Tips for Helping your Server's Economy, post 1.22~

This is a thread meant with good intentions. I can understand more knowledgeable players wanting to debate points made, but please keep it constructive. That said, I have some things I think would be beneficial to the economy if more people practiced them.~

- When shopping, check Gridania's and/or Limsa's market ward before Uldah's. You may find the item you're looking for at a cheaper rate, and you're helping out those who couldn't make it in there!

- Always try to dispatch your retainer, rather than dismiss.

- Search and compare before you fix your bazaar prices!

- When pricing and item for sale, compare it to those already on sale. If you obtained it easily, undercut the lowest price by a few gil. Don't get crazy, though. If it was hard to get, don't undercut!

- Check the dates on the sale history to see how often it sells. If it's selling a lot, there's lots of demand for it. You can probably up the price on it and still have it sell relatively quickly.

- If you're selling meldable equipment, even a single piece of rank 1 materia melded to it can add a bit of value and make it sell faster! If you can't meld materia, have someone do it for you. Many players (especially new ones) would rather have a piece of gear with bonus stats than meld it themselves.

Feel free to add your own~



.... inb4 "auction house"

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Well, I've tried putting my retainer in the Gridanian Wards with more competitive prices but it just isn't working... No one even bothers to check.

All of you Disciples of War out there! Sell your random loot in the wards! The nice thing about this game is as long as it exists, someone out there needs it. You might not get much for it in an efficient time, but when you make it easier for the crafters to get the mats they need, it becomes easier for them to craft, which can potentially lower the prices for the gear you need.

Similarly, Disciples of Hand and Land should be selling some of the lower level gear and mats too. It may be less efficient, as you waste space in your retainers' bazaars, but when you have low lvl gear selling consistently, your higher lvl gear will sell better relatively.

It is hard for me to make sense of this in words but all I'm saying is support the low levels and it will come back to you in the long run.

This is very hard to do.
1 -- There is not really any benefit in one city over another as to where you sell items from (small tax reduction on low level armour is it I believe)
2 -- You can not really 'specialize' with a retainer. You get 2, so you can sell two types of things (which makes it difficult if you want to sell something else). For example, if you have Retainer 1 specialize in Materia, and Retainer 2 specialize in HQ, where do you sell all your NQ drops, or Unique items, or materials?

The present system does not lend itself well to a reasonable distribution of where you sell your items from.

The only real way I can see this working is if entire LS(s) get together and decide to make it happen. For example, if 50 people from an LS all agree:
All crafting materials (wood, ore, fish, etc) will be sold in Gridania
Everything else sold in Ul'Dah

Another LS would say:
All HQ/Unique will be sold in Limsa Lominsa
Everything else sold in Ul'Dah

And a third LS would say:
All HQ/Unique & Crafting Materials will be sold in Ul'Dah
Everything else will be sold in Gridania or Limsa Lominsa (50/50 split)

Then we may see a better push on market distribution, competitive pricing, and easy/smooth sales across Eorzea.

But it will take more than one eager little Taru to make this happen.


I would suggest to discuss it in our own respective worlds if so inclined, but it may not be an easy sell. Also there may be the counter-argument that this will all change come 2.0, so why go to the effort now?


For now, what I do do is:
Low level/cheap items (basic materias, cheap crafting material, etc.) I give for free to LS mates who want.

Sellable crafting materials: I look at the pricing history.... if there is a smooth trend, I stick to the trend. If its chaotic, I set my price to what looks fairest and subtract 5-10% depending on how I feel that day ^.^

Sellable equipment: If its low-mid level, I just undercut by a round figure (43k -> 40k, 72k -> 70k). Helps out new people who needs it, and I don't have to remember complicated numbers for 100 different things that I want to sell.

Rare Items: Sorry, My Intelligence +20 materias are not going to go for cheap ^.^;

I usually put my stuff for the same price as everyone else, to get a sale, and still not be an undercutting prick.

