Crew Skills for a first char

[Kulyok]

I find it is more important to find a price that is high enough to bring in more credits than what it costs to make the item, but also low enough so that majority of the players can afford it, even the new players, you could be surprised how much more credits you can make, but i am guessing they are thinking more about short term profit instead of long-term profit.

 

The amount of credits you can make will always be limited by 100 slots on GTN and the number of times you can log in and re-do your auctions. Not the price.

 

The price doesn't matter(unless you're selling green goo for 10k per unit); only the undercutters matter.

 

And undercutters should hopefully understand that selling an item for 6k is better than selling it for 3k(if the cost of making it is 1k). Trust me, if you're selling it even for 10k, and nobody's undercutting you, it will sell.

 

I'm talking about basic craftable items. Anyone can make them themselves - they can create an alt, gather some companions, and go have fun. They can also run the flashpoints and get their hilts(for example) with comms. But they prefer to buy these hilts via GTN. Should the prices be as high as possible? Yes, I say. Because they're paying for convenience, they're paying for the crafter's time and effort, and this should be expensive.

 

And a new player can go and do his weekly and learn his role. I'm sure it'd be very enlightening.

[Nazdika]

You do know that the cost of crafting most items are incredibly low..right? so selling at a lower price would still bring in profit and would also increase the amount of sales as well.

 

 

I do indeed. I do not really know what is the point in selling items so low, that some guy is doing arbitrage (flipping) with my items, though. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Put any item on GTN for what I think is a reasonable price for a non-sugar-daddy-alt char, watch it be relisted for like 4x your price soon after. I like to help other people, but making rich people even richer is not my thing. Though when I learned that lesson, keeping listing the item again a tiny bit below the flipper was kinda fun, heh. Not enough to do it again, though.

 

Edit: And for those who now want to tell me that I said I am outta this: I am outta talking to that guy about that topic for the moment. The thread may still be interesting

Edited June 17, 2014 by Nazdika

[eartharioch]

I do indeed. I do not really know what is the point in selling items so low, that some guy is doing arbitrage (flipping) with my items, though. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Put any item on GTN for what I think is a reasonable price for a non-sugar-daddy-alt char, watch it be relisted for like 4x your price soon after. I like to help other people, but making rich people even richer is not my thing. Though when I learned that lesson, keeping listing the item again a tiny bit below the flipper was kinda fun, heh. Not enough to do it again, though.

 

Edit: And for those who now want to tell me that I said I am outta this: I am outta talking to that guy about that topic for the moment. The thread may still be interesting

 

Well, if it's just one guy, and it's a cheap/easy item to make, you can just flood the market...as mentioned, each character can only have 100 auction slots (although he may have alts), and inventory and cargo holds are limited as well. Assuming the price at which you are selling is high enough to be profitable as well as what you consider fair (and it sounds like it is), you are still making your target profit, and eventually he will run out of places to store all the items he buys from you while waiting for them all to sell. If that doesn't work, then what it means is that what you are making is so popular *at his price* that there is an inexhaustible demand, so maybe you should start making that extra money yourself, and then if you see somebody who can't afford your item but deserves it, just give it to them or trade directly at what you consider to be a fair price (and thank people on the GTN for subsidizing your philanthropic works).

[psandak]

You do know that the cost of crafting most items are incredibly low..right? so selling at a lower price would still bring in profit and would also increase the amount of sales as well.

 

yes but not as much as selling it a higher price that most buyers are willing to pay. That is the point you are missing. let me reiterate: a higher price that most buyers are willing to pay. I honestly am looking out for #1. I give away enough stuff to friends and guildmates that my conscience is clean when I sell stuff at 200%+ profit margin to strangers on the GTN.

 

I find it is more important to find a price that is high enough to bring in more credits than what it costs to make the item, but also low enough so that majority of the players can afford it, even the new players, you could be surprised how much more credits you can make, but i am guessing they are thinking more about short term profit instead of long-term profit.

 

You are making an incorrect assumption that the cost to make an item is fixed and can be objectively obtained:

 

Some believe that materials gathered in the field are free. So should an item crafted with materials gathered from the field be priced a 1 credit? 1 credit is Infinite profit over zero.

 

Those who run missions for materials can calculate an ideal cost by making some assumptions:

• grey, green or yellow difficulty, plus a max affection and a +crit companion will generate a specific crit chance. So in 100 missions run one can idealize that one will crit, 21, 22, or 25 times
  
• every mission has a 5% chance of total failure. So five out of every 100 missions run yield zero materials
  
• and the rest have a normal yield.
  
• so over the course of 100 missions, in an ideal situation, a given character should net a determinable number of materials.
  
