Scout Archive

I think this may have beendiscussed before but not in depth. I am looking for everyone toREALLY sit back and think about this and post their thoughts. The question at hand is, we as scouts need to set concrete pricing for our hard earned products: Hide, Meat and Bone. We need to set a standard and not stray from that standard of pricing. If you think about it, we probably work the hardest of any profession.Most things manufactured our from our product. Other professions are making huge profits because our profession really hasntset that standard that cannot be argued with when trying to sell them. I continually get asked to sell these products at 3credits per. Think about it, thats just ridiculous considering the cost of other products. Ifthe economy would have started out at reasonable pricing instead of insane pricing, people wouldnt have to grind as much, but its to late for that. Everyone wanted to get rich. For what I do notknow.IfI have 300 wooley hides, why wouldI sell them at 3 credits per, thats just 900 credits from long and hard work. What areyou going to do with 900 credits in this economy when a pair of pants cost 500 and up. Not to mention armor, weapons and other desirables. The hides are better spent for ouruse at that cost. I thinkare profession pricing just isnt in line with the economy.Yes, u could wait to harvesta 1000 wooley hides and so on but you are still working and grinding your butt off for someone else to get rich and make huge profits off of our hard work. I knowour product has different quality and I think it is only fair that pricing accounts for this.I do not know whatthe scale of quality is for are products all that well since I have been using most myself and not selling them. If anyone really knows this well, post it along with yourother comments in a nice formateveryone can understand. My personal thought, to stay in line with this economy we shouldnot sell anything under 10 credits per unless it isan extremely poor quality. I do however believe if we stay firm to whatever we come up with our profession will ultimately benefit, grow and become more respected. If people do not want topay at first, then so be it,BE FIRM and use it yourself.Eventually demandwill be created and the pricing will become the norm. I have read other professions doing the same thing, it is now our time to create our identity.

Isaip O

Master Scout, Marksman

Isaip,

We've discussed this a lot. It really varies depending on the serverand the resources available.

My take on it is discussed in my From Novice to Master Guide.

I'd be interested in seeing the other responses on here to see if my guidelines are still in the same ballpark as everyone elses.

B

I think Delta's prices are in-line with what's becoming standard across the few servers I play. Basically I use the following:

6 cpu < 700 OQ

8 cpu 700-900 OQ

10 cpu > 900 OQ

These prices sell off the bazaar relatively fast. Whichever server your on, post some hides with what you discern the market will bear. I also sell in even lots (250 not 253) because it looks nice and it's easy for my buyers to figure out cpu.

I just posted in another thread about this...but OQ doesn't always equate to more desirable. I've got some Nabooian hide with higher OQ than some Corellian hide with lower OQ and the lower OQ hide makes better armor. Its the other stats like Shock Resistance or Durability that make the hide more desirable to crafters.

My prime example is metals. I've seen Link-Steel Aluminum with an OQ around 100 make FAR better items with better experimentation than Link-Steel Aluminum with an OQ of 800 OQ. With certain items the Durability stats are more important, while in the case of CDEF Blasters, the CONDUCTIVITY is more important. OQ is very misleading.

What you need to do is find out what SPECIFIC hides a specific crafter has a hardon for. On the bazaar you really can't consistently get much better than 3cr/u for local hides/bone because the market is flooded AND crafters are mainly looking for cheap hide for grinding. This isn't likely to change any time soon. There are certain items that just work better with a specific resource, sometimes from a specific planet, that you can get far more credits for and it doesn't depend on OQ but on type of hide, its secondary stats, and what its being used for.

My general rule has been if I'm selling on the bazaar, sell it for 3-4 cr/u unless its something I know that crafters are looking for to make a quality item.

