Scout Archive
Thread: Hide and bone prices -- what do YOU charge?
BoomBeef wrote:
It isn't even about trading vs. selling; I'd rathertrade with others and cut out the whole bazaar deal. The question is when you do "sell" to someone, or "sell" via the bazaar/vendor; what is a fair price? Along that line people also expressed that an easy methodology would be better than some complicated way that requires figuring out on item by item basis. I don't know if a perfect answer is out there.
Barter is actually my preferred way of doing business as well - I only turn to the bazaar when I can't find anyone on hand who wants what I have. But I still think that some general guidelines in the way of setting some pricing standard (not saying you *must* sell x hide at y price, but that z is a reasonable price - alter from there) would be beneficial to the economy.
We're all pretty much noobs where the economy comes in - there's lots of miscommunication, frustration, and lack of understanding over what's quality and what's not...just a matter of time until it calms down.
As long as people are buying them, you should keep selling them for what you want. Bear in mind that other people on this very thread have basically stated that if you try selling at 5-6 credits, they buy your junk and sell it for 10 anyway, so you're not being a hero for doing so. Just some advise for those taking the moral high ground.
While architects are now routinely called out for robbing people blind (somone on Bria told someone else that they would transfer a house,but thatit took an hour to complete the /transferstructure--the real kicker being it wasn't even the architect's house in the first place, he just picked a house at random), probably so they can sell credits on ebay for ridiculous prices, I think I'll sleep like a baby for selling overall quality 839 hides for 12 credits a unit.
Remember the caveat a lot of people have mentioned time and again on this thread--those artisans are paying for your services, so unless you consider them your dear personal friend, you're a sucker for charging next to nothing for your time. How much do you value yourself? That's a consideration to make before charging a penny a unit.
Lerxstwannabe wrote:
Of course now that I look over everyone else's prices I begin to sse how low I charge. I just don't see how people can sell hides at 10 cr as a standard. I can pop a blue in one shot and harvest 15 hides off of it. 20 blues later I'll have 300 hides that took me no time to gather. Maybe I'm too honest?
It seems that I've heard a lot of new crafters complianing about pricing in the bazaar though; I would recommend NOT ignoring them. If they can't afford our prices then they'll pick up a weapon and start hunting their own resources. That's going to make our 10 credit hides worth 0 if soon enough every crafter can just go and get it themselves for free.
The standard would be closer to 10 cred/unit for mid grade hide. Something with around 500 in all the main stats.
5 cred/unit for something with 100-400 OQ.
15 for something with 800-900 in more than one stat.
You better bet I'm gonna charge a premium for Yavin/Endor hides, bones, and meat. It cost me over 6000 creds just to get there, and ensures high quality crafted objects.
As an Armorsmith I kinda have to laugh at this thread. I have been and still am buying hides with 900+ OQ for 3cr each. Yes I've seen the those charging 10+ cr. I wouldn't buy them. I make it a policy of never paying over 3 cr each. If I don't see the hide or bone I need at a price I'm willing to pay, I go shoot some. I take notes on what critters give what hide/bone so I know what I need. I have good armor and the best CDEF weapon you have ever seen (all personally made). It is alot easier to spend 200 cr for novice scout and a little bit of time then to pay crazy prices. But if you are selling your bone/hides for 10+ cr, continue doing so. I would love to under cut my competitions prices because of lower costs. I think you guys even should start a union and crank the price upto 20. 
Just remember there is armor that takes little or no bone/hide to make. If the prices are too high, other types of armor will be made instead.
Yrth01 wrote:
As an Armorsmith I kinda have to laugh at this thread. I have been and still am buying hides with 900+ OQ for 3cr each. Yes I've seen the those charging 10+ cr. I wouldn't buy them. I make it a policy of never paying over 3 cr each. If I don't see the hide or bone I need at a price I'm willing to pay, I go shoot some. I take notes on what critters give what hide/bone so I know what I need. I have good armor and the best CDEF weapon you have ever seen (all personally made). It is alot easier to spend 200 cr for novice scout and a little bit of time then to pay crazy prices. But if you are selling your bone/hides for 10+ cr, continue doing so. I would love to under cut my competitions prices because of lower costs. I think you guys even should start a union and crank the price upto 20. Just remember there is armor that takes little or no bone/hide to make. If the prices are too high, other types of armor will be made instead.
Ever been to YavinIV or Endor? No? Well then there is no way you are getting resources with the same stats I'm talking about.
You think I'm gonna charge 3cr each, when it cost me 6000 just to get there?
