Gaea(and beyond) merchant power

Ok, I just started a Weaver on Gaea. To be honest to surprised me too see how little collaboration there was with the flag and supporting our merchants. This doesn't seem like a difficult idea. There are pirates who are excellent at shipping(Material moving), Pirates who are business people(price makers and inventory managers), and pirates who can sell(Contacts with poe). If you combine the 3, it would be easy to make money and large quantities of it off of each other.On the Gaea marketplace, Tellurium can cost anywhere from 35-40 poe. Its harvested on Spring and can be picked up for 20 easily. What if we had weekly trips back and forth from Gaea to spring and back?

I can make sail cloth easy and cheap on Gaea. The Iron and wood harvesting on spring make it easy for Shipwrighters. Instead of having each pirates make money off of us, why don't we do a trip where we load down a merchant brig with sail cloth and sailors and rush it spring and then load it with Tellurium and return?

One crutial way for this to work is, We HAVE to sell to eachother for cheap. Just pay the shipping costs from the profit(unless it turns out that the volume of product being shipped would cover the cost) For example. If Water(my little brother) knew he could make 50% profit once a week running my Tellurium and I knew I was getting it, I could lower my prices to show my lowered become where all of the labor on the island would go because I could pay and be cheaper than all of the other shops.

Thoughts? Does anyone else like the idea? I'm sure this idea works across the board for different shop types.

There are tools (Pirate Commodity Trader) and other things that can help spot these kinds of trades. The economy has dramatically changed in the last several weeks. I made some good money bidding for wood at Beta at 9-15 and selling it to Shipyards that were still buying it at 21. Didn't even have to move the goods.

It can be profitable. It just often is more boring and not as profitable as going after the SMH and CI lottery.

I haven't run a shop and don't understand all of the dynamics of it. I know the basics, about needing supplies and all but that's about it. I'd be open to having a set time when we can do a quick brig commod run, especially if it's an isle that's as close as Spring.

I agree that we need to be supporting flaggies in their shops, and I "buy local" as often as I feasibly can. If anyone runs a shoppe and offers a flag discount, you may want to be sure to post it here or let me or another royal know - we can do flag broadcast "ads" for your shoppe.

Also, if you see that a flaggie is being significantly undersold for something, let them know so they can look into it and see if their prices need to be adjusted.

It should be pointed out that this forum is public and you don't need to be in the flag to read it. I don't think the idea of having this as a forum for the Gaean shop keeping community at large was ever pushed, and perhaps we should change this section so you need to be a flag member or an officer.

--Vari

To my way of thinking anyone running a shop is faced with a variety of tasks, some boring, some not, and which is which depends on the pirate. Much of the benefit of coordination would come less in more or less profit and more in being able to depend on things you find a chore getting done by mates who feel the bit you like to do is the chore.

Having the post in open sections of the forum is ok - if I understand the post, Snap is looking for input from all pirates in the flag, regardless of if they own a shop or not. (If I'm wrong, Snap, and you think the post should be in another section, let me know.)

I assume he doesn't want this post read by folks not in the flag. Or by principle, by folks who have never heard of Puzzle Pirates.

Ya know Snap, I'd gladly sell you a pile of tellerium at cost if ye ask =P

If there is a way to move this post to a private forum, go ahead. But I really don't see the harm in it being public. I'll leave the choice up to people more important than I.

Vari, you made a great point. A great part(that I had not thought of) of using this like a co-op is the parts of shop ownership that seem boring to a pirate are most likely not going to be for another. We are a good sized flag. There is no reason we should be unable to work an easy system out.

The whole basic idea of this is simple. If I can get the red due in constantly maintained quantities and do so a little cheaper than before I can then make my prices cheaper than before. My sales will increase. If we have flag tailors,shipwrighters, furnishers who are purchasing the product from me at a price that reflects those prices they can be cheaper. Then their sales will also go up.

I know the whole kickback as a flag discount system will be an issue. An issue I really don't have a perfect solution to. One way would be this, If I want red dye. And pacres or waterspout are selling it on the market for 1000. I could inform them I needed it and they lower the price while I or a manager is either in shop or on a ship in port. We make the purchase then the price is returned to its original. If we do this seemlessly using skype as a tool for rapid communication the risk of someone else purchasing during that 10 second period is very low.