Smuggler Archive
Thread: Guys. KEEP UP THE PRICES FOR A SLICE!!
Crash013
Thu Jul 29, 2004 8:27 pm
#27
Excuse me, I put my Master Smuggler title on because I'm a proud smuggler. I like to show it off to everyone. Its not because I am looking for business. And a profit of 2706 credits may have been O.K at launch, but now the economy is inflated, and 2706 credits isn't gonna get you anything.
xTekx wrote:
xTekx wrote:
groves wrote:
So yes, 100cr/% can hurt the other smuggler who use slicing as a source of income as people tend to expect every smuggler to charge as low.
Ok, lets look at that for a moment. A source of income. And since EVERYONE seems to want to use doctors as an example i'll do my own little example.
Doctors have to charge what they do because it costs them lots of money for the BEST resources. I know on bloodfin I see doctors asking for hte highest quality meat and paying upwards of 100cpu and higher for this. What do you think that just did to the buff prices? Of course, they just jumped. Now look at smugglers. You can use 1cpu aluminum to make clamps and knives. You can buy Auk's and Wuk's for 5k for a crate of 25. Basically about200 credits for one auk or wuk, 16 credits for a laserknife(at 1cpu), and 90
damm computer posted before I was done....
Ok, lets look at that for a moment. A source of income. And since EVERYONE seems to want to use doctors as an example i'll do my own little example.
Doctors have to charge what they do because it costs them lots of money for the BEST resources. I know on bloodfin I see doctors asking for hte highest quality meat and paying upwards of 100cpu and higher for this. What do you think that just did to the buff prices? Of course, they just jumped. Now look at smugglers. You can use 1cpu aluminum to make clamps and knives. And you can buy auk's and wuk's for 5k for a crate of 25. That's about 200 credits for one auk or wuk used. Its about 90 credits or one molecular clamp used. And its about 16 credits to make one laserknife that has 10 uses to it. So that makes it worth about 1.6 credits for one use. And since you have to use to knives to do a slice that comes out to 3.2 credits for the knives. Add all that up and it comes out to about 294 credits per slice. With crap resources that is at 1cpu.
Now for me I charge 3k per slice. So if I use that I just made a profit from ONE slice at 3k of 2706 credits. Now in any business that would be considered great profit. Over 2700 credits for using 294 credits worth of tools for one slice. But because this is SWG and the economies have become sheeet, that profit % means diddly squat. Everyone seems to be getting greedier and greedier.
Now take into consideration the randomness of slicing and the resources used for slicing the highest price I could reasonably see being charged would be about 5-6k.And you can complain about the time it takes and blah blah blah, but the bottom line is if you have that Master Smuggler title up then you're already hoping for someone to send you a tell asking for a slice. So if you dont' want to waste the time to slice then put up a different tag. Simple as that.
xTekx
Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:23 pm
#28
that 2706 is just for one slice. When you slice a full suit, 9 slices that's 24k. If you charge 5k a slice well then that's a whole lot more. So dont' tell me that 2706 means nothing. Because it does add up.
Crash013 wrote:
Excuse me, I put my Master Smuggler title on because I'm a proud smuggler. I like to show it off to everyone. Its not because I am looking for business. And a profit of 2706 credits may have been O.K at launch, but now the economy is inflated, and 2706 credits isn't gonna get you anything.
tuckomel
Fri Jul 30, 2004 9:42 am
#29
I'm just glad I'm not on Tek's server. Sounds like he just doesn't get it.
parlaquin
Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:51 am
#30
Not sure where all this "not many smugglers around" talk is coming from, on Intrepid at least, there is usually a gaggle of smugglers hanging out in corospam slicing. Needless to say, I have as yet seen any decline in our numbers. I would be interested to see some numbers if we are in fact becoming a dieing breed. Hope that's not the case.
MrBreaker
Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:56 am
#31
Thething you smugglers dont seem to get is that your so lucky that resource quality doesnt matter in WUKs AUKs PLKs and MCs
A guy was trying to negotiate a slicing contract with me, and I told him that it costs *NOTHING* to make smuggler tools. All you have to do is take any only harv, shove it on some copper or steel for a few days and you have enough for a run of 1000 tools. To me that equates to nothing. Or at least,you can make 1000 tools for the cost of a single 10k slice.
So if someone asked me 10k for a slice id tell em to go jump, 5k a slice id say the same, 3k id only do very rarely, when i was desperate.
Look at what other professions have to contend with: namely weaponsmiths and armorsmiths.
You have to have LOADS of specialised resources to make the best weapons. Then on top of that to make the very best on the server you have to have the best spawns ever seen on the server. For that, you end up looking at 20-100cpuper resource.
So the only slicing I would do now is via contract, maybe a bulk of 300 weapons at 500 credits or so per weapon. I would provide the tools. Anything more and Im getting ripped off.
Verhalnez
Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:13 am
#32
I say charge what you want! I have been chargeing 10k a slice for months now and have seen more money then you can imagine! I used to charge 200c * % but found that I was working to much and playing to little! I mostly got rid of the whinners who gave me a hard time to begin with! Every once in a while someone says to me that I charge too much! I tell them to find another Master Smuggler to do the work if they dont like the prices. When they come back to me saying there are no Master Smugglers out there I charge them 15k a slice for annoying me!
