Your Vendor

[KnitePrince]

OK, so you have a vendor!!!
Great, but there is more to having a vendor than stuffing as many things on it as will physically fit.
In the last three or four days, i have been looking for specific items to spend my wealth on.. unfortunately, when i open a vendor, and see 20 unmarked boxes.. i close it and go to the next one.
Once you have opened about 100 empty boxes and bags it goes beyond annoying to the point that, if I cannot buy it in chat, then I do not need it, because I wont look through that many vendor boxes.
Do not dispair! It is easy to fix!
An engraver to mark your boxes, or even better, put whatever you are trying to sell beside your box so people know whats in it. It IS that simple, and you will be amazed how much more you sell.
You have more items than will fit if you use display items? OK, put runes to your house on the vendor. Price them one or two gold pieces higher than unmarked runes, so people dont just buy them to remark, then set up two or three or twenty vendors at your house.
I have a book just for house vendors I like to frequently visit because they organize and mark their wares so i know instantly if i need to open a bag/box or not. These people get my business.
Try it! I think the results will surprise you.
Having a sore hand from clicking is not an option, going to a house with vendors is interesting. I often find things I need that I did not even KNOW i needed!!
Its called Vendor Etiquette. Practice it to increase your sales and your profit!

[amadman]

Great advice!

I believe bags and boxes can be described without adding a price and they will be marked not for sale. So the engraver is not even required for people to do this on their vendor.

Another nice thing that i like to see is white bags/backpacks for power scrolls.

Kind of annoying when other things are in a white bags though

[Orbit Storm]

Well it certainly feels good to be back.. especially to find wonderful threads such as this one. I admire your thoughtfulness at throwing out some suggestions for "Vendor Etiquette". It got me thinking, that now that I am able to actually be on my own two feet; that I could post some "advice threads", to help point people in the right direction with certain things such as vendors, guilds, housing, etc. Maybe we could work on those together; most certainly vendor advice anyway!

[Pocketcow]

I have to agree here. I am an OCD vendor shopper and it really pains me to see a vendor filled with unlabeled duplicate bags.

From my shopping experiences and as mentioned in the original post, having either named bags or having an item next to a bag to indicate the contents was probably my favorite and encouraged me to look inside.

Placing things neatly inside the bags also made my life easier.

Giving the vendor an appropriate and memorable name also help. I can't count how many times I needed to get something specific and had to dig through 80 vendors. I probably ended up buying the first one I saw instead of the cheapest simply due to getting sick of digging hehe.

[Orbit Storm]

Unfortunately, we can't dictate how players market their goods on their vendors; whether it be pricing, organization, etc. I think there's an obvious standard set by common courtesy and simple etiquette, but not everyone is familiar with marketing. I know for a fact there a few people who actually work in marketing/advertising in real life, which certainly gives them an advantage over some of us.

To solve the "forgettable vendor" issue; why not implement a "Vendor Book"? I know there's a viable script that adds a "book" that can either be handed out freely, or offered up for a price; that when used, will list vendors with their names, and their respective owners' names as well. Not only does this help list the more "memorable" vendors, but it also allows direct recalling to these vendors. Of course, there's a way to modify the script to just use something like [vendors; which is just as nifty.

[KnitePrince]

I probably ended up buying the first one I saw instead of the cheapest simply due to getting sick of digging hehe.

LOL I know the feeling

Orbit, that sounds interesting,, i try to keep a book with decent well organized vendors, but they come and go often enough that it ends up a mess about every three months.

[Orbit Storm]

Indeed.. but with the script I mentioned, there would be a constant list that updates automatically, on its own mind you, and is sortable by location/owner/etc. Staff could very well edit the script to prevent the auto update, and charge players to have their vendor(s) listed.

In short, this would also solve quite a few issues revolving around player vendors:

-Advertisement: This is difficult enough as is. Leaving runes in towns and spamming advertisements in public/overhead chat, while somewhat effective, is not technically "legal". There are, of course, work arounds.. such as advertising once an hour, or by offering runes to random people; or even as +Rayne has suggested in previous threads, offer them up on your TC vendor. But the downside is, you cannot manage to keep up with each player that logs in/out and be sure they know about your vendor(s) and/or mall. Your only other real option, is to use this forum; but that cannot guarantee business.

-House Gate Critters: A lot of players tend to use echees, cranes, etc to catch the eye of another player wandering through the House Gates area. While this is rather intelligent and effective, there always arises the problem of these pesky little critters running off. While gate hopping is quite the favorite past time for some players, it can also be awfully time consuming to try and remember which of those gorgeously colored teleporters leads to the right vendor.

-Lack of Business: While TC sports immaculate deco and construction, it also harbors one of the biggest lag spots for players. Over the months I've been here, I've noticed several comments about TC being a lag issue; but considering it's essentially the biggest landmark in Excelsior, it'd be problematic to remove it. Obviously players shop in TC, but there are a lot of vendors left untouched because people tend to run into TC to one particular vendor, then leave; which creates a lack of business for players. Hats off to staff for all their hard work with TC, but a "Vendor Book" would solve some of the over crowding and limited visits.

I am sure there are a number of other things that I could list, that would show how beneficial this script would be. I'm thinking I'll nab the script and open a suggestion thread and copy/paste any necessary content from here to there. If anyone has anything to add, or at the very least likes the idea of this.. just say so!