How do you deal with constant undercutting?

There's a certain individual on my server who as long as they aren't AFK, seems to check all of their wares (They're selling one of seemingly every single ilvl 350 DoW/H item), then undercuts the lowest price on the MB by one gil if they aren't the cheapest on the market about every five minutes or so.

They do this for several hours a day, so I'm constantly under pressure to keep changing my prices to get my stuff to sell.

I'm feeling rather convinced at this point that they're running some sort of bot, but the STF obviously isn't going to do anything about it, so it feels like the only way I can get my stuff to sell is by selling my items at enough of a markdown that it makes people want to snatch it up ASAP, but that's obviously hurting my potential profits.

Not really sure if this belongs here, but I figure others who are into crafting would have the best idea of how to handle it.

The only advice I can give you is ... make sure you’re not selling from the same city as this other person. Taxation only occurs if you are buying from a different city than the item is being sold in. That means it is often far cheaper (especially with the 1k cap on teleportation costs) to buy from the city the vendor is in than it is to buy the lowest cost item listed on the marketboard.

IE - if your i350 is listed at 400,000, in one city, and his is listed at 399,900 in another ... in the city you are selling from, YOURS is actually CHEAPER.

The only caveat to that is, most people don’t pay attention to the taxation and the way it works ... so even if they are in your city they’ll spend the extra 5% to save 100 gil.

There used to be a few people like that on Zalera too, which attracted a lot of hate! One of them claimed that he ruled the marketboard... which I thought was pretty arrogant and silly. By contrast, another one said he/she just wanted to maximize income, and this was his/her interest. He/she turned out to be a really nice person.

I don't think any of them use bots. I think a lot of people just play the undercutting game every 1/2 hr when they're online. Personally, I try to do that too as much as I can while online. But there's a limit to how far this can go...

For example, Person A was selling something at 1.2 million. I undercut him with 1.19 million. Person B then undercut me at 1.18 million. I will then undercut again at 1.17 million. Person B then undercut at 1.16 million. I now slow down, and undercut with 1.159 million. Person B then undercut with 1.158 million... the depreciation rate is slow so far, so we just continue this undercutting game non-stop.

But then, Person C appears and undercut at 850K. Person B then follow suit with 840K. I now go down to 830K. Person C then undercut at 450K. Person B then go 440K. At this point, I increase my price back to 1.19 million, and quit the undercutting game. Both Person B and C's items were sold 3 days later at around 380K, and they continued to sell more at low prices. Then, 2 weeks later, my item was suddenly sold... at 1.19 million. This is a true story! This is how I play my undercutting game.

I check the markets nearly every time my retainers have returned from a venture, approximately every hour.
I play the margin game. Cost of production is X in materials and it is currently selling for 4X. I will do the normal undercut to be first on the list unless the current lowest price is from a retainer in a different city. For retainers in a different city, I will price match. I will play the undercut game until the prices goes down to 2X or so, then I will raise my price again back to 3rd or 4th on the board, usually somewhere around 2.5-3X and just wait out the market.
I have also noticed that the default sorting algorithm of the market board seems to break ties by the age of the player/retainer account id number. This provides me an advantage over a significant membership of the player base as I started the game at launch in 2013. I do not have conclusive evidence for this but when I match prices my retainer is very often listed first, even when the matching person lists the product after me.

This isnt a great answer, but it is my answer. I dont worry about it. I check my prices every couple days or when i run out of space. If i dont remember when i listed something, it gets an update(if i only put it up a little bit ago i usually dont even check if ive been undercut). I dont always try to be the cheapest. I try to be on the board and maybe the cheapest in my city, but i dont mind being 8 or 9 spots down the list if its on an item that sells frequently enough. When i update prices, ill undercut myself if no one is buying at the current rate. I also tend to deal more in intermediate products then finished goods - im more likely to sell the sloth leather then the sloth leather boots.

Generally I ignore it. If it's a constant issue I move the items to a retainer in a separate city-state.
The smart buyer can save money on tax with me or the other guy, it doesn't matter much.

It doesn't bother me much. The item gets sold eventually.

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Originally Posted by MuseTraveller

It doesn't bother me much. The item gets sold eventually.

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Pretty much. Undercutting is only ever temporary. If the item is worth what you've listed it for, then it will be sold once the 'undercut' items have cleared the board.
If you're impatient for a sale, then join in the undercutting, the lost revenue is the price for your impatience. If you're not impatient, just wait.

I too will undercut a price to make my sale seem more attractive, however I don't undercut for less than 5gil.
I also do not undercut on some items that deserve a certain level of compensation for their sale.

Amount and behavior of competitive seller are also factors.

Though I deal in mats as a high level gatherer and don't currently do end-game crafting, I thought I'd weigh in my 2 cents as I have a good bit of MB experience.

As others have stated, I don't actively worry about undercutting. I post my prices at or near the lowest when I originally post them, then I re-set all my prices on a schedule twice a week. In my view, if I am dealing in a product where the supply/demand dynamic can't sell through a few days of undercutting; then the demand is not where it needs to be for that product and I focus my dealings else where. In some cases where I know from experience the demand is high for a product, even my initial pricing will be well above the current low as I am confident the market will sell through to my price point anyways.

TLDR; If you just want to sell your items for whatever you can to unload them and turn them into gil, then actively undercutting and quick turnaround is the game you have to accept playing. If your goal is to maximize your income vs. time and effort invested into a product (including leveling/gearing, etc.) then take the time to learn your market and deal in the most profitable products, which are not always the highest priced products and play your MB smart, not hard.