How does one start off the market for an item?

What inspired this question is the pricing for the anima parts. So what kind of thought process goes through someone's head on patch day to come up with the initial price for an item? That is, if you're the server-first on the market board for something, what makes you come up with the number you do?

I can understand the logic of virtually everyone else: undercut so their items sell faster. I'm just curious about what happens when someone wants to sell something and there's a blank slate.

I think about all the nice things I could buy if someone actually bought at a completely ridiculous price (say, 100 mio), then adjust that crazy number in my head to the point where I think someone who REALLY wants it RIGHT AWAY and with too much money to spare would actually buy it on patch day, and where others also think it might be bought so they only start by undercutting a bit instead of reducing it by half right away.

If comparable items (example: rare specialist weaver item and rare specialist leatherworker) are already out by other players though, I usually simply copy their prices.

[QUOTE=Ninster;3588876]Snip.QUOTE]


The honest answer? I think of a large ludicrous number. Like 100-600k, then multiply that number by ten. Then put it up for sell. And it sells :P Idiots buy it so I won't complain. Or, if I know the item is absolute garbage, I might think it's true value is 10k, then I multiply that number by 100, because people are idiots. lol xD

that depends entirely on the person tbh

so the answer is always going to be different.

The best way to create a stable market is to set the final product price at 10% more than the sum of the mats. People don't ever do that, though. You get people that sell super high (been guilty of it) and you get people that get mad at undercutters and crash the market below the mat-sum point, bouncing the market up and down.

I take the mats cost (MB prices not my cost) and multiply by between 3-5.
This gives room for the under-cutters to not trash the market before item production becomes a loss.

Ultimately the demand will set the price of an item. The entry price is arbitrary. If it sells and no more are up on the board, then the next one could sell for more. If it doesn't sell then the price comes down to meet equilibrium or gets undercut by competition. For me personally it would depend on the item.

I was the first with Dispelling Arrows on my server, but there were a few Adamantite Franciscas floating around at what I thought were ludicrous prices of 2.5m each, so I matched that. Even with HQ aethersand this was something like 20-30x the price of mats, but I crafted 8 of them, put them on MB at 2.5m and went to sleep. They all sold in a couple hours and my retainer had 20m waiting for me in the morning. I was shocked. This was day 1 after the patch and nobody could possibly have been ready to actually use them. That said, the "OOOOHH, SHINY!" effect is strong. Very strong. Sadly, I was on vacation this week and missed the mad rush with 3.2. Maybe next time...

I sold the first Vitality V materia on my server for about 6 million gil back in October. To be honest, I didn't think anyone would buy it. There weren't any others up. Tier V materia was much rarer then (only came from spiritbonding the i160 bodies), instead of basically being handed out now. So I just picked a price that seemed high enough to represent the incredible rarity of the materia, combined with me remembering how I sold my first vitality iv materia in 2.x for like 500k, and yet sane enough that someone with gil to burn might eventually get it and went with that. I was actually very surprised when I came back and found 6 million on my retainer from it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheCurls

You get people that sell super high (been guilty of it) and you get people that get mad at undercutters and crash the market below the mat-sum point, bouncing the market up and down.

---

I got really angry on my server about people massively undercutting clusters. To the point I invested 4mil in just buying all clusters. Too the point I had over 50k clusters. Then I created a true supply and demand 5 retainers total- 1 retainer is selling a stack a piece at 2k quantity, cascading down to 75g each (from 200). Second retainer sells quantities of 500(3), cascading from 200g down too 75g. Third retainer is selling individual stacks of 300(2), cascading from 200g to 75g each. 4th retainer sells individual stacks of 5(3) cascading like previously stated. Then my final retainer is selling 20 individual stacks of 50 each, selling for 50g each. I literally buy everyone else out. and I make a crap ton of gil monopolizing that single cluster.

So I essentially control all crystals from 200 to 75g each. At a 25g interval per controlling price. Then I just flood the market with individual stacks of 50(quantitiy)x50g. And literally buy everyone else out for this cluster. People will continue to bulk buy, and some days 1-3 people might buy me out all the way to 175g each. But I immediately correct the market all the way back down to 50g each when I log back in. Rinse and repeat.