Tailor Archive
Thread: clothing price inflation
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
As far as pricing goes, I used to get real uptight about it, bristle and undercutters, and worry about all that, now, quite simply, I don't. I've come to the conclusion that none of that matters. What matters is location, and selection. Location will determine how much traffic you get, and selection will determine if you get repeat customers.
Gyopi wrote:
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
As far as pricing goes, I used to get real uptight about it, bristle and undercutters, and worry about all that, now, quite simply, I don't. I've come to the conclusion that none of that matters. What matters is location, and selection. Location will determine how much traffic you get, and selection will determine if you get repeat customers.
For those of us who live mostly by special orders, I would add reputation to the list of things that really matter.
The funny thing about the Theed bazaar on Naritus is that if you hop the shuttle to Coronet, you'll find bazaar sales for twice as much and more. Haven't really looked into Tatooine yet. Soyes, on Naritus, we are alsoseeing the effect of more people relying on the bazaar and willing to pay a premium rather than jet out to a vendor between trips to adventure planets. Theed is just weird. Always has been. It got saturated early with a number of masters and hasn't really recovered. But even in Theed, even though we do have master tailor items being offered at depressingly low prices, I was able to sell some midrange basics on the bazaar over the weekend for prices well in excess of my old, old prices from back when there were only a handful of masters on the entire server.
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
SueDenim wrote:
I'd put reputation at #1 by a long shot, myself. Though location and selection are probably two of the bigger inputs that determine reputation, so it might be a chicken-or-egg kind of deal there.
Hmm, well this brings up an interesting question for you. What percentage of your vendor sales come from customers that you know pretty well? Versus how many are just people whose names you see from vendor spam? For me I'd say at least 75% of my customers are the more or less anonymous types (maybe I've met them or spoken to them once briefly or not at all), particularly before I joined a PA. This also reflects my own buying behavior. For example I now buy all my weapons from a certain weaponsmith whom I've never met. I guess I'd like to meet him to shake his hand some day, but his reputation as far as I'm concerned is based solely on the quality and quantity of what he puts in his vendor. I realize that for tailors there is that whole separate face-to-face, custom tailoring business which is a whole nother animal and there certainly can be cross-over between vendor and custom sales, but in terms of just vendor sales, hmm, I'm thinking reputation is mainly just what you put in your vendor. You can be the most wonderful tailor in the galaxy to work with and have an eye for fashion and all that, but at the end of the day, if a customer comes looking for something and doesn't find it on your vendor, your reputation just took a big hit and they'll think twice about visiting again.The other thing I'll say is that my point was how unimportant pricing was in the equation, and I talked about location and selection on the vendor. I feel that pricing is particularly unimportant when talking about face-to-face, custom clothing sales. I'd say more often then not, when someone asks me to make something, price is not even discussed until after it's made. When someone goes to see a tailor, or puts in a custom order, or wants a sit-down session to work on their look, chances are they care not about price.
Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 04-06-2004 03:38 PM
For me, there's a *lot* of cross-over between vendor and custom sales, so much that it's often hard for me to even separate them out much. I hang out in my shop a lot, and get a lot of interactions like this:
Customer enters, starts looking on my vendors. I say "Hi, looking for anything special today?" "No thanks, just browsing for now." Customer buys several things from the vendor, then says something like "Hey, could you make me a shirt to go with this jacket?" or somesuch, which I do, then perhaps wind up making several other "custom" things. And this sort of customer not infrequently will show up a week later, when I'm not in the shop, and buy a bunch of things from my vendor.
Now, all this *does* rely on selection, and you're correct that letting the selection rot away would hurt my reputation. But personally, I view my success as based more on (selection + customer service) than just selection per se. The way my business model works, "vendor sales" and "custom sales" aren't really two distinct markets, they're more like two facets of the same operation, frequently serving the same customers.
I totally agree with you about price, though. Unless your prices are *totally* insane for some reason like charging 5000 credits for a Ribbed Shirt or something, I don't think most people care all that much.
Ohhhh Avaleena I feel your pain.
*comforts Avaleena*
I don't feel so alone when I read other tailors experiences that are similar to mine. Thank you 
Check this out, there is a tailor that I noticed had put up all of her items on the bazaar for 500 credits. I sent her an email saying the following and included a price list of every tailored item there is out there:
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ME: "Hello there - I noticed your items on the bazaar today. You are way underselling your tailoring items, not sure if you realize that. You could be making a ton more credits if you priced items for what they are worth. Here is a list of all tailored items that I go by - hope it helps you out 
Good Luck!"
