates. You will find links in the following post to some of these types of posts.
Networking: Rangers are generally a pretty good community and your best customers will likely also be some of your best friends. Therefore, make sure that you’re involved in your server’s RIN and hunting lots with other rangers. This will likely be natural and something you’re already doing, but if you’re some new ranger who pops into the RIN just to say “hey, shop here”, business will stink and so will you.
From Bethya: I Fully support Cryos' comments here. One small thing - many servers have Guilds of Antarian Rangers and if you are not in a guild, you should seriously think about joining your local AR guild to be able to network with a core group of Rangers. Even if you don't join the guild, get pally with them!
Location: Put the vendor wherever it makes you happy. I chose to put mine the south coronet business area because I knew it was convenient for customers and I wanted it to be accessible as possible. I know of some great vendors on my server on tatooine and Lok too though, so do whatever makes you happy.
Trainers: If you have your own house in a player city, have the mayor place a Scout and Ranger trainer out in front of your place. This will draw more attention to your house, give an additional reason for rangers to stop by, and enhance the overall offerings of your business.
Forum Signature: Check out my sig! Every post I make on here advertises my shop and I know for sure than many people become cognisant of my shop via my sig.
Mailings
Swgmail.com offers the ability to track your sales by storing the mails and then creating mailing lists of previous customers. It means that you can build your relationship with customers by mailing them to inform them of news, restocks or new lines. Even better if you give them some bonuses - perhaps a headstart on your announcements to the main trade forum or even special deals just for them.
Remember that business gurus estimate it is seven times cheaper and easier to keep an existing customer than to get a new one.
Profession search
SWG allows you to search for all Rangers online and near you. I have a standard mail advertising the shop in my inbox and my first job on reaching a starport or shuttleport is to do a search and mail any new Rangers that the search finds with details of the vendor. I get lots of appreciative mails back from people who hadn't heard.
Thankyou mails I have a second standard mail in my inbox that I use to say thanks to anyone who buys from me. I include a waypoint for them to save in their list of waypoints with a nicely formatted name (including colour) so it looks much better than the standard one that comes from the SWG vendor system. It takes ten seconds to senda mail like that and is usually much appreciated. You can do a similar mail for people who buy your camo kits from the bazaar - just in case they don't read the descriptionyou provide.
Merchant tools
Although some merchants feel their skills have been devalued by the recent Bazaar changes, I have to say that I think it is still worth making use of the skills if you have them. Register your vendors on the planetary map - some people will be visiting your town for other reasons but if you are on the map, they may spot you and pop in! Don't lose that passing trade.
Use the adbarks cleverly to provide a nice ambience to your shop. Be witty but avoid in-jokes and do use adbarks sparingly (I think)... it's a bit overpowering to have five vendors all shout at you when you first walk through the door!
Décor
This can be a pretty fun part of running a vendor. Although this can be difficult to do if you’re located in a mall, but if you have your own place, decorate away! I had lots of fun decorating my shop and almost all new visitors send me a /tell about how nice my place is. I’m am going to completely steal (cut and paste) a great post by Bethya and put a set of links to different ranger décor images. This is all found in the following post. Thanks Bethya!
Tips, tricks, and advice
Partnerships are Key: There are two types of partnerships that will be critical to your success. The first is with other rangers. These partnerships will be key to selling anything and will also be very useful when you need to go collect resources for a full run of camo kits from any given planet. The second key partnership is with various crafters. If you selling ranger clothing, you need a great tailor friend. For food, a good chef up your sleeve. You’ll also want a droid engineer in your back pocket for great harvester droids and an artisan for fishing poles. So there; tailor by your side, chef up your sleeve, a DE in your back pocket, and an artisan thrown into the mix.
From Bethya:
Like Cryos, I can't stress enough how important it is to strike good partnerships. Few things to add - for fishing rods, find a Master Artisan. Don't make them yourself. A Master Artisan can turn out 99.0 quality rods which is much better than you'll be able to do.
