Sales Issue

[Guest]

I wonder if anybody could provide me with an answer to something that has recently happened to me. I, like many others I assume, try to ensure that production and sales complete roughly for when I anticipate I will log on again. Last night I placed a 1000 gas in my gas station and altered the price so when I logged on this morning the sales would be complete and I could transfer a further 1000 for sale. However when I logged on this morning I had only sold a handful, and it was stating that I had another 18 or so hours to go until I was completely sold out. Thinking it was a glitch in the system, I altered the price again so when I logged on this evening the sales would be complete, but I have found that I have a further 4 hours to go.

Does the anticipated time stated for sales to complete update itself based on what others are selling in the area I am selling, and take into consideration their selling price which may be cheaper than mine and therefore makes my product look less appealing and affects my ability to sell?

Maybe it was me and I have misread the information in the first place, more than likely I suppose, probably comes from trying to think to far ahead and not concentrate on the present.

BK

p.s. A side question - do people go into partnership on producing goods? and, if so, is it possible to share the profits of these goods?

[Guest]

This hasn't ever happened to me, I'm at a loss to explain. I only have a grocery store, but it's never been inaccurate.

Phoenixz28

[Guest]

Does the anticipated time stated for sales to complete update itself based on what others are selling in the area I am selling, and take into consideration their selling price which may be cheaper than mine and therefore makes my product look less appealing and affects my ability to sell?

Yes, definitely. The market conditions are very dynamic, and fluctuate all the time. The relative time to sell 50 units, for example, in your store can go up or down within very short time periods. I have a rough idea how long sales in my stations will take, but have to adjust that every day. Usually not by a lot, but it's an adjustment.

[Guest]

The thing is, once you set your sale price, it gives you a certain time. That time remains accurate until you change some paremeter of sale. If you close your comp, with time saying 7:30 to sell, it will take 7:30 to sell. If you were to edit prices, it would recalculate with the new status of the market, yes!

BUT, if you don't change anything, no, it shouldn't do that...

[Guest]

I think Phoenixz28 is correct, the dynamics of the market change, but once you place your product and receive a time, that doesn't change unless you go back in and change something else.

One thing I have discovered, (and I think it's a secret they keep from newbies), if you add a hundred or so advertisements to your store in the midst of a sale, your sales time will be recalculated, and you would assume... more ads... faster sales... but I have not had this be the case yet. Every time I add them, my sales time increases! This was explained to me, that the market price calculations are re-performed when you change parameters, but the market doesn't always go down, so I think it has something to do with the formula, and the size dynamics of the early stages. This is why they say, advertisement doesn't do anything for you until around 200m, but I think it's a 'dirty little secret', it's probably detrimental to you in the earliest phases.

I can't answer the original question, although it seems like the last production run took a lot longer for me, and I wondered if the server may have crashed, and if that would interrupt the production times. It's a good question to post.

[Guest]

ads to lower the time, you only have the time increase if your store is still selling something

i started the store to sell something, it would take like 36 h 30 min

emptied the store, put 400 points of ads in and sold the same item again and it became 36 h. It had knocked off 30 mins

[Guest]

ads to lower the time, you only have the time increase if your store is still selling something

i started the store to sell something, it would take like 36 h 30 min

emptied the store, put 400 points of ads in and sold the same item again and it became 36 h. It had knocked off 30 mins

So is this some kind of glitch?

[Guest]

It is almost right the reduction of the sales time with 400 points (but 400 points is not much!). With 40.000 ad-points the sales time is half as normal. If the sales time without ads is 36hrs 30 minutes (= 2190 minutes), 40.000 ad-points will give you 1095 minutes faster selling. 400 points ist 1/100th of 40.000 points, therefore 10.95 minutes faster selling. I don't know if the time gain is linear. Normally, do not put ad-points below 1.000 in a store.

Most players will not sale faster with ads, they increase the price to sell all good within 24hours or a little bit more. Increasing the price has a long term effect: the average price increases as well and everybody makes more profit. Later in the game you have to do this, as you will not be able to produce enough goods to sell fast. I ajust the price that all my self-produced goods are sold in 24 hours.

Don't ajust during the sales period the price to avoid new calculation of the sales time. You can go to the store and collect the cash, this will not change the sales time.

[Guest]

I don't know if the time gain is linear. Normally, do not put ad-points below 1.000 in a store.

This is what I was wondering, if the formula or calculation somehow worked against you in the early stages, when you put 100 ads in a 2m store, or 400 ads in a 4m store. I can see where a bell curve formula would be in order, and some arithmic function of that formula might bias against early players at early phases.

All I can verify is, everytime I placed 100 ads in a store, my sales time increased, usually by more than 10%. I found this odd, since you would think the opposite, the more ads, the faster you should sell your goods. If I have 100 grapes remaining to sell in 2hrs, and add 100 ads, it should not then take 2:15 to sell the same 100 grapes. But it does!

My new strategy... sold the TV station and research centers in green, and bought a new mine in yellow. My power demand dropped substantially, as well as production costs, and my stores are churning with profits. When I get the stores up to 200m, I will worry about ads, and probably buy them from 'MegaMediaLLC' or someone specializing in them.