Tailor Archive

Yep, I'm starting a new one.. comes off my comment in the career thread I just started.

An image designer uses NO resources, and has absolutely NO overhead. The can sit on a streetcorner wearing their newbie clothes, and hawk their services. No shop, no displays, no vendors, no weapon deterioration, no nothing.

Here's a thread where ID folks kicked around some prices:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=image_designer&message.id=1168

Part of the discussion is what should be charged for skin color change, a Master ID skill. One master ID feels it is worth 10K, a customer says that it is only worth 2K because it took the ID a few seconds to make the change.Does this sound familiar at all?

If an image designer can rightfully charge 10K to change your skin color, why isn't a master level item of clothing worth 10K as well? Or is that ID being greedy, and should provide their services for free? After all, they have ZERO costs.. and zero times whatever is still zero.

Bear in mind that I think that an image designer should be able to make a living at his/her job, and I am in no way "slamming" their prices. I'm just saying if an ID values their time in pricing their services, why can't a tailor? Because we use resources, and all that matters is the cost of the resources and how much we mark it up?

Also bear in mind that I haven't posted my pricelist anywhere here, and I'd say my prices are middle of the road. I will say that I will NOT be selling master level items at 5cr/resource when that time comes.

"" 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!

I think there is WAY too much discussion on pricing to be honest. Money is *very* easy to come by now in this game, and so haggling over a few hundred credits is just silly. One guy came out to my shop last night and had me custom make him some clothing. I made him a few variations to try (prior to his arrival), he came, was happy with them, but then complained when I requested 2k for them (it was just a simple pants and shirt combo, nothing really special, but he did have some unique color and style requirements). Iwas really shocked by this (I haven't been in tailoring long however, maybe this is just the norm). Anyhow, the really stupid thing about this all is, that he could have made more money than that on the way to my house just by picking up a stupid survey or combat, or delivery, or whatever mission if money was so tight for him, so complaining about the cost like that I just thing is ludicrous. If something takes up a half hour of my time, I'm going to charge for it, end of story. Similarly, If I find a weapon I like, I buy it, 1k, 5k, 10k, really doesn't make a whole lot of difference. About the only thing I price shop for is resources, and this is just so I can offer what I think are fair prices to my customers.

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ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
Anyhow, the really stupid thing about this all is, that he could have made more money than that on the way to my house just by picking up a stupid survey or combat, or delivery, or whatever mission if money was so tight for him, so complaining about the cost like that I just thing is ludicrous.

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That's an interesting point. Maybe I'll just tell my customers what resources are abundant around my shop and have them pick up a couple of survey missions. That's more than enough money to cover over half of the things I can make, even at my inflated prices.

Since you asked me to, I came and read your thread on ID pricing.

There are a ton of threads about pricing. Since that thread was nota "what should I charge?" thread, but instead a "here is what I charge" thread, I didn't add to it, as most know I only work for tips. The basic rule for how much to charge for something is reliant on one factor, and one factor only:

What the customer will pay

What separates Keds from Nikes? Timex from Rolex? Mercedes from Misubishi? Right? Wrong? Irrelevant. Personally, I think it is bunk that a player will go spend a fortune on a gun, then haggle with an architect about spending LESS THAN HE PAID FOR HIS GUN for a house. The same bunk applies to Droid Engineers and Tailors.

People who craft in this game with the win at all cost mentality are the same ilk of those PvPers who raced to master, only to be bored. They think that by underbidding their competition and selling a few more items, they are winning the game. No amount of talking with them will get anything more than an "Oh yeah? You're going down! Crybaby!" It happened on the architect forums recently.. and talk about a product that needs markup. Money flowed so freely in this game for a while, that products should have been priced higher, to reflect the economy. But instead, the must-win'ners forced prices down... These, ladies and gentlemen,are the ones that will be charged with our care in the real world when we get older.

My opinion on tailoring prices? As a consumer, if I like the store, salesman, andproduct enough, I will buy it regardless of price. As a crafter, I will set what I think is fair based on demand, economy, and other factors, and let the customers buy from me for the same reasons I would buy from another.