Tailor Archive
Thread: Weird Resale Guy
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KnnOs
Sun Aug 01, 2004 4:19 pm
#1
I have not used the fellows real name because others may appreciate his services. *shrug* to each their own.
I wander into my Rori shop today. (See my sig? in flux is right. I just put down this shop middle of the month and now I have to take it down again!) So I wander in and I get a phone call, so I go afk for a bit. I come back and there's this rodian novice entertainer. He's already bought a couple of my things so I'm like "Sweet! A Live customer! Sales-lek time!" If anyone can show me how to save logs I'll be forever appreciative, this is the basics: I offer to make him an outfit, since I'm shutting this store down. He says something to the effect of "Fine, but I don't want to spend a lot. Something unique in the 10-15k range please." And I say "Sure no problem." And I pull up my repetoire of nice but unusual outfits, a challenge I'm really enjoying. Then he says "Last thing, I'm doing import/export, so I'm buying these to sell elsewhere."
I get pretty annoyed by this, he's already bought 5 or 6 items from my vendors (and when I look through the list there is a fair number of women-only items, I should have known) and I say to him "No I'm sorry, I'm not in the business of making items specifically for others to resell." I later ask him (as I'm shutting down my vendors) "No offense friend, but why do you do that? Resell items?"
I shut some more down, he doesn't respond, I ask if he heard me and he responds "To make your clothes known>" And then says something about needing a distributor in real-life. He leaves at this point and I'll admit, behind my monitor I was fuming but I didn't let it show much. A while later he /tells me and says "I'm a little surprised by your reaction really" and goes on about providing the people of Tatooine with clothes they might not otherwise have access to while providing me with exposure to the wide galactic community without the time and energy of shuttling back and forth. I say to him "I'm sorry for any negativity that I might have let slip through, I've heard horror stories..." And I rambled on a bit before getting to the point "It was wrong of my to assume that you were anyhting other than "on the up and up" so I apologize."
I'll be **edit** if that little **edit* didn't say (exact quote) "lol, u should think a little sometime"
Now I've been patient, I've been kind, I offered a heartfelt apology and if there wasn't a CRAZY lagspike he had time to read the whole thing (1 minute, 13 seconds) and he says that. I return "Excuse me?"
and he says "I said you should think a little next time."
And I say "I know what you said, I was giving you an opportunity to retract your terribly rude statement right after my heartfelt apology." (So it WASN'T all that heartfelt, but I can't afford to go alienating people, I don't need that headache. And I WAS willing to give him the benefit of the doubt).
He said "I apologize too" and I said
"Accepted in the spirit in which it was offered" Mind you, I'm assuming that spirit = insincere.
He goes on to give a line about how the creator's name always stays with the object and I tell him I never check that and I know of no one who does. I tell him that I would have been far more comfortable if he'd asked before buying up all this stuff to resell which is I think an attitude common amongst all tailors. I wish him good luck in his sales and promptly forget about him.
In fairness, it is true he did say he was buying to resell before I'd made anything (a click of a button away) but by that point he'd already made several vendor purchases and unless ID's can change genders now he couldn't have worn at least 3 of them. Am I unjustified in being a little peeved with this guy? or refusing to make him stuff?
I wander into my Rori shop today. (See my sig? in flux is right. I just put down this shop middle of the month and now I have to take it down again!) So I wander in and I get a phone call, so I go afk for a bit. I come back and there's this rodian novice entertainer. He's already bought a couple of my things so I'm like "Sweet! A Live customer! Sales-lek time!" If anyone can show me how to save logs I'll be forever appreciative, this is the basics: I offer to make him an outfit, since I'm shutting this store down. He says something to the effect of "Fine, but I don't want to spend a lot. Something unique in the 10-15k range please." And I say "Sure no problem." And I pull up my repetoire of nice but unusual outfits, a challenge I'm really enjoying. Then he says "Last thing, I'm doing import/export, so I'm buying these to sell elsewhere."
I get pretty annoyed by this, he's already bought 5 or 6 items from my vendors (and when I look through the list there is a fair number of women-only items, I should have known) and I say to him "No I'm sorry, I'm not in the business of making items specifically for others to resell." I later ask him (as I'm shutting down my vendors) "No offense friend, but why do you do that? Resell items?"
I shut some more down, he doesn't respond, I ask if he heard me and he responds "To make your clothes known>" And then says something about needing a distributor in real-life. He leaves at this point and I'll admit, behind my monitor I was fuming but I didn't let it show much. A while later he /tells me and says "I'm a little surprised by your reaction really" and goes on about providing the people of Tatooine with clothes they might not otherwise have access to while providing me with exposure to the wide galactic community without the time and energy of shuttling back and forth. I say to him "I'm sorry for any negativity that I might have let slip through, I've heard horror stories..." And I rambled on a bit before getting to the point "It was wrong of my to assume that you were anyhting other than "on the up and up" so I apologize."