Nope. They still do it. It's ridiculous. This is the one thing I liked about FFXI, but it was also a major flaw in FFXI. Considering you bought the first item on the list, no matter the price of others. I don't know how SE can make people not be greedy as fuck over something like this.

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Originally Posted by Colino

Well, I've tried putting my retainer in the Gridanian Wards with more competitive prices but it just isn't working... No one even bothers to check.

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the only way the people bothers to check these bazaars is to have them in the same mercantile house together, and they cant in the current version... fail :/

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Originally Posted by Ruisu

I usually put my stuff for the same price as everyone else, to get a sale, and still not be an undercutting prick.

Nope. They still do it. It's ridiculous. This is the one thing I liked about FFXI, but it was also a major flaw in FFXI. Considering you bought the first item on the list, no matter the price of others. I don't know how SE can make people not be greedy as fuck over something like this.

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It's only a matter of supply/demand. You could even put your item for a higher price than the current's lowest if you know that demand is pretty high and remaining supply is low.

There is no such thing as "undercutting prick", if supply > demand, undercutting is the only way of selling something. Also it's a bit too easy to say "I put my item for the same price", doing so will list your item first, since it was the last added, so yours have more chance to sell because players typically buy from the topmost entry.

If there are 40 of the same item on sale and demand is very low (2 per day in average let's say), will I wait 20 days to have a chance to sell my item? And that's 20 days if no one undercut me in the meantime or if no supplier add more in the meantime (which is very unlikely). Hell no, I won't wait 20 days, therefore I lower my price. That's economics 101.

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- Search and compare before you fix your bazaar prices!

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What for? If one doesn't check, it means that one doesn't care. What are the possible outcome of not checking:

- Selling an item for a price that is way too low: it will be sold in a matter of minutes and won't affect the market as no one will try to undercut that. (i.e. : put an item for 1K, instead of 10K). Risk is that someone will buy it to either sell it back straight away or sell back to NPC.

- Selling an item for a price that is way too high: it won't sell and may not even be up on the 20 best prices. Seller will realize it at some point and lower the price.

- Selling an item for a price that is more or less like the current market prices: same effect as if you have checked/compared other bazaar prices.

Not selling much in Gridania Ward or Limsa Ward? Don't despair, sell those unique items that are rare or not present in the Uldah wards.

-Highlevel food and certain food ingredients- Salt Cod puffs and Eft steaks are oft bought/rarely sold!
-HQ items = You may not be able to sell that Electrum Ore in the Grid wards without undercutting. But HQ electrum ore is definitely going to sell quickly at price.
-Materia enhanced items
-Materia

Items that WON'T sell as quickly without undercutting

Grinding mats
Catalysts
NQ items
Shards/Crystals

These are more fast food items, people just run up to the wards, grab what they want that's cheaper. Unless the Customers are in Gridania or Limsa, they're not going to bother searching the Grid or LL market wards.

Gridania can be an exception because Louisoux is there and you have a lot of people returning from primal fights. Arrows, food, medicine, and other similar items used in battle may sell there at price, particularly if they are HQ. They won't sell at price in Limsa unfortunately. That city does not get much traffic, if at all.

I've found that a great deal of my wealth has come not from the items I sell but rather my timing. The only way to reliably get your product sold is to watch the market like a hawk the the moment someone under cuts you then you undercut him by 3 gil. Otherwise if you put up a ton of item at the 'standard price' that below the line everyone will shoot below of to get a sale. Infuriating but this market system is more about waiting in Agrubah then it is about your crafting skillset.

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Originally Posted by Zaaku

I've found that a great deal of my wealth has come not from the items I sell but rather my timing. The only way to reliably get your product sold is to watch the market like a hawk the the moment someone under cuts you then you undercut him by 3 gil. Otherwise if you put up a ton of item at the 'standard price' that below the line everyone will shoot below of to get a sale. Infuriating but this market system is more about waiting in Agrubah then it is about your crafting skillset.

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Yup, also try to detect sleeping patterns of competitors and undercut them when you know they won't be able to undercut you :p (that work if you are selling an item that only you and couple players are selling in mass).