Tip on why I reject orders

[Dave Smith]

i don't know if anybody else has mentioned this but in the long term it is very beneficial to reject any orders which reward you with less than 300 coins.

I noticed quite early on that those lower reward orders give you a terrible return for your products. For example a dozen items required (6 of 2 different products) for 263 coins yet you may have an order for just 6 items for (all different) for 1779 coins.

Yes you have to wait 30 minutes for regenerated orders but it saves so many of your hard earned products if you stick to cancelling every sub 300 coin order.

I look forward to others views on this

[Nana]

Hi Dave.

Graylady has commented extensively on this very subject over the past year and will surely agree with your observations. I do as well, but I have noticed in my game, if I carefully choose to accept one of the lower valued orders (making sure not too great a number of items or too difficult to replace) I immediately get a really good offer (XP and coins) - which temporarily breaks the log-jam of lousy orders.

[Alizar77]

It depends. It can happen you get orders that pay less coins and xp but I always try to calculate the medium price/xp per item and if the order asks for hard to get/long time to produce items and I try to put it in relation in my head. And sometimes the medium return is better with some smaller orders when they ask for less items at the same time . I certainly reject orders that ask for like 6 island fruits or 6 items of anything as it causes imbalances in my barn, I always try to keep a few of every item in my barn, though it seems that there is always one or two items that seem to lack constantly. I also reject orders that ask for >30 crops because my fields are constantly planted with all different crops and it is hard to free so many fields to fulfill such orders in a reasonable time. I dont do that often, only if the train asks for it or if I have the chance to fully fill the plane if I try to get these high amounts of crops. I also reject any order that asks for ingots. The money and xp does never pay for the longterm benefit if you keep the ingots to improve your factories. But I dont categorically reject these "small orders" as it depends on what is asked for and if you do the math some "big orders" can turn out to pay out "small".

[Graylady]

Hi Dave

Deleting orders has been mentioned many times in different threads. Like I say : "The delete button is your best friend".

I delete almost every order asking for multiples.
I delete orders asking for stock needed for my plane.
I delete orders that don't pay enough, either coins or XP. The numbers change with time as we get higher number as we progress.

Right now, as I don't need coins or XP specially, I add up the 2 numbers and choose to fill orders that give a total of: 400+ for 1 item, 600+ for 2 items, 800+ for 3, 1,000+ for 4, 1,200+ for 5 and 1,400 for 6.

I may make an exception if I need to reduce my stock in my barn.

[sandssmith]

Graylady's strategy (allowing for my/your own personal opinions on 'value' of certain objects) is a great approach.

Two other exception I use:

- I typically will not fill an order that has 2 or more items requested from one factory, (same item or different items)

If a farm item takes less than 5 hours to grow, I typically treat it as a $0 value/cost item (as if it wasn't part of the order, since the cost to produce it is nearly negligible in coins. Plus harvesting it adds some small XP points as well.

Of course, my barn is not as big, so my stockpile is much smaller. Currently, barn size is 475.

[Jays7dogs]

I very rarely look at coins offered. I always go for the higher XP points.

[Graylady]

Two other exception I use:

- I typically will not fill an order that has 2 or more items requested from one factory, (same item or different items)

Hi Sandssmith

That is what I meant when I said I delete orders asking for multiples. LOl I was not clear.

[sandssmith]

Graylady,

No problem at all! Probably my misunderstanding.

Of course, I also recognize that these are just tips, not hard and fast rules. In fact, we all probably make exceptions to every 'rule' due to circumstances from time to time - well, I know I do, at least.

[SuzyD]

I delete almost every order asking for multiples.

[ ....]

I may make an exception if I need to reduce my stock in my barn.

I'm pretty new to deleting orders, as I used to fill them all, even if they sat there for a very long time before I could fill them. Now that deleting is an option, I'm considering the orders more carefully, and may have come upon an interesting way to "game" the multiple orders.

Anyone who uses the market a good deal knows that the market is proactively helpful in filling outstanding trains, planes, and orders. The other day I noticed that seven of my nine orders were multiples, ranging from x5 to x13. One of these is an order for the purple rubber thingies x9. In the past I've scoffed "as if!" as I quickly deleted such a silly request, but for whatever reason I failed to do this. The next market had 7 rubber things, the one after had 5 or 6. I am now constantly trying to figure out new ways to use my glut of these things (I've got flip-flops galore in the factory), but won't fill the order, because the market will likely stop giving them out quite so freely. I'm experiencing the same with the ice cream cones (x6), and a few other items I've left hanging out in the order section.

There are a couple of drawbacks, most obviously these orders take up space where a more lucrative offer might have been made, and also, for those who depend on having 20+ silk cocoons or rubber pots in the market, if you've got an order for x6 hanging around, after a while the market stops being subtle and gives you x6 of that item, so you may want to fill or delete such orders, so as not to limit your market stock.

Now I'm just waiting for my perfect multiple order: let's say butter, corn chips, yogurt, frozen yogurt, plastic chips, and those little white pots of sugar stuff you need for everything ... x8. Now there's an order I'd never fill, and just happily collect all my necessaries from the market.

Try it out, see if it works for you. (Just want to add that I've got just under 40 market boxes, so people with only a dozen or so may not experience the same level of "helpfulness.")

[Cec]

I once heard Ralph say he didn't bother filling an order under 500. I said, hmmph, he's a sage player, well ahead of me, that makes wonderful sense, not to waste my product on piddly orders and be a respectable business woman, (at a lower level) my worth is 350! Unless I remember what I recall what I paid at market for some of these items or just really need to dump them and none of my neighbors need them, yada, yada. This is working really well for me. But....
I also think there is a bad mojo curse! If they see your desperate and you dump an item from your barn, you'll never be blessed with it again. Maybe it's my old Catholic guilt trip reading its ugly ill' head, but first I had a plethora of nails, then paint. I sold a tiny bit of these once, and it practically dried up. So if my breath is a little chalky, it's because I'm eating bricks instead of bread.

Just sayin...