Tailor Archive
Thread: It spreads like a disease..
... and I had hoped it would stay on Corellia.
First there was one master in Coronet selling all master items on the Bazaar for 3K.. then I noticed a second had joined in. And then this morning I saw it had spread to Naboo.. 20 master items for 3K on the Theed Bazaar. Ball gowns, flesh wraps and leotards.. I'm sure the rest won't be far behind.
Only a very small percentage of my sales are master items, so it won't "hurt" me. I've probably sold 100x more paramilitary camos than master items. But, I always enjoyed custommaking those ball gowns for my customers, and finding beautiful color combinations- seeing a half dozen on the equivalent of the markdown rack at K-mart is sad.
And to think I spend time deciding what to list on the Bazaar.. some new colors, some popular items, some items you don't usually see. It'd be so much quicker to just slap 20 flight suitsup there and log... silly me!
I honestly don't understand the reasoning.. you can sell camos and dustersfor 3K and make a heckuva lot more money per item than you do on a 345 resource 10 factory component item. What am I missing here? Unless it's just a volume thing - sell 50 master items before 20 regular items sell? I am pretty sure this tailor has no shop, so maybe that's it... quick cash? /shrug
It still turns my stomach.. I don't care if you sell master items for 50 credits, just keep them off the Bazaar!
"" Ri'a Ocoli"" Master Tailor, Kettemoor
"" Fine Attire by Ri'a is 1km north of Keren at 1190, 3770
"" .. my door is always open, stop by any time!
I lament seeing that waste too. It cheapens everything we make and do if any tailor, much less a Master, sells for less than cost, labor and overhead. It's a shame.
I check to see if who is selling it is also the creator. Often it is not. It's second or more hand I guess? I am not surprised to see many people dumping their old clothing when they have replaced it with new bio-enhanced copies. But sheesh. Did they buy the original that cheap too? Have they no concept of what it is still worth? /shakes head. Shame on them. Consumer and Creator both for laying waste to the hard-earned labors of all of us.
If I see the few Masters in my areas flooding the bazaar with lowball priced goods, I pull mine off. All of it. Low level, backpacks, gloves, all of it. They are doing it to garner the customer base. Unfortunately, that tactic works quite well. I am sick to death of getting replies that my prices are too high, that they saw such and such on the bazaar for only 3k or less. Or that so and so sells the same thing for thousands less than I stated. Fine then. Buh bye. I prefer face to face custom orders anyway. By the time that customer is in my shop discussing colors, we've already talked price ranges. Hmph.
Consider this also... how many of these Factory Outlet Master Tailors are recent Tailor converts because the Gosh-Almighty-Holocron told them to? What do they care about the Tailor profession? To them, it is just a means to an end and the rest of it be dam-ned. Quick buck, power grind, and they are outta here and on to power grinding the next profession the Holocron demands of their poor sorry souls.
Bah.
I have been in this same spot since about 2 weeks after the game came out, nearly everyone in the area knows me and respects my "area". Then this upstart just decides to move in without so much as a how do you do......it's sad really. I have not bothered to even contact her. I have plenty of business and very loyal customers. But it is sad to hear that some of my loyal customers have contacted her, or tried to about why she is moving in on me this way, and all they have gotten are nasty responses or none at all. Not a good way to try and gain my customer base I'd have to say. I was worried for a bit, and I guess I still am a little, I mean who wouldn't be? But since she moved in I actually have more business....and I know people have noticed her, because more of my customers have made it a point to thank me for my store and clothing. They don't actually mention her...but I know it is their way of showing support. I suppose I could get into a price war, but I won't. I'm not going to bother, that would be childish and hurt me and the tailor profession. I am just going to continue to make my clothing at the prices my customers and I feel are fair, and go about my business. Am I angry she has done this---darned tooting right I am!!! Am I going to let her drive me out of the town that sprang up around me-----heck no!!! 
Well, I hate to say it, but what do you think Wal-Mart and KMart have done to the small business man? Same exact thing. If the items are more valuable than the listed price,BUY THEM OFF THE BAZZAR and resell them for the true price. Sheesh. You can second-hand sell. Pull someone else's product and jack the price up. Simple economics my friends. If the price is low, buy it and sell it for a higher price if the market will truly tolerate it.
When I was skilling up I often sold below what others did just to get things to move. I suppose I could have run missions and used practice mode, but I figured if I could at least break even I'd be okay. (I also didnt learn that usage xp had never been implemented for clothing until I had almost reached master... silly me) Now that I'm a master Tailor I set my prices so that i only have to spend as much time crafting as I want. If I dont have enough business I lower my prices. If I have too much business I raise them. Right now I have more than enough business and I was even thinking of raising my prices again. I see master items on the bazaar for 3k or less all the time, but it doesnt seem to impact me, I just sold several master Items for 10,000 and a couple noble crests for 15k (plexitie and green diamonds are no longer available, but I have a stockpile) This past weekend I was happily making items to restock my vendor. Aftera few hours of this someone came into my shop and the very first thing they said was, "your prices are too high".When they asked for an outfit and I quoted them a price they freaked out. They pointed out that they could get the same things on the bazaar for 1/3 of the prices. My response was simply, "You should go grab it then". They called ME rude and stormed out. My only regret is that I couldnt get them to leave my shop sooner, before they had wasted so much of my time. (at least I didnt make their order before giving a price)
I Tailor and play the game to have fun. If customers make me not have fun then they wont be my customers for long. If I end up not having enough customers to keep going, I'll probably go try another profession. The truth, though, is that Master Tailors have been vanishing like crazy in my area and I still have more business than I can handle and often send people to other tailors when I get overbooked.