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HER Reply: "I appreciate your advice and its sweet of you to take the time to tell me. My prices are for the newbies of the game. I am not in this to make a profit but to provide a service for people who can't afford it. Thanks again for your concern. Happy tailoring."
*sigh, and bonks her on the freakin' head* ...lol..she wants to help people? Does she not realize that she's hurting all of us that are in it to make a profit? Tailors need to survive by their craft somehow, doh! Sorry to vent - this is just so freakin' frustrating!
SueDenim wrote:
For me, there's a *lot* of cross-over between vendor and custom sales, so much that it's often hard for me to even separate them out much. I hang out in my shop a lot, and get a lot of interactions like this:
Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 04-07-2004 12:27 PM
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
Ah, now there is the big different right there. You probably have a better chance of hitting the lottery than running into me in my store (ok, exaggeration since I do have to restock...) lol. If I get done with customer orders and done with restocking I'm probably off buying up every scrap of meat in the galaxy, orrunning back in forth between the mutant rancors and the cloning center on Dathomir, or hunting with my alt. Plus the fact that being on the west coast it seems that most of the items that are purchased from me are done before I even log on at night. I love face-to-face sales, and I like working with customers, it's just that it accounts for an almost insignificant part of my sales.
SueDenim wrote:
For me, there's a *lot* of cross-over between vendor and custom sales, so much that it's often hard for me to even separate them out much. I hang out in my shop a lot, and get a lot of interactions like this:
Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 04-07-2004 12:27 PM
Wow, i was beginning to think it was just me. I hardly ever have interaction with my customers. I wish I had more, but for some reason most of my sales happen when I'm off-line. I'm on the East Coast and that's still true for me. I come into my guild's shop, re-stock any items that sold during the time I was away, then head to our statillite shop and do the same. Once I'm done I may sit and make some things for the bazaars or run missions, or fart around making outfits for my sadly fashion challenged guildies to help out w/ my exp, but it's a rare day that i'm just hanging out in the store.
Was beginning to think other tailors sat around their shops waiting on people to come in to shop.
...so my question is why...and i haven't quite figured this out except for also the decrease in tailors...seems there are fewer of us than ever...also if you wouldn't mind pm'ing me what you sell most of on the bazaar jsut so i can get an idea of what i am stocking wrong on my vendors i would appreciate it...seems as though i am retarded when it comes to stocking or soemthing
but anyways sorry for my rambly post as i really seem to think i was incoherent but my basic point was why...why can you make 10 times as much on the bazaar on bria now and why do i make nothing on my vendors in town lol...just curious what everyone else thinks
There is a tailor on our server who sells items more cheaply than I've ever seen. She's selling fleshwraps, grand ball gowns, and the like for 750 credits.
I would venture a guess that this is due largely to the fact that she's also a tailor, and makes the majority of her money there. Still... I'm sure it hurts other tailors.
However, I don't buy from her often, because she puts NO description in her items and I find it frustrating to go through every single pair of 200 gloves on her vendor just to find a pair in pink.
I've recently begun playing on a second server, and it's interesting to note the difference in pricing. On Tarquinas, I clearly remember when fleshwraps, leotards and metal bikinis were all 10k each. Now, it's very common to find them for 3k. However, I recently started playing on Kettemoor, and the prices there are much more in line with what I think the value and worth of clothing is. Unfortunately, because of that, I can't buy any because I'm a n00b, and poor. 
I'm planning to make my Kettemoor girl a tailor, though. Should be interesting. I'm looking forward to joining the tailoring community, and also getting to harass n'Jessi in TWO forums.
Xrispat wrote:
The secret to the bazaar is black. I can sell anything for 6k on bazaar overnight as long as its black. If 2 colors then black on black. I am on tatooine tho might not work on more civilized planets. Best thing to do is factory run basic clothes (shirts, pants, boots, gloves, bras, etc) in black then just pull out of crate and load it up. Feel more like the person who has a vending machine route than a tailor tho. Other colors which do ok are the dark olive green and dark red...but only if the secondary color to ..you guessed it BLACK.
Hmm, can't say I've had the same experience on Tarquines. Since I started running spring colors I sell them all out on the Bazaar, but it does take two-three days to sell everything out. I'm using Pink, White, BabyBlue, BabyGreen, Lilac, and Lemon as my colors and they are going fast. I've been selling alot of Sports Bustiers and Large Pocket Pants on the Bazaar. I sometimes alternate now with the Fashionably Pleated Skirt instead of Large Pocket Pants and they are selling well too. Of course this is on Theed Bazaar, haven't tried anything on Tatooine yet, gonna load some tonight and see how it goes.