KittyCatS! Market Improvement Suggestions

[fabioazevedo Oh]

My vision for the KC market is a little different than many.

I always said I treat KC as a business. Within an economic view of the secondary market, I can say that the "money", stopped circulating in the market. Some explanations for this:

- People are not buying lindens;
- All the money in the market is concentrated only in the hands of KC, sale of food;

Yes, I support the idea of ??KC, reduce the price of food and milk, for a period, or even double the capacity of food and milk, 28 days to 56 days. Thus, KC, may give a breather to many breeders.

If all secondary market break, KC will break together. So it's up to KC, watch this and make a decision to cooperate with the secondary market.

A second idea is for the moment, anticipating the release of haloween kittens. This long period between Easter and haloween, breaking the market.
For the next year, KC, should create a collection between Easter and, Haloween, with new traits, and instead of launching seven new traits at Easter, divide, 4 new traits on Easter, and 4, in a new summer collection.

I hope the translator has done a good job.

[phoenixfire01 Resident]

I think more collections would kill the market completely. People keep blaming the price of food ....... but hasn't the price of food always been the same, constant ??

[Pam Tigerauge]

I have mixed feelings on the subject. First, yes, I think we would all love to see an occasional sale on food and supplies (we've been asking for a permapet sale for forever). I think having that during LE releases is a great idea. Also, having the Q&A's and other KC sponsored events at different markets is something Kitten has already mentioned. That too is a great idea, but it would take very careful planning so no market is left out. There's always the "who goes first" and "when is it our turn" issues.

The LE sales is where I tend to disagree. KC is the business of selling cats and supplies. They are trying to reach as many people as possible with each new collection, and I'm sure they anticipate a certain number of sales to meet their bottom line (remember to some of the staff, this is a full time job). Limiting sales just to increase 2nd market value would be shooting themselves in the foot. Also, many people get upset with the idea of rare coats in the LE collections and "it's not fair I didn't get one" attitude, imagine how well a short selling period would go over? Some only get paid every two weeks and couldn't afford such a short window of time to buy.

I know I am probably in the minority, but getting into any breedable, especially with today's SL economy, with intent to make a profit or even break even, is a bad idea. That goes for breeding as well as market ownership. If it isn't for fun, or if you're spending more than you are comfortable with or can afford, it's time to cut back. I manage a market and I have seen a decrease in rentals the past couple of months, but we don't "blame" KC or make them responsible for improvement. Markets have to take their own initiative to draw renters and traffic to their sims.

There are so many people enjoying kittycats now, the market is flooded. Supply and demand is down because new traits don't stay new as long they once did and value is decreasing a lot faster than in the past. I would love to see more incentive items to menagerie cats to boost older box sales. (I've been bugging Callie for a new tiger - just ask her lol.) Also, maybe new, special cats (like the fancies) or special items, could be gotten by collecting a certain number of furs or traits (a trade-in system) would help drive sales of older stock? Just an idea...

That's my 2 cents, probably not worth that much. lol Happy breeding. =)

[phoenixfire01 Resident]

You make some good points there Pam, thanks for that.

[fabioazevedo Oh]

I'll take this topic to share my other thesis for the market to break.

I have a study showing that 30% of all started, has new traits. I'll post soon this study as well, as I did with my other study on the size of kittens.

My thesis:
Percentage is to be revised down. I know she is very good to help people find the newtraits. But consider the following fact:

About two years ago, many commented that one new trait, spent months with its high price, and that now, any new trait, not worth anything.

An analysis of the market two years ago:
- Few creators, about 3,000
- Few knew discover new traits
- Few were on the market
- Sales of kittens low collection
Just a guess:
if each breeder bought 5 cats collection, 3,000 x 5 = 15,000 units were sold.
30% of 15,000 = 4,500 cats with new traits.
How did a correct job to discover new traits?
I can not say that 2 years ago, the percentage was 30%.
But here was the secret, few had found a new trait.

Market grew:
- KC Firestorm
- KC game
- Other actions to publicize KC

An analysis of the current market:
- More than 12,000 farmers
Let's do the math again:
if each breeder bought 5 cats collection, 5 x 12,000 = 60,000 units were sold.
30% of 60,000 = 18,000 cats with new traits.
Many units to keep his private collection.
Many guard units to sell in the future.
Thus, not all are open.
Just watching the market on Easter, I could observe that more than 30 people found the trait, sassy tail or whiskers sassy.
Thus, the trait had no value to the marketplace.

An analysis for the future:
If sales of haloween, continue at the same pace,
If the amount of designers continue discharge,
is the percentage of 30% of all kittens started, have new traits,
increasingly "nothing" will be worth "nothing."

I talked to some people about this thesis, and I have it for almost a year. It seems what I said last year this happening.

This is view of the market.

[davjam79 Resident]

(10-05-2014 09:16 AM)Pam Tigerauge Wrote:  I have mixed feelings on the subject. First, yes, I think we would all love to see an occasional sale on food and supplies (we've been asking for a permapet sale for forever). I think having that during LE releases is a great idea.

