Just after a bit of input to try solve a personal mystery. I Run a brick stall in New Leyden Market and recently ran my second sale. The first sale generated approximately 600k in sales across both bricks and deco.
Last weekend, the second sale managed 70k. They were both within a few weeks of each other and figured maybe it was just too soon. Somewhat by accident i forgot to change the prices back, so now for almost a week my bricks have been 10c.
Now im not desperate for coin, but i now have a huge huge overstock of 149k bricks and need to know if I am just being undercut (wouldnt be worth undercutting, so feel free to name) or if its perhaps down to either the contracting player base, or everyone bought all the bricks they needed the first time.
Anyone who bought bricks from me- Brick-e-Mart and can comment if you found cheaper, or just simply bougt all you need would be helpful.
P.s. I know my marble and gravel arent cheap any more
in general all building blocks have this - be it bricks or decorative rock or simple stone: sales run on people’s need as they build large and building large happens every now and again, here and there
I’ve been buying bricks for a long time already for 10c each or 9c each. I buy most my bricks at Quebec because of the great stock availability. Prices like 14c or 18c I see regularly too but it really is overpriced.
For me 10c on another shop will not make me change buying it from Quebec or my other regular sellers… If there was someone selling for 8C on regular basis with good stock I might consider buying there.
Also, by the looks of it the coming 4 to 5 weeks we will not see any new content so the amount of active players probably will get halfed, again. Awesome, because then we have enough players to actually fill one entire planet and still have 20 slots left!
I really want to see some economic metrics, would be so cool if they did something like what CCP does with EVE. List and quantify faucets, sinks, player wealth etc.
overstock? Not really costing you anything in warehouse/storage fees etc
I have bought a fair few of your lovely bricks but have enough for my needs at the moment.
Knowing you are there with a good supply at a reasonable price means I will check you out first when I start a new project.
I’ve seen places a little cheaper but then they don’t have the stock…like a stack of 50…not useful for me.
With the population the way it is though, looking at week by week sales is probably too narrow and might have to look at monthly sales over a prolonged period to gain a more reliable forecast of sale predictions.
And a lot can happen in a month or two so that’s probably not going to be very reliable to be honest.
I sell advanced coils and the sales/demand can fluctuate quite a lot…at the moment there seems to be a lower demand…factors could be market saturation, more competition, or less awareness of my shop (I have very low prices, folks!)…
All in all though, it’s an interesting game to play/observe.
Not sure if this is exactly the input your looking for, but I’ve just never found it worthwhile to buy bricks or any decorative blocks - its so much easier and cost efficient just to buy an AoE tool and harvest all the clay i need in 20 minutes myself.
Perhaps with the ageing playerbase, others are beginning to share this viewpoint too?
I have a couple of request baskets up for bricks that buy at 15c, usually 20/50k every few days going in there. Sometimes I farm the mats also, but just when I’m doing a major expansion on a build. I don’t tend to shop around too hard, and have seen sales etc… but for me, 15c is a bargain. I dread to think how much I’ve spent on bricks so far lol
I applaud your sincerity on getting the giant question of “why” answered by taking it to the forums, and asking politely.
You gave solid statistical information, and even gave time frame. Then kindly asked the community for their input.
Thank you for not jumping on here to complain with harsh overtones.
Shop owners who do this kind of stuff out of honesty and kindness are the ones who I go to for supplies.
There was a thread I had done asking about a certain kind of advanced coil and where to find it. The owner of “the coil king,” @Vansten I believe, came on here and told me he/she sells them. And told me where their store was in Gyosha Mall. After that, that person gave me directions to another coil store a few shops down from their’s that has them 499c cheaper. Naturally, I ran over to “The Coil King” and bought what I needed from them out of being honest and their selflessness. Now I only get my coils from them.
If I ever need brick, I’ll be heading to your shop even if your prices are 5c more than the next store.
Honesty and kindness go a long way! Excellent job @ghandymarshall!
Thanks everyone for your replies. I think it answers my questions or concerns. I am not doing anything wrong or have been massively undercut. I understanf people will always have preferred suppliers and dont really want to take their customers, was just wondering where mine had gone. In terms of longer term figures i have been keeping a track and was mainly concerned that over the last 8-9 weeks prices had been reduced yet sales continued to fall. Exluding the price drop period- as that really throws things. Over the previous 6 weeks sales have dropped from an average of 130k coin to 86k.
Suppose the question to ask is, if you had kept prices the way they were, would your profits have actually been higher?
A lot of people often undercut or try to sell for the cheapest, but if you wait long enough and are in a good location (which new leyden market is), i find most stuff tends to sell as long as its not really overpriced.
Obviously not trying to make you do anything you might regret, but its something to consider
Its a valid point. In all honesty i was trying to shift the bricks as most of the stands were full & overflow storage was overflowing, rather than looking at profit per unit. I just needed the space i could always have just stopped making them, but well thats like breaking a crack habit lol
I love your store!! Have bought tons of brick from you. I just found a cheaper source a month back or so. I’m sorry. I feel bad. I was buying quite a bit but don’t think it was enough to make a whole lot of difference overall. Maybe it is just a widespread trend. I’ll come to take another look.
No issue with you finding cheaper sources, so no need to feel bad. To a lot of people its the main factor for buying., or really worried about the cheapest. To be honest at under 10c i make more money doing other things.
It was just useful to me to know why, and stay up to speed with trends etc.
Im happy just knowing that if someone wants 15k black bricks and had bought out the guy who had 500 for 8c, they can come to me for the rest
Are you selling only bricks or also brick materials?
Some players might like to produce some of those if you aren’t able to provide certain existing brick.
P.S. I sell limited amount of bricks for 5 coins
I have much the same view on this… sadly… why spend 20k on blocks when you could spend that on tools and get a whole lot more bang for your coin? The catch of course, is that you still have to spend the time gathering and crafting the blocks… so i guess it depends on how much of a hurry you’re in and how much your time is worth to you…
I just build massive hub out off bricks but each time I run to shop awesome people stop me and just make bricks just keep price as is stock up
on other stuff and re-evaluate your connectivity portal activity can shift overtime and relinking sometimes can help a lot you need make sure customers have to do zero effort to get there people lazy at nature they always go wats fastest to get to owi also soon have some exlusive outlets in middle off embassy hub beckon free rent they could sell on other location plus I’m looking for pros
