Broken Market Board by Rich Players.

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Originally Posted by ElianaGoldstein

If anything needs to be implemented it's a warning prompt if you try to post more than 5% below current lowest price and a flat out block on posting lower than 10% below lowest market price. There are too many fools who seem intent on crashing every market known to man and Miqo'te and it is seriously annoying. Where is the sense in taking an item that sells like clockwork at say 5k each and crashing the price to 500 gil? Everybody loses apart from that one rich guy who can afford to buy out every single item and correct prices. Yes I hear the free market argument, but even a free market needs protecting from idiots.

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Who are you to get to decide what prices should be? It's up to the individual seller to place a value on what they're selling.

Even with your system I could get around it easily if I wanted to crash a market simply by playing leapfrog between characters. Character A posts item for 100 gil. Switch to character B and post same item for 90gil. Switch back to character A to post for 81gil and so on until I get the item to the price I want to sell it for.

Some players sell low simply because they want the item out of their inventory, not because they're trying to crash the market. It's the people who panic over being undercut that cause the problem when leaving your item at your preferred price will usually lead to it being sold at that price. I go through that all the time with the chocobo feed and color fruits I sell to raise gil for my alt's FC. Sometimes someone comes along and undercuts me, everyone else panics and does the same but I leave mine alone and a day or two later they've sold at my preferred price. If they don't start selling again within a few days, then I'll check the current prices. It could be that the available supply is too high and I'm better off pulling mine off the MB for a week before listing again. Certainly I stop growing more and switch to other items while I wait.

If you think the listed price is too low, buy up that item and resell it for the price you think it's worth. If you keep getting undercut, then your price is likely too high compared to the demand for that item.

If demand is high, the low cost items will clear out quickly and people will start paying up the price ladder. Having a panic attack and immediately undercutting in retaliation is what screws things up. The Chinese farmers gonna get their gil - you can't win, and trying makes things worse for you.

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Originally Posted by Norvagon

Am I the only person who is experiencing this issue? and if not, what can be done to make the market board a more fair place again?

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Do maps and sell Cointe? This guy is creating a high demand on the cloth for you.

To be fair, Cointe is a moderately rare map drop and few people are running those lately, so the supply will have a limit. It's not hard for a handful of crafters to exhaust the materials. Then, this person is limited to the number of Cointe that go on sale and can only sell as the same speed as the demand for the Ruffled Skirts. He won't rake in billions off Skirts alone.

I'd advise to step onto a less complex market. Rakshasa, Onishi, Yamashi for example is much smoother to sell due to higher demand and ease of obtaining the materials. Same with popular furniture and lots of others. Browse the markets, see which of these are at a high price (it varies a lot) and jump in. Don't stick to an unprofitable market.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Who are you to get to decide what prices should be? It's up to the individual seller to place a value on what they're selling.

Even with your system I could get around it easily if I wanted to crash a market simply by playing leapfrog between characters. Character A posts item for 100 gil. Switch to character B and post same item for 90gil. Switch back to character A to post for 81gil and so on until I get the item to the price I want to sell it for.

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Well that would certainly make it harder for you to tank prices wouldn't it! Don't know if it's just my server but it seems that EVERY lucrative market gets crashed because out of nowhere 20 people start posting the item, each making a massive undercut until it's barely above NPC price. It makes absolutely no sense... Take for instance ancient lumber. Not a regular seller, but still a nice little earner on the side. For a few days I was selling at around 20k per unit. Now a bunch of no brain morons have come in and spam posted tons of it and the price is now under 6k and dropping fast. This happens to every single item, whether gear, materials or house items. There's too much of it to be worth buying out and I am not trying to dominate markets and become the richest cat on the server.
I just want to make a decent amount so as I can afford to gear my crafters when I finally get them to 70. But with such idiotic behaviour from people doing so is near impossible because literally nothing sells unless you price it so low that it may as well just be discarded/vendored. Hence in my mind the need for some form of constraints to protect against stupidity in both directions. Can't gouge it above 50% of monthly average, can't crash below 75% of monthly average.

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Originally Posted by ElianaGoldstein

Where is the sense in taking an item that sells like clockwork at say 5k each and crashing the price to 500 gil?

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If I would want to be nice to some poor sods and make good stuff available for cheap, then why shouldn't I be able to do so?
The Market Board isn't primarily there to let people get rich.

Besides, one person can't make the market prices crash unless they flood the MB with items. The prices only crash if a lot of other people also lower their prices like a bunch of mindless lemmings.

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

If I would want to be nice to some poor sods and make good stuff available for cheap, then why shouldn't I be able to do so?
The Market Board isn't primarily there to let people get rich.

Besides, one person can't make the market prices crash unless they flood the MB with items. The prices only crash if a lot of other people also lower their prices like a bunch of mindless lemmings.

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You do realise that the item won't sell any quicker at 50% reduction compared to a 1gil undercut unless somebody happens to be scanning for cheap items to resell. If your item doesn't sell to said MB camper within a few minutes then begins the race to rock bottom. 10 people come along, each knocking 1-10% off the price and before you know it all the people above you have further crashed the price. So all you achieve with your attempt at altruism is either triggering a price war that screws everyone out of a lot of money or you help to make a rich bellcamper even richer. If I want to be helpful I shout in town that I am giving away a stack of an item to clear space, I usually don't even charge for it and in the process I hopefully help someone get their crafting up a little bit while at the same time leaving the marketboard to remain a source of income.

It's a simple fact that the market in this game is actually pretty small compared to some MMO's. Given that, there are many items with low demand for any of several reasons - I see items in the sales history list that have been selling for 3 to 10 a month. The problem is often the same as in real life - oversupply and low demand. If nobody wants to buy something, it will not sell no matter how low the price (until it reaches desynthesis status perhaps). Asking for fixed prices is just ridiculous, and has never worked in games or in real life.

It's more or less an open market. It's fair yet unfair, similar to real markets. You have to be smart about what you sell and when you sell it. It's also a well known tactic to buy low priced items and resell at a higher price, always skirting the accepted market value. Check back on yer sales often and adjust pricing as necessary. If the crafted item market is saturated...sell mats, since clearly there's going to be a large consumer base. As both a crafter and a gatherer I can tell you we all get lazy and will punch the MB fer mats quite a bit, really depends on my time budget.

when the world visiting system is implemented it was already stated you cant buy from the places you visit.

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Originally Posted by Acelyn

when the world visiting system is implemented it was already stated you cant buy from the places you visit.

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I think it was stated the opposite. You CAN buy from places you visit. You just can't sell.