What is your ACTUAL reasoning for undercutting?

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They'll just rock bottom down to cost and out produce you until you go away then raise prices again.

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Theres a phrase I like to use when my friends call me cheap about spending gil.

"I dont have hundreds of millions of gil because I'm stupid with how I spend it, I have that because I'm not".

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Originally Posted by ElazulHP

This will scare off the dabblers sure, but it won't work on an omnicrafter selling in bulk and already sitting on hundreds of millions of gil. They'll just rock bottom down to cost and out produce you until you go away then raise prices again.

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To be fair, the people who are barons of the crafting world aren't the ones who'll cry about undercutting. They know the business they're in, and they'll play poker with a straight face. It's the 'get rich quick' kids that wander into a random niche--find it's good money, and get settled that really cry. They'll find something that works, and the moment it begins to slip they'll start to panic and lash out. Because they're not smart enough to play the market game. They just got lucky, and they have no idea how to recover--so they blame the person they feel is responsible for taking over their market. But the truth is--that person can be anyone. It always happens, it's just the way the market.

But man do those children really get under my skin. They'll use every excuse in the book to cry and defend their precious little niche. And yeah, it might be their only source of income in the game, but it's a dog-eat-dog world out there. You gotta be on your toes, and you can't allow yourself to become complacent in a niche market. Not unless you really have the dedication and resources to defend it. And again, the people who are smart enough and well-off enough to retain their iron-grip--aren't the ones who'll cry over it. I just hate those kids so much though. The ones who get all emotional about the market. Undercut into the dirt or get out. No one is entitled to fat margins. They're a gift if you get them, but they're never an entitlement.

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Originally Posted by CookiesNCreams

No, this is not a complaint thread.

Everyone undercuts. But can anyone answer this for me? : Are you undercutting out of spite of “elitist” crafters....or do you do it to genuinely bring the price down so everyone can afford it?

By everyone’s definition, I’m a “elitist” crafter but I also enjoy bringing down prices for people to enjoy. What about you? :D

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John D. Rockefeller became the wealthiest American of all time and one of his tactics was to price his products below the manufacturing cost to destroy his competition. He had the money to weather the short-term profit loss and by out spending his smaller competitors, he was able to maintain his extremely profitable monopolies. As such, I see no reason why I cannot adopt such methods to make gil.

If anyone undercuts my shit by less than the cost of tax just so they can be higher up on the list, I undercut as hard as I feel comfortable. When I was doing the craft one of everything achievements, I caused a lot of furniture to drop from 200~300k down to ~50k.

Fuck penny undercutters. I'm not going to let you be higher up on the buy list without costing yourself anything.

In the same vein, I try to avoid buying shit from penny undercutters if I see the same product for a normal value (ending with a bunch of zeroes).

I do not like to wait weeks at a time to sell things. I need money NOW. Selling cheap also insures it gets sold. The buyers choose the cheapest options and mine would get overlooked unless it was pretty low. If I put something pricey on the board, like a mount, I generally wait on it a bit longer.

I am not exactly a master in this field, but...

I do undercut between 1 and 10000gil, depending on the purpose, which mostly comes down to sales history. If an item sells regularly (ideally daily) at steady prices, I don't undercut at all; in fact I consider sitting on 2nd-4th listing expecting it to sell in a timely manner.

That is, if the item doesn't have a downwards trend or the supply outweighs demand over time.

If it is an item that starts tanking in price, it depends at which rate it does. If it goes down slow and steadily yet demand still exists, I will likely undercut if it nets me more gil than selling a different item. If it drops rapidly (example: grade VI materia in 4.4+) due to a sheer supply / availability increase, I will hold onto my stuff until it stabilizes a bit and watch from there what I can salvage if I don't use it for myself.

A different matter would be items like primal plushies (or their crafting mat) where the supply ends up low but so does demand; in such cases I gauge whether I should undercut by the 1-10000 in hopes someone will buy it before 2nd will undercut me (thus tanking the price more than intended) or going for a 30-50k drop to make it lucrative for buyers who wanted the item for a bargain while flashing out potential undercut follow-ups.

TL;DR: Undercutting isn't as binary of an option for me, it involves multiple factors if, when and how much I should do it. Eventually it is a tool to stay competitive in markets and has its' place, but shouldn't be overused to avoid rage-tanking prices by fighting bigshot sellers who don't care about losses.

It's callled free market and if I can get people to buy my stuff at my price then thats how it works. It's no different than stories offering different prices on goods. I mean honestly let's be real here if you really are playing the MB then you are watching and trying to move your goods. When people undercut me then we go back and forth and eventually someone reaches their bottom price. You win some and you loose some.

Probably to sell things? Like why is this even a topic?

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Originally Posted by Addy

Probably to sell things? Like why is this even a topic?

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How dare people ask questions and try to learn things!

Bottom line its basic business. The long answer is people are looking for a fast way to make gil generally the weekends are the best time to snag things cheap generally tho people that put it up cheap can't keep the supply up for very long so it falls back to the actual crafter that play the long game they not really hurting for the quick sale so generally we don't bother adjusting the prices for things that will sell.