Help me become a better Businessman and win your choice of a free Dragon hunt or 50PED.
3 Runner ups will be chosen as well and awarded 10ped each.

When: From now through Saturday May 21st.

Who: Anyone may participate from any experience, skill level or planet. (those familiar with the layout of the City of Dreams and the Balistar Apartments will obviously have an advantage)

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Details:
I own Booth #2 at the City of Dreams as well as apartment 2E at the Balistar apartments.
I have been running the booth for a few months and just set up my apartment this week.
Ur Worst Nightmare has kindly loaned me a shopkeeper to put in my apartment which means that I can now sell from both the booth and the apartment.

My current setup at the booth which has 11 item slots is:
1 Shopkeeper (uses 6 slots, but adds 20 items)
1 Sign for Advertizing
4 Items on the Counter for Sale
20 Items in the Shopkeeper for sale.

Current setup at my apartment is:
Lots of items placed in the apartment which I cant put prices on.
10 items in the shopkeeper for sale.

The current idea is to use the Booth for selling low level weapons and items which sight-seers would be interested in.
The Shopkeeper in the Apartment would be used for selling high turn over items to local Rocktropans who know it is there. Perhaps mining amps and (L) guns which are used a lot.
The rest of the Apartment would be my "Warehouse" which people could browse and send me a forum pm request to have put in the shopkeeper for them to buy. (this would help with people from different time zones etc...

I need help to find out if this is a good approach, or what better way I could set it up would be.
This includes what items should be at each location, as well as the aesthetic layout of them in each location. Maybe signs, or how to bring in more traffic to the apartment since its "off the road" a ways.

This is all new to me, I have never owned a Booth or an Apartment before, so I am learning as I go.
I trade at COD a lot as well as hunt and mine. But I still don't get to meet with everyone playing or know what items they need regularly or may be interested in. This is where you can help me.

Please let me know if you have any lag issues around Tangerine getting to the apartment, trouble finding the apartment, or any graphics glitches in the apartment itself. I have suffered some of these issues but am playing on a low end computer and would like to know what the experience is like for others.

Things to consider are;
1. Should be as simple as possible for me. I like to play(hunt, mine, craft) and chat both, so less time I'm spending moving stuff around inefficiently the more I can do those things.
2. It should be able to be profitable for me. (selling things for break even or less than what I paid for isnt something I can afford to consider with my RL bills etc..)
3. Fun for me and fun for those around. (I like this game, and I like helping others enjoy it. A good shopping experience can be part of that)

At the end of the allotted time, I will chose the best suggestion for 1st place and 3 runners up.

I may or may not use the suggestions, but it should be a fun way for me to see outside of my little box into how others think I could do it better.


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If you win but don't want to go on a Dragon hunt with me, (maybe you are higher skilled or on a different planet or...) You can choose to just get 50 ped instead, or you can 'Donate' your hunt to another player of your choice.


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The Hunt:
We will be hunting Lemmy Dragons(young-provider)
I will fly us to our hunting destination and transport back and forth if the winner ever dies.
Should last about 1 hour, we will arrange a time that suits both the winner and myself.
The winner will be supplied with 30ped of ammo and if needed a weapon.
I will use about 300ped of ammo+gun+amp decay.
Team settings will be Damage Stack Share.
We will split all items (guns, axes, attack chips, ESI's, etc...) 50/50
If for some reason the winners total winnings from the hunt fall below 50ped, then I will give them enough ped to make sure they walk away at least 50ped richer than when they started.

We should have a fun time and I can make arrangements with the winner to personalize the hunt more to their liking.

This contest is being posted on multiple forums.

Good Luck and have fun

narfi

This Event is brought to you by the Rocktropia Event Committee
in association with EntropiaPlanets.com

I think that the most important thing for this approach to trading is that you advertise the locations you sell your stuff at. As I got it you mainly rely on ppl passing by but I don't think that will create enough traffic especially on RT. Also selling your stuff on another planet might be an idea since I mostly see 1-2 other avas arround when I go to the big cities on RT. So I think your best bet would be to create some advertisements(!) on general EU forums to improve your trading.