If they did this, they would have to limit however much food or supplies could be bought by each avatar or they'd get the very large breeders buying incredibly huge amounts to stockpile it until the next sale. And the food would have to be special in that it could only feed that specific persons cats, or there'd be a load of alt accounts buying the food just to feed the main accounts cats.

(10-05-2014 09:16 AM)Pam Tigerauge Wrote:  Also, having the Q&A's and other KC sponsored events at different markets is something Kitten has already mentioned. That too is a great idea, but it would take very careful planning so no market is left out. There's always the "who goes first" and "when is it our turn" issues.

Have the sim owners register to host the Q&As. And have it so that a sim owner can have only one entry on the list at any time. That makes it fairer to those with only one sim.

(10-05-2014 09:16 AM)Pam Tigerauge Wrote:  I manage a market and I have seen a decrease in rentals the past couple of months, but we don't "blame" KC or make them responsible for improvement. Markets have to take their own initiative to draw renters and traffic to their sims.

The Autumn/Harvest/Fall events some (most? all?) sims/markets are planning or are running right now is a good example of that happening.

The owners, like those in the kittycats co-op, could get together and plan further events for the future. And if they truly believe in or want to represent the community as they supposedly do, they'll open up the events they plan by approaching other sim and market owners that are not in the community and inviting them to join in.

How well that'll work all depends on whether people can get past their own personal dislike for some of the other market and sim owners, and to be professional enough to work together. Unfortunately, that's the one thing I don't think will happen, at least not right now.

[phoenixfire01 Resident]

Sorry Fabio but that last bit you put means nothing to me at all, I'm just the average Joe breeder not a market analyst.

Davjam makes good points. It's about the community ACTUALLY coming together to get through this and not KC alone. Like I said earlier, it's all well and good pointing the finger. With the Autumn / Harvest events that Davjam mentioned, I know of one Sim so far that has reached out and invited other KC Sims to join in/participate in their Festival and that is such a great thing to do and I don't think it has anything to do with this so called "Co-op". It's just nice involving other like minded folks. That's the kinda step this Community needs to take.

[LyricaBlues Resident]

(10-05-2014 10:08 AM)davjam79 Resident Wrote:  How well that'll work all depends on whether people can get past their own personal dislike for some of the other market and sim owners, and to be professional enough to work together. Unfortunately, that's the one thing I don't think will happen, at least not right now.

Well Yeah, I have to agree with you 100% about people needing to set aside personal stuff and do what is best for "the greater good". Gandhi: "Be the change you would like to see in the world" A *Perfect* solution to all humanity's ills, sounds so simple. But since I still see things are a mess, I have little expectation we will evolve any time soon lol. I have met many Wonderful professional people in KC, but also many not so much.

I also observe that SL's mimic of RL shows a historical fact common to both: in difficult times the tendency for most large conglomerate groups to start cracking at the seams rather than hold tighter. Historically, every time the RL economy went south, we (the collective we) found new scapegoats and tried to remedy our individual circumstances regardless of the overall effects on the general population. Disappointing, yes. Surprising, hell no. After all, both SL and RL are driven by the same force - the human factor and drive to survive and/or get relief.

No point in pointing a finger at anyone...there are enough factors and fingers to go around and only a true meeting of the minds, with personal things put aside, will float this market to the end of this spiral and return to normalcy. Its a problem with many key factors and that means the onus is not on any One factor. I think the Co-Op can play a strong positive role at this time if it's mission is to unify in cooperation the many sims we have...but I guess that depends on how much influence the co-op has on its member sims...which then depends on how cohesive the member sim owners are as a group themselves...but that's another matter for another thread.

But with regard to the Original suggestions, I think KC could do their part too to support the markets that keep KC alive. We are all out here trying to get through a difficult time and as part of the 'machine', they too should consider pitching in especially during release time or our choices are limited to 1. buying few of their new release kitties or 2. feeding/breeding the new release kitties by selling existing ones dirt cheap (which has also helped keep the L$ circulating down past the expected summertime blues) or menag more cats to support the ones we are working on (wondering if anyone ever saw that old move Soylent Green). Another good idea to consider is raising the amount of K$ per kitty. Supplies sales at least during the time vendors are out would be a good show of support for those who support KC. And as someone mentioned in another post, YES, their should be a limit on how much can be purchased at special prices...just like RL stores do to prevent stockpiling of supplies.

[RebekahMarieLynne Resident]

I dont have much to add. Too many auctions YES way too many. The coop?? lol since every cat sim in SL is in it, whats the point exactly? (No answer needed i really could care less about he coop i think its a massive mistake) I have went from 300 breeding cats to 100 and soon will be out all together. I agree food costs are high ... cats are too cheap ... etc etc.

[SAMSMlTH Resident]

I believe this thread is a cry for help. KC needs to make their loyal customer base the focal point of their business. Without us they will have no business. SS