How to run Successful Shops in EU - 2019

Buyers are buyers.... if they resell, let em. Just go get some more....

Ben Tony Dover said:

As a shop owner. One of the hardest issues I'm faced with is price. If I list my item for less than AH price, nothing is stopping a re-seller from coming into my shop, buying up all my inventory and reselling the same item on AH for profit. So players who are buying that same item on AH have no idea I exist or that the same item could have been purchased for cheaper at my shop. Generally, I'm left with two choices, to sell items for the same or even more than AH prices to prevent re-sellers from buying everything or I'm forced to restrict my shops and only allow a certain number of players access into the shop thus decreasing overall revenue potential. If other players weren't so greedy and only purchased what they needed from shops for personal use only, this wouldn't be an issue.

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The best way to get back at those guys is to undercut them on auction when they list your stuff so their auctions will fail.

Ben Tony Dover said:

As a shop owner. One of the hardest issues I'm faced with is price. If I list my item for less than AH price, nothing is stopping a re-seller from coming into my shop, buying up all my inventory and reselling the same item on AH for profit. So players who are buying that same item on AH have no idea I exist or that the same item could have been purchased for cheaper at my shop. Generally, I'm left with two choices, to sell items for the same or even more than AH prices to prevent re-sellers from buying everything or I'm forced to restrict my shops and only allow a certain number of players access into the shop thus decreasing overall revenue potential. If other players weren't so greedy and only purchased what they needed from shops for personal use only, this wouldn't be an issue.

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Unless I’m doing a bulk quicksale, I get around this by choosing what my normal auction sell price would be, determine what my take-home MU would be after fees, and then set that MU as my minimum price (+ shop fee). That way, a reseller would not profit by trying to directly turn around the item to auction in normal situations. Otherwise, I’m better off just selling on auction if I’m not taking advantage of that (assuming I have slots open anyways).

That doesn’t help in specific situations like yours where there is a large spread between shops and auction sales. Mining amps definitely comes to mind, but there has to be a point where a reseller’s margins are so thin that it isn’t worth it when amps can go unsold on auction and you’ve just lost more than you can gain.

Buyers are not stupid you want to have a good busines you need to keep comparing your prices to the auction and keep advertising . Players that come to you also check auction prices if they find that your charge more they wont buy from you !

Have you tried killing people that walk by that appear to be suspect customers? I hear this technique is becoming quite popular!

The way to avoid resellers have been pricing the item just a bit below typical buy price to be attractive. but not so low that someone could buy it, pay the ah fee, and make a margin.

Edit: Updated some incorrect info about apartment taxes and old Mall info

morey said:

The way to avoid resellers have been pricing the item just a bit below typical buy price to be attractive. but not so low that someone could buy it, pay the ah fee, and make a margin.

Edit: Updated some incorrect info about apartment taxes and old Mall info

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If i can sell my stock why would i care if someone esle buys it and makes profit from it. Then again if i could even find a shop to own with deeds not being in cold storage forever or being sold at absurd price

DRAGUNOV44 said:

If i can sell my stock why would i care if someone esle buys it and makes profit from it. Then again if i could even find a shop to own with deeds not being in cold storage forever or being sold at absurd price

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There are a few reasons:

a) If a reseller decides to flip your goods, they will typically buy all of it, leaving nothing for your other customers
b) Resellers typically don't care about the market history of items, they just flip it for quick profits. This can be very hurtful to your business afterwards
c) Rare or in-demand items are often not that easy to make/find, which creates problems for the shop owner

I'll give you an example, I used to make Perseus (L) armor for my Armor shops, but about half my sales went to resellers who would just grab it and throw it on auction for a quick 10 ped profit. This meant there was none when my other loyal customers came to buy it. This also left me with the headache of finding more materials to make more, which is not that easy.

Eventually I realized:"Why am I making all this Perseus for resellers to flip onto the auction? Why not just sell it on the auction myself...?" So now my shop suffers because I cannot keep Perseus armor in stock for my regular customers.

I think this is the main reason why many have been asking for a shop directory ever since the shopping malls were introduced, because you would be able to see when browsing items listed on auction that some are actually available at a cheaper price in certain shops

Legends

morey said:

The way to avoid resellers have been pricing the item just a bit below typical buy price to be attractive. but not so low that someone could buy it, pay the ah fee, and make a margin.

Edit: Updated some incorrect info about apartment taxes and old Mall info

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It's not that simple...

DRAGUNOV44 said:

If i can sell my stock why would i care if someone esle buys it and makes profit from it. Then again if i could even find a shop to own with deeds not being in cold storage forever or being sold at absurd price

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Yeah, i don't mind if someone does this to me. Even my main counterpart pops in buys stuff from me. I don't always keep track of every item in shop and mu. Somethings can skyrocket overnight or drop like a lead balloon. Sometimes its a good thing so you can check on mu when stocking up.

How to own a successful shop?

Easy.

Be able to buy a shop... whenever MA ever feels like selling them...

Timewarpman1 said:

How to own a successful shop?

Easy.

Be able to buy a shop... whenever MA ever feels like selling them...

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They cant sell them because already did they are sitting in cold storage . They ought however notify the owners and if no response have them evicted

Legends said:

It's not that simple...

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Well yeah, that was the theory . Prices change on items alot. But for steady mu items like mining amps or most of the 115% ish armatrix stuff, price it just under mu works well to avoid resellers.

Items with bigger mu fluctuations like seasonal armor/plates/ and some other stuff don't follow this well.

I realized I had a big error in the guide. Apartments are taxed. so Added that info