I am one to keep my mouth shut about conflicts between us tailors. I hate thinking of each other as competition. Geeze it's a game to enjoy, not quibble. However, I saw those things for sell on the Theed bazaar last night and it really bothered me. I sell those items for 8-10K each. Bringing down those prices that far, you aren't getting paid for the time if takes to create them and the materials/factory/harvestors used. 
What gets to me even more is the person selling them was bothered some time ago when my partner and I had shops in Theed. She sent us emails telling us our prices were too low and we were even masters yet!! I later took her and others advice into account and raised my prices to fit the present market.
Even if you are trying to clear out old merchandise, one shouldn't sell them on the bazaar at a 1/3 of the price they were originally, it messes up the wholeclothing market imo. When I cleared out old items to change my method of naming them(due to the new appearance of the bazaar/vendor windows which is a whole other rant I will spare you from) I sold what I could at the normal prices on the bazaar to advertise my shop. The items above 3k went to friends or /destroy.
Please don't mess up the market, folks, with clearance sells on the bazaar. It will cause a domino effect on everyone I think.
/mumbles: like we don't have enough problems with keeping supplies instock, friendly competition, and dealing with the time sinks keeping shops stocked and vendors from revolting by dumping all their stock every 7 days . :
Kamielle- Master Tailor of Moenia-Kettemoor
Mystyrys wrote:But sheesh. Did they buy the original that cheap too? Have they no concept of what it is still worth? /shakes head. Shame on them. Consumer and Creator both for laying waste to the hard-earned labors of all of us.
Perhaps they bought it at a high cost, but like most people, they have no Merchant skills, so they decided to put it on the bazaar for the maximum price (3k).
A couple of points.. the person selling the items was in fact the creator. I find it funny that she harrassed anyone about prices, because I've always seen her selling below market prices. I'm not going to buy her stuff and resell it, because I'm sure she'd only just restock it and pat herself on the back. If I went back and checked my sales records I doubt I have sold more than a dozenexotic leotards since I made master. It's not a price thing, it's a demand thing. Besides, most of the master dancers I know have multiple creative outfits, and rarely wear the leotards and fleshwraps. Maybe because they are so common now?
I sell on the Bazaar for marketing purposes.. and I follow up each sale with a thank you email and the waypoint to my shop. I've gotten many new customers that way. That's why I like to choose different items and different colors to showcase what I can do. Listing six black exotic leotards would be silly.
Like I said in my first post, it doesn't affect my businessin the least. I keep my vendors stocked with 400+ items at all times, and people come in and can buycomplete outfits in many different colors. I get complements on my selection, and my choice of colors,all the time. Every ballgown I've sold has been custom made - starting from something vague like "I'd like apurple with light pink gown," to choosing the most attractive combination I can make, to signing my name on it with pride. I have no desire to mass produce them.
Honestly, I don't know what this person's motivation is. What I do know, is there are MANY popular items that would sell just as well, or better, and not cheapen the Master Tailor items. To be honest, I could probably sell two dozen other items before those six ballgowns sell.
Oh.. and I wonder how many people will buy one of those gowns, try to equip it with a backpack and not know whythey can't wear it?
"" Ri'a Ocoli
"" Master Tailor, Kettemoor
"" Fine Attire by Ri'a is 1km north of Keren at 1190, 3770
"" .. my door is always open, stop by any time!
This phenomena hasn't hit Bria yet (as near as I can tell, rarely look at the bazars anymore for clothing, and certainly don't put any there) but one thing did happen to me this weekend that was a first. I had a customer complain, loudly, about my prices. Never happened before. She wanted a Revealing Fleshwrap, I told her sure, no problem, she asked how much, I said 12k, and she freaked. Told me it was rediculous, that she had seen them between 3k-5k. That ended our conversation (although I couldn't help but wonder what in the world she was doing shopping for them if she had in fact seen them available at these prices) as I certainly don't feel like I have to justify my prices since my biggest challenge seems to be finding the time to restock my vendor from all the stuff that has sold each day. This fact alone should probably mean that I should raise my prices, but I have plenty of money so the persuit of more of it is kind of pointless.
If what she said is true though, that's pretty amazing. Then again, the fact that my sales seem to be escalating, certainly not shrinking, I guess I really don't care a whole heck of a lot. One thing though, I guess we should all thank our lucky stars for the 25 limit on the bazar. People like this can put 25 master level items on the bazar, sell them for 3k make 75k/day (although the net will be very very low) and then they're done, that's the best they can ever do, and they are being stupid because they could put items that require a lot less resources on the bazar and charge the same amount.
It seems like this comes in waves on all servers. Eclipse now has one that has listed a zillion or probably 25 patterned slip dresses on the bazaar at 2.5k. That's not too bad and it in no way hurts my business but it is disheartening. They started at 1.5k and have finally gone to 2.5k the funny thing is that I bought some of theirs at 2k and turned them around at 3k. Heh, free profit.. fun!
Anyhoo... it comes and goes.. and they come and go but hey, I'm finally solid in my business and if they continue to pimp themselves for dirt, they won't ever know that feeling. 
And.. what a nice feeling it is.. to finally be all in the black and rising. I owe that singularly to my wonderful customers!! Thanks for staying with me on the journey and looking to the future with me as well.