BTW, I'm talking about hide, bone and meat that has over 900 in the two main stats and over 600 in the secondary. Sure you can go kill some gnorts or durni and use there 100-500 OQ hides/bones/meat, but I wouldn't suggest it if you want the best quality product.
I highly doubt the mobs your killing with your "Super CDEF pistol" would touch what I'm bringing back to the bazaar from the high level planets.
oh, also if you read my post above, it clearly states that I charge around 5cr for low level hides/bones/meat, that would be the kind of stuff you could get at novice scout/marksman
Just FYI, at novice scout you get like what 4-5 units per harvest of a newb creature. At Hunting IV I get 10-15.
Whyshouldn't I get paid for my skills?
When you sell armor do you charge what it cost you to make or do you make a profit?
I sell in bulk from 250 to 500 stacks. A stack of 500 high quality hidesI would sell for 5 cr/unit. Smaller stacks and lower qualityI sell for less.
It's a matter of conveneince and items. Higher level items require more resources at a time to craft, so 3 stacks of 100 wooly hides won't go over very well. 1 stack of 300 though would sell much better, hence the higher price.
I also take a bit of an RP stance an import exotic hides as well. Endorian leather,Lok wool, etc. Those I sell in some smaller stacks of 100-200 forabout 7-8 credits a piece. I figure if a person devoted themselves to being a tailor then they wouldn't mind springing for the exotic fashions -no tailors I've seen are ever the immature powergaming types I see often in armorcrafters.
Of course now that I look over everyone else's prices I begin to sse how low I charge. I just don't see how people can sell hides at 10 cr as a standard. I can pop a blue in one shot and harvest 15 hides off of it. 20 blues later I'll have 300 hides that took me no time to gather. Maybe I'm too honest?
It seems that I've heard a lot of new crafters complianing about pricing in the bazaar though; I would recommend NOT ignoring them. If they can't afford our prices then they'll pick up a weapon and start hunting their own resources. That's going to make our 10 credit hides worth 0 if soon enough every crafter can just go and get it themselves for free.
again with the fighting over prices. seems that is what this whole artisan board is turning into.
To those of you who want everyone to charge 7-8 a unit to keep everyone in business, you are hurting yourself more than people who sell low.
When I started as an artisan and saw I needed bone to make armor, I went to the bazaar, I saw someone who was selling at 7cr/unit and I immediately said, "screw this, I'm going to add scout to my skills and save myself a bundle of money". Now if someone was selling at 4 or 5 I would feel more secure in spending the money
"It seems that I've heard a lot of new crafters complianing about pricing in the bazaar though; I would recommend NOT ignoring them. If they can't afford our prices then they'll pick up a weapon and start hunting their own resources. That's going to make our 10 credit hides worth 0 if soon enough every crafter can just go and get it themselves for free."
I actually disagree completely. I don't particularly care WHAT people say. I'm more concerned about what they do. I don't fear the crafters going out and harvesting their own hides because of the time it takes to get large quantities with Hunting IV or being a ranger. I put out 900 hides a day of the exact same type (DIE DURNNI'S DIE) in stacks of 300. No Artisan/Smith is going to be able to match that production AND do all the other stuff they have to do for their Artisan/Smith tasks. Or at the very least most of them won't have that sort of time and inclination.
The other thing to consider is that actions speak louder than words. My hides always sell... I'm sure there are people that think 8c per hide is over priced... then there are others that buy everything I have on the market all at once for the sheer quantity. As long as people are buying them... then it's a fair market value. When it comes to economy... in the question of "What is something worth?" the answer is always "Whatever someone else is willing to pay for it."
Also... just on the subject of complaining in general... I believe that most complaints such as "All hides are too expensive a pox on those hideous Scouts for holding this over our heads... oh by the way that'll be 40K cred for that suit of Bone Armor" are the loud sounds of the vocal minority. I think we tend to notice the people who yell loudly about what they don't like (everyone does it, in every single board on this site there are hundreds of "You nerfed my nerf!" or "This is way too this or far too little that" from people who like to complain) are just the most visible members of the community. I feel confident that there are many, if not more than the "complainers" that are content or apathetic about things like hide costs. My proof is in the sales e-mails I get everyday. 
Simple reason, really - everyone's just starting out, the economy is utter chaos. Until people start determining some logical method of pricing items (be it a set value [every "normal" hide @ 5c, every "exotic" hide @7c] or some formula [take all quality indicators, add up and divide by possible max, use that as a basis]), then people will continue to complain that stuff costs "too much".
There's no objective basis for most costs right now - it's just someone deciding "Hey, I'm going to charge 10c for every single resource I get". For artisans, that must be horribly frustrating, paying "top dollar" for fiberplast with qualities all under 100.