Could use your sign at your booth to advertise your apartment. And maybe split the the items in your booth between low lvl items and higher lvl items. You could have the higher lvl items at your booth priced slightly higher then you normally charge, with your sign explaining that the same items can be found in your apartment for a few PED less. This may entice a few people to swing by your apartment to have a look. Of coarse you have to be careful to not have the items in your booth too over priced or you may look cheap and loose customers.

Good suggestions so far, thanks

Also Ive corrected the ending date in the OP.

The competition ends on the 21st.
(I had mistakenly put the 4th which is today)

narfi

Hey Narfi,

What about 1 or 2 Gigantium Displays or Megaview Screens posted on the outside of the Balistar apartments or near the center of Tangerine advertising not only your own apartment and booth but also others that are also situated in Balistar apartments. You then could charge for space on your sign/signs for people who want to advertise.

I think there is a few people who may be interested and who offer different services to yourself so it shouldn't take any business away from yourself.

People could also use your signs to advertise any other services they are offering, such as healing, mentoring, hairdressing, recruiting etc. etc.

If you are a little worried about recouping the costs from this venture you could organize a tenants meeting to see who would be interested and how much they would be willing to pay.

I'm not too sure on the size of the screens and how much information can actually fit on them so this post may be a waste of time.
Just an idea

Cheers,

DD.

P.S. Also not too sure if you can just whack a sign up anywhere? I assume you can't?

I would put your best items at the booth and then spam your newbie gear whenever you are around crafting and spreading your fame/fortune at COD. The apartment shop is a hard one to get off the ground but in the current RT environment it may be a go by offering essential crafting supplies. Crafters "in the know" would frequent the apartment looking for precious supplies and they could also lead other crafters to the destination.

If you are looking to spend less time trading and the hardship of saying "no or I can't offer better than...." or worse "yes" to deals not in your favor because of your amiable nature by all means do everything in your power to get a shop.

If you decide to go the sign to apt. route I would suggest approaching shop owners along that route about placing signs on their properties.

GL

Gl to the winner!! And may you guys get a fat ATH!!

hey Narfi,

I agree with Ketch, advertising is key in trading, but if your shop can supply the materials needed to craft the biginner stuff, as i have seen there alot of new noobs on RT, and for them (and me) going to the auction and having to pay the transport cost on 20PEDs Belkar is hitting my pocket quit hard.... so i'd say keep the basic Ignot's en Enmats around.... like Lysterium, oil, Blau etc... and some trailoring BP would be cool to... and stack them in order of like 5 ped batches, 10 ped batches etc, so that evening the crafter on a busget can still get supplies... i have seen that the mining or at least for me has been i tad lacky as of late, so i tend to spend all my ped on the auction (and transport cost)

just an idea

regards

Painwrecker

What about if you publish your inventory in a post on the trader's corner thread of the forum? You could update it when convenient, showing the location of various items. You could also put the URL of that post on your sign at your store in cod, so people around cod could find out about it. People that are looking for a specific item could bookmark the post and quickly check now and then to find what they are looking for. That store is in a great location advertising wise, but you cant carry enough items at a time to be sure to cover all the 'impulse' buyers. I would also suggest putting the coord of your Ballester Apt on the store sign also.Most shops have interesting signs outside them, why not the Ballester? I had heard about the building and had hunted many times nearby, but didnt know where it was, LOL.
I also think a similar ad at one of those billboards near the Tangerine tp would help.
Since the latest VU, it seems that trading activity has become more decentralized. With all the shops and facilities, Tangerine should be able to pick up a
lot of traffic with some publicity. ( How many people know that there is an auctioneer there now?) Maybe merchants and shop owners could get together promoting some kind of event there? Also instead of set prizes, you could give the winners X ped worth of goods from a given shop?

Good Ideas so far