[Vhex]

PSU Ecomony 101: Player Shop Guide


I found that many players I come across have a lot of trouble making meseta using player shops. They can blame the Search system, but the search system is perfectly fine, it's a fair system, the order shifts so everyone makes the search the list equally. The real problem is that many players don't have the market experience to successfully run a shop and make profit, and without a guide to help them, their financial ventures fall through. I feel that I have a pretty good handle on how to successfully run a shop so I'm going to try to do what I can to share the wealth and help out new entrepreneurs.

I split this guide into 3 Sections, each with 3 subsections:

PART I: Setting up Shop
I-1. Why open a shop?
I-2. How to open a shop.
I-3. Shop Functions.

PART II: Pricing Guide
II-1. Economics Lecture
II-2. Pricing NPC wares
II-3. Pricing weapons/armor

PART III: Marketing Tricks and Techniques
III-1. Search Techniques
III-2. In shop manner
III-3. Good Overpricing/Underpricing


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PART I : SETTING UP SHOP
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I-1. Why open a shop?
Opening your own shop does one thing : allows you to earn Meseta. This seems simple, and it is. Meseta is much rarer in Phantasy Star Universe than it was in Phantasy Star Online, and has also a greater importance than in PSO. In PSO, the uses of meseta were limited, since the main goal was to collect rare items which could be acquired without meseta, and could be found by monster grinding or trading for other rare items. In PSU however, Rare weapons and valuable tools are only dropped in the form of boards and require valuable materials ( also dropped by enemies) to create. The best gear in shops is very expensive and making your own weapons also costs a lot of money. The items you can’t find in NPC shops, now can be purchased in Player’s shops due to the radical new shop system. Bottom line: You can obtain any item you want now if you have the money for it. Meseta is actually worth something now and if you want to have great gear and rares, you’ll need to open a shop.

I-2. How to open a shop.
Opening a shop is simple. To open a shop you need to buy a Remodeling Ticket called “Open Shop” from the Room Decorations Shop in the Shopping Mall A in the 2nd level of Cyclez City in Guardians Colony. The shop is the first shop on the right. It costs 15,000 meseta so make sure you have at least 20,000 meseta before going to buy one. I say 20,000 because its always wise to have a fair amount meseta just in case you need it and avoiding spending it all at once and being unable to buy anything. After you have bought the ticket, go to your room. Talk to your PM (Partner Machinery a.k.a. the floating ball thingy in your room) , and than go to its decorate function, and than select the “Open Shop” ticket. Upon selecting the ticket, you will be expelled from your room and sent to Cyclez City Level 1 so it can make the changes. ( Note that if you are playing on the Xbox 360 version of the game, make sure there is no one else in your room due to server issues) Re-enter your room, and voila, you now have your very own shop. Your PM is now your shopkeeper, and the exit hallway mysteriously changed into a shop. Also note that while though the Door lock is still on the wall in your room, you now have to use the one in your shop to lock your room.

I-3 Shop Functions.
Now that you’ve opened your first shop, I’ll show you how to use it. To sell items all the items you want to sell must be in your storage, so make sure you store everything. Now to switch the items for sale, you go to the computer on your shop counter, and select the option to switch storage items. Than you simply select the item from your storage, the price you want to sell it at, and the quantity you want to sell. To put items back into your storage or edit the price, you select the option for switching shop items. Any meseta you earn is automatically transferred to your storage, so to check your profits, talk to your PM and check your storage. Using the computer you can also write an Ad for your shop describing what you sell, or what items you have for sale, contact information, or some ridiculous quote that will make people want to check out your shop. The sky’s the limit for your Ad, but later on I’ll go into more detail about maximizing its use.

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PART II : PRICING GUIDE
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II-1. Economics Lecture
When finding a price for your items there is no set guide or list of prices one can look up, and though I could make a list of what ”think” would be fair prices for everything, we must turn to Economics to find a fair price that will benefit both the buyer and the seller. I will attempt to cover all the variants in pricing due to certain factors.

> Demand
If the Item is an item that most people need, like key items for making weapons such as Par Ash and Nanocarbon, naturally the value for these items will go up, so in this sense when you go to sell an item adjust the price accordingly to whether or not it’s useful or not, the more useful it is the higher its value is. However this can also decrease the price of an item as well, an example of this is the sale of Rubinad a rare gemstone material, since it currently has no use, it is worth less than the more common Copernia, which can be used in Crea Weapons.

>Supply
The harder an item is to get, the more the item is worth. An example is that many people have Parum materials ones that make GRM weapons because people flock there for Plains Overlord A runs ( a very good mission for Money/exp), however due to the difficulty of Moatoob missions, the materials found there that make TENORA WORKS weapons are worth more. So though the same value sold to an NPC and same amount of rarity stars, Mot Ebon would be more valuable than Par Ebon.

>Competition
Although supply and demand are important factors in pricing, competition can also change the value. If there is a high demand for an item, many might try shops to sell it, therein increasing the supply which can decrease the value. So in order to compensate for this it may be necessary to lower the price of an item below an already fair price to meet the market, because the buyer has the choice between your shop and the other shops, and if most of the shops are cheaper than yours chances are, they won’t buy from you.


II-2. Pricing NPC wares
If an NPC sells an item, there are certain vendor issues to deal with. Number 1 is that your price must be lower than the NPC. If some one can go to a regular shop and buy the item for less than what you are selling it for, they won’t buy it from you unless they don’t know the price, in which you are Overcharging them. This is pretty much a way of scamming people which not only guarantees that you won’t sell as much of the item but also lose customers and the respect of people looking to buy things at your shop. For a fair price try to sell at 50% of what the retail or NPC price is. For faster sales try to sell at 25% of the npc cost. Just try not to go too low or you will lose profit. Undercharging can sometimes be just as bad as Overcharging because it can ruin the market for others actually trying to make a profit.


