Hey guys, this is just sort've an informal story of what happened to me last night in-game, it's not another one of those pricing threads. I'm a firm believer that it's your time and your service, and you should be able to set your own prices (this includes entertainers, smugglers, doctors, and really anybody else volunteering their time for someone else in order to get paid).
Sothe past twonights I was online for awhile, after having not been on in the past week or so. Both of those nights I sliced MANY assorted items for guild members. When slicing for guild members, I no longer charge money, and don't bring up money at all. If they ask, I just tell them that it's free for guildies and it's up to them. Sometimes I'll get a "thanks Nate" and sometimes a bit of a tip ... larger depending on whether they're rich or not.
Of course, there's no way I'm looking to make money off my guild members. I've got a GREAT guild, and we all help eachother out whenever possible. People have given others very expensive loot for nothing, and a guildie gave me an aakuan ring yesterday 'cause I've sliced alot of his stuff. Also, being a high-ranking officer in the guild, and having played the game as long as I have, it just doesn't feel right charging guild members.
Anyway, I was sitting at our city's shuttleport slicing some VKs for a guild member, when a random blue dot, someone I've never bumped into before, shuttles into the city. We get a lot of traffic in New Hope because of our commerce, great vendors, and Improved Job Market status. It's a great place for people to grind, buy weps, armor, chef food, etc.
The guildie I sliced for is a server-wide known Master Doc, who just recently started mass-producing some +2700 buff packs. People come from all over to get his buffs. So this random blue dot starts getting buffed by my friend, while I'm slicing his VKs. The guy notices that I'm slicing for my friend, and asks if I have enough equipment to help him out. Being in a guild where supplies are handed out with a smile, and always well stocked, I told him of course I had enough supplies.
My friend notices this, and thanks me for the great slices (1 of the 5 VKs got a 33%dmg slice). So the random guy I never met before gave me 5 gaffi batons and 2 VKs to slice. I always start off by asking if they know about the randomnessof the slices. He said yes. The way I do it is I slice an item, and tell them what it received, then slice the next etc etc.
So I got done with all 7 items, only 1 of which got a great slice, 32% dmg on a baton ... the rest were decent to above average. And then I realized that I hadn't told him that I charge 5000 credits per slice (he wasn't a guild member of course). Thinking he might not like having to fork over 35000 credits without warning, I answered his "how much will that be" question differently than usual.
I told him "Well I usually charge 5k per slice, but I'm in a good mood so you can look over your weapons (after I had traded them back to him) and decide what it's worth to you."
I get the bank tip shortly thereafter. 100,000 credits. For 7 weapons, only one of which hit a superb slice. I was flabbergasted that he paid over twice (almost 3x!) what I usually charge, out of his own free will. He attributed it to the good slices and honest, friendly, and polite attitude I had when conducting business with him.
Needless to say, I actually logged off with a smile last night.
Nathan Bluewater Smuggler and Captain of the Ivory Eagle
Oberon Bluewater Twi'lek Bounty Hunter
fireonice fireonice Dark Jedi Knight
A'idan Corso Merchant Extraordinaire
Behold an YT-1300 and the one that piloted it was Nathan and Vengeance followed with him.