I'll be **edit** if that little **edit* didn't say (exact quote) "lol, u should think a little sometime"
Now I've been patient, I've been kind, I offered a heartfelt apology and if there wasn't a CRAZY lagspike he had time to read the whole thing (1 minute, 13 seconds) and he says that. I return "Excuse me?"
and he says "I said you should think a little next time."
And I say "I know what you said, I was giving you an opportunity to retract your terribly rude statement right after my heartfelt apology." (So it WASN'T all that heartfelt, but I can't afford to go alienating people, I don't need that headache. And I WAS willing to give him the benefit of the doubt).
He said "I apologize too" and I said
"Accepted in the spirit in which it was offered" Mind you, I'm assuming that spirit = insincere.
He goes on to give a line about how the creator's name always stays with the object and I tell him I never check that and I know of no one who does. I tell him that I would have been far more comfortable if he'd asked before buying up all this stuff to resell which is I think an attitude common amongst all tailors. I wish him good luck in his sales and promptly forget about him.
In fairness, it is true he did say he was buying to resell before I'd made anything (a click of a button away) but by that point he'd already made several vendor purchases and unless ID's can change genders now he couldn't have worn at least 3 of them. Am I unjustified in being a little peeved with this guy? or refusing to make him stuff?
Ahrimand
Sun Aug 01, 2004 5:18 pm
#2
I think you handeled it well. He is making a profit off your work. You tried to be nice, but he gave you a cold shoulder. I'm new at Tailoring, but I would get mad if someone did that right to my face, and then has the nerve to ask you to make him more so he can sell it. If he tried to make a deal it would be okay, but you don't even know him. Thats all I can really say I guess. Good luck.
Aibyouka
Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:04 pm
#4
I think you did great not losing your temper and keeping things civil. I also agree with the shop banning. 
Neela Darkstar
Master Tailor/Master Artisian/Master Weaponsmith
co-founder of Darkstar Industries
protector of Squishy the purple wookie pillow
-1019 -3633
1400m NW of Coronet (Valcyn)
XianaAylomien
Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:21 pm
#5
Hmm. Sounds like he is a merchant. Realistically this is what people do in the real world. Buy up all the stuff and resell it. He might be making a decent profit. But then again the items might sit on his vendor for a very long time.
If he was rude to you then ban him from your house.
I don't see why more crafters don't use merchants. Would it not be easier to fill orders and sell loads of stuff to merchants? You get your credits sooner, you don't have to worry about vendors. You save skill points, you can invest more time in crafting. Letthem worry about trying to sell the goods.
I realize some players enjoy owning a shop and interacting with customers. As a tailor I can imagine the requests. Almost everyone has a custom order in mind.
ASrai
Sun Aug 01, 2004 9:34 pm
#6
I agree also. You handled yourself professionaly. If he is truley trying to flesh out a true Merchant, then I would assume he would contact you, set up a contract, etc. But it sounds like he just trying to make a few quick bucks with your items. I have a couple people that regularly visit my shop, buy up a lot of the same low end items, and request I make them more. I suspect they are reselling, but can't catch them at it. It has been kinda a sore issue with me, but since they are just buying cheap stuff, I have let it slide. If someone was to approach me, say they are setting up a mall and would like to feature my work, then I would probably be willing to work out an arrangement with them. Be rude to me, then /ban and /welcome to ignoresville, population you! 
xPREDATORx
Mon Aug 02, 2004 4:07 am
#7
i cant see what the problem is??? what this guy is doin isshrewd and business smart...
its called "free market enterprise,"
at the end of the day your making your cash out of it and what happens to the cloths after wards is out of your hands...
free market enterprising is a real life business term and happens in real life....
maybe instead of banning him make a deal with him and send him a mail....if hes charging more and making more tell him that you will make a contract with him.... that u sell x amount of clothes too him that r priced higher than what u normally sell and lower than what ever he sells that way he can still make is cash and u can make more cash off him?
just a idea if not just ban him although in real life you wouldnt normally be upset by this action..... it hard to be self imployed and have constant work can be a struggle some times..............
Pappi
Mon Aug 02, 2004 5:42 am
#8
heh, I would ban him but not ignore him, future episodes might make for very interesting chat logs 
edit: just a note... I'm not against reselling, but I don't like people reselling without the crafter's permission. that's not cool.
edit: just a note... I'm not against reselling, but I don't like people reselling without the crafter's permission. that's not cool.
