I want to play a character akin to Raymond Reddington from "Blacklist:" a guy who seems to know everyone worth knowing, and by networking with people can make impressive things happen.

What contacts do I need beyond a Fixer? It seems like that one contact is kind of a golden ticket to godhood for a Face, like I almost don't need other contacts.

The rules for negotiation seem poorly written in SR4 as well. Prices seem determined by external circumstances rather than your skill as a negotiator. Anyone else see this as an issue? If so, what can I do about it? If not, what am I missing?

Apart from sweet talking his way past a guard, how do you see Faces contributing to the group, and what separates a good Face drom some jackass with a high Charisma?

You are perfectly right. Playing a face highly depends on your own personal social skills. Of course you can dice-roll every situation out, but if you want to give your character life, you have to depend on real role-playing. This can become quite embarrassing (think of seducing a male NPC with your female PC *brrrr*…..), which is why our group never went above that “I want to have a better price for this item” - *rolls negotiation”-face-level. I hope you can manage it better. ^^

While a Fixer is a must as they can put you in touch with people/supplies/etc they can not do everything.

A contact with a Cop/P.I. might lend you information you normally can not get easily or maybe smooth things over with other LEO's. Sure a Fixer might be able to get you the same details, but it usually takes longer as they may go at it differently (like having a hacker dig it up for you).

A contact on the street will be able to tell you whats happening in the neighbourhood. Sure the Fixer might have someone who knows the general area or he know someone who knows someone who occasionally drives through there, but Chinese whispers is a thing and the more steps from the source the more diluted the information.

Plus you have to figure every time you use that Fixer you are paying for the service. I mean by this on top of whatever you are already paying for the end service you are having the fixer set you up with.

So say you have a contact who can get you ammo, you ring him up and hammer out a price and go pick it up. Job Done.

You go through a Fixer and the Fixer has to tap one of their own contacts to find what you need and whatever cost is involved in the ammo, both for the ammo itself and probably some kind of transport since you probably can not just turn up at a strange weaponsmith's doorstop asking for order #47, plus his cut on top which is perfectly normal.
You outsource the legwork and pay accordingly, but it does add up.

It might not be in cash, but you can be certain you will compensate the Fixer for their handiwork and what do you do if the Fixer is out/busy?

I know, I know many tables have it so NPCs don't have a life, but if I were to ring up my Fixer on a Saturday night at 3am because I need some special ammo in a hurry, I can probably expect a steep surcharge on that bill for him to have leave off from his entertaining the twins from Lagos (who are very appreciative of the visas he had forged up for them) to go rummage up someone who can get me what I need.

I have seen tables where players basically can not get soymilk for their morning cereal without arranging it through a Fixer. It's RAW, but it seems RAWNG.
Just as the game is a team game, in many ways your contacts are part of that team and the more the merrier, or at least more interesting to the story line.

I also look at it as not having all my eggs in one basket. Sure it is fast and convenient to have one Fixer to rule them all, but if he gets compromised/killed and that was your ONLY contact of note, you have left yourself in an awkward position.

Not really, no. Haggling for a price is not really a thing in the modern western countries, and I don't see why it would be in 2060. You would negotiate a price of the guard having a break when you need it, and you would negotiate the number of Captain Aztec bars you'll give for a radio repair in the Barrens, but you wouldn't negotiate in a shop.

The Face does a number of useful things. He represents the party during the meetings so that Johnson thinks you are more than guntotting sociopaths (even though you are totally guntotting sociopaths). He buys things for the group quickly. He performs social infiltration while the party's ninja is climbing the vents. He bribes the guard to take a break. Ultimately Face is the infiltrator with a high Charisma, instead of high Agility.

At least in the early SR material Fixers seemed more specialized in Personnel and jobs anyway. They knew who the Johnson might want or need for a particular job and they handed out contracts accordingly and made their living taking a finders fee. At least in one case (Shadowplay) One of the characters who was a runner retired and just made a living off of his contacts, hooking up people he knew with Mr. Johnson types.

If the GM is rolling that way, your Face should achieve the kind of effect you're looking for. The guy who "Knows a guy." Whereas the Fixer is more purely about finding employment, kind of the Shadowrunner Day-job/Temp agency so to speak, The Face knows how get stuff and negotiate good deals on merchandise.

A character like that could be immensely valuable both for the variety of goods and services he can procure and the prices he can get them at. He could probably even make money on the side hooking clients up with suppliers and cut the typical Fixer out of the action.

It's also worth considering a character like this could be a semi-retired runner acting as a Fixer himself who just pulls jobs for extra nuyen or a bigger cut of the contracts he helps broker.