Crafting Mafia

[Shinto]

Denidil, if you don't mind my asking, what server is it? I haven't seen anything like this on Florendyl. In fact, someone commented that most crafters in our server are very fair about pricing.

[Ysharros]

I'll be impressed (in a bad way ) if this develops into anything more than tough talk and a bullying attitude. Cartels don't work well in most games for the reasons others have already mentioned above, and mostly those wanting to fix prices are those who, for whatever reason, aren't secure enough in what they know how to do.

Do I wish we could standardise prices to some extent? Yes, especially in component-heavy and item-heavy games like SWG was. It would have been nice to be able to buy [insert item/subcomp] within a certain price range - but logically enough this tends to happen anyway (though it's not as visible when the servers are young) since there's only so much most people are prepared to pay for anything, from a widget to the Uber Sword of Doom.

Would I create or join a group to fix prices? No, because unless you control ALL of the production it's pretty useless. That and I happen to find it deeply unethical. On the bright side, I can't see the one on your server succeeding for any length of time. People can't be prevented from getting raw materials, from improving their skills, and from obtaining gear and recipes, so in the end people will be able to establish their own businesses.

As for the crafting channel... No great loss, if it's populated by jackasses like that. This will probably change in time, too.

/minor digression

Another thing I'd like to see in these games is for the price of raw materials to stay below that of finished goods -- during the hologrind phase of SWG this trend was ludicrous, with grindable materials being far more valuable than most finished products anyone could make. You could see it in WoW back when I was playing, too, with ores and other stuff costing as much as, if not more than, the stuff you could make with them. Given that we don't grind with real stuff here, I'm hopeful the trend will be curbed somewhat.

[Pashta]

I was approached in this manner in EQ2, they tried to form a "union" of sorts so people would stop undercutting. I said no. Competition is a good thing IMO.

[larscw]

I've seen undercutting happen in Horizons on Unity and now on Chaos. There is only 1 way you can really work against it.

Just take the lower priced resources of the market so only your resources are for sale.

This does cost alot of money but in the end you could make a fair profit too as these undercutters see you sell their resources for your higher pricing.

Don't forget to thank the undercutters in the end

[Denidil Taureran]

or you could stop trying to control the market and stop trying to sell at overinflated prices

[Shinto]

Originally Posted by Denidil Taureran

or you could stop trying to control the market and stop trying to sell at overinflated prices

There is always someone who wants to do that. Fortunately, you need complete cooperation from all crafters to pull it off, and that won't happen. Just ignore the ones that gouge, and sell your stuff for reasonable prices. If you are concerned about people buying your stuff for the purpose of marking it up, advertise in auction and refuse to sell to the crafters buying cheaper goods.

[larscw]

The only legal way to do this it to pull any undercut items off as soon as you see them made so the rest of the players will have to pay your price.

then you place them back at the normal set price

The undercutter won't like it a bit that such things would be done either

[Shinto]

Originally Posted by larscw

The only legal way to do this it to pull any undercut items off as soon as you see them made so the rest of the players will have to pay your price.

then you place them back at the normal set price

The undercutter won't like it a bit that such things would be done either

I usually sell my wares directly, so this can't really happen to things I craft. I was talking yesterday to someone about undercutting, and we agreed that while constantly selling items below their average cost will damage the market, it is actually good to have occasional competitive prices. (Because it prevents things like that being discussed here and keeps buyers interested.)

[Ysharros]

Originally Posted by Shinto

I usually sell my wares directly, so this can't really happen to things I craft. I was talking yesterday to someone about undercutting, and we agreed that while constantly selling items below their average cost will damage the market, it is actually good to have occasional competitive prices. (Because it prevents things like that being discussed here and keeps buyers interested.)

Amen to that. There are enough non-crafters who think crafters are all out to steal their first-born as it is. (And who put adventuring junk on the vendor for 500x what it's worth without a second thought, but that's by the by.) Undercutting helps counter the inevitable inflationary trends in any game economy - at least to some extent.

I guess if I were to argue for anything, it would be consistency... and maybe a bit of ethics, but that's asking a lot. Back in EQ2 I knew several crafters whose selling point was that they were expensive - and it works, too, for luxury items and other nonessentials. They were consistent in their prices, their availability, and what they'd make - and they had a customer base.

Then again the latter isn't relevant to the original "Crafting Mafia" question. Sorry.

[Ceyllynn]

heh... i skin/reap

i sell harvestables (per stack) at:

t1: 2sp
t2: 3sp
t3: 6sp
t4: 10sp

i charge more for the t3/t4 due to the higher mob levels in the areas and and the risks i have to take in some cases to get them.

what really gets me is those that take a plain jute bag... that costs say 15cp at most to make with really easy harvesting time involved(considering you can find it anywhere in newbie areas) and try to charge 5 to 10sp for them.

for anything i make as a leatherworker i take in costs (dusts, what i used to make *tier of harvested materials*, and components), and then add in time.

so a full set of t1 armour i will charge 25sp for the set, which i don't think is unreasonable considering i will use on average 6 dusts *chest piece alone requires 4 attuned hides*

i charge what i think is reasonable, i wont grossly over charge... i have these silly things called morals and they interffer with that thing called greed *sighs*