Stack size - sales strategies

I posted a stack of 99 of an item, and 10 stacks of 10 of the same item at the same price and the 10 stacks sold much quicker...can I do better? If I post the smaller quantities at a slightly higher price will people bother to scroll down? Will they pay 1 more gil per item for a convenient stack size if it's not in the first window and they have to scroll down???

When I check what's currently on the market boards I often find many stacks (99) of an item at similar or the same price. I soon discovered, that posting smaller quantities meant quicker sales...which is great if I have a lot of product to move, but not necessarily more profitable, and definitely more time consuming.

Say someone need to buy only a stack of 10 of item x. There are two people selling that item. One person is sell 10 of them for 100gil each, 1000gil total. The other is selling 99 of them for a cheaper price, 50 gil each for 4950gil total. Yes the second situation is technically cheaper per item, however for someone that only needs to buy 10 of them would rather just buy the amount they need even at a higher price if it's cheaper overall.

I can't believe people are JUST figuring this out.

I always look for the stack that is the closest size to what I want to buy. I'll buy a few extra but I'm not buying 99 to use 5 of them. I would gladly pay 50% more per item to get the number i need.

I look at the market history and then turn to the handy Excel spreadsheet for help.

45 seconds later I have all the historical data I can get (which is admittedly limited but helps nonetheless) for NQ and HQ.

I simply use that to determine average sold price and quantity, buy under the average and set my quantities for just over/under the average. Works well, especially on weekday mornings.

People buying crafting materials either need tons of them for leveling or a handful for a specific recipe. There's much more money in selling one-by-one, but that also involves much more labor. Basically the question you need to ask yourself is whether or not it's worth your time to post items one-by-one and repost frequently, or whether you're better off just sticking a stack of 99 up, waiting longer for it to sell and earning less per item.

I'm not "JUST figuring this out" I'm trying to REALLY understand it to make it more worthwhile for me and my buyers. Ultimately, trial and error seem like the solution, but I'm wondering what others have found. Is it more important to be on the first page? Is it more important to have the quantity buyers want (and lowest total price)? Personally, as a crafter, I almost always buy the cheapest price per item since I can make use of extras. How much extra are people willing to pay for the quantity they want?

The specific reason I sold smaller quantities and made this post, is the piles of Alumen in my inventory - something like 3 or 4 full stacks more than I'll ever need. I put 3 stacks up at the going rate, which also reflected history. Several days later I checked back and found the price had dropped by 2 gil, and there were TONS posted (flooded market). I posted stacks of 10 at 1 or 2 gil more than the going rate and they sold quickly. I posted more and some sold quickly, but as undercutting continued my small stacks weren't on the first page anymore... you had to scroll down to see them, and the selling rate slowed noticeably... or it was just coincidence.

*edit* I wanted to level mining immediately, and alumen was the easy answer since I also wanted HQ alumen for ltw. No, it wasn't efficient, but it's what I felt like doing. My retainer has tons of room, so I thought I'd gain some perspective on the market.

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Originally Posted by Simaril

The specific reason I sold smaller quantities and made this post, is the piles of Alumen in my inventory - something like 3 or 4 full stacks more than I'll ever need. I put 3 stacks up at the going rate.....

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If you end up with a huge pile of the same item after trying to level your crafting class, you're doing it wrong. If you're only selling a few kinds of goods or putting too much of a single goods in the market most of the time, then you're probably doing it wrong trading too.

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Originally Posted by Zigkid3

I can't believe people are JUST figuring this out.

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You're overrating the business acumen of most mmo players. Else there won't be so much complains about being undercut, and people don't fall asleep in their economics class.

Off topic but Wazabi from your other posts I agree, a lot of people that seem to complain and request changes to the market seem to be those that have personal intentions, like people that hate undercutters. Again, completely off topic.

You can actually charge more for selling a smaller amount (with the exception of items that sell for at or almost vendor trash prices). The reason for this is similar to a real world economy. Because it is more work to sell less at a time it costs more, and conversely its easier to sell in bulk so that is cheaper. Everyone wants to move there product quickly in large quantities even at a lower profit so you can charge extra for providing the extra service of listing items at a more consumer friendly quantity. Know your consumer, know what your selling, and you'll sell better. For instance, Logs and Ore normally sell well in multiples of 3 because most synths that use them use 3 at a time. So a stack of 9 will sell better than a stack of 10, and a stack of 3 will sell better than a stack of 2 or 1, and keep in mind that stack of 99 your selling will only make the crafter 33 logs, so they need 3 stacks of 99 to make one stack for themselves.