Am I Evil?

[Wiggume]

About 2 months ago I bought some armor from a smith on my server. This person is just about the only smith on my server that makes this type of armor.

A couple weeks ago I decided to sell a few of the pieces that I purchased. I put them into trader mode for the same price I had bought them for. Today after having them for longer than I would have liked I lowered the price on them. I just wanted to get rid of them.

Shorty after this I get an irrate tell from the tradeskiller that I purchased these items from. Saying how selfish I was and blah blah blah. Went on to say my guild sucks and I have no friends... hehe.

Now both of us knew that I am not capable of making this armor. Im just a former customer who is trying to sell it. But the story I was hearing was that I was ruining the market for this tradeskiller and I am greedy and selfish.

Am I?

P.S. Some side info. The tradeskiller in question was not selling the same items I was at the time of this confrontation. Also I am a 250 tailor. This smith was selling some of the cultural gear I make for less than me about a month ago. Did I mind? no I didnt. I realize people want to get rid of items fast at times and they are not producing them so their pricing schemes have very little effect on my 'profits' in the longterm.

[splunge]

Hm, sounds to me like a quick /ignore is in order.

[Angelsyn]

I sell Troll-Cultural weapons for the only skilled Troll on Xegony.

I sometimes see other people selling the weapons at the same or a bit lower prices than I charge. Do I care? Not at all.

I (and more importantly the Smith who made 'em) have already made money on the item... if the person is done with it, let 'em sell it. If they don't mind getting less than they paid for it, that's their choice.

I've also seen people selling the Shields at much higher prices than I charged. Do I care? Again, not at all. It gives me the excuse to raise my price (but not as high as they did) on the next one.

[Darklens]

I've heard moaning and complaining along this line from some tradeskillers.... The ones who complain the most are the ones with the most plat! You know... the ones who, if they could, would and could purchase an epic for their lvl 1 cleric! Anyway I can't help but disagree with people who complain because you sell something that they sold you. I give away my MTP's to guild members, do free tailoring combines, and make about 70% of the items for the PoTC earrings for cost.... if you want to sell the stuff after I make it .... "Go For It!"

In a nutshell NO! I don't believe you are evil.

[Qwiny]

Naw, you're not being evil at all. You paid for it...used it...and have outgrown it. It's the jerks who use "friendship" or knowing you, have the items made at cost and then two days later are selling it much cheaper than you are.

I had an aquaintance bother me for days on end to talk my 250 HIE smithing friend into making her a full suit of Blessed Full Mithril like I had. She did the armor mainly in part because it was the "doing it for a friend" clause.....then two days later we saw this person selling all of it much cheaper than the smith claiming they didn't need it now. In two days they went from needing a full suit to needing none of it? uh huh...

[Lling]

We have a tailor on our server who is looked down on by every other tradeskiller. Why? As one put it, he ruins every market he touches. How? He floods the market with cheap tailored goods.

While I am sure some customers love him, I find his action rather self-serving. Tailoring is one of the tougher trade skills to master. There isn't JUST the goal of mastering the skill usually. There is some hope that in the end one might be able to get some financial gain.

I was the first 250 human smith on my server. I spent 90kpp getting to 250 - and that was back in the day when it was "easy". When I priced my goods, I had to consider a number of things: the value of the item, the price of comparable items, the cost of the components, recouping some of the pp I poured into it, and one more critical thing (in my eyes, anyway) - the smiths who would come after me.

Yes, I very easily could have sold dirt cheap, flooded the market with a ton of armor, and completely ruined any possibility of a future market for any up-and-coming smiths. I would not resepct myself if I chose that route, nor could I respect someone who did that.

That, however, is what the tailor in question did. He feels no need to have a decent pricing structure that would allow others to make some profit out of their work. There is no incentive for others to skill up because the goods are priced with very little profit.

Some agree with the theory of flooding the market with cheap goods and making some pp that way. I do not - because I don't believe that I function in a vacuum.

The tailor in question - in my opinion - has no respect for himself and his goods. He certainly does not think of other tailors. If he chooses to do that to his own market, there is nothing I can do about it except continue to refer business to other tailors. If, however, if it were my goods he was reselling and undercutting prices on, I would be offended. He might not respect his own work, but I respect mine and the work of the other smiths. I don't think of it as "price fixing" - I think of it as working together in a supportive tradeskill community. I find that MOST of the tradespeople on our server work together to have prices that are fair to us as well as fair to our customer base. There are very few who don't work well with others - and their poor reputations were well-earned.

99% of the people who upgrade things I sold them and want to price them for reselling ask me if (a) I want to buy it back or (b) what they should price it at. I appreciate that courtesy. I try to make my customers happy - and they in turn are thoughtful.

They have every "right" to resell at whatever price they wish, just as you have every right to price to "get rid of it". The fact that most people make the extra effort to not lowball the prices shows that they care about keeping the market fair for others.

Some call that "price fixing" - others call it working together. Forgive me if I choose to come in on the side of the argument that supports working well with others.

[Wiggume]

:?: was this a mispost? it doesnt seem to be a response to the original post. Well maybe the last few sentences....

[wold2]

re evil

If you buy the stuff at market value its yours you can and should do what you want, imo.

I think the objectional thing is when you get it made "free" as a favor , then turn around and sell it for a profit. I've had pieces I made as free combines show up on the market, then the person sells for under my market price...of course they can, because they got it for free!

The worse, as others mentioned, is when they get ya to make it for free, then you see it a couple days later. Thats really an exploit.

I mostly make freebies for guildies and friends only now. I hope my guildies will hand em down in guild if they get upgrades.

[Jolla]

I play on Wiggume and Lling's server, and I, too, was faced with a difficult decision about pricing smithed armor.

My BF had some Helanic? (The Tribunal) legs that are very nice (better than Kael plate legs). He paid a lot of plat for them when they were new. He recently got an upgrade and asked me to sell them. He spoke with the smith that made them and she said 25k was a good price to list them.

I listed them at 25k for over a month. Some new smith was selling them for 12k (sometimes he had more than one set on his trader). Eventually I had to cave and lower my price, too (I finally sold them the other day).

I of course don't mind 'losing' the 13 k (my BF definitely got his money's worth from those legs). I simply didn't want to contribute to flooding the market. But the new smith left me no choice.

So, to sum it up: Yes Wiggume, you are evil! :twisted:

[Bennan]

When I sell a product, at a price of my choosing. Thats it, I don't have any rights or privlidges left on that item. The owner can do whatever they want with them.

If I made some armour for someone on the cheap, because they begged me or whatever, i.e a price not of my choosing. I would be steaming if they turned around and sold it asap.

I wouldn't yell or anything, just would not do any combines for them ever again. Oh and \ignore .