Tailor Archive
Thread: Disturbing Trend in BE Gear
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
Well, the first part of your post is interesting. Let me turn the tables on you a bit. What sort of a BE would have rock bottom prices, a huge amount of stock, and be in the tissues making business long-term? I personally can't imagine such a person. In fact I would certainly expect (a) to be mutually exclusive of (d), and (c) also to be mutually exclisive of (d), but since you claim to have found such a person, that is truly amazing. But I digress...
You can't? Then your standards aren't high enough. 
Actually, what I'm referring to is this:
I've run around the server looking for BEs to work with for a long while. Most of them would say 'sure, I'll make tissues, drop me an e-mail for what you need'. I'd drop them said e-mail, and wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually, one or two of them might get back to me and say they have one or two tissues ... and as we know, that's only useful for a small amount of clothing. For everything else, we need factory-made tissues.
When I finally /did/ find one that had a vendor (heck, having a vendor wasn't even a priority, just a nicety), he stocked it once, nice and full, with prices that were so hideous it wasn't even funny. What I pay now is a fair price, gets the seller a good profit, and I'm not spending literally /millions/ on tissues. She's also more than willing to take special orders, and I give her free tissue-enhanced clothing for her friends in exchange for more crates of tissues.
In /most/ cases, I found that the BE never wrote back. They either quit the game, or just weren't interesting. If I pestered, I might get /one/ crate in one-two months.
By large quantities, I mean something other than five single tissues ... tissues actually in crates that I can actually use. By staying around, I mean someone who's invested some interest in the game, likes their profession and actually /enjoys/ working with tailors rather than feeling like it's some low-class thing that they just /have/ to do in order to get by.
But, to me, that's all a part of the interdependencies ... like being a merchant. I buy furniture from my friend at lower prices, and sell them for higher prices, and she doesn't mind because she doesn't want to deal with the work of running around and putting items on vendors, paying maintenance for those vendors and ending up dealing with the inevitable customer service. She leaves that to me, who enjoys that, and she just gets to do what she likes ... craft.
My BE friend makes great tissues, sells them to me at very agreeable and fair prices, and with the amount of items that I move in a week, she makes a quite generous profit off of me. The relationship is great, the interdependency works well, and my customers profit.
On Valcyn, I think some of the BEs out there were majorly taking advantage of the fact that we didn't have many tissue-making BEs around for a long while. They'd do this by charging anywhere from 800cr to 1K /per stat point/ /per tissue/ that they sold. I kid you not.
I'm glad to hear, though, that I'm not the only one disturbed by this.I think part of my disturbance with it is that it doesn't usefully utilize the interdependence. I'm not working with a BE to make something. I'm working with a customer who picked up tissues somewhere, and now needs to use someone's crafting skills to make them something. I believe that the interdependency works best when the BE sells or takes a profit from tissues that a tailor uses, not when they sell the tissues to some random Joe and then say 'Go. Seek a tailor.'
Do you know how rare it is to find the specific BE tissue you want in the specific article of clothing you want in the specific color you want? Correction, do you know how impossible this is I should say?
That is why the guy has his own tissues.
I have my own tissues also because I wanted some BE clothes and I searched for 3 days and nearly every single tailor on my server I knew of and STILL didn't find EXACTLY what I wanted. I had to compromise on one of the items just beacuse I wanted the mod but I'm not too big on the color/look of the shirt I bought. The second item I had custom made because I did not find anyone with a black mercernary built with a tensile resistance tissue built in anywhere and that is what I wanted.
That is why I have my own tissues. I have my own tissues because with the immense amount of clothes finding what you WANT is next to impossible.
I did not find anyone with a black mercernary built with a tensile resistance tissue built in anywhere and that is what I wanted.
should say
I did not find anyone with a black mercernary belt built with a tensile resistance tissue built in anywhere and that is what I wanted.
This is not a disturbing trend. I'm just a guy who was tired of not finding what he wanted and being told by tailors "I'm sorry I don't have those tissues on me right now"
I thought I would save the tailor the trouble and just get the tissues I wanted myself then have them do the final combine.
Not everyone is a jerk. I fully understand the critical failure issue (which is why I bought a crate) and I understand that the price is increased. The tailor however didn't charge me for the tissue since it was mine and only charged me for the item they made. We did the entire transaction via secure trade. No scam, no fuss, no mess and I'm one happy customer and they are one happy tailor.
Atimes wrote:
This is not a disturbing trend. I'm just a guy who was tired of not finding what he wanted and being told by tailors "I'm sorry I don't have those tissues on me right now"
I thought I would save the tailor the trouble and just get the tissues I wanted myself then have them do the final combine.
Not everyone is a jerk. I fully understand the critical failure issue (which is why I bought a crate) and I understand that the price is increased. The tailor however didn't charge me for the tissue since it was mine and only charged me for the item they made. We did the entire transaction via secure trade. No scam, no fuss, no mess and I'm one happy customer and they are one happy tailor.
