About Kittycats and their prices.

[Kayleigh McMillan]

(12-27-2012 05:58 PM)Dario Maesar Wrote:  ...

However, I love my cats and everyone who asks me... I recomand to breed the furs they love, make some magic with them and just enjoy... have an SL JOB.... be dancer or whatever... that pays off the cats so you can relaxedly lean back and care less about selling or not selling your breeded cats. I do it that way... I have my price set of what I think my cats are worth... I am not going to fire sale my breeds it was damn hard work to get to that point... no one has to buy them... and if I don't sell them, I don't care much... I think, someone that puts much time and afford in their own breeds, will not sell of their cats for a joke of a price and someone who sees the work in it and considers doing it themselves ends up seing that much food and time will go down the river before you have the same result. It makes the value of the cat and that can not be 500 L for 9 traits. I know I have some really interesting breedings going... and if I be the only one knowing that... so be it

...

Amen to all the above this is só how I feel as well!
I love well bred cats from which I can tell the breeder worked tiredless for it and I think these cats should not be ignored they are such a great short cut in our breeding programs.
It is sad to see frequently such cats are ignored at auctions at face value while they can have so much potential or a fantastic trait combination with not perse the newest fur ...
If I made not any money out of my cats and there was no market there is no way I would stop breeding at all.

The Only reason why I would stop, and I doubt that to happen, is if the company would change drastically and permanently.
If they would disappoint me time and time again and I felt no home in KittyCatS anymore.
Or if the company would start to cut edges in design, customer care or the initial passion for their product and their customers or when they settled slowly for less than excellent and the high standards would float away.
Sadly I have seen this happen with an amazingly populair shoes brand in Second Life so there is a danger for this and I'm sure there are more examples.
And because I think the cats are only one part of the experience, there is the community as well as the team and the markets and these are very strong points which makes KittyCatS so wonderful all together.
Cats which can breed pretty much covers what at least my KittyCatS experience is.
This is a feeling I never had with other breedables I tried.
It is obvious those breedables are not designed that way so money, starter gamble and hunting headless after the latest traits is basically what runs them.

I predict KittyCatS will break all record as for how long a breedable in Second Life can excist, all the ingredients for long term success are there.

[Nocshadue Balbozar]

What I find interesting, is look at the date of the original post, and here we all still are breeding our KittyCatS. Markets are going to fluctuate, that is natural. While there have been a few times I thought there may have been too many new traits introduced too fast..we certainly survived didn't we? Best advice I was ever given regarding breeding KittyCatS was by Theo who said, "yes, you can sell your kitties for fun and profit, but DON'T count on it. Set a budget you can afford and stick to it, money from cats you sell is extra then to buy new cats or maybe even *gasp* hair" *lolz*.

I'd like to dispell a myth here too. Not every new fur that comes out sells even the first time for anywhere near 70k. AND, I have seen well bred older fur/trait combos sell for more than 70k. It all depends on the buyer. As Chelle likes to remind us "The more you pay, the more its worth". If someone wants a certain fur badly enough and they have they money, they'll get in a bid war or whatever. But that doesn't happen all the time. Even after a fur drops in price as it becomes bred out, if it's popular it will hold a decent value for quite some time.

What I think hurts the market the most is fire sales, reluctance to menagerie, and a lot of high expectations about making a lot of money. I know a few breeders that have told me they are able to support their breeding with their sales, but not many. I imagine you'd have to be disciplined and like remember to spam and stuff and I'm just far too lazy. So I'm kinda glad this post got ressurrected, it's a good reminder not to panic and think that KC can't possibly endure.

***HuGz***
Noc

[Tad Carlucci]

I agree, mostly.

Personally, I don't think fire sale SPAM has the negative impact which many claim. Cat spam is like car ads on TV, and fire sales are like the slime-ball used-car dealerships with their fast cuts, loud color and noise, and bad editing. It doesn't matter how many of those ads you see, the price of a new Ford F-150 isn't gonna change appreciably.

