Tailor Archive
Thread: OMG Master Level Items for under 2000 credits
ACK! On Tarquinas we have an agreement on set prices on Master Tailor items, we just all sell them for the same amount and people buy. We keep in contact with one another and help each other when we can. I'm so Sorry to hear this is happening on your server!! This has happened already to most other classes that I've seen, poor Smugglers now BUY locked containers for 5k+ and PAY people to slice their weapons to gain. Spices teir four, now sell for 200 cr each!! Architects sell small houses for as low as 4k!! Why people fell the need to undercut each other in this way is beyond me, there is plenty to go around. This person is hurting the entire Tailoring community, and that's pure BS.
Lola Cabana the lovely Master Tailor
Tarquinas
Leayla wrote:
ACK! On Tarquinas we have an agreement on set prices on Master Tailor items, we just all sell them for the same amount and people buy. We keep in contact with one another and help each other when we can. I'm so Sorry to hear this is happening on your server!! This has happened already to most other classes that I've seen, poor Smugglers now BUY locked containers for 5k+ and PAY people to slice their weapons to gain. Spices teir four, now sell for 200 cr each!! Architects sell small houses for as low as 4k!! Why people fell the need to undercut each other in this way is beyond me, there is plenty to go around. This person is hurting the entire Tailoring community, and that's pure BS.
Lola Cabana the lovely Master Tailor
Tarquinas
This is good to know since I am on your server and that I am doing the correct thing. I have been taking notes of how much you all sell your stuff for Why cheat myself out of credits when I know that is what you charge.
P.S. are names are so similar, when I was in the domestic arts column, someone was asking me to make them a flightsuit because they heard I did good work. I told them they must have me confused with you and to give you a /tell. lol. I'm also trying to keep track of your shop as well as Vlana and Nanjaar to give people your WP's in case they are looking for an item that I can't make yet. I am not sure, but I think the WP I have for you is outdated. Can you email it to me in game?
Pricing is a lot more complicated than just X amount per resource. If you have no shop and no vendor, yeah you can sell a lot cheaper. Heck, you don't care if the 20 items you just listed for low prices on the bazaar sold in 3 minutes, because you'll just put some more up when you feel like it. But for those of us who maintain a shop and want to have a decent selection available at all times, that isn't an option. For me there is nothing worse than traipsing through the wilderness to reach a shop, only to find the vendor is empty.
Just like in the real world, prices can affect how someone views an item. Is an intricate dress worth 600, 1200, 1750 or 3000 credits? Those are all prices I've seen/heard about in the past few days. Interestingly enough, mine are listed for 1750 and seem to be selling better than the 600 credit ones. I'm sure having Tailoring 2 helps in that regard. I received one very enthusiastic /tell about the dress - the person was going on and on about how beautiful it was, and how she didn't have quite enough money to buy it but was going to do some missions so she could. She wasn't complaing about the price, she apparently thought it was worth some time and effort on her part to acquire it.
Perceived supply also affects pricing. One of my "golden rules" is never to dump a whole lot of the same item on the market at once. I sold quite a few smocks that way - I'd put one at a time on the bazaar, and replace it when it sold. If you have 10 of the same item, the buyers will have no sense of urgency about making the purchase before it is "gone." I usually list at least 15-20 different items on the bazaar at the same time, going for variety and working a little harder. It is more time-consuming to do it that way, but it's been worth it. I can also get a better idea on what sells.
I'm just not going to compete with the undercutters. If I see someone has dumped a bunch of cheap items on the bazaar, I'll just look through my pattern book and find some different items to list. When people come to my shop, they get a discount for buying multiple items at once. My "list" prices will stay constant though.
"" Ri'a Ocoli"" Novice Tailor, Kettemoor
"" Clothes by Ri'a is 1km north of Keren at 1145, 3800
"" .. my door is always open, stop by any time!
holy crap, 5cr/resource! heh, its why i took up tailoring and pushed architect to the side... heck barely can get 3cr/resource there..
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DISCLAIMER : I think architects are not sufficiently rewarded for their skills overall, that there needs to be a decay system, and reasons to go back to an architect after the house or factory purchases, and that 3c a ressource is not enough.
However - the situation is still slightly different. As it has been mentioned in this threads in various others, you either have to makea big margin on individuals items (if you sell few of them), or sell in bulk with lower prices to "survive". Tailors (or chefs, or master artisans ... any crafting profession that deal with items requiring relatively low amount of ressources) have to sell items a bit more per ressource ... because, by default, an architect is selling in bulk.
Or to put it in another way : let's say X architect item requires 50000 ressources and Y cloth require 100 ressources (bogus examples, but just to get the point across). If the architect gets ressources at 1cr per ressource (mix of harvesting and appoint purhcases) and sell the finished item 3cr per ressources ... in a few clicks, and with the only need to find ONE customer, he'll have, in a relatively short time,made a 100k benefit.
Now for the tailor to make the same margin, he must havecrafted, and sold 500 clothes (not only find the customer but there is alsoextra time here : discuss with him, try to find out what he means by "cool clothes", try to match colors, etc ...).
