Feeding banana bread to ducks and other bad deals.

[HappyDog]

I just got ducks, so I was checking the Wiki and I realized that unless you need feathers quickly for some reason, feeding banana bread to ducks is a really bad deal. The bread is worth 141 coins more than the best possible outcome in feathers. Where is the return on investment?

This is the first example I've found in fields/animals/factories, where the raw materials going in are worth more than the finished goods coming out. It seems an obvious bad deal.

The only other blatantly bad deal I've come across is the mob guy offering one measly t-cash for several bars of bullion. Using that bullion to upgrade trains and factories gets you to "Achievements" quicker and they pay lots of t-cash. It's a bad deal, just not as directly.

So, other bad deals us noobs need to watch out for?

[boudica]

I think youre right Happydog. Unless I need feathers for plane, train or regatta, I just leave them fed with banana bread and dont collect. Banana bread is quicker and produce more feathers. I suspect the new otter farm works along the same lines.

[HappyDog]

What I'm saying is that you can buy feathers in the marketplace cheaper than using banana bread to grow them. If you want feathers, using banana bread to grow them is the worst possible way to get them. It's a built in loss and I'm looking for other built in losses.

[Graylady]

I think you forgot to take into account the blue feathers. 1 Tyrolean Hat is almost the same value of 1 Banana Bread.

[HappyDog]

The best possible outcome from feeding banana bread is 4 down and 3 colorful feathers (per Wiki). If you use Raja to buy 4 down and 3 colorful, it will cost you 141 coin.

So if you take the banana bread and sell it instead of feeding it to the ducks, you get 294 coin. In other words, by feeding the bread, you're paying 294 coin to get 141 coin worth of feathers in return. What you do with them later has no effect on the fact that Raja is a cheaper source of feathers than ducks eating banana bread. Feeding bagels still gets you colored feathers and you make a profit instead of losing coin.

It's because banana bread is really quite expensive. The duck feeder is set up to make it seem like banana bread is giving you more, when it really gives you less.

It's not that big of a deal, but like I said, it's the first example I've seen where you get less out than you put in.

[JayS]

The best possible outcome from feeding banana bread is 4 down and 3 colorful feathers (per Wiki). If you use Raja to buy 4 down and 3 colorful, it will cost you 141 coin.

So if you take the banana bread and sell it instead of feeding it to the ducks, you get 294 coin. In other words, by feeding the bread, you're paying 294 coin to get 141 coin worth of feathers in return. What you do with them later has no effect on the fact that Raja is a cheaper source of feathers than ducks eating banana bread. Feeding bagels still gets you colored feathers and you make a profit instead of losing coin.

It's because banana bread is really quite expensive. The duck feeder is set up to make it seem like banana bread is giving you more, when it really gives you less.

It's not that big of a deal, but like I said, it's the first example I've seen where you get less out than you put in.

Most people I know buy banana bread from Raja to feed to the ducks to get feathers, making it even more cost-ineffective. But as bread and bagels are used in other products and pizzas are a regatta task, as are quilts, pink boots and brown hats that rely on a steady supply of feathers, independent of which island your ships have gone to, I guess we're paying for the convenience.

The place I find bad deals is the helicopter. Townspeople's orders are not necessarily value for money and often give less coin than selling from barn. When an order wants hard to make or expensive items I sometimes check IF I have time to. Maybe the experience gained to help level-headed offsets the coins lost.?

[HappyDog]

Most people I know buy banana bread from Raja to feed to the ducks to get feathers, making it even more cost-ineffective. But as bread and bagels are used in other products and pizzas are a regatta task, as are quilts, pink boots and brown hats that rely on a steady supply of feathers, independent of which island your ships have gone to, I guess we're paying for the convenience.

Dude! You're paying 294 to Raja to get back 141 worth of feathers. It's way cheaper and faster to just buy the feathers and leave the ducks out of it. Better yet, if you spent the 294 on bagels and fed them instead of the banana bread, you'd get 370 worth of feathers back and now you're making coin instead of losing it. Using banana bread as duck food makes no sense.

The place I find bad deals is the helicopter. Townspeople's orders are not necessarily value for money and often give less coin than selling from barn. When an order wants hard to make or expensive items I sometimes check IF I have time to. Maybe the experience gained to help level-headed offsets the coins lost.?

Yes, townspeople orders are sometimes a bad deal. I'm at a lower level, so the orders I get from the mob guy are only for bullion, and they are an incredibly bad deal. I understand from the Wiki that gets better once you can sell him jewelry.

[Rocky_Ruud]

Dude! You're paying 294 to Raja to get back 141 worth of feathers. It's way cheaper and faster to just buy the feathers and leave the ducks out of it. Better yet, if you spent the 294 on bagels and fed them instead of the banana bread, you'd get 370 worth of feathers back and now you're making coin instead of losing it. Using banana bread as duck food makes no sense.
...

Cheaper... there you may have point. But faster... Raya takes an hour to refresh and the Banana bread only takes half an hour. The larger the amounts you need the more time-effective it seems to me to feed B-bread instead.

About bad deals: filling Zoo orders all by yourself!
Costs are often bigger then the profits. By using the Help button atleast you lower the costs and get a better profits plus an extra option to earn clovers for your friends.
Although a Delete button could really solve the problem with 'outrageous' orders qua amount of products or costs

[Pink]

There is also have the option to use the Advanced Farming booster, which doubles the output of all animals, including ducks and otters, for 2 days. So you could quite easily drown in feathers.

[Calypso]

So, other bad deals us noobs need to watch out for?

You're right, HappyDog, banana bread is an expensive way to feed the ducks. The one time I used it was when I had a plane needing feathers and I couldn't get sufficient quantities in other ways. Usually I give them plain old bread -- although I'm a little concerned my ducks are getting bored and are going to fly off to Boudica's town where they'd be better fed.

A lot of Township's choices come down to "how quickly, how badly, do you want it." I have 250+ market boxes but I use them sparingly. Just as with the banana bread, the economics means I can always grow or make the item less expensively on my own -- but it'll take more time.

And helicopter orders... even those "bad deals" get a closer look if you're doing a heli task or playing an event that gives a token along with the heli order.

Congrats on building the duck pond!