Shipwright Archive
Thread: Please learn the market, your customer, and your product
When i first listed my stock i checked the bazaar and vendor search and saw them ranging from 25k to 150k so i priced mine appropriatly.
If i have time i always check to see how my prices compare.
i applaud azarken for putting items on the market for closer to reality.
if more crafters were realistic with prices, maybe the casual players could afford things.
Out of whack is a relative term.
Your all free to charge what you want and the customer is free to decide if it is too much or not. To me, it is as simple as that.
You also have to remember the old joke. "When I am out of oranges, I will only charge a nickle a piece too." With all the handcrafting this profession requires, I would rather have an "overpriced" stocked vendor than an empty one. It is not unusual for me to stock 5 engines and have them sell out before I even get back to my private shop to craft some more. I am now charging 3 times my original prices. I craft for hours, log off go to bed and wake up with a practically empty vendor 6 hours later.
Qui-Gonzalez wrote:
Did you come here looking for approval to price gouge? Asteroid resources do not go for one tenth of the price you are trying to sell those parts for. If they do, your problem lies in your miner, not another crafter selling for a reasonable price. If he wants to sell something ata more than reasonable price, considering the cost of the resources, then maybe that is your first clue that your prices are far too high, no?
I know I will not be buying new items from your shop.
MrHawat wrote:
You also have to remember the old joke. "When I am out of oranges, I will only charge a nickle a piece too." With all the handcrafting this profession requires, I would rather have an "overpriced" stocked vendor than an empty one. It is not unusual for me to stock 5 engines and have them sell out before I even get back to my private shop to craft some more. I am now charging 3 times my original prices. I craft for hours, log off go to bed and wake up with a practically empty vendor 6 hours later.
I alway am amazed when crafters compain about running out of stock. I understand it takes time to make whatever item, and time to put it in your vendor, and time to go back to your workshop and etc. etc. But you're making money. If you want to keep stock in your vendor make 3 times as many before you put em on. That way you'll make 3 times as much.
Azarken wrote:
the fact you think you can get away with charging 500-800 cpu for such trivial items that take a mere 250 resources shows how clueless you are about your market customer and product. see the thread below on the eclipse forums.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Eclipse&message.id=636669
Message Edited by Azarken on 09-20-2005 11:19 AM
If I was so clueless, then why did they sell so fast? Clueless about the market would result in no sales. Remember, this is just one duty mission for a pilot and now they havea set of mods that will never need to be replaced... ever.
Olaff421 wrote:
MrHawat wrote:
You also have to remember the old joke. "When I am out of oranges, I will only charge a nickle a piece too." With all the handcrafting this profession requires, I would rather have an "overpriced" stocked vendor than an empty one. It is not unusual for me to stock 5 engines and have them sell out before I even get back to my private shop to craft some more. I am now charging 3 times my original prices. I craft for hours, log off go to bed and wake up with a practically empty vendor 6 hours later.
I alway am amazed when crafters compain about running out of stock. I understand it takes time to make whatever item, and time to put it in your vendor, and time to go back to your workshop and etc. etc. But you're making money. If you want to keep stock in your vendor make 3 times as many before you put em on. That way you'll make 3 times as much.
lol... That's my hope on each login is to be sold out. Never complain when it happens.
Zodiac-B wrote:
Hey Gonz, I really wasn't trying to look for price gouging approval. I'll be honest, I thought the price was way too high. I really did. But people were buying them, and not every blue moon. I was selling these steadily. My only disapproval was the people putting up items for sale w/o checking the market. I am a very reasonable SW, especially on my ground resource only products. But asteroid resource required product pricingis all over the place. All I was asking of my fellow SW's is to check the market. If the market price seems high, undercut it and see what happens, but they shouldn't start that price at less than 10% of what the market states.
Zodiac-B wrote:
FOR EVERYONE'S INFORMATION:
When your local WS or AS mines all their resources and loots the tissues or whatever it takes to make the sweetest weapon or piece of armor, then sells those items for millions and millions in an auction, are they gouging the market or not? Technically, all it cost them was a little time and maintenance for their harveys.
My price was based completely off of 30 minutes of my time and1 hour of work that ANY pilot above level 2 can do. I am not a gouger as I've been called. I tested the market and the market responded to me by purchasing more than 1 a day. I didn't have to respond to the market. Just like a WS / AS, I charge my products based on the market, not on what it takes to make it, but unlike a WS / AS, I charge what my customers can afford and not insane prices that only the highest bankrolls can afford.
Not going to slam you, but 800cpu pricing on something is not equitable to a loot seller charging high prices for a rare item such as a high damage Krayt tissue. The run of the mill items from Weaponsmiths do not pull in millions of credits at all. Instead, the range is generally around 20k or so, but I may be mistaken. WS/AS charge not based on market, but they factor in things like harvester maintenance/power, factory maintenance/power, mining contracts and the like. 200k for a decorative item is exorbitant. If your prices are too high, people who use Vendor Search will figure it out themselves and go to where they can save a buck.
Qui-Gonzalez wrote:
Not going to slam you, but 800cpu pricing on something is not equitable to a loot seller charging high prices for a rare item such as a high damage Krayt tissue. The run of the mill items from Weaponsmiths do not pull in millions of credits at all. Instead, the range is generally around 20k or so, but I may be mistaken. WS/AS charge not based on market, but they factor in things like harvester maintenance/power, factory maintenance/power, mining contracts and the like. 200k for a decorative item is exorbitant. If your prices are too high, people who use Vendor Search will figure it out themselves and go to where they can save a buck.
Message Edited by Zodiac-B on 09-20-2005 05:41 PM
Zodiac-B wrote:
As for the cpu, it's prettyirrelevant when it comes to supply and demand. If people want them and they know what they're willing to pay to get it, they'll buy it. I have never had a customer come to me and say "I bought such and such from you, and it was a rip off". Per my customerfeedback, I am still at 100% positivefeedback. Nearly everything I makeis in the 90 experimentationpercentile (that's not easy to do as a SW). I'm not saying this tobrag or anything like that, I'm saying this because I take a tremendous amount of pride in my products and customer service. I will even prove that statement. Keep an eye on the pilot forums for awhile. I'm at work, so it may take awhile for me to get it on there, but you'll see how much customer service means to me.
Message Edited by Zodiac-B on 09-20-2005 05:41 PM
Qui-Gonzalez wrote:
It's easy to say things about keeping things within the reach of the everyman, but when you price a frivolous item like strakes at 800cpu, you are not exactly sticking to what you say.
If he were the sole supplier of level 1 capacitors, then I would say he is gouging, here he is selling parts that no one reallyneeds, that take semi rare asteroid chunks, etc. The people who bought them probably have more money than they know what to do with, so who cares?
This thread needs to be locked. Market forces eventuallytake care of people that under/over sell their products.