Crafting price negotiations, or lack thereof. A small rant.

[Khalithar]

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I've seen people negotiate prices (purely anecdotal I know) but asking for that much initially when you're expecting them to spend their time and their materials crafting an item that costs a decent amount? It's not surprising (to me) that they don't want to bother negotiating or even talking with someone making an offer like that off the bat. If you're absolutely set on them providing their own materials and paying less, then my advice is offer 5-10% initially and ask if they're willing to go lower. If they're willing to go lower, great. If they're not and 5-10% is all they're willing to do, I'd say take the deal anyway.

[SwdVengeance]

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I completely understand that crafters need to have a decent profit margin on things, especially those in which they're providing the materials. Believe it or not, I do do a decent research of costs before asking something like this. Avg final product prices, mid way material prices, base material prices, sale speed and avg price history, etc. I don't want people here to be under the wrong impression that I'm trying to shortball or scam someone out of their work and money.

That said, let's work with the specific example I gave for a minute. Average completed product ranges from 100k-160k going by avg sale history. Lets say 150k a piece for ease, that's 2.4m for a full set of them, per MB pricing. Base materials, combined, average out to be around 1.3-1.4m. Just as reference material, there's the numbers as of right now. Given that, you're telling me that it's unreasonable to open with a 2m offer on a combined finished product, that is asking for slightly under a 20% markdown. I hardly feel that's anywhere near, "That person must be trollin', I'm just going to ignore," levels. Profit margin is solid, yes I'm asking for more than the 5% tax to be knocked off, but that's a very solid opening offer.

Once again, I'm not expecting to actually pay that price, I intend to negotiate from there. My issues remain, not the price, but the fact people ignored me for either asking that offer outright, or attempting to haggle theirs down. To be clear as well, both in PF and in my /tell responses, included that I was willing to negotiate. Anyone and everyone that simply replied it was too low or they didn't want to haggle, I have absolutely no issue with nor why they said that.

If you're absolutely set on them providing their own materials and paying less, then my advice is offer 5-10% initially and ask if they're willing to go lower. If they're willing to go lower, great. If they're not and 5-10% is all they're willing to do, I'd say take the deal anyway.

I don't want to seem rude, but that's a completely backwards way of doing things. Why would someone agree to lower a price when someone just stated they would pay higher. I've never heard (anecdotal as well here) of that situation ever actually working out in the buyers favor. I doesn't benefit the seller to do so given the person just said, "Hey, here's a reasonable offer I'm willing to spend right now, but could you go lower?" Although I free admit, I may be applying far too much real life logic to this situation, but depending on a sellers kindness in order to get a price below the max you were reasonably going to spend doesn't seem wise.

[MihaelB]

I've been making a PF going for obviously low fishing prices to see who would bite and negotiate higher, this sets you in the stronger position of negotiation as it's your PF and they'll ignore you if they're not interested in bargaining at all.

Bought most of my stuff cheaper than MB and established friendly crafters who are willing to talk and I usually end up paying their price if I like them

[randysquirrel]

I'm lazy when it comes to crafting. I'll offer you a genuinely fair price as my first offer, take it or leave it. I can't be bothered with a lengthy back and forth exchange haggling until we finally agree on some magical price. That's just me though.

I guess it could also depend on the item/amounts being discussed.
I remember once someone asked me to craft an iron ingot or something really low, and asked how much I would charge. I said it wouldn't cost anything but he kept on about a price, so I just gave some nominal price like 200 gil just to shut him up. He then came back and said how about 190? at this point I just ignored him

[SwdVengeance]

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Fair enough with the pricing, I get not everyone wants or can be bothered with any form of back and forth, it's understandable.

A good point you made with item/amounts. I don't make it point to do so unless we're talking decent sums of money for cost, usually 500k or up, if that.

[Cakekizyy]

I'm sure I'm not the only one to dislike haggling. Price is X, take it or leave it.

[MeoTwister5]

I personally make more than enough from MB sales. High level crafting for me is more of a personal thing than a gil-making venture. As such I'm more than willing to craft for free as long as the player provides all the mats and the crystals. If they offer a tip I don't turn it down and I don't really ask for one either, whether they offer 1 gil or 1,000,00 gil.

[randysquirrel]

I personally make more than enough from MB sales. High level crafting for me is more of a personal thing than a gil-making venture. As such I'm more than willing to craft for free as long as the player provides all the mats and the crystals. If they offer a tip I don't turn it down and I don't really ask for one either, whether they offer 1 gil or 1,000,00 gil.

This is like me too. I know some people make hundreds of millions from crafting, but I've never really bothered with that. Just really craft for myself. I'm not one of those to post on the PF advertising my services, but if someone asks me to make something, I'll do it and if they offer a tip I just say whatever they think is fair, or nothing, I don't really care. probably why I'm always poor lol

[FinaSel]

As to why people aren't responding to you after naming the price:

I think they probably don't know how to respond. They probably feel the price isn't anything close to what they were expecting and might feel haggling is not something they want to engage in.

Some people may like haggling and others may not. My bet is that the ones who didn't even respond are people who don't want to haggle. There could be many reasons why they might not want to, not only the price.

[Rawrz]

Crafting all 16 HQ (32 total) can be very tedious work, especially if you feel that work is undervalued. Maybe instead you should put up a party finder, having obtained all mats, like others have said and ask for just 4 of the items at a time. Take in the cost of the items you bought and factor that into your mark down. 100k each for a total of 400k, but the matts only cost you 50k? Offer a tip of 200-300k and you still saved money while making some crafter feel valued and useful for crafting, not for gathering your materials.