Player Vendors - high rent slow sales

[Mikhaila]

Just re-read this again and am confused about something....re: Slabs - Maybe I haven't read the right area of the Wiki yet, but I have access to Tadion's training list, and I don't see any slabs on it. How are you making slabs? Maybe there is another NPC I should be talking to? I want to maker slabs, darn it.

Sorry for the off-topic question.

Start doing surveys, which leads you to mining and geology. I worked mostly on mining so far. Eventually you can do much harder surveys called "motherlodes" which lead you all over Kur and Ilmari trying to pin them down. It's really the only way (other than purchasing from another player) the metals you are going to need for blacksmithing and toolcrafting.

[IndigoBlue]

Start doing surveys, which leads you to mining and geology. I worked mostly on mining so far. Eventually you can do much harder surveys called "motherlodes" which lead you all over Kur and Ilmari trying to pin them down. It's really the only way (other than purchasing from another player) the metals you are going to need for blacksmithing and toolcrafting.

Thanks for your reply. The way I read it, it sounded as if your slabs were coming from another source. I've been way, way too busy with other stuff to mine, but I am level 10 mining I think. I'll be getting back to that in another 3-4 days hopefully.

Spent Sunday 4/8 getting to level 25 in Industry, and registered with the Shop NPC.

Everything I've been doing the last few days has been related to a sudden inventory storage problem among all my 4 characters.

And here is something I want to say about the Vendor Shop (and the Player Work Order board)

As a newbie who has few tradeskill mats but tons of tradeskill mat NEEDS, I've been very frustrated. It takes a looooong time to view every single vendor in the Marketplace, to find NOBODY is selling what I need (copper ore, anyone? or butter muslim (1 vendor had that).

What should newbies in my position do? Post every little need they have on the Player Work Order board? And never mind the 2 item limit.

[Tagamogi]

I never see slabs for sale (Which is why i'm working surveying and mining. Just tossed up a stack of slabs today to see how it goes.) I have limited slots so I only put up 2 sets of winter gear per day, and it's almost always sold out.

Ok, where is your shop and what times do you restock, so I can start camping it? Metal slabs are indeed hard to find - I tend to snap up all lower levels as I see them. I have seen people sell masterwork metal slabs before, and those actually seem like they stay in the shop for a few days before someone buys them. Not sure if that means they are too high-level, too expensive or people don't mind running their own Ilmari surveys.

Anyway, I'm still curious about the time/profit ratio involved: How long does it take you to farm up items to restock your shop, or are you just putting up things you'd normally vendor? When you say you sold 100K - what part of that is profit over the vendor price? Just wondering... I'm definitely willing to believe that running a shop is quite profitable these days.

As a newbie who has few tradeskill mats but tons of tradeskill mat NEEDS, I've been very frustrated. It takes a looooong time to view every single vendor in the Marketplace, to find NOBODY is selling what I need (copper ore, anyone? or butter muslim (1 vendor had that).

What should newbies in my position do? Post every little need they have on the Player Work Order board? And never mind the 2 item limit.

Well, in practical terms I'd recommend: Do mining surveys and you should get copper ore as a speed bonus. Level up your textile creation until you can make butter muslin, it's worth it. You can also try asking in the Trade or Help channels - if you explain you are a new player, I think quite a few people would be willing to help you out. I don't think either of them are worth posting a work order for unless you are looking for 10-20 each or more.

I realize that answer is not at all what you are looking for and is counter to the game's recommendation of "focus on only one trade skill at a time". As things are though, nobody seems to like doing mining surveys, and both metal slabs and ore seem to be in continually short supply. Butter muslin is a bit of a different story - there are plenty of players that can make it but since it uses cotton and the muslin itself is not going to have a huge profit margin, most higher-level players will not bother putting it up. Personally, I will occasionally put up butter for sale but not butter muslin since if I'm going to go through the hassle of making muslin, I'd rather use it to level my own cheesemaking by whatever minimal degree. I don't really know what a good solution to this would look like.

