Tailor Archive
Thread: I am so close to giving up!
Message Edited by Akaara on 11-08-2004 04:41 PM
Message Edited by TheNola on 11-10-2004 07:48 PM
Korrack wrote:
I've been a tailor since June and am now considering giving it up, or at least that's how I'm feeling at the moment. I Mastered it rather quickly because of my interest. I love clothes in the game, I change my outfit almost ever couple of days to something new, usually combining it with low encumbrance armor (I'm also working on Armorsmith 4000).
I carry two accounts in the game as a single account won't let me do everything I need to do. My second account is Merchant 4444 (trying to find 500AP) and Dancer 0043.
Since the first day I turned Tailor, I tried to provide items in the game that people would actually want to buy. I spent a fortune on BE tissues and began making a lot of BE clothes, specifically shirts to go under armor with combat tissues. I paid attention to entertainers to see what they were wearing and I made a ton of BE and non BE clothes for them as well. Lots of the popular items, lots of color choices.
I'm in a relatively small town on Naboo (Wanderhome), but I advertise constantly and I know word of mouth gets me business too. I've sat for hours on end in the Theed and CNET cantinas making free entertainer clothing for newbie dancers and musicians. People are happy with my services. I often pick up some slicing business when I'm around too.
What I have noticed, even with the new outfits in JTL is that I'm getting next to no business as of late. I have been checking my vendor stocks thinking that my game mails have been wrong, but it's true, I haven't made a tailor sale in over a week. I've tried ways to entice people to come to my shop, I cut my prices, I offered a ton of JTL items, I offered other vendors selling loot and resources at prices so low I was losing money. I post daily on my galaxy andgalaxy trade forums.Anything to generate revenue.
Recently one of the top tailors on my server retired from tailor, and she sent a bunch of business my way. I got 1 new customer out of it all, and that was an armorsmith for components. Now, I could make a living out of this, but I'm getting nothing from regaulat and BE clothing on vendors. I know people are coming to the mall, I see them shopping for ship parts on one of 4 vendors that carry those parts in the mall.
Has anyone else noticed a steep decline in sales since JTL, or even before JTL? I'm too a point that I'm gonna have to start running combat missions to pay for the resources and tissues I use to make the few minor custom on the spot orders I get. It's getting rather depressing. I have been patient and have tried my best to remain smilie despite my bank account draining money on harvesters, buildings for storage and factories which are making components I may never use or sell.
I dunno what I expect with this post, I doubt it will draw sympathy, I doubt it will allow a realization of what I am doing wrong (I'm not doing anything wrong businesswise). I don't want to resort to spamming at the starport like some others do. Word of mouth doesn't seem to work, and neither do my galaxy trade forums.
I guess I just needed to vent a bit. Thanks for listening?
Don't GIVE UP!!!! I am that tailor he speaks of that quit... Here I'll make u deal.. You stick it out... I'll regrind it and we can partner! I miss it anyway.... What do ya say??? Im sure I can get all my regs back in a day, and well both be set...
Cadina wrote:
Don't GIVE UP!!!! I am that tailor he speaks of that quit... Here I'll make u deal.. You stick it out... I'll regrind it and we can partner! I miss it anyway.... What do ya say??? Im sure I can get all my regs back in a day, and well both be set...
I'm not giving up hon. I'm just frustrated over the lack of business no matter what I do. It's not about money as I don't care if I make any, it's about doing it and making a difference. Yeah, it sounds sappy, but I've always wanted people to spit out my name whenever anyone asks where they can find some clothing. I could stock my vendors with 100 of each item and still nobody would shop. Since this post, I had one custom sale of 6 items (including 2 loot schematic items), and 3 other sales. I know my vendors aren't heavily stocked, but nobody is even viewing them. They come into the mall and head straight for the shipwright vendors.
I've established myself and members of my guild in a mall in Storm Haven Naboo. Partnering with you, altho sweet, would most likely entail me leaving that mall (which I own and operate out of). It would be great for you to come back to Tailor Cadina. If your clients are still there and want to buy, fantastic! I'll never become you, or Rhian. Dunno if my being male has anything to do with my lack of recognition. Altho, I do find it odd that even when I was starting out and had reached Master, half of the entertainers in my guild were still buying from you.
I've restructured my vendors in my mall in the last few days to reflect where I'm actually making sales:
- Bio-Eng and Loot Schematic Clothing
- Regular Tailor Clothing
- Tailor Components
- Custom Clothing and Weekly Specials
- Armor as Clothing
- Smuggler Tools
- Resources
- Smuggled Loot
Having moved all of my Smuggler, Resources, and Loot items from a single vendor to seperate vendors netted me 3.6 million in resource and loot sales in 2 days. And I'm selling stuff cheap.
