Tailors Jacking Prices on Supplies... morally inept?

[Tasu]

Just thought I would get your take on this.... There is a tailor on my server who is lower in skill than I am (I am currently 218). This particular tailor seems to take pleasure in jacking up the prices on tailoring supplies... and I don't just mean a little bit... I mean double or triple (or more) the normal price for things such as silk swatches, cod oil, etc...

Now normally I would just say "Ok, he's a tailor too and he doesn't really want to sell that stuff... no big deal." HOWEVER... I have been watching the prices and they are all steadily climbing as more and more people are raising their prices to match his. Silk Swatches are now really tough to find for anything under 15pp each (he is selling his for 60pp each... and it seems most are now starting to sell them around the 50pp mark...)

Does anyone else have a problem with this? The way I see it.... my fellow tailors are not only undercutting (and bottoming-out) the prices that I can sell any 250 tailored items (if I ever get there)... but now I also have my fellow tailors encouraging the market to vastly inflate the price of all my supplies. Is there any unity here? I mean... I'm not the only person getting majorly screwed by this... he's also destroying his own chances at ever recovering the enormous loss one takes from trying to get to 250 tailoring...

What do you guys think about this?

[sir0die]

well, in the long run, the cost of finished producets will raise also.

i guess you'll have to start farming some stuff for yourself.

[Galain]

Not necessarily true SirOdie. In most cases if the trend continues, the finished item will be alot more expensive than people will pay. Thus you are left spending alot of plat on purely skill up items.

The best course of action is to not pay these exorbitant prices. Sure you may have to go a long time without being able to buy supplies, but the prices should drop to a normal price when people realize they aren't selling their inventory. Case in point, on Prexus you have some gougers who think that tufts of dire wolf fur are worth 100pp each. Well I refuse to buy from anyone who charges more than 10pp. Low and behold once the inventory of lower priced merchants disappears the gougers start to drop prices.

[Tasu]

I do farm most of my supplies... and I don't buy anything over my set prices...

What I was interested in was what you guys thought about TAILORS doing this sort of thing to other TAILORS.

I also don't think the price on finished products is going to raise... I have watched as everything I can make has steadily dropped in price because of mudflation... I don't see that trend changing in any way anytime.

I can understand non-tailors getting greedy and jacking the price on flawless rockhopper hides up to 350pp... but watching a fellow tailor go and try to inflate the prices on just about everything I can use for skillups (and HE can use for skillups too btw)... well... it just seems ridiculous to me.

[Cigarskunk]

Maybe he's finally given up?

Maybe he's using the overpriced silk to pay for his own tailoring?

Maybe he's just a griefer?

Maybe he's trying to drive folks out of tailoring to create a monopoly?

What I find odd is that other folks are actually raising thier prices - I wish to god tradeskillers were like the farmers - the only time I've witnessed that happening is with the Stinger bows - I was able to raise the selling price of those things from around 200 to 300-350 when I was in that market.

[Bennan]

When the cost of materials begins to outstrip;

a) Sellable price, if there is one on the made product.

b) The inability to be able to absorb failures.

c) A realistic final cost to actually collect, then make combines in the quantities needed, to increase skill.

Then nobody will buy, and prices will drop... in time

BUT in many cases that only is going to be true for those skilling up. GM's will have different rulesets, and as such be able (and in some cases willing) to pay far more than "normal" price for some goods.

But it brings to mind, if one was nasty enough, a GM in a craft could put massive markups on trade supplies to slow down those raising skill, so that he/she could maintain market share.

[Narith]

It's a simple matter of don't buy from players if the prices are too high. If you buy item X for Y price then people will continue to sell for that price.

Take an example from when I went on a tailoring skill up spree. Only one person was selling imbued emeralds in bazaar and had 100 of them at 25p each so I bought them out. The next day I come back and the same person is only one selling another hundred for 30p, I don't mind so I buy those out. Come back the next day and same deal but they are up to 35p, I figure what the heck I have the cash now and need the skill ups so I buy them out again..... Well the next day I come back and still no one but that person selling and they are priced at 40p, I think this is past my spending limit so skip it. A few days go by and I check bazaar again, that same person has the same 100 imbued emeralds but back down to 25p.

When items sit in inventory for days on end people tend to start dropping prices. If prices are rising it is because they are selling. If you either take a week or two and don't tailor at all or go and collect your own supplies you will come back to see that the material is starting to decline in price. This is of course assuming you are on a server where there are not alot of tailors using the material for skill ups that buy out everything no matter what the price.

[Wiggume]

LOL I have a similar problem on my server atm. I am looking to buy Tufts of Dire Wolf. The most I will pay is 25p. I am very strict on this and have plenty of self control. I dont make a whole lot of money on bags anyways so I dont need to make a lot of them.