Basically, it requires 500 times the amount of manpower (ok, the examples are a bit exaggerated, maybe more like 1000 ...) to convert the same amount of ressources into the same amount of benefits/credits. The only tailors that can hope to survive while charging as low as architects must spend a brutal amount of time selling "in bulk".
Hope I am clear ?
Anyway, I am a bit of the devil's advocate here, because all in all I think the tailor profession has it better, overall than the architects (not because of prices schemes or gouging, but just because there is incentive to purchase multiple clothes and come back to the tailor, not to the architect). But you cannot really compare the price schemes, because architects have the particularity of selling "in bulk".
ICK!! Someone trying to bomb our market too, hopefully this person will come to their senses. Why people want to sell things for that cheap is beyond me, I personally bought each skill branch, run factories, have to keep upkeep on my med house, run my vendor etc. I'm so angry that people feel the need to undercut each other THAT low if at all when there is so obviusly plenty of room for everyone!! I guess i missed one tailor
Lola Cabana the lovely Master Tailor
Ihad bad timing...put my first factory up the day after they nerfed the factory XP. 
But it makes having the master title that much sweeter knowing I worked for it....I just can't imagine selling myself short by pricing stuff for cheap!
--Brianne
But charge whatever you want. I'm having fun and am doing pretty well for myself. You're the ones who seem to have the sweat in your hands for those 'frightingly low' clothing prices.
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Simple question, how much time do you put into SWG each week ?
Ican see how to make money and recoup the costs with such low prices (more or less ... half of the price it costs to redeed a factory to work around the bug for a flightsuit, sheesh ), but you have to sell quite an enormous bulk to manage a different margin, something like restocking several dozens of items each day.
PS: Isell generally significantly lower than that the prices based on Nivea's, more of a "middle ground" between all the quoted prices. However, with my available online time, I will be bankrupt with 1500c flightsuits, truthfully and without exageration.
Doing it any other way is misguided at best, but I'd sooner call it dishonest.
(...)
And it saves you all that 'effort' to actually make the clothing items. And the effort to get up a complicated tree. But charge whatever you want.
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Frankly, I am a bit surprised at the tone of the response, because my post just explained why I think I can not afford to go under a 5 or 6c a ressource per item. There was no personal attack (I think) about people that price lower. There is no need to flame me because other posters were a bit more edgy in their answers.
Implying I am dishonest, lazy and that I don't like what I am doing, frankly, doesn't add much to the open and interesting discussion we are trying to have, and doesn't give much credit to the argumentation. But such is the way of anonymous boards.
Anyway, simple truth, selling in bulk is not an option due to real life constraints. A lower number of sales with a higher markup (my basis is the limit at which people set ressource for on MY city in MY server, and I think it is as valid as other people's) is what allow me to stay afloat, and enjoy my limited time with quality interactions with my customers, custom commands, fashion advices, and more often than not, gift to my friends, and sometimes even non tailoring related exploration and gunfights. You have your way, I have mine, but it is not in any way "dishonest".
Actually that is not true. In fact that is the very definition of undercut, or, as it says in my dictionary here -- "to sell at a lower price or work for a lower wage than another, as a competitor". Notice there is no mention of profit in the definition.
Just to clarify: "Undercutting" in this thread is pricing well below what other tailors feel is acceptable. My statement was made in that context. If you price at what you believe will make you a profit, it's just fine with me.
As a Non-Tailor, I thought I should break the arguing and post.
I am a Master Dancer and a female. I love clothes. I've been waiting since beta to see my character in an Exotic Leotard, Metal Bikini, and Revealing Fleshwrap. When there was finally a Master Tailor on the server, I raced to her and bought two outfits. 20k each. Yes, you consider that overpriced but she was the first and only for a good 2 weeks. Hehe. But because she was the first, she really didn't have time to get to know her customers. I just didn't feel comfortable going to her anymore.
Around that time, I met another tailor. He was always really nice. He would fill custom e-mail orders that day andtalk to his customers helping them figure out what they wanted. He wasn't a master, but since the master tailor stopped making regular items, I went to him. Two months after release, I still go to him. Why? He is definatly not the cheapest. But of most of the tailors I've met, he is one of the least stuck up. If I ever want another revealing fleshwrap, I will go to him. I would gladlypay him my 10k instead of some person who sells the same thing for 2k who obviously isn't enjoying the game or building a customer base (she states in the beginning that her customers have dropped off).
Being a dancer, I am not rich. You talk of hundreds of thousands of credits as if they were no big deal. The most credits I have ever had in the bank is 60k. And that was after doing missions. But I will go to the better tailors. The ones who actually care. Not the ones who are ruining it for the others. Yes, I still like to price shop. If I saw a revealing fleshwrap in a different color than mine on the bazaar for 2k, I would buy it. I do enjoy a bargain. But if I decided that I wanted a grand ball gown in a matching color, I wouldn't go to that tailor. I would go to one that I know. Tailors don't make much money. If I spend 25k on a really nice gun, I would expect to pay a similar amount for an outfit (I don't wear armor).
On another note... a more selfish one. I like it when master items are priced really high. Then I can feel special dancing in an Exotic Leotard doing the master dance Exotic 4 instead of trying to stand out among all the new dancers dancing basic wearing the same outfit.