Ranger Archive

That's awesome Cyros, very well written.

The important thing for any merchant is finding your target audience, getting known as it were. I have one suggestion you (may) want to add, or not - you already covered how to get customers pretty well, but shop placement is very important as well. People *will* come to you, if you're sufficiently popular, and stay stocked! but they have to know of your place first. It can seem like a catch-22 sometimes! With some decent effort though you can usually attract loyal customers. If you're out in the boonies, don't give up if you haven't had much business in only say a month - do step up your ad campaign and other 'here I am' ideas however. If you *do* set up in a busy area be prepared for it! Have overstock! Otherwise, you very well may not get repeat customers. There's nothing worse than an unstocked vendor.

If you don't want to be quite that busy, goahead and place in a more remote area. I will be the first to tell you a popular vendor can need filling two to three times a day! It's rewarding (and I don't mean the cash) but it does take a lot of RL time. If you find you cannot keep your vendor filled (not necessarily *that* likely with Ranger goods and the demand being what it is) - put a note on your vendor as to when you usually stock it. Note that you will (or won't) accept special orders and any other services you may provide (like tracking for people).

Don't forget to name your factories and any harversters you may have with your shop name, world and coords as well - another excellent advertising tool.

Anyway, my main point is: STAY STOCKED. That is, imo, the single most important thing you can do to improve your Shop's longevity. On the heels of that, if you're staying stocked because no one's buying, it's time for more advertising.

---

Mousekin wrote:

That's awesome Cyros, very well written.

The important thing for any merchant is finding your target audience, getting known as it were. I have one suggestion you (may) want to add, or not - you already covered how to get customers pretty well, but shop placement is very important as well. People *will* come to you, if you're sufficiently popular, and stay stocked! but they have to know of your place first. It can seem like a catch-22 sometimes! With some decent effort though you can usually attract loyal customers. If you're out in the boonies, don't give up if you haven't had much business in only say a month - do step up your ad campaign and other 'here I am' ideas however. If you *do* set up in a busy area be prepared for it! Have overstock! Otherwise, you very well may not get repeat customers. There's nothing worse than an unstocked vendor.

If you don't want to be quite that busy, goahead and place in a more remote area. I will be the first to tell you a popular vendor can need filling two to three times a day! It's rewarding (and I don't mean the cash) but it does take a lot of RL time. If you find you cannot keep your vendor filled (not necessarily *that* likely with Ranger goods and the demand being what it is) - put a note on your vendor as to when you usually stock it. Note that you will (or won't) accept special orders and any other services you may provide (like tracking for people).

Don't forget to name your factories and any harversters you may have with your shop name, world and coords as well - another excellent advertising tool.

Anyway, my main point is: STAY STOCKED. That is, imo, the single most important thing you can do to improve your Shop's longevity. On the heels of that, if you're staying stocked because no one's buying, it's time for more advertising.

---

After typing this reply I realize it's mostly just random thoughts that I've had since my original post as well as some ideas that have been stirred up by others...

The biggest challenge I have with my vendor stock is restocking so much stuff every thirty days. I opted to put my shop in a very busy location and am well advertised and known to most rangers in the galaxy. But at the end of the day, ranger vendors simply don't rake in the millions. You'll go2 weeks without a sale and then have 2 new rangers enter the shop and empty you of 3 kinds of traps and all your veghash. Keeping extra inventory for immediate stocking is a must, I totally agree with you there.

A trick I've learned that helps me out a lot is when I make a factory run of 40 crates of Bone spurs, I put 10 crates on the vendor and then 3 packs with 10 crates each in them. That way when the 10 crates sell, I can quickly restock from 1 of the 3 packs there. This is particularly helpful for restocking.. I only have to restock 13 items rather then 40. Also, I price the packs at the cost of 9 crates to try and encourage bulk purchasing - people do buy these packs. All around this little trick has made my life much easier.

Choosing a location - busy vs. remote - is really up to you. I have found that many of my good friends who are dedicated rangers and customers are... well... lazy. I have a secret vendor set up for close friends of mine where traps, camps, etc are sold in crates for free to them. Yet, these people will still not make the trip to this remote location and will instead opt to go for the more convenient location with retail prices. I do favour selection of a busier location, but in the end, you need to run a shop that suits your personal needs. A ranger vendor does tend into the realms of RP and dropping a ranger vendor just outside Coronet doesn't really fit that role too well. But again, run the type of shop that makes you happy.

Another addition to my ranger cabin that is not reflected in the orignial post (and I'm not in the mood to edit it right now) is a Creature Resource Consortium. There are well over a dozen rangers who are working hard to keep the vendor stocked of the best resources we can find. I manage the vendor. Rangers offer stacks of resources and when their stack sells, they get the cash from me. It's been working really well and hunters and buyers alike seem to really enjoy this. This is similar to Bethya's resource gatherer, just our own Naritian implementation.

I have made BY FAR the most sales on my Ranger Wear vendor. I have gotten tissues for a tailor friend of mine who I let go wild making a full line of +17/17 Camo/mask clothing for rangers. All shapes and sizes of ranger-looking clothing is sold. It sells suprisingly well! I offer some of the best prices in the galaxy on ranger clothing and still bring in some good coin off it.

---

Ranger Hat

---

Good post. I got the ranger hat right here:

---

Jrileydag wrote:

---

Ranger Hat

---

Good post. I got the ranger hat right here:

Ranger Hat

---

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.

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!

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"

at the rist of sounding incredibly noobish and unknowledgable...

What is this Recycler you are talking about?!?!

and

tanned hides?!? can rangers make these/ loot these?

i have yet to come across one of them, thats why i ask

thanks for the swift reply beladan.

guess ill be bothering my local shops for one of those 'recyclers' then