I always ask for a small discount on my partner's usual prices for my bulk buys but then I make sure I sell on at the same price they sell for on their main vendors. Don't undercut them! Secondly, do all you can to promote their shops in your shop! Make sure they get plenty back for their efforts on your behalf and lastly, don't sell everything. If it's clothes, just sell Ranger clothes, if it's food, just sell Ranger food. Promote their shops and let them sell the vercupti and vasarian brandy, other outfits and
Selling Camo Kits: will usually sell one crate of each planet type to first or second time visitors. After that customers, will really by these only on rare occasions and usually only for Dathomir, and maybe Tatooine.
Making Camo Kits: The biggest pain in the butt item to make and sell is camo kits. It takes 3 planet specific resources for each type (save Dant: 2) which can be VERY time consuming. Especially for planets such as Talus, Corellia, Rori, and Naboo which require resources that drop in low quantities. I typically coordinate a group ranger hunt for this, pay everyone for the resources they collect, and then toss a free crate of the given resource in for them too. This means I don’t make much money at all off camo kits (I may even lose money, not sure) but at least I can keep things stocked.
Message Edited by Cryos_Merovingian on 04-07-2005 03:16 PM
Message Edited by Cryos_Merovingian on 04-07-2005 03:40 PM
Message Edited by Cryos_Merovingian on 04-08-2005 11:50 AM
Almagill
Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:52 pm
#3
man, gimme time, I'm busy rewriting my Rangers Business Plan....
Excellent post!! After CU I will be 'realigning' aspects of my characters and I can certainly see scope for one of them getting bit more "business-like"
Excellent post!! After CU I will be 'realigning' aspects of my characters and I can certainly see scope for one of them getting bit more "business-like"
Aerec_Krouse
Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:36 am
#4
Awesome post. I toyed with the idea of a Ranger vendor a while ago, but I never could figure out those equipment factory things (I now know how to use them, thanks to a friendly artisan) 
I won't be going ahead with one though due to the lack of SP's, unless I ever take the plunge and get an alt. And if that happens, my missus may very well either leave me or chop my bits off
I also bumped Sand Soil and Sea's TF post after reading this
I won't be going ahead with one though due to the lack of SP's, unless I ever take the plunge and get an alt. And if that happens, my missus may very well either leave me or chop my bits off
I also bumped Sand Soil and Sea's TF post after reading this
Bethya
Fri Apr 08, 2005 4:41 am
#5
Hi Guys and sorry for the delay Cryos!
Good post btw
Some thoughts below that you might want to add into your main post - very happy for you to do that.
My vendor
I should probably start by saying that my own shop is a one-stop ranger shop selling everything from Ranger-made goods to the things Rangers can't make like BE clothing and foodstuffs. I don't stray outside to things like weapons which are arguably Ranger related but you have to draw the line somewhere. I do sell StimB's though as a low level exception to that rule. I have two characters - my main Ranger one and an alt that is a Master Merchant and mid-level Bio-Engineer (but working on better). The reason for mentioning it is that it will affect how much of the advice below you can follow since some of it depends on having good merchant skills.
Inventory
Couple of things to add to Cryos' list.
I offer custom named tanned hides - so "Tanned Krayt Skin" and the like as well as the generic ones.
I offer custom named knives - "Hunting Knife", "Ranger Ceremonial Knife", "Whittling Knife"
Other services
Cryos didn't mention it but as well as goods sold, I offer a couple of services from my shop to assist Rangers.
Resource gatherer
Probably my single biggest success has been my resource gatherer. The idea is simple - provide a vendor with nothing on it except for a list of organic resources you are buying and their price. Scouts and Rangers go and collect the resource in whatever quantity they can manage (big or small) and offer it to the vendor. I buy it and sell it on as one amalgamated stack.
Probably my single biggest success has been my resource gatherer. The idea is simple - provide a vendor with nothing on it except for a list of organic resources you are buying and their price. Scouts and Rangers go and collect the resource in whatever quantity they can manage (big or small) and offer it to the vendor. I buy it and sell it on as one amalgamated stack.