I do business in much the same way, however, after a few run-ins with people who couldnt undertand certain items took more then one bio-agent to make, plus one to make a crate of panels, i may not be accepting orders like it except from those i know well in game. Other then that when my supply runs out of stat items ill not be doing them anymore. But to each their own, everyone does business differently, and i respect that. It would be a very "cookie cutter" type of class if we did. IMO.
Master Tailor - Scylla server
atimes wrote:
Do you know how rare it is to find the specific BE tissue you want in the specific article of clothing you want in the specific color you want? Correction, do you know how impossible this is I should say?
...which is exactly why I make some items with the tissues that I have, and always keep a reserve of tissues that have been made into cloths so that people with special requests can /get/ them. If everyone is going to run out and buy their own tissues, then why should I bother stocking them?
My biggest problem is people who are too lazy to do the research.
I send them to web pages that tell all the clothing types, colors,and enhancements.
Then they just want me to list all the enhancements (and all the clothing they can go into) and some even refuse to believe that i can't make something to increase their fighting/crafting ability because they "saw this shirt once" and do not understand that tissues are not skill tapes.
Don't even get me started about trying to explain how factory stuff doesn't stack and how it just wastes tissues. They just acuse me of lying and trying to steal their tissues or their money if they are using my tissues.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think I will just go back to rifleman and mind shot these people to death as they flee from my city with cityban on them.
Of course most do not have minds to shoot.
I love customers that bring me a tissue sample for clothes! It's so nice when they show up and tell me they will give me money for a few minutes work. I handle it this way:
#1 - The clothing costs the price of the clothes, I subtract MY cost of the tissue, which is half what I sell it for, and that is the price to make it for them. Critical failures are free of course 
I won't sell them a superior piece of clothing for no fee. Sure the material cost of the tissue is free, but my profit for it being put into the clothing has to be accounted for.
#2 - They have to realize that critical failures are a risk, and I am willing to make the attempt. I rarely fail as Master, but if they want a Robe of Honor, or the Grand Twi'lek Headpiece, I tend to get a bit nervous at such a complex piece. I made a set of +25 Medical Robes of Honor, Large Headwrap, Striped Slacks, and Trim Lined Shirt. They had an insane amount of medical tissues all at +16 or so. So overall, a +100 set. Whether or not it was any use, I can't say. It was right after the patch, and we never really checked the bonus effects.
#3 - They get to choose the colours, get my expert opinion on looks, combinations, and what works and what doesn't. Most of the people that come to me like this have an insane amount of money (*cough* sellingholocrons *cough*) and want to try this out. They don't know or understand how it works and need some guidance. I had a wookie come to me with a handful of RFP tissues. He had camo, bleed, melee, etc and wanted it all in the wookie clothing. I had to explain the whole process to him, and he was able to figure out how he wanted it set up. Poor wookies! They got the shaft for defensive tissues....
Well, I have no idea how to price anything BE....One character is a BE, my other a tailor, and obviously one supplies the other. My BE char has never been asked to sell ANYTHING. As a tailor, however, I DO charge 1k per + on the finished product. For dancers to have that 'special' clothing (you know, the ones that only have slots in multiples?), this does not seem to faze them one bit.
Does anyone out there have any pricing formulas they've run into as far as pricing BE stuff, whether it be the raw tissue, the cloths, or the clothing?
Yeah. Given that people don't really understand how bio-tailoring works vis-a-vis how many tissues are needed or how the stats stack, I'm reluctant to do custom orders with third-party tissues. I trust my suppliers, and I know I have the tissues to deal with critical failures.
Xazias wrote:
I do business in much the same way, however, after a few run-ins with people who couldnt undertand certain items took more then one bio-agent to make, plus one to make a crate of panels, i may not be accepting orders like it except from those i know well in game. Other then that when my supply runs out of stat items ill not be doing them anymore. But to each their own, everyone does business differently, and i respect that. It would be a very "cookie cutter" type of class if we did. IMO.
Master Tailor - Scylla server
atimes wrote:Do you know how rare it is to find the specific BE tissue you want in the specific article of clothing you want in the specific color you want? Correction, do you know how impossible this is I should say?
Not impossible at all, all it takes is one /tell to someone like myself (and many others) who have a stock of tissues. True, I do (or did) put some finished pieces in my vendor, but these were more or less teasers.
Standards aren't high enough? Not at all, it's just that I know what I'm looking for in a supplier. For example, when I deal with rangers and doctors to supply me with things that I need, I look for reliability and quality. Tell tale signs of this are people who sell out their stock quickly, and charge a premium price for their goods. Such people clearly know what they are doing and are likely to be in the biz for a while. If someone were to have rock bottom prices, and tons of stock on hand, that's a sure sign to me that such a person has no clue what they are doing, and is likely to bail soon to do something they are better at or enjoy doing more. That's all I'm saying.