Tailor Archive
Thread: Pricing Scheme what do you think
At the very least, the smock (My most popular item) is WAY too low. Factor together all the costs of materials (Which based on the way the game works, it costs2.4 creds per unit if you have style 1 harvesters turning out 100 units/hr of fibreplast and polymer, andenough wind generators to keep them powered almost exactly, optimal system I came up with for mass production was 7 harvestersand 2 wind generators) the bare minimum price 252 creds.Plus, I've never seen materials sell for 2.4 creds (I now outsource to allow for longer gaps between sales.) Typically, I see fibreplast, polymers, and basic metals selling for 3.75 - 10 creds. This raises the cost393 creds just for the basics. And on that you're gonna loose money because of the cost of vendors, housing, entertainer discounts, etc. You do, however, adjust for skill, but as stated earlier, you just don't put anything in for less than novice tailor items. Popular items like wrinkled pants (zebra... HA!) and soft undershirts just don't have a place in your pricing scheme.
Does this mean that the list itself is a bad idea? HECK NO! If we as tailors could agree for just 1 week on pricing and then work twords being competitive, such a list could be the cornerstone of a better tailoring tomorrow. But there will be horned snowmen mady by deciesed lawyers before that happens... 
I think your price list is fine. Sure some may be abit off...(shrugs)...ofcourse people would scream bloody murder if they knew what my prices are. (Hint: Even less then yours). But then I am a Tailor to pass my time until they release the Politician class. It's more important to me to make friends and have fun, then it is to make alot of money. I've traded for alot of my resources, and I don't grind. Alot of tailors grind and throw everything way, and then charge the customer for the resources on those clothes/resources they tossed away by pricing the clothes they see as 'sellable' at much higher prices they they have to.
Who is the richest?
A Tailor whomake 10 shirts and sell them for 100 each.
Another tailor makes 10 shirts, destroys 9 of them, and sells 1 shirt for 500 credits.
Oranother Tailor that gives away 10 shirts.
The answer is the third one. For that tailor has made a few friends along the way, and has found out there is more to the game then money. If your just in it for the money, just do delievery missions, and earn money that way. I'm in the game to make friends, make a little profit, but to also have fun. My favorite thing to do is work with the other players/characters and do something I call 'Fashion Consulting', where I have them try on different clothes and find an outfit that fits their Avatar best. I love Tailoring!
Anneke Rose (Tailor & Future Political Candidate 2004) Kaadara, Naboo, Naritus.
EmperoressPalpatine wrote:My favorite thing to do is work with the other players/characters and do something I call 'Fashion Consulting', where I have them try on different clothes and find an outfit that fits their Avatar best. I love Tailoring!
Mine too! Nothing like helping someone find the outfit they like, eveen if it's with the limited colors we have. I've spent hours dressing people up.
"My "grinded" items never show up on the market."
Either do mine, well, maybe 2-3 shirts here or there, but mostly all my grineded items are destroyed.
What you're undercutting is the gererally accepted "worth" of resources to the general public. Resources sell for 3-5cr each on the bazaar. Most prices for items are based on that with a profit added in, another 3-5cr on top, so you'll find prices around 6-10cr per resource used in an item. This reflects the time spent making the item, the time spent getting your skill up to the point where you can make the item, the time spent maintaining harvesters, the money and resources put into the harvesters, the time and money invested in a house, vendor and factory, training costs and all of that kind of stuff. That's all REAL expenses for REAL tailor merchants. It's unfair of you, as a scout/whatever, to come in here and say "It only costs me 1.5cr" and totally disregard all the other costs that tailors have as if they don't matter.
You get a lot of your stuff for free I imagine, and since you hunt you have a lot of money, and you apparently have a lot of harvesters or friends harvesters and can get your items for 1.5cr each. Your pricesare at the 1.5cr each price. So first of all you're 50% of the market price for just the resources with absolutely no profit given for all the TIME spent on the craft. That's wrong. That's unfair to crafters who are only crafters and merchants and not a scout/marksman/whatever with a needle.
It's not that we thought you were dumping grinded items for cheap, it's that you totally disregarded the entire professional costs of Tailoring based upon your personal resource availability.
Metal Bikini – 7500
Bikini Bottoms – 7500
Grand Ballroom – 10000
Revealing Flesh wrap – 12000 – most expensive item.
Paramilitary Camos - 2000
Dusters – 2250
I have only had one person complain about my prices. I currently have so much business that I cannot keep anything in stock.
Although they may seem really high there are few reason I do this and don’t feel bad about it at all.
1) Clothing doesn’t degrade so it’s a one-time buy. There is no reason not to pay a good price for one time buy item.
2) How much do designer cloths cost in real life? You can pay easily $2000.00 for designer suit and it contains the same amount of resources as a pair a jean and a t-shirt at Wal-Mart.
3) Most of the above are master items. How much would you pay for a master level droid, or weapon or armor? You have to consider that the master item clothes are the top clothes you can buy in the game. Once you own them, that’s it! There is nothing left to buy. To sell them extremely cheaply ruins the challenge of working up to get them. It’s expected that someone go through a number of armor or weapon upgrades on their way to owning the best equipment. Well why should it be any different for clothes? Someone owning a grand ballroom gown should be something special, not something every single woman in the game owns. How much fun is it for an entertainer in their first week to have enough money to buy all the sexy clothes items in the game? Selling too cheaply makes clothes unimportant and no fun.