But there are those out there who do not have the same love of money that I have! For those of you who dont want money or at least dont care how much you have, charge less that is fine with me! I doubt you are really taking business away from me! There will always be more weapons to slice then slicers to slice them!
d_h1234
Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:26 am
#33
MrBreaker wrote:
Thething you smugglers dont seem to get is that your so lucky that resource quality doesnt matter in WUKs AUKs PLKs and MCs
Exactly...When I started smuggler I saw on the bazaar crates of laser knives for 6k, but they just take 16 metal per, so I decided to make a factory run with 5k steel or whatever and now I have a bag full of crates of 25 knives...NOVICE weaponsmiths and armorsmiths can make WUKS and AUKS, only thing that's 'costly' to make is clamps, but even those are easy. I don't get why most smugglers in this thread are so greedy, if slicing is so 'not worth your time' and 'below you', why'd any of you bother to become smugglers anyway?
d_h1234
Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:55 am
#35
MrBreaker wrote:
It is only greed and nothing else
I'd be tempted to say laziness as well...I mean as far as 'smuggler-ing' being their only source of income, that sounds like just plain laziness, with pistols 4 and Dirty Fighting 4 any smuggler should easily be able to handle 10k missions and up by themselves. Add a droid, a pet, maybe some guildmates or friends, that could shoot up to 40k missions or more a pop. So what's with trying to squeeze out every last cent from other players (aka: ripping off) for a weapon slice that takes only about 1 minute to do?
EDIT: forgot to mention doc buffs and solo groups, make that 80k or so per mission easily handled by yourself.
Message Edited by d_h1234 on 07-30-2004 11:56 AM
JTGAlpha
Fri Jul 30, 2004 1:11 pm
#36
A little note on "greed."
Greed, in real life, is very destructive.
Greed in a video game is not.
People are owed money for their time and trouble in this game. And if I charge a little too much, guess what? You're not gonna not eat tonight. You're kids won't freeze. You won't have less beer in your fridge.
DigiDante
Fri Jul 30, 2004 1:49 pm
#37
UmmonPrime wrote:
Is it wrong I only charge 2k a slice or free if I don't want a bank tip?
I mean come on, i'm already rich.
The way I see it, if you're already rich then why do you still slice for the public?
Slicing is something I love to do, and alot of smugglers will agree, but just because you are rich doesnt mean everyone else is. I charge 10k, the fee the smugglers of flurry agreed upon charging. I do not advertise that I'm slicing, I normally and /anon also, but the rare times that I do slice, I want the money for the time I lost slicing. 2k does not justify that.
Waiting for a shuttle you get a tell to slice... you're heading to dath from corellia. "I'll be there in just a minute" turns into the 3 minute later "I'm almost there". Make the example shorter, you miss your flight, get a 30% damage slice, and get paid 2k. 2k barely covers the ticket to Dath, and you just missed a shuttle and have to wait another 10 minutes...
TheLemming
Fri Jul 30, 2004 2:06 pm
#38
Elpucko wrote:
KaernLegorah wrote:
TomoRainer wrote:
Undercutting is what petty criminals do.
Real criminals don't take it out on each other, they take it out on the customer.
"Real" criminals, as you call them, are in competition with each other, so they would use any means necessary to accomplish their goals.I am not a criminal. Heck, I am not a smuggler. I am an equipment modifier and a spice dealer. You say any different and I will shoot you in the nuts.
Very nice. 5 stars.
As for all the people wanting to fight over prices....umm....why? Get over it. So somebody else is more reasonable with their slicing than you are...welcome to the valley of complaints that don't even make a dent...
I make all my clamps and knives with 1-2 CPU grinding copper, I have guildies make my WUK and AUK schems with grinding materials that I've stockpiled. So in the end it costs me what...maybe 250 credits per slice that I do? I charge 3k...and here's the funny part...when I try to give breaks to people in my guild or allied guilds, they often pay me much MORE than what I charge everyone else in tips...
In fact, people in general will tip a fair bit more if you charge less than they would if you charged more...at least in my experience... This also leaves me feeling better, because I would really feel bad if I charged some guy 10k to make his new krayt weapon almost worthless with a 15% speed slice. 
On the faction issue....I finally just bought colonel, and I mostly just plan to work with other guild smugglers to get faction items with our discount. If a guild member wants ST armor we can get it for him at cost for a human master smuggler. For other people...I'll probably go 125 CPU. Just because the base cost is already high enough to make it prohibitive to most people. I also have this small RP element where I feel that any faction sold will be going to help the empire in some small way.
PhoenixOrion
Fri Jul 30, 2004 2:27 pm
#39
Threads with this topic need closed on post.
Seriously. We don't need one of these every week or two.
You want to get more customers? Charge less than the other guy. You want to get less customers? Whine and complain in a thread about it on the SWG Forums.
People are going to charge what they feel is necessary or what warrants their time and resources to slice.
If you don't like it, tough luck. That is how economy and selling of goods works.
But if you really don't like it, drop smuggler and pick up another profession.