Anyways there is an item called 'Tuft of Boar Fur' (or something very similar, I think PoP) and a couple of people were charging 200p. Well someone must not have realized these were different and priced their Tufts of Dire Wolf at 200p HAHAHA. Sadly everyone else jumped on board and all Tufts of Dire Wolf became ludicrously priced. I havent bought hardly any at all in the last 2 weeks and there are about 300 for sale atm which is a ton, usually only 10 tufts or so in trader mode at any given time. Prices are slowly dropping as people realize they arent going to get 200p for them

[Fudapuda]

There is an additional problem you haven't even mentioned yet--the "griefer" if you want to call them that, if they have the money pool available, will buy up all of the low-priced items and reprice them on their own mule at much higher prices, thus driving the price up in two ways, while also eliminating their own competition.

I've watched this going on for the past month or so on Bertox--I even put some lower priced items on my mules, and then kept track of who was buying them off me. What I found is that the buyers of my items were selling those same items, at their higher rate--and had eliminated all the lower sellers.

Obviously the economics of that approach in the long run can bankrupt you, but if you are a big enough arse, and have a large enough pot of plat, you can sure make a mess of the run-of-the-mill tradeskillers ability to try to level up, at least in the short term. It gets depressing.

Fortunately, I have seen a few sellers fighting back. They keep posting their materials at the lower rates, regardless of what the griefers set theirs at, so at least for short periods of time (until the griefer gets back online) folks have a shot at reasonably priced items.

All I can hope for is that the griefers end up with bags and bags of items they can't sell, and don't need.

Fudapuda
Bertox

[cattywumpus]

A little good news for you. I am a farmer to pay for a lot of equipment and tradeskills. I always price my merchandise fairly for the amount of work I put into it. I never price based on the highest price on the server and couldn't care less that i'm not getting top dollar.

I would rather be farming than selling. I hope my action are helping to keep costs down but I think we need more people doing it that way than just me.

I learned how to work for a living and I always have faith that the scammers will get theirs in the end.

Play like you live and remember the Golden Rule!

[Maelaelin]

Heh Here is some insight.

OK so you tradeskillers high up in skill 150+ always need to buy supplies and mining merchants in various locations can be costly and time consuming. Those of us who are tailors and also sell tailoring supplies realize its much easier for you higher leveled tailorers to buy supplies off of us at some variable market price because your bank accounts can accomidate it.
Well first off, walking in Bazaar last week i noticed some dood selling spider silk for 10pp a silk. What kind of messed up thing is that> 200pp gets you a stack of spider silk! (WTF) Anyways being the smart buisness minded man, I quikly flew off to Upper GUk and camped all the spiders in zone for about an hour. I walked out with 100 spider silks, now going by this guy selling 350 silks at 10pp a piece, I watched as his inventory gradually fell over three days. This rich bastard is making a killing off of a common drop. Thats when i made my move. Now everyday I camp spiders in guk to add to my inventory, and I undermine market price TO HELP YOU HIGHER SKILLED tailorers. Anyways 10pp is WAY to much, why not buy from me, my prices fluxuate from 5pp-7pp a silk depending on my mood. I also noticed silk swatch selling for 20pp a swatch, NOPE, i'm not buying it. BUT I'll sell it for 15pp and always move my inventory. Perhaps i can keep the market balanced as well as get a good bank account of my own.

[Kaidian Blade]

We should all be Investment brokers for how much we all watch the market ecomony of different commodities fluctuate in the Bazaar.

Instead of Bears and Bulls.... we're Grizzlies and Rhinos.

[tsulyra]

Why not farm some yourself and under his 60pp per and sell them at 55pp each. Make some plat to advance your skill ups. Since it would be to expensive to sell the finished products.

Personally, I have not bought one item to use for skill ups from pcs. Everything was from npc vendors or my own farming. Sure it slow, but then it I still make a nice profit selling something under market just to sell it. :mrgreen:

[Pockets FullOfGold]

I've always done my own farming. While it does take longer, I get to keep my own hard earned Plat. I am not in any Uber Guild that has millions upon millions of plat available, nor do I go to uber camps farming all these super drops that sell for 5k, 10k, 20k, 100k PP so I don't have all this plat available to purchase items from sellers in the Bazaar.

Besides, I get satisfaction knowing that what I've made for someone was done myself and wasn't bought in the bazaar.

Pockets FullOfGold

[Elii-Firiona-Vie]

speaking of Guk

Speaking of Guk. What is a good level to start farming silks there.

I am currently a level 13 Monk on the Firiona Vie server.

I have been killing spiders and spiderlings in the East Commonlands.

I gathered 51 spiderling silks and 15 spider silks today in two hours there. I would like to move to Guk since it seems more generous with the silk than EC is for me currently.

I am farming for skill ups. I have no interrest in selling right now.

Currently a level 31 Tailor