II-3. Pricing Weapons/Armor
The pricing of equipment is rather complicated due to the Synthesis and Grinding system. There are several factors determining the price of the weapon. I highly recommend grinding the weapons you sell at least once, and synthesizing gear with elemental photons.

>RANK
The value of the weapons can be determined on Stars, and rank unlike materials and such. C ranks are worth the least and S ranks are worth the most. This is usually the case.

>ELEMENT
Elements can usually not be bought from shops, increasing the value dramatically. While non-elemental gear should be sold below the retail value, if it has an element, it can be sold higher than the retail or at least at a much higher price than a non-elemental would go for on the market. Items synthesized with an element are also worth more if the % is higher. 10% being the least valuable, to 50% being the most. 40-50% should be sold for a much higher price than the NPC cost or than a same version of the gear with lower % or no element because it is rare when they are synthesized.

> GRIND
Because grinding makes items much stronger than the items at retail, like elements, they an be sold above retail or sold for a higher price. High Grinds cost a lot to make, and there is also risk in making such items. An increase in price should be made to compensate for these factors. An example of this is my formula for grinding my B rank weapons: +600m meseta for each grind 1-5, and +1000m for each grind 6-8, and +3000m for each grind 9-10. You don’t have to follow this formula, I actually recommend making your own.

>COST TO CREATE
This a simple one, the harder it is to make, or acquire, ingredients, etc, the higher the value.

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PART III: MARKETING TRICKS AND TECHNIQUES
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III-1. Search Function Techniques
The way people get to you shop in through the search system. Naturally, we must make the most out of the system. First thing is, sell items that will lure people in. Most people search items through item search.

>Some Common Item searches: Ash, Crea, Ebon, Carbon, Rappy Feather, Mate, Atomizer

When these people are lured in by these items they can see your other wares that they may not be a hot searched item.
Also the Ad search should be used to your advantage, its what I tend to search. You Ad doesn’t even have to make sense just make it full of key search words.

>Some Common Ad Searches: Rare, Material, Board, Hunter, Ranger, Force, PM, food, weapon, armor, recovery, synthesis, gun, sword, wand, GRM, B-rank, 5*

Avoid wasting space telling searchers your Items are cheap, its usually implied that they are cheap, they just want to know what you are selling, also don’t write stupid things that will turn customers away. Try to make it look attractive or clean that will make your Ad more appealing than others. Most importantly, never lie in your Ad, that is a good way to lose credibility.


III-2. In Shop Manner
This is a short guide on simple salesmanship. If you are in shop, be sure to greet your customers with a simple, “Hello, welcome to my shop if you need anything just ask.” or something along those lines. This is just a way of being polite, which can affect your sales. However, don’t be overbearing like asking them questions etc, this can make them feel uncomfortable and inconvenienced. Try not to ignore customers either, answer them in a polite manner.

III-3. Good Overpricing/Underpricing
While overpricing and underpricing is generally bad, if you use them in a good way they can prove to be effective. By overpricing a popular items to the maximum meseta value, you can attract item searchers without trying to rip them off since it is clear you are just using it to get their business. Also by undercharging (or just offering a really good deal) some of the popular items, people are more likely to like look at the rest of your deals, perhaps noticing some of the great deals they may have overlooked.


I really hope this guide helps, and I appreciate if that you use this guide on another site you give credit to me VHEX. Lapucha die when you plagerize so don't do it. >_>

[Eternal_Drake]

Didn't read more than 5 words, but it isnt a sarcastic rant and seems well organized so good job.

[Vhex]

Ah, I posted this in the wrong forum, if anyone could move it that'd be great. ><;

[Randomness]

Hmm... putting stuff in your shop solely to bring people in is fine, as long as its priced to sell, but otherwise you'll probably just turn people off.

[Dhylec]

It's long, but those who want to know about shops can use a read or two. Sticky-listed.

[Kaply]

On 2006-11-25 17:11, Vhex wrote:

III-3. Good Overpricing/Underpricing
While overpricing and underpricing is generally bad, if you use them in a good way they can prove to be effective. By overpricing a popular items to the maximum meseta value, you can attract item searchers without trying to rip them off since it is clear you are just using it to get their business. Also by undercharging (or just offering a really good deal) some of the popular items, people are more likely to like look at the rest of your deals, perhaps noticing some of the great deals they may have overlooked.

This practice however eventually leads to people totally ignoring your shop when it comes up on any searches. So while it seems like a good tactic at first it has the potential to kill your sales later on. At the least, if you're going to try to lure me in to buy stuff, your items better be priced to move quickly.

[Vhex]

On 2006-11-25 17:47, Kaply wrote:

This practice however eventually leads to people totally ignoring your shop when it comes up on any searches. So while it seems like a good tactic at first it has the potential to kill your sales later on. At the least, if you're going to try to lure me in to buy stuff, your items better be priced to move quickly.

Indeed. It's simply a tactic risky as it may be. I stated the risks of overpricing and shop credibility earlier in the guide.

[Agne]

Well wrote and well researched. i enjoyed the topic as i am usually a console player and only barely ventured into the world of "Conquer Online" and thus have little knowledge of online shop workmanship.

[Wrenlocke]

to support Randomness's post.

Anytime I see a shop with Nanocarbon 9999999 priced.. I write that playes name down, and never return to their shop again..

Take my advice.. IT PISSES US THE FRAK OFF!!

[SailorDaravon]

When I'm searching for something, it tends to be the same item I'm looking for, and I also note the shop name (I usually just recognize the ad), and don't go to it again. The first time I go in and something's priced really high, I refuse to buy anything they have unless it's an incredible deal on something, which I think has only happened once to me.