Message Edited by Pappi on 08-02-2004 05:43 AM
MouseBot
Mon Aug 02, 2004 6:46 am
#9
I'll comment the re-selling issue. I have no trouble with that at all. If I was going to sell an item for 2k it doesn't really matter who buys it and wether he/she makes a profit on it or not. My own profit would be 2k any which way. If the buyer can sell it for more, kudos to him/her.
I'll buy tissues from Bio-Engineers and then make a good profit on them when I sell my BE clothes. Then some people will re-sell them and make even more money. It's the way things work.
ArthurDentOnBria
Mon Aug 02, 2004 8:08 am
#10
I also think reselling is good for the game. How many times have tailors complained that a certain tailor is badly undercutting the market? There are all different types of gameplay styles, and people are interested in different aspects of the game. But those of us with some "achiever" in us do care about our ability to "earn a living" relative to other crafters in the game. Resellers help this situation by smoothing out price differences. They are our white knights in these situations. I wouldn't like being wholesaled any more than anyone else would, but that is controllable. The whole situation begs the question: "why is he wholesaling you?". He could have chosen any tailor but he chose you, why? Also, from what you said, it sounds to me like he is actually a pretty decent guy. He's been very upfront about his intentions when he really need not be, and he's obviously not doing it just to grief, but now that it got confrontational, who knows.
Urgra
Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:22 am
#11
This is my very first time posting so I hope my formatting works ok.
I also do not see what the problem is. You did get the money that you were expecting for your items seeing as how he purchased them from your vender. When I was an entertainer, we sometimes traded clothes amongst ourselves -- is that also wrong?
I figure you made money, he can make money, everyone profits. True, he was a bit rude to you. But I can see his point. From what you said, it looked like you over-reacted.
I also agree that merchants like that help correct theeffect of undercutters -- he will likely charge more for the items than he bought them for, so your vender prices look like a deal in comparison.
Another thing you might try: I always put my name and my vender location on my items. I do this so that if people are thinking about how suave they look several days after the bazaar or vender purchase, they only have to examine the item to get my info. Yes, that takes more time (I have 750+ items all individualized -- granted that might be small by other's standards), but it would make sure people saw YOUR name when they bought clothes from a second-hand merchant.
Urgra the Master Musician on Tempest
Chyann the Tailor on Bria with two shops!
-- Synergy, Naboo (-5877, 6345)
-- Astro City, Lok (-3637, -2750)
Kiatra
Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:52 am
#12
alright i only read about half of the replies...but yeah so here is my view on the origional post
reselling itself doesnt bother me. you get the pay you ask for your items. you are not loosing money to the resell. and lets face it. maybe that item isnt wanted by someone who would come to your shop. the reseller may be the only one who will buy. maybe not. oh well though not the point.
however i do agree that he should have contacted you first. told you he was planning on reselling. that way you could work something out. ask him not to resell anywhere where your shops are already located or something like that.
and i do agree that you handled yourself nicely with someone that annoying. telling you you should think after you apologized? lol that would piss me off...
ArthurDentOnBria
Mon Aug 02, 2004 11:23 am
#13
Kiatra wrote:
however i do agree that he should have contacted you first. told you he was planning on reselling.
See, that's the thing though. To the extent that some people "need" to be re-sold, none of em are going to want to be. So the whole business about getting "permission" is, in most cases,not realistic. The funny thing is that I've been reading this forum for a year now, and not once have I heard a tailor say that they are a wholesaler to some 3rd party distributer. Not ever.
Tailors do not get permission from one another when they set their prices in most cases. The fact that one chooses to charge half what another does is a decision. Sometimes its a philisophical decision ("noobs should be able to buy anything I sell", or "I'm trying to generate a lot of good will and I don't need any credits, as I'm already rich"), or sometimes its a practical one ("I want a lot of business and I don't have an established customer base"), or even a cold-hearted one ("I'm going to put everyone else out of business and then jack up my prices"),but it's a decision nonetheless, and the decision is not without consequences. A high priced tailor may risk alienating certain customers, but a low priced one risks alienating fellow tailors and opens themself up to reselling and griefing.
I really wish there was morereselling to be honest. The economy would function much more "efficiently". And this guy has a point too. In some cases it isn't about price at all, but it's simply about availability. For example while a tailor maybe have 2 of every color of fleshwrap sitting on a vendor collecting dust, a dancer on Dathomir trying to earn a few bucks dancing at the cantina theremay be in desperate need of one (any color)due to an unfortunate incident with a rancor chewing through her last one. That person is SOL, but it's a nice opportunity for an enterprising reseller. I ran into a situation once where my coronet-sold pet stims were being re-sold on Dathomir for a healthy markupand I thought it was funny as hell, although my initial reaction was: "you bought them WHERE?". I even got a couple of regular customers from that as they saw my name on them and contacted me about buying them directly.
/stumbles and falls off his high horse
Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 08-02-2004 11:28 AM
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