• divide that number of materials into the cost of running the mission multiplied by 100 and one gets an idealized cost per unit
  

The only problem is that idealized number is not realized until one runs many hundreds if not thousands of missions and for the average player doing so can take a VERY long time. So while the cost per unit may very well be X over the long haul the more visible cost per unit is probably much higher.

 

And then there are those who base their crafted item value on the value the materials would generate on the GTN. Because materials A, B, and C go for X, Y, and Z on the GTN, one's crafted item D is worth the sum of X, Y, and Z PLUS a profit margin one feels is commensurate with the resources (time and/or credits) one has invested. But where do those materials' values come from?

 

I'll admit I fall between the second and third category: I know how much materials cost to gather through missions on my own, and I keep that value in mind when I set my prices. But I keep up with their value on the GTN, because I live by the axiom DarthTHC stated a long time ago: "make credits not stuff." I do not care what I sell - materials or finished goods. In fact I sell both on a regular basis. I sell what will get me the most credits.

Edited June 18, 2014 by psandak

[SolUmber]

Hi everyone,

 

Just made a new character on a new server, a sniper. I am subscriber with quite a lot of Cartel coins. I was wondering what trade skills should I pick, between slicing/cybertech/scavanging or armorsmech/scav/underworld, or a money making combo slicing/scav/bioanalysis

 

I wouldn't mind leveing my gear and my companion's gear while leveling, although I rather don't be broke as this is my first char. I plan do have BH and Trooper alts in this server.

 

Any thoughts? Money making or armor/mods?

 

I am a new player with my first character. I chose Bioanalysis, Scavenging, and slicing as my 3 skills.

 

While doing my normal mission running I walk / killed / collected my way through the forests and earned about 20,000 credits from selling green goo and the low level materials. That was really good considering I had only earned around 9,000 from mission running the first 3 days.

 

In my market, bioanalysis earned me more tan scavenging on that day. With Slicing I think I am breaking about even on running missions and have not found as many slicing nodes.

 

If you are curious what I spent my credits on, it was armor for a lol 14 BH. Mostly on one helmet I thought was overpriced

[Nazdika]

Well, if it's just one guy, and it's a cheap/easy item to make, you can just flood the market...as mentioned, each character can only have 100 auction slots (although he may have alts), and inventory and cargo holds are limited as well. Assuming the price at which you are selling is high enough to be profitable as well as what you consider fair (and it sounds like it is), you are still making your target profit, and eventually he will run out of places to store all the items he buys from you while waiting for them all to sell. If that doesn't work, then what it means is that what you are making is so popular *at his price* that there is an inexhaustible demand, so maybe you should start making that extra money yourself, and then if you see somebody who can't afford your item but deserves it, just give it to them or trade directly at what you consider to be a fair price (and thank people on the GTN for subsidizing your philanthropic works).

 

Oh I make that extra money for myself and give away stuff since long. Just added a thought to why offering lower prices is not really an option to me personally. While your first suggestion is doable, frankly, SWtOR, and such minor irritations like overprized markets are not worth that kind of commitment to me. My crafters take a couple minutes per day, I rather spend my time raiding, or actually playing lower level chars.

Edited June 19, 2014 by Nazdika

[Nazdika]

 

In my market, bioanalysis earned me more tan scavenging on that day. With Slicing I think I am breaking about even on running missions and have not found as many slicing nodes.

 

Grats on those 20K, and the new shiney armor I personally hate to level gathering skills via missions. So much so that I do not do that. Lockbox missions are indeed just a tiny bit above break even. Dromund Kaas I find especially annoying to level slicing, until one gets to Grathan's. On Coruscant I actually never had that problem, I think. (long time not leveled a JK) On DK my future slicers get archeology first, since that sells rather well in the first tier. When they get to Grathan, they switch. Or actually come back later to speed level when Grathan's is a walk in the park.

[Mithros]

If you are worried about money, then take the crafting skill that you like, the gathering skill that goes with it, and then take slicing.

 

This will let you develop the crafting skill by making green items while also collecting extra credits from the slicing nodes you encounter along the way.

 

When you are ready to move on (but probably at least not until you get your ship droid), replace slicing with the appropriate mission skill and start working on that.

 

As far as first skills go, I favor cybertech, especially for a tech user. Some people swear by biochem, though, and I think that an argument can be made for artifice for a force user.

 

Armstech, armormech, and synthweaving are okay for later on, but I can't recommend them as the first skills to learn for characters on a server.

If you really want to learn some low level schematics to craft your own gear then whatever, but there's a different between taking armstech just long enough to learn how to craft your own orange blaster and dedicating your character to becoming an armstech.