Smuggler Archive

Geevo and Fates, you're both right (and Geevo, I'll take you up on that offer, bro!) however my question isn't for ME. It's for the hundreds of non-master smugglers on our server who don't read the boards and have never heard of us, andlikely never will. Now, Fates, I agree that if I'm there with my slicing tag up, and I DO charge a flat 2k, then many people will go to the master for 3k or even more (I know, I've lost business to you people ) and rightly so. However, if I'm charging 2k per slice and you're charging, let's see, mean slice 25%...times 400..what's that? 10,000 credits? For a gun slice? Now they might flock to you for a 1000 credit difference, but for an 8000 credit difference they might start flocking to me. Also, not just the slicers...but let's take my mayor. He believes in low low prices and high volume. Even in slicing. He charges 150 cr. per%. For a master, that's fairly cheap. What if I wasn't his right hand man? You'd have a fairly well known slicer who has no idea you exist, undercutting the HELL outta you. And he'll get a loooot of business. And referals at being nearly 4x cheaper. And if you guys didn't say, have me to tell him (I'm still not convinced he'll go for it, perhaps the for the good of the profession approach might work) he'd flat out turn you down and tell you to mind yer own bidness. That's not a flame that's how he is. The reason I'm explaining that is how many of us would react the same if we never read these boards?

That's why most price fixing attempts are doomed to fail. So perhaps we could try something else. Let's not only get all of the names we can off the boards, but walk around in game, always look up "smuggler" on the search list, take names, get as many as we can together, and try to arrange some sort of meeting to have a meaningful dialogue about this. The more smugglers involved the better this works. Otherwise we're just gonna get undercut by the 500 MASTER smugglers who don't read these boards and have NO idea what is going on in our profession.

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JTGAlpha wrote:

Geevo and Fates, you're both right (and Geevo, I'll take you up on that offer, bro! (I am looking forward to it)) however my question isn't for ME. It's for the hundreds of non-master smugglers on our server who don't read the boards and have never heard of us, andlikely never will.(The key is to educate people. The Master Smuggler that was at GF4 normally charges $3k/slice while at GF4 he charged $4k/slice. I told him that I was charging my normal rate of $5k/slice andpeople wereflyingaround the galaxy for my slices ... we compared and I was making more than he was ... AND HE WAS THERE. He raised hisprice to match my $5k/slice.)Now, Fates, I agree that if I'm there with my slicing tag up, and I DO charge a flat 2k, then many people will go to the master for 3k or even more (I know, I've lost business to you people ) and rightly so. However, if I'm charging 2k per slice and you're charging, let's see, mean slice 25%...times 400..what's that? 10,000 credits? For a gun slice? Now they might flock to you for a 1000 credit difference, but for an 8000 credit difference they might start flocking to me. (But if you were to also charge the same $400/% you would average only $2000/slice less than a Master Smuggler. They would save money on average by going to you, but they would gain performance by going to a Master.) Also, not just the slicers...but let's take my mayor. He believes in low low prices and high volume. Even in slicing. He charges 150 cr. per%. For a master, that's fairly cheap. What if I wasn't his right hand man? You'd have a fairly well known slicer who has no idea you exist, undercutting the HELL outta you. And he'll get a loooot of business. And referals at being nearly 4x cheaper. And if you guys didn't say, have me to tell him (I'm still not convinced he'll go for it, perhaps the for the good of the profession approach might work) he'd flat out turn you down and tell you to mind yer own bidness. That's not a flame that's how he is. The reason I'm explaining that is how many of us would react the same if we never read these boards? (Initially I was tired of slicing, so I raised my price to $5000/slice. It was definately not the norm when I did it. I wanted to decrease business and in turn, I saw the community increase the prices. JT ... your long tenure as a Slicer will pay off more than you realize. All of these people that you meet as a Slicer IV ... will flock to you as a Master Smuggler and I have the utmost respect for how long it has taken you. It took me a long time as well. We need to get the acceptance of the community, and the Risk (that we all claim that we want) is by raising prices, we may lose some customers. I would appreciate it if someone (maybe Lorenzo) would try to call a meeting of all of the Master Smugglers to discuss this. Maybe meet at the Smuggler's Palace in Twin Suns Capital on Tat?) If we are all on the same page, it will benefit us.)

That's why most price fixing attempts are doomed to fail. So perhaps we could try something else. Let's not only get all of the names we can off the boards, but walk around in game, always look up "smuggler" on the search list, take names, get as many as we can together, and try to arrange some sort of meeting to have a meaningful dialogue about this. The more smugglers involved the better this works. Otherwise we're just gonna get undercut by the 500 MASTER smugglers who don't read these boards and have NO idea what is going on in our profession.

(Every Master Smuggler I run into, I add to my friend list. There are too many holo-hoppers so I never added the non-Masters. I am not saying "Price fixing" but how about a uniformed increase in prices. Even if it is 'everyone raise your normal price by 200% ... still keeps a spread, but increases profit. I have spoken to a few friends and their biggest thingwas 'if you could guarantee like a 20% slice as a Master, I wouldn't have an issue ... but ...' ... to this, it tells me they are open. During GF4 I was getting customers sent to me left and right. Two different customers thought I was charging 90k per suit ... when it was 45k per suit. I corrected their error, but they were about to pay.)

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Perhaps something like Jedi visability could happen but with Smugglers and their tags. Having your smuggler tag up forever (like me) could generate a BH mission against you. Just a thought I pulled out of my happy place. Thoughts?

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JohnnyBravoRPD wrote:

my rate on scylla is 200c/%, no more no less, it has been a lot harder to find people who are willing to pay that amount (oh i can get it for ??? from that guy). to me it seems that the long time players will dish out the creds for the slices no mattre what and all it takes is a couple of good slices and those players will look you up for thier next slice.

my 2 cents

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OK, I was out tonight with JTGAlpha ... and I stuck to me $10,000 per slice. I had 4 people ask for slices and my response was simple "I am in a hurry, if you need a slice it will have to be quick and I charge $10,000 per slice."

I did not get one complaint.

I did not get one negative comment.

I made $90,000 in less than 5 minutes and at least $150k for the night of no advertising and no hanging out in a city looking for slices.

Message Edited by Geevo on 03-24-2004 02:10 AM

i have said it b4 and il say it again i support the price increase, it will perhaps give us as smuggler`s some respect for what we do.

I actually got a tell last night while waiting for a shuttle dude : will let you slice my weapon for 1k . this is just another insult, that people think we are there to help them. almost no charge .

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P__Day wrote:

im only slicing 4 yet, but i think this is a good idea, one way to make it work, and to make sure that slicing 2 + 3 go against it is to stop selling molclamps on open vendors and keep them on "private" vendors where only slicing 4 and master smugglers are alowed to use em.

im totally behind the idea of consorting on slicing prices the fact that players are willing to pay, 10k for buffs, 300k for armor and 40k + for weapons, they should be willing to pay more for slices. I mean seriously buff`s is a stat improvement for 3hours we improve the weapon for as long as its used.

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Jackrabbit187 wrote:
I got up to Slicing 4 with no clamps. I think clamps should have a level restriction on them.

But that's for another thread.

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