Everybody wins. My customers earn good cpu money even on small stacks that would be worth little on their own. I get to add one or two credits and sell on to grateful crafters to make a profit for myself. It also drives people to my shop as they drop their stacks off at the vendor. Lastly the crafters get the big organic stacks they crave.
I keep a special mailing list of rangers who want to be informed of new shifts and my buying price so that those who haven't stopped by recently still get the news and go hunting. At the moment I tend to average 40k to 60k stacks and aim for a 2cpu mark-up for me which means I can make 80k to 120k per resource.
Trainers
If you are in a town, ask the mayor if they can place Ranger and Scout trainers outside your front door. Ranger trainers can be hard to find (if no Rangers are around, so having one outside is always a useful extra).
If you are in a town, ask the mayor if they can place Ranger and Scout trainers outside your front door. Ranger trainers can be hard to find (if no Rangers are around, so having one outside is always a useful extra).
Pricing
Just to show a contrast with a different server from Cryos'.
Traps I sell for 1k with a crate for 25k.
Camo kits are 100 credits a use, so a 10 use camo kit would be 1k.
Camps are a sliding scale with basic camps at 15 credits up to HTFB's at 90 credits with crates just that individual figure multiplied by 25.
Marketing
Some extra thoughts on marketing for you from my perspective.
Global Bazaar
Obviously making sure that your own vendors are visible under the new search system is important, especially in a trade where the number of practitioners is limited server by server. However, you can also usefully promote your business by placing camo kits on every planet's bazaar.
Obviously making sure that your own vendors are visible under the new search system is important, especially in a trade where the number of practitioners is limited server by server. However, you can also usefully promote your business by placing camo kits on every planet's bazaar.
I do this by placing two single kits (of whatever uses) in ten bazaars - one for each planet. So Endor kits on Endor, Rori kits on Rori and so on. My price is four times the normal price in my shop and in the description for each item on the bazaar, I say exactly that and give the waypoint for my main shop. I am selling at a premium for the convenience of not having to go offworld, it provides a useful service(how many kits do you see locally on each bazaar?), and it promotesmy main shop.
It obviously means you have to do a weekly circuit of the planets (possibly more if they sell) which some might find a pain. Personally, I help myself by only doing one city per planet and usually the busiest so Theed on Naboo, Coronet on Corelliaand so on.
Mailings
Swgmail.com offers the ability to track your sales by storing the mails and then creating mailing lists of previous customers. It means that you can build your relationship with customers by mailing them to inform them of news, restocks or new lines. Even better if you give them some bonuses - perhaps a headstart on your announcements to the main trade forum or even special deals just for them.
Swgmail.com offers the ability to track your sales by storing the mails and then creating mailing lists of previous customers. It means that you can build your relationship with customers by mailing them to inform them of news, restocks or new lines. Even better if you give them some bonuses - perhaps a headstart on your announcements to the main trade forum or even special deals just for them.
Remember that business gurus estimate it is seven times cheaper and easier to keep an existing customer than to get a new one.
Profession search
SWG allows you to search for all Rangers online and near you. I have a standard mail advertising the shop in my inbox and my first job on reaching a starport or shuttleport is to do a search and mail any new Rangers that the search finds with details of the vendor. I get lots of appreciative mails back from people who hadn't heard.
SWG allows you to search for all Rangers online and near you. I have a standard mail advertising the shop in my inbox and my first job on reaching a starport or shuttleport is to do a search and mail any new Rangers that the search finds with details of the vendor. I get lots of appreciative mails back from people who hadn't heard.
Thankyou mails
I have a second standard mail in my inbox that I use to say thanks to anyone who buys from me. I include a waypoint for them to save in their list of waypoints with a nicely formatted name (including colour) so it looks much better than the standard one that comes from the SWG vendor system. It takes ten seconds to senda mail like that and is usually much appreciated. You can do a similar mail for people who buy your camo kits from the bazaar - just in case they don't read the descriptionyou provide.