4) Money is far to easy to make in this game. My shop is full of entertainers coming by and spending upwards to 30k a trip on clothes. I use to think entertainers didn’t make any money because their tips suck. Well think again, these ladies come up with large amount of cash at the drop of a hat. There are so many ways to make money easy. If you invested your lots in 7 PME and just sold resources on the open market, you can make 50k profit in 24 hours. So why should someone be able to buy every single piece of clothes in the game for 24 hours worth of work. Do you make enough in real life to be able to spend a few hours doing missions and buy designer items each day? NO! If your like me you probably can’t afford to buy more than a t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans per pay check.
5) I had a guy come in my shop and ask for four wookie items with four sockets each. Being a master I made these all in my first try. I don’t sell these often and I asked him how much he wanted to pay. I told him 12k and he said he would pay me 30k since they all had 4 sockets. That seemed like a lot of money to me but then he said, I can make 30k in 20 mins on Endor. So, ok I don’t know how he make 30k in 20 minutes but hell obviously making money is easy for him. I have another guy that has bought about 6 flight suits from me for 10k a pop. He has order more. He told me he has $900,000.00 in the bank. I forget how be made his money but again the point being. Money is far to easy to make in the game as it is.
I’m sure eventually someone will make master on my server and undercut the hell out of my prices but eventually they will completely kill the whole market for themselves as well. What going to happen when ever single entertainer that’s been playing the game for more than a week owns a full set of metal bikinis, exotic leotards and revealing flesh wraps? Tell you the truth I already kind of feel bad for flooding the market with as many products as I am. Part of being an entertainer is striving for next cool outfit and once the market is saturated enough, that aspect of being an entertainer will be completely lost.
Love,
Regana
Founder True Fellowship PA
Master Tailor Bria
Wow, Snowleeper. No offense, but you sure were quick to jump on other people about their style of play. Roleplaying, you said, was no excuse for being rude or even sharply witty. If people were going to play that way, you were going to curse them out, /ignore them, and report them. Looks like when the shoe is on the other foot, however, you're very quick to get defensive and tell people you have the right to do whatever you want, regardless of how it affects other players.
The only constant I see is that, once again, you're convinced that what YOU want is the absolute right, and everybody else should just bend to your desires or smeg off. This game is for YOU, and you'll be hanged before somebody else is going to infringe on your right to have things work the way you want them too. Every advantage to you, none for anyone else. Guess what? What you do DOES affect other players, just like what you say here shows you to be incredibly self absorbed. It's a community. Be part of it, or go boot up Rise of Nations and have the economy all to yourself.
I'm selling various shirts and pants for twice that, easily. Smocks are going for around 300, as fast as I can make them. Military packs, a big seller at the moment, go for anything up to 400 apiece. At this rate, aside from a few of the good ole ribbed shirts, I'm selling everything I make.
What helps is, as someone's already mentioned above, establishing a base of regular customers; I've offered two-for-one to a couple of folks, I've discounted to the obvious newbies, and I always throw in a freebie when folks are buying an entire set of clothes.
Given the amount of cash that combat types are raking in, this doesn't seem at all unreasonable.
SnowLeeper wrote:
Kylania wrote:
150cr for a smock? What?! Theres "good" pricing and there's "plain stupid" pricing, I know what I'd consider that price.
You are entitled to your opinion. I'm making a nice profit if he accepts this order.
Kylania wrote:
Just coz you have unlimited funds and a factory doesn't mean the rest of us do.
How does your situtaion affect me? Should I destroy my factories so we can be equal? Maybe I should come to your house and give you frere resources so we're on an equal playing field? Maybe we should start a welfare program so that your condition in game can be the overiding factor in how the game is run? It's called *COMPETITION*. If you don't like it, that's just plain tough.
Kylania wrote:
Undercutting by 50-90% is insane!
Undercutting what? Certainly not my resource costs. They come in at less than a credit. Perhaps there's a "tailoring price authority" i'm not aware about? No? Trade regulators from the Imperial Government? No. What's that? I'm undercutting your *PERSONAL* pricelist? Well pardon me. Send me a complete list and I promise never to go under it. *HONEST*
what a **edit** you are, and your prices suck your an idiot for not playing the market to its full extent.
Why charge 100 credits for something when players can make 1 thousand credits in a couple of minutes. You are selling yourselves way short. Charging less than 10k for any of the Master Tailor items is just plain loony. Do you see armorsmiths, or weaponsmiths, charing 100 credits for their stuff? Why should we? Because you "think" you can only get that much for "just" clothes. Think outside the box. Think of how to market your clothing, how to put a spin on it that most won't or can't think of. Think of how, or why, people would pay you for clothes, what they pay other crafters for their services. There is an answer out there for ya. I consistently make 10-20k per serious customer. All it takes is some time, attention to detail, and making absolutely sure the customer gets exactly what they want. I think real life marketing classes should be required for any crafters. =)
--Jewel
I'm not even going to bother making any statement to Snow as I know it's a waste of time, but to each his own
I know even running all my own harvesters (which I do, I have to buy on top of that to keep up with demand) I wouldn't make enough profit to upgrade to large harvesters, or buy my guild a PA hall, or any of the other things I've done, if I charged like he did.