Granted, a better analogy on PRICES is gasoline when the discount station across the street lowers it price, the premium station follows suit. But the price won't stay low long because the station across the street is going to run out of product. This premium station knows this, which is why, unless they have a low-price guarantee, they won't come down quite as much. They'll just wait it out and prices will return to normal, or close enough.

To me, the biggest impact in the PERCEPTION of he state of the market is unreal expectations. You wander around and see a trait going for, say, 70K. But that's not the "worth" of the cat! It's what people are asking .. it doesn't mean it's what they're getting. So you see the prices coming down and think the market is falling. It's NOT. All that is changing is the asking price is moving down to the point where it meets the amount purchasers will accept.

[Andre Farstrider]

Exactly Tad...I remember several long months ago I really wanted a certain fur, but not many had it, and it was pretty expensive at least for me. I wandered by this one shop all the time looking at the pretty kitties with that fur. IM'd the seller, but they wouldn't budge on price. So, the cats sat there..and sat and sat. Then other people eventually started to offer it for sale and the price started to settle a bit.

So ya. I can ask whatever I want for the cats I'm selling. Doesn't mean they will sell. But it can create an initial perception of worth when you see a cat priced sky high, especially with new traits. Sometimes you can look and if you've been breeding a while think "pfft..in your dreams" lol..but other times you think..wow..why is it so much..did someone already pay that much? etc and so on.

Plus I think the days of people going nuts and shelling out hundreds of USD for a new trait are about over. I can see the goals shifting and people being more concerned with breeding the look THEY want instead of chasing after the latest MOST RECESSIVE on the grid

[neckcadaver Resident]

What I think hurts the market the most is fire sales, reluctance to menagerie, and a lot of high expectations about making a lot of money. I know a few breeders that have told me they are able to support their breeding with their sales, but not many. I imagine you'd have to be disciplined and like remember to spam and stuff and I'm just far too lazy. So I'm kinda glad this post got ressurrected, it's a good reminder not to panic and think that KC can't possibly endure.

here here!! and that is why i ressurrected the sucker

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oops that was stated by noc, sorry noc still learning how to do things in here

[dakillakm Resident]

I agree with most of the posters that the sky is not falling, we have ups and downs, lulls and rushes, and like Noc pointed out, the original "KittyCatS are gonna die" post here is from nearly a year ago. I think the market is as diverse as all of the many participants in it. I can tell you for SURE that no one at the bidboards are paying 70K for a one NEW traited cat. Now, I know that auctions, stores, and bidboards all command very different prices so maybe there are new traits selling for these prices elsewhere, but I would be surprised.

I think what hurts the market more than fire sales are the inundation of recessive traits at low prices. When you constantly see 1-3T Bali Creams and Ebony Silvers being sold then not only are the prices going to drop, many people are just going to get sick of seeing them. These are the sorts of boxes that I think should be hoarded or sent to menagerie to preserve the demand.

However, I don't think 5T+ mid-range boxes necessarily demand menaging. I like to see nice older and mid range boxes at stores because I know that's what I was most interested in purchasing when I was new. Like someone in this thread said at some point, these are boxes that new people can afford and then play with and learn with, then eventually invest in better and more expensive cats.

As long as we can keep the market healthy enough to help pay for food and milk then I have a suspicion that we will all keep breeding our beloved kitties. Very few people make big profits off their cats after paying for the associated expenses and those who try to chase a big profit figure out pretty quick that it doesn't really work like that. And if you can't afford to pay 20K for a cat and not expect to make your money back, then don't buy it. Stay within the price range you are comfortable with without taking into consideration how much money you might make on the OS because you just never know.

[Stormrunner Laval]

It is also important to remember that you need to enjoy what you are doing. If you don't it may be time to stop?

I for one am enjoying trying to breed out vampire ears to a pure line so I can bring it out on some black russians for next Halloween.