I have a second standard mail in my inbox that I use to say thanks to anyone who buys from me. I include a waypoint for them to save in their list of waypoints with a nicely formatted name (including colour) so it looks much better than the standard one that comes from the SWG vendor system. It takes ten seconds to senda mail like that and is usually much appreciated. You can do a similar mail for people who buy your camo kits from the bazaar - just in case they don't read the descriptionyou provide.
Networking
Fully support Cryos' comments here. One small thing - many servers have Guilds of Antarian Rangers and if you are not in a guild, you should seriously think about joining your local AR guild to be able to network with a core group of Rangers. Even if you don't join the guild, get pally with them!
Merchant tools
Although some merchants feel their skills have been devalued by the recent Bazaar changes, I have to say that I think it is still worth making use of the skills if you have them.
Register your vendors on the planetary map - some people will be visiting your town for other reasons but if you are on the map, they may spot you and pop in! Don't lose that passing trade.
Use the adbarks cleverly to provide a nice ambience to your shop. Be witty but avoid in-jokes and do use adbarks sparingly (I think)... it's a bit overpowering to have five vendors all shout at you when you first walk through the door!
Tips, tricks and advice
Partnerships
Like Cryos, I can't stress enough how important it is to strike good partnerships. Few things to add - for fishing rods, find a Master Artisan. Don't make them yourself. A Master Artisan can turn out 99.0 quality rods which is much better than you'll be able to do.
I always ask for a small discount on my partner's usual prices for my bulk buys but then I make sure I sell on at the same price they sell for on their main vendors. Don't undercut them! Secondly, do all you can to promote their shops in your shop! Make sure they get plenty back for their efforts on your behalf and lastly, don't sell everything. If it's clothes, just sell Ranger clothes, if it's food, just sell Ranger food. Promote their shops and let them sell the vercupti and vasarian brandy, other outfits and hawtpants!
and finally, producing Camo Kits are definitely a pain so do all you can to make life easier. I occasionally use my Resource Gatherer to buy the resources I need that way but group hunts are a good idea too, as Cryos says.
I think that's it for now - I'll post more as I think of it!
Cryos_Merovingian
Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:12 am
#7
Thanks for the GREAT info Bethya! I'll add that all into the top post later today. Very good info.
Cryos_Merovingian
Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:51 am
#9
hotrodder wrote:this guide is hot
Thanks!
Just added all of Bethya's information in as well as a notes about what crafting tool/station you will need. If anyone else has ideas, I'll be glad to include it!
Owen-Lars
Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:53 am
#10
Great stuff here mate, thanks for spending the time to make this guide.
Ill add it into rangercentral in the guides section as soon as i can and things start to settle down. At the moment it seems im doing 3 things at once whilst nursing a hangover each morning.
Cryos_Merovingian
Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:51 am
#11
Owen-Lars wrote:Great stuff here mate, thanks for spending the time to make this guide.Ill add it into rangercentral in the guides section as soon as i can and things start to settle down. At the moment it seems im doing 3 things at once whilst nursing a hangover each morning.
What confuses me is that you seem to be hung over so much, it's a wonder you have time to actually be drunk.
There were lots of questions about vendors, so I thought it deserved its own guide.
Jaxus
Fri Apr 08, 2005 11:54 am
#12
I can tell you, having a ranger vendor on your server is very conveienient. It has made my experiance even better. I keep crates of everything I buy from Cryos stored in a droid and pull out my supplies as needed.
Cryos_Merovingian
Sat May 21, 2005 6:11 pm
#13
Ya, that's right, I'm bumping my own thread!
I thought this might wanna come to the top before everyone starts posting "OMG! I'm going to make my millions as a Ranger camo kit crafter! Muahahahaha!!! Anybody ever made a Ranger vendor? how do I do this? Any advice?"
I thought this might wanna come to the top before everyone starts posting "OMG! I'm going to make my millions as a Ranger camo kit crafter! Muahahahaha!!! Anybody ever made a Ranger vendor? how do I do this? Any advice?"
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