But also based on my observations of late of what I can do with a CDEF Blaster (thank god for BoB my crafting droid) as opposed to what I see sold on the bazaar and in weaponsmith shops, there are a lot of crafters out there who aren't looking to make quality equipment but are more interested in WHAT they turn out, even if it is crap. When I can make a CDEF Carbine with a max damage of 57 using GOOD materials and experimentation powered up to 62 and the average DH17 Carbine has around 90 max damage and is selling for 3000+ you know that crafters are selling nothing but quickly made junk. Run around a planet and compare the stats on the Laser Carbine or E11 Carbine from vendor to vendor and you'll see what I mean.

What we need is:

1) More crafters going for quality after experimentation rather than quantity.

2) To educate ourselves on what the crafters need.

If/When those two happen, you'll see a market shift in favor of the scouts...until then be happy with 3cr/u and pray they don't alter the deal further. We can't artificially inflate our prices because there's always the newb who doesn't read the forums and will undersell us.

Oh I forgot to mention something else...

Many of those prices you see at vendors are very inflated and don't represent a true market value. There are up and coming MASTERS who will change the way you buy things...like weapons.

But I've probably said too much...

Not that I'm bitter or anything...there are some good crafters out there with fair prices for quality items...but they are exceedingly rare. Most vendors are run by combat specialists who happen to have a factory, not someone who wants to sell a good product at a competetive price.

Just wait...

But I've probably said too much...

Unfortunately, the OQ ratio is a poor substitute for a real value system. This is because the various schematics used by Artisans require different types of qualities for different crafted items.

I use a more detailed calculation (which I'm working into an online database) that takes all of an items' qualities into account to determine the value. Basically, the formula I'm using is:

[(Sum of all Quality Ratings) / (Total Possible Quality Ratings)] * (Base Rate)

My Base Rate is generally 10cc/unit (the max that I'd usually charge for that type of resource).

Thus, a resource with the following statistics:

Decay Resistance: 103

Malleability: 664

Overall Quality: 208

Shock Resistance: 351

Unit Toughness: 703

Would sell for 4.06 cc/unit according to my formula - (2029/5000)*10.

But that's just me...maybe if I get this stupid database up and running, it'll make things easier for folks.

Of course, there will always be someone underselling you in the bazaar...not everyone needs credits as bad as I do. :-)

3cpu id crazy. It is long and tedious work to harvest just to make somone else rich. I can make quite a bit more cash running missions than harvesting and I mean running $500 nuna missions at 2 per 10 minutes.

I can get 6cpu on the baazar for anything no matter what the quaility is. The secret is the ammount in the stack. I can split harvests into 500 stacks and they will all sell for 6cpu. I do that when my inv gets to full. I think people will pay more to have a reasonable sized stack. Proof being, I can sell 5000 units stacks for 15 to 20 cpu (good quality of course). Those big stacks are hard to come by. Think about it. How many scouts are going to get 5000? When I was grinding, I got up to 2k on several things which is good and all but anybody who really wants to grind their profession, and needs the resource, will be happy to pay more. Afterall, they are making a killing and can afford it.

A rule of thumb price scheme is good but how would you pass the word? Its not like we have vendors. The only time I ever hear 3cpu is when a crafter is telling people how much it is worth lol. Read the forums and you will see several posts stating that 3cpu is the standard.

With that said, I too sell for 3 cpu in two cases. 1) I have way too much and somebody is willing to buy 5000 units that is in 25 differevt stacks. 2) I want to help out a novice BE and load him up with meat.

It would be great if we could get a *union* together and *fix* prices to be comparable to the market. I would say as a rule of thumb, start with 500 units on the baazar for 3000 credits. That is 6cpu and they sell quite fast in a popular city. 10 cpu would be great but that does not quite fit the baazar 3000 credit cap.

3cpu id crazy. It is long and tedious work to harvest just to make somone else rich. I can make quite a bit more cash running missions than harvesting and I mean running $500 nuna missions at 2 per 10 minutes.