[sudostahp]

Two things are becoming increasingly annoying as our new friends expand into the retail space:

1) I'd kill for a search feature. It sucks that I need to open each vendor one at time to find a specific item. I've gotten in the habit of just going to the back room to check a few, then giving up. Since all but a few stalls are now booked, there's a lot of ground to cover.

2) What's up with the consistently empty vendors? There are some vendor stalls in prime areas that just sit empty for days.

And as a bonus, I hope that the dancing buff glitch gets fixed soon. I'm sure that would cut down on the "parked" vendor stalls.

[Crissa]

2) What's up with the consistently empty vendors? There are some vendor stalls in prime areas that just sit empty for days.

That's simple: You buy space ahead of time and the vendor doesn't close shop just because you're empty.

Also, you lose your spot if you give it up.

[Atis]

Weirdly economics goes past '101'. But the same principles work in the same way iRL and games. People are people, markets are markets: No two are the same.

Exactly, ingame market is not the same as IRL one, so stop trying to explain PG market with some book that never took MMO markets into account.

you lose your spot if you give it up.

Usual problem for limited market space. Imagine what would happened if PG was even slightly popular. Vending spot would be a privilege.

[IndigoBlue]

Two things are becoming increasingly annoying as our new friends expand into the retail space:

1) I'd kill for a search feature. It sucks that I need to open each vendor one at time to find a specific item. I've gotten in the habit of just going to the back room to check a few, then giving up. Since all but a few stalls are now booked, there's a lot of ground to cover.

THAT would help everyone, including newbies who need 3 of one random thing for a NPC quest (as apposed to actual tradeskill needs that come up unexpectedly).

But yes, a search feature on a sign when you walk in the door. And if nothing else, the station ID # so that the vendor can be found, and the quanity of said item that is available.

We already know something like this works because you can search the Player Work Order Board. I do of course, understand that doing this with 45 vendors whose POS is more complicated..well that's something else.

[datar]

Citan has wrong impression that ability to search the market kills prices and the market itself. Would love to discus it, but my poor language skill makes it very expensive for me....

[Tagamogi]

Two things are becoming increasingly annoying as our new friends expand into the retail space:

1) I'd kill for a search feature. It sucks that I need to open each vendor one at time to find a specific item. I've gotten in the habit of just going to the back room to check a few, then giving up. Since all but a few stalls are now booked, there's a lot of ground to cover.

2) What's up with the consistently empty vendors? There are some vendor stalls in prime areas that just sit empty for days.

And as a bonus, I hope that the dancing buff glitch gets fixed soon. I'm sure that would cut down on the "parked" vendor stalls.

On the empty vendors: Some of them may also just sell out very fast. There is a gem shop in the first room that's been empty most of the time over the last 2-3 months, but I have been able to find gems at @180 a couple times there when I checked. Understandably, those get snagged up very fast.

I'm not sure if a fix to the dancing bug would make a significant impact on the camped stalls - some players may just figure all their money will get wiped eventually anyway, so they might as well max retail management now and/or enjoy their vanity stall.

I'm getting to the point where I'd like a search feature, too, but I also don't want anything resembling an auction house. Brainstorming on a couple search-like ideas:
- be able to search on an item and get a response of whether it is on sale anywhere, possibly with the location
- have the first item in each player shop show up in a search, with shop name and possibly price. I'm basically trying to avoid having a mass-undercut competition on everything with that limit, while still allowing searchers to get some idea of what a shop may be selling without actually walking over there.
- along similar lines, we could have a directory listing of all current vendors and their first item currently on sale, available for browsing by everyone
- have shop keepers pay to advertise 1-3 of their current items in a directory list or search feature. If an item is sold, it will no longer be listed.

None of these may be particularly good ideas.

[Crissa]

Exactly, ingame market is not the same as IRL one, so stop trying to explain PG market with some book that never took MMO markets into account.

This refers to what and adds what to the conversation? O-o

It's like trying to talk to someone in the Austrian School yet demands specific markets be covered. It's so bizarre.

MMO markets - and this isn't even an MM - aren't in any way unusual compared to all other markets.