Cultural Tradeskiller Protection Program!

[Abazagaroth]

Anyone else feel like joining something like the witness protection program except for cultural/augment tradeskillers?

It is amazing how many tells I get from people I don't know, people that haven't bothered saying a word to me in years, etc. Gets beyond tiring =(

[Wyvernwill]

LOL Best part is the tells "I need (x-amount) sublime augs made."
"Ok, have the supplies?"
"Yeah, I have the Water and Coal"
"... and the loam?"
"Don't you have some to use?"
*Inner child screams in terror*

While I am proud of my achievements as a tradeskiller, lol I have been getting hammered for cultural, amalgamators of all types, mechanoinstructions, and potions. LOL In the long run, it's almost painful.

[Zolina]

Brings back memories...

I got a tell from an old acquaintance asking for a wood elf cultural BP, she asked me what she'd need. I gave her the loam and tantalum shopping list, made her the BP, and she took it on the raid. Then she sent me a tell, "I can't wear this, it's ranger-rogue only." Oops, she was a druid, aheh.

Eventually she was able to even-trade someone else for a druid BP, but not one of my brighter moments.

[thomenthechanter]

Out of left field the other day, I got a request to cut a whole bunch of Taaf and and mold Dwerium jewelry from someone I haven't spoken to in about nine months.. even then, we weren't exactly best-buds-do-anything-for-each-other, but rather, passing acquaintances who'd look out for the occasional piece here and there.

I told them the possibility of failure, and they said "fine". I settled down to do the work. Succeeded without a hitch. Started to hand them back, and no sooner did the last item hit the tradebar, their name went green.

I blinked, and shrugged, figuring I'd made the mistake of not negotiating a price beforehand. Hit "Trade", and without so much as a "thank you" they ran off.

Not thirty seconds later, in /auction.. "Selling dwerium jewelry!"

Oh, no. Not getting away with that. So I started undercutting every price they threw. Eventually, they gave up and logged out.

[thomenthechanter]

Oh, the other recent story...

Due to the relative dearth of Minor and Lesser Muramite/Shadowspine Runes on our server, someone I don't know asked me to make a few spells for them. I verbally confirmed that they would supply all the pieces, explained the chance for failure, and negotiated a price per successful spell.

At the very end of the trade session...

Xxx has offered you Dirty Vellum.
You told Xxx, "Do you have the cleaning solution for the Vellum?"
Xxx tells you, in Elvish, "What cleaning solution?"
You told Xxx, "Spell parchments need to be cleaned before they can be used."
Xxx tells you, in Elvish, "Oh. Let me go look."
Xxx tells you, in Elvish, "Yikes... that's another six hundred plat per scroll."
You told Xxx, "Yeah, it can be expensive."
Xxx tells you, in Elvish, "Can't afford that. Can you maybe lower your price?"

::Blinks:: I didn't negotiate a price per spell attempt --- I negotiated per success, and it wasn't that all that high to begin. If the person couldn't afford the stuff to make the solutions... they weren't going to be able to afford the spells if I'd succeeded on all of them.

[Sonyia Slowonyia]

LOL those are some good ones...

My favorites are the people who find out you can actually make the elegant and then ask if you would do a combine for them for a fee. You negotiate a fair price and ask them to supply the ingredients. They have no idea what's needed and you tell them loam/spinnerettes etc..and they check the baz and they freak out it's so expensive and then they say nm completely wasting your time, because it seems I'm usually in a hurry to be somewhere in-game or rl when this all takes place lol.

[GrimwoodCT]

We should be grateful for for the volume of willing buyers there are in the game for our goods. I probably make more stuff on my server than any other individual tradeskiller.

There are time, however, when I am not in the mood, do not have time or just plain refuse to make stuff. How do I manage to extricate myself? Just use some of these tactics.

Say/tell/quote:

1) I am out of patterns.
2) I accidentally destroyed my needle/hammer/kit I need for that.
3) A price that is ridiculously high.
4) I am out of supplies.
or
5) Tell them the truth.

"Sorry dude. I am just don't have the time right now. I just want to:"

a) go out and hunt with real friends
b) make stuff for myself, true friends or someone that actually pays well
c) buy/sell/chat
d) work on another tradeskill
e) be left alone


Thomas Paine tells us "What we achieve too cheaply, we will esteem too lightly." Make people understand what you provide has value, true gravid worth. Make them understand that you are not a mobile tradeskill container, that your time is valuable and you need real life faction to be dealt with.

[Zacatac]

I remember back in the days of Blue Diamond cultural -

Playerx "Can you do the combine on a BD bracer for me?"
Playerx hands you a single blue diamond and waits.

[olhoss]

I don't mind clicking for people...any more than I mind mezzing mobs. It's a skill my character has, and it helps me "network" with other toons. Like everyone else, I get people who ask how much for a finished piece and I give them the standard response: You give me the parts I click for free. When they insist that they don't want to gather all that and just want a price, the easiest response is sorry when the parts are my risk and not theirs, it's too hard to predict how much making it will cost. Therefore the price will be stupidly high to eliminate my risk, so they are far better off getting the parts. So far, I have not encountered anyone who objected to that parameter, because in the end they are still getting a free click, and I am getting points on my trophy for my effort.

[thomenthechanter]

As a rule, I don't charge friends. I don't argue too loudly if my friends decide to recompense me for the time sunk into being able to do these combines.

I do charge people who wouldn't know me from a fallen brick in RCoD if they didn't have something they needed combined. Friend of a friend of a friend? Sorry, bud, if I make this for you, I'm going to expect you to pony up a *little* bit of coin for the hours and coin I've burned to get to where I am.

No kidding, though: While naked and waiting for a rez back to group, a female troll shaman whom I did not know came flying up to me, opened a trade window, and threw stuff into it. RandomPerson tells you, in Elvish, "Can u combine this 4 me, bro?"

Um.. I'm standing here buck naked. What makes you think I can do any sort of combine?

[Wyvernwill]

Last time someone did that to me, I did the combine without the trophy since it was on the corpse... summarily failing. /shrug If people have no curtesy for me being busy, I have little time for them needing my best efforts.

[thomenthechanter]

Maybe it's the fact that I post here.. hmm...

It happened again last night... we'd just wiped on Vergalid, and I was sitting in the Guild Lobby waiting for a rez. This time, it was a female high elf of indeterminate class who walked up to me and tried to hand me...

1 Raw Faycite Crystal
1 Platinum Bar
1 Gnomish Heat Source
1 Veil Mold
1 Trio Setting Tool.

Gee, I know what you want me to make for you there, Ms. High Elf, but I don't have a jewelry kit on my nekkid body. The collapsible's on my corpse in Vergalid's Mine. Do be a dear, trip along and get it for me, would you?

Moreover, I haven't taken the time to research the single-cast version of Enchant Dwerium, so even if I had a jewelry kit, I wouldn't necessarily be able to do anything with the inert lump of Dwerium this would create.

Who *are* you, anyhow?

[Rawckett]

Just thank them for the items, and tell them to have a nice day.

[thomenthechanter]

Since the person involved probably reads these boards...

...know that this is completely tongue in cheek, pally.

If I know you, I'm perfectly willing to do stuff for free. But when it's already ten minutes past the time I should've been pillow-headed, asking me to enchant "a few bricks of clay before I go" shouldn't involve 600 pounds of clay.

Just sayin'. ;D