I can get 6cpu on the baazar for anything no matter what the quaility is. The secret is the ammount in the stack. I can split harvests into 500 stacks and they will all sell for 6cpu. I do that when my inv gets to full. I think people will pay more to have a reasonable sized stack. Proof being, I can sell 5000 units stacks for 15 to 20 cpu (good quality of course). Those big stacks are hard to come by. Think about it. How many scouts are going to get 5000? When I was grinding, I got up to 2k on several things which is good and all but anybody who really wants to grind their profession, and needs the resource, will be happy to pay more. Afterall, they are making a killing and can afford it.

A rule of thumb price scheme is good but how would you pass the word? Its not like we have vendors. The only time I ever hear 3cpu is when a crafter is telling people how much it is worth lol. Read the forums and you will see several posts stating that 3cpu is the standard.

With that said, I too sell for 3 cpu in two cases. 1) I have way too much and somebody is willing to buy 5000 units that is in 25 differevt stacks. 2) I want to help out a novice BE and load him up with meat.

It would be great if we could get a *union* together and *fix* prices to be comparable to the market. I would say as a rule of thumb, start with 500 units on the baazar for 3000 credits. That is 6cpu and they sell quite fast in a popular city. 10 cpu would be great but that does not quite fit the baazar 3000 credit cap.

Sick,

You had to say "union" so I can't argue against it, didn't you?

I think in general that the best way for us to set a price is just agree on it, and use it. That's why I've got a pricing guideline in my Scout Guide. I hope that non-Scouts will read that and let it set the pace.

That being said, you're always going to have people selling for less, just because they can. So its never going to be perfect. We've not got a "manufacturer" to set a "retail price".

B

I would say 1cpu per 100 points on OQ and .5cpu on stats that matter to the crafter you are selling it to. So if you have meat with 900 OQ & 600 PE and are selling it to a BE or Medic the price would be 12cpu minimum. You may be able to get up to 15 or 20 cpu for something like this though depending on what type of meat and planet it is from and how desperate the person is for some good resources.

One way we could fix it is:

Have a couple rich players (not me I only have 700k) spam every city saying they will buy meat/hide/bone for 10 cpu. Buy it then destroy it when inv gets full. Do this long enough and it will become the standard. When everybody knows that they can get 10, they won't sell for less and the rest will have to pay that price or more.

So, who is going to spend all their millions to fix the scout economy? I would if I had that kind of cash.


I wish we could buy billboard space in the cities. Giant signs that say whatever we want. We could then get messages across to the masses...


I will, however, buy any tatooine avian meat (on ahazi) for 10cpu right now. Any scouts on ahazi want to hunt nunas/dwarth nunas and sell me the meat?


I think this thread should lead to a sticky thread (not this one but a new one) that has a general rule of thumb on pricing AND who/where to sell them. Who puts up the sticky threads anyways?

One way we could fix it is:

Have a couple rich players (not me I only have 700k) spam every city saying they will buy meat/hide/bone for 10 cpu. Buy it then destroy it when inv gets full. Do this long enough and it will become the standard. When everybody knows that they can get 10, they won't sell for less and the rest will have to pay that price or more.

So, who is going to spend all their millions to fix the scout economy? I would if I had that kind of cash.


I wish we could buy billboard space in the cities. Giant signs that say whatever we want. We could then get messages across to the masses...


I will, however, buy any tatooine avian meat (on ahazi) for 10cpu right now. Any scouts on ahazi want to hunt nunas/dwarth nunas and sell me the meat?


I think this thread should lead to a sticky thread (not this one but a new one) that has a general rule of thumb on pricing AND who/where to sell them. Who puts up the sticky threads anyways?

Again, go ahead and set some price plan that no one outside of an algebra freak could understand. I will sell for what I want, when I want, to whom I want, and will make a ton of money undercutting whatever prices you decide are proper.

Welcome to supply and demand, I gotta supply and will meet the demand. You can't price me out of the market, money is not my object. I give stuff away to aspiring artisans, thats 0cpu for you economists.

So anyhow, next idea on price fixing.... I welcome them all....

JB

freedom isn't free, but sometimes my hides are