Kitty pricing!

[AstridSolace Resident]

I think the issue of pricing has always been a contentious issue among KC breeders, since I've joined KC and before that. Hell, I have hundreds of cats for sale at any one time, thousands of boxes, and I'm sorry to say there isn't a queue at my door for them. In fact, I haven't yet had the slightest glimpse of an eager buyer on some noble pilgrimage to restore the market by buying my reasonably priced, dust collecting boxes, anywhere on my horizon. It seems the only chance I have now of selling anything is at the auctions, and consequently, not only do I put time, money and hopes into breeding my KittyCats, I also have to work just as hard to sell just one cat at a single auction, and I also pay another person to work hard as well to sell my cat at an auction, yet even at rock bottom starting bids they don't always sell, and it's not the auctioneer's fault, they work damn hard to sell my cat for a price closer to its true value. However, it's more of a matter of finding the right buyer at that time and place, if the buyer isn't there, and the timing isn't right, I might not get what I hoped for, problem is I am up against maybe 10 or more other beautifully bred cats, perhaps more desirable than mine, and there might be 15-30 people at a standard auction, and do they all come there to bid on my cat? No, often a small handful of the crowd will be bidding on any of the cats, as most come to sell only. Much of the time if I sell a cat at auction I come away buying one or two more from the same auction, and less $L in my pocket than before. I'm OK with that., because I enjoy the auctions and my purchases regardless of the outcome in my account. Well, we all know that KittyCats is the most popular breedable in SL, and there are more members and breeders than there has ever been before, but where are all the buyers? All shopping at that 100-200L store? I don't see people lining up there either. Maybe hiding in the bushes waiting to pounce on the next firesale? No, I seriously doubt that. It's never been easy for me, even when I started out a mere 2 years ago, sure there was one wonderful month or two where I sold at least one cat a week from my shop, but honestly since then and before then it's been as silent as the grave at all my stores, and I know I'm not alone in that. But since I'm a die-hard dreamer, and I continue to pay rent to display my KittyCats for sale endlessly hoping for that fabled buyer to emerge. Perhaps, they are not cheap enough, too expensive, or perhaps they are not what anyone wants to buy regardless of the price at this time and place, probably the latter in my case. I also don't advertise efficiently enough, so that's my fault too. But I love breeding KittyCats regardless of my depressing sales and empty bank account, but for me it's an addictive hobby not a business, and if some defatiguable breeders out there that have the foresight, stamina, optimism and the luck to actually make a profitable business from it, well good for them! Yeah, so once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away, breeders apparently made money, they sold like color TVs sold when they were invented. IMO, if KC only came out with small handful of traits per year, many people, such as myself would lose interest, because soon everybody would have those traits in the same sort of combinations in their cattery's. I might be one of the few, but I actually appreciate that KC releases so many new traits, I love the increased diversity of traits, especially knowing how hard it is now to breed truly unique KittyCats at this time. The question is what are most breeders preferring to buy? The newest or rarest or most recessive traits they believe will improve their own sales until the next new recessive trait comes out? Or a very complimentary combination of shown and hiding traits, regardless of recessiveness and newness, that make that cat extra special and unique to enjoy, and to breed from many generations to come?

I agree with Double's post above about new menagerie cat rewards, or even an improved reward system, maybe we could get more $K for a 9T cat, or a cat with newer traits, or even retired traits, more like a trait based points system. It could encourage more people to menagerie there unwanted 9Ts rather than sell them for 100L at firesales, also decreasing the amount of newer traits available on the secondary market. I've seen a quite a number of MEGAPUSS tigers for sale about the markets, some as low as 10k, that are still sitting there months later. I already have two perma-petted mega tigers, and I'm not sure I want to cash in my 15000 $K for a tiger nobody wants to pay a fair price for.