All I can determine from all this is that nobody actually visits the mall in Storm Haven. And when they get there, they are only interested in the Shipwright vendors.
Partnering with you would be fun and prolly keep me very busy, but can I do it without leaving the mall or leaving Storm?
AllyaEcati wrote:
I haven't really experienced a decline in sales. I usually make 100k-500k a day, and this gets boosted on the weekend. I let some guildies place vendors in my shop, none are shipwrights, and I still have seen many people stop by and take a look around. As a former frustrated clothing shopper, I honestly think stocked vendors are the key to making money.
With the mentality in this game, Ithinkmost people don't want to mess with custom orders. Heck, most people probably don't have an idea of what they want until they see it. I also keeped a well stocked components vendors that offer single crates and packs of 250, 500, and 1k for a reasonable price. The components vendor does good business and I even have other tailors picking up their supplies from me.
Things change from server to server as I can clearly see from talking to various tailors (except Cadina who gets business even when she's not a tailor) on Wanderhome. You are on Sunrunner and have your shop outside of Theed. That may work for Sunrunner, but it doesn't work on Wanderhome. On Wanderhome, you either need to be South of Coronet Corellia or you need to be Cadina or Rhian (who sadly left the game in September).
Stocked vendors will always sell, and I suppose that considering how little sales I get, it wouldn't be that hard to maintain a vendor with 100 of each item when I only sell 3 items a day. Up until recently, I was running at least 2 of each item, and much more of popular items (I accidently lost 3/4 of my stock in a storage vendor accident so my stock is nowhere near what it was last week). I price incredibly low (500 credits for almost all regular items) and still nobody buys. This is what I don't understand. Tailors who actually get business charge 4 or 5 times what I do for the same items. My loot schematic items are cheaper than anyone else, my BE items are cheaper.
I can't seem to sell anything. I'm totally guessing it has to do with location. It can't possibly have to do with advertising. As stated earlier, I had tried all kinds of things, posting on the trade forums, posting on my galaxy forums (even tho it's looked down upon), spam droid, word of mouth, free donations to newbies in filled public cantinas where everyone started talking about how nice it was (non of them ever went to shop in my store). I sell smuggler tools for 1/2 what others do, I sell large stacks of grind and 900+ stat resources for 2-5 cpu (mostly 2) and nobody buys.
I just don't get it. I went through so much to get this mall in Storm Haven, people from my guild and outside my guild are placing vendors, and I get zero business. Hell, some days I sit in the mall and watch people come in. Straight for the Shipwright vendors. I greet them, they can see the big sign saying "Contact okie for custom orders", but nada. I might just be better off running destroy missions and getting back all my Imperial or Rebel faction.
Blergh, I'm whining again I think.
AllyaEcati wrote:
I haven't really experienced a decline in sales. I usually make 100k-500k a day, and this gets boosted on the weekend. I let some guildies place vendors in my shop, none are shipwrights, and I still have seen many people stop by and take a look around. As a former frustrated clothing shopper, I honestly think stocked vendors are the key to making money.
With the mentality in this game, Ithinkmost people don't want to mess with custom orders. Heck, most people probably don't have an idea of what they want until they see it. I also keeped a well stocked components vendors that offer single crates and packs of 250, 500, and 1k for a reasonable price. The components vendor does good business and I even have other tailors picking up their supplies from me.
My BE clothing vendor has really picked up business and I am making about the same from it. Otherwise I do custom orders. I have a regular boutique that has been in the same place forever, but no one wants go to to Kaadara after the imperial crackdown. It pretty much killed the city and everything around it. It only gets one or two sales a week. I just don't want to move it because I *think* it is the oldest continuously running tailor shop on Lowca (it has been in the same location for over a year). Thats not to say I am the oldest tailor. I am pretty sure that Naia and Nova' werearound before me by a few weeks, but I never moved my shop to a player city and it has been sitting in the same place I put it over a year ago.
I think Nova' was the first master tailor on Lowca, and I think you mastered tailor before me. I've heard your name a lot from people, the one with pigtails and a grand ball gown
Gyopi wrote:
I am pretty sure that Naia and Nova' werearound before me by a few weeks, but I never moved my shop to a player city and it has been sitting in the same place I put it over a year ago.
, and have seen your clothes around for a long time. Still, we're all master tailors since forever, lol.