Low cost selling service by Morningtear Castle Shop

[GeorgeSkywalker]

The idea here is to provide a selling service for almost free. That is only the price automatically added by shopkeeper will be charged. This is usually a nominal amount. Examples of this charge:

Armor Plating Mark.5D, TT=23.20, In Shopkeeper placed at TT+1 , Shopkeeper fee = 0.02 PED
Armor Plating Mark.5D, TT=23.20, In Shopkeeper placed at TT+10 , Shopkeeper fee = 0.24 PED
Armor Plating Mark.5D, TT=23.20, In Shopkeeper placed at TT+100 , Shopkeeper fee = 2.34 PED
Armor Plating Mark.5D, TT=23.20, In Shopkeeper placed at TT+1000 , Shopkeeper fee = 19.96 PED
Armor Plating Mark.5D, TT=23.20, In Shopkeeper placed at TT+10k , Shopkeeper fee = 32.46 PED
Armor Plating Mark.5D, TT=23.20, In Shopkeeper placed at TT+100k , Shopkeeper fee = 36.76 PED


How will it work in practice?
At moment not sure of the specifics of how best to implement this. So advice and suggestions are welcome. However I'm thinking something like this:

The markup selling price will be decided by yourself. Duration the item will be placed in shopkeeper will need to be negotiated but generally decided by yourself. I would only input on this if it seems unreasonable.

Trading with myself to place in shopkeeper the possibilities could be as follows:

• I will buy the item of you and place in shopkeeper and pay you any amount owed by myself after item is sold. For example if I bought item at TT price.
• I will buy the item of you and place in shopkeeper and you pay what's owed when item is sold? hmm this could be difficult to implement as I may not get paid

Also does anyone know what formula the shopkeeper uses to generate automatic fee?

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

Probably best to negotiate an agreement between myself and interested parties.

So decided this would probably work best with someone who I can work with on an on going basis. For example crafter without a shop, crafter with not enough auction slots, reseller with not enough auction slots etc.

If they can supply me on a regular basis that's good for everyone. So if you know someone who doesn't have enough selling space please do refer them here.

 

[wizz]

You get many visitors there?

Maybe to boost sales you can offer guided sightseeing tours through the castle as well

G'luck with this concept!

 

[mastermesh]

Basically it sounds like a consignment type deal. Many shops in game already utilize that type of idea. Ask around how others handle it. Essentially it makes the shop become a pawn shop at it's core functionality.

Don't forget to figure in shopkeeper decay! I believe it is 10 pec per sale. That little fee is why a lot of folks doing consignment do better with a 'real shop' instead of through a shopkeeper, but it's still doable in sk if the price of the item is 'right' to allow for that fee. (sk fee was different several years ago, which you can verify with entropiawiki)

As for the 'automatic fee' what you are talking about is the tax. It's close to 2% I believe, with minimum as 2 pec on +1, which is why Mindark won't let you go below +1, i.e. +1.02. Not sure on this but I think original plan was for that tax to go one percent to Mindark and one percent to PP, but no idea how it gets divided up these days.

Also not 100% sure on the formula for it as prices go up higher... suspect there's some rounding or truncating going on somewhere in the amounts you posted in first post? (also possible that Mindark's tweaked the formula over the years?, and/or that there's some type of max on the taxes as markup goes up?, or it might just be 'yet another bug' that Mindark put in as a 'secret feature' for you to find. )

Another source of income are fees and commissions attached to the in-game auction and player's shops. Every sale on the auction and shops produces a sales commission that also gets shared 50:50 between Mindark and the Planet Partner.

Be mindful of the graphic user interface visual truncation (which is just a visual thing) if you are testing formulas, etc.

Here's one of my most comprehensive posts about the fees.Thanks to Hardwrath and a few other folks in the community for helping determine the info provided there (I think the auction fee part may be outdated a bit already since they tweaked it again, but am not certain on that).

As someone who used to do consignment deals, my suggestion would be limit what you set up to exactly how many slots there are available, and no more. At one time I was doing something like rotating out what was in the shop on a weekly basis, and had about 4 x as deals on the table as there were slots because of that (4 weeks in a month). That is doable, but gets mighty complex in figuring out who is due what from which sale. KISS - Keep it Simple Silly!

IMHO, if you really are going to do this thing, pay TT and no more at time you pick up the items, then if the sale goes through pay them the markup after taking in to account the shopkeeper decay cost you are incurring. If sale doesn't go through in agreed upon amount of time have them buy it back at TT price or perhaps build it in to the agreement that you get to keep it so you can then TT it yourself or TT it to a friend. If you pay more than TT price at pickup, consider it a sale that you are buying the item instead of as a consignment deal because down the road someone will try to screw you over when markup tanks if you paid full markup on something at time you picked it up. Also, specialize. Sell one type of thing in the shop, and that's it. Make it a niche and find folks that can supply you with items related to that niche. Otherwise it'll look like every other shop out there that has a mix of everything, so people will stop visiting since they don't want to brows each shopkeeper only to find what they want that day isn't there.

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

You get many visitors there?

Maybe to boost sales you can offer guided sightseeing tours through the castle as well

G'luck with this concept!

Yes, met some nice people there and also made some sales. So seems to be working nicely like a shop.

If I can manage to team up with a supplier for consistent regular supplies, then that should be good in the long run.


Guided tours seems interesting, however I'm not too sure there would be all that interest in something like that. I suppose there is no harm in trying. So thanks for the suggestion and I'll try to set one up in the future...

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

Basically it sounds like a consignment type deal. Many shops in game already utilize that type of idea. Ask around how others handle it. Essentially it makes the shop become a pawn shop at it's core functionality.

Don't forget to figure in shopkeeper decay! I believe it is 10 pec per sale. That little fee is why a lot of folks doing consignment do better with a 'real shop' instead of through a shopkeeper, but it's still doable in sk if the price of the item is 'right' to allow for that fee.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look into consignment type deals and how others have operated them. My intention wasn't to replace my shop with this type of thing but more like adding additional shopkeepers to add another service on top of what I already have. I wasn't intending it to be like a pawn shop, but more of extending some's selling abilities i.e. for them to sell their items rather than pawn them. I suppose if I buy items outright and sell them on then there should be no confusion. Most importantly though need to find someone who would naturally benefit from this kind of service.


I had forgotten the 10 pec fee! I'm a terrible shopkeeper