The markets, stalls, price listing and undercutting. (A suggestion)

[Leeloo]

"Undercutting the Competition", best leve name in the game & something I do often

[Oscillate_Wildly]

Too bad applying full laws of economy on a game won't work. ): Personally I just call it being a dick.

I know of ways to play the market in other games, buy low sell high, but with XIV there are (in the words of one of my friends) limitless supply. Hopefully by the time the Materia system is released there will be more sought after items to farm, create, and sell that aren't in such abundance.

Truthfully it'll be a problem either way, but to better the MW would be a nice change

[viion]

Cant really call it being a dick. If I craft up 10k shards and want them sold by end of the night, the only way is to undercut, similar with Fishing (i dont fish but if i did) I would want them to sell so I make a lot of money right away before price goes even further down and im stuck with them.

There is no reason really to put stuff on the market at a price higher than the lowest because you as a buyer will not pay the higher price will you?

In the end, the buyers are just as bad as the sellers in that they will only pay for the cheapest deals.

I've needed fish for many Alch synths and I will never ever buy higher than the current lowest, even then sometimes I won't buy at all and just ask my brother to fish it for me or wait until it's reduced.

[Jieddo]

I cant speak for everyone, but I personally sell items lower than the mode rate when they have been sitting in my retainer/bizarre shop for more than a week. I dont do this to make gill I do it to get the item out of my inventory as fast as possible.

The 2 retainer limitation makes it hard to keep a large inventory of items, and I dont use additional mule characters to my stuff so I try to get rid of "junk" as fast as possible in the wards. The majority of the stuff I may sell at a significantly reduced price are loot i picked up doing leves/grinding or old gear I no longer equip.

I have more stuff coming in faster than I can get rid of it so the only solution is to "undercut" the market or sell it to the NPC. Just an example, I may collect upwards of 5,000 lightning shards per month just as loot from mobs. The going rate may be 150 gill for these, well I will sell them at 99 gill just to get them out of my inventory as fast as possible.

[Oscillate_Wildly]

I think buyers ARE just as bad, if I see a fish on sale I'd buy it, but I'd still buy it even if it were priced a little higher. Same with shards, if I saw full stacks of 999 I'd purchase them at 200 the same as if I'd purchase them at 100.

I'm not a fool I get what you're all saying, but another point is that there are just no gil sinks in this game and nothing to keep the prices at a steady amount to encourage making what you deserve for certain items. When selling stacks of crafted items to an NPC is more profitable than selling them on the market that's...kind of stupid. Even if there is a demand and someone rises to fulfil it there will be others right behind him ready to undercut.


The market listing of Cheapest first is partially to blame for this, by limiting the amount of prices listed and taxing the listed price it could hopefully assist everyone in the long run to make a higher profit to encourage more use of the market. Especially in areas other than Ul'dah.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

You'd think most people are smart enough to understand basic game economics, but it does seem to be challenging to some people.

Two very frustrating instances I've had were selling Pearl Rings and two Broken Aeolian Scimitars. The pearl rings I was putting up for 50k a ring and was the only seller. I'd sell at least two a day and then I started to get competition against one person. Not only did this person undercut, they lowered the price by 60%. Now, I ask you, if you have only one other person as your competition, how is it smart to immediately go to your floor price? If it were blind pricing with just a history, people tend to not do this. At least, not as often as in FFXIV.

As for the Broken Aeolian Scimitars on my server, there were only a handful and they were decently priced. The first couple of sellers judged how much it should be by deducting the prices of the materials from the price of the completed sword and sold their broken part for what is left over from that. Until, that is, someone undercut it by 1.5million. What this then does is throw people into a sales person whirlwind and then they irrationally lower their price by 2million. The undercutting moron sees this then they too go into a sales person whirlwind and lower their price by another 1million. At this point it's not even profitable compared to getting someone to craft the sword for you and giving them a asinine tip.

We know people will lower as long as they still gain a profit, but for some items you have to also base it on the amount of time it takes farming the materials or object. A handful of ignorant people don't mind making what would be poverty level per hour in FFXIV, it seems. It's a fail system and relies too much on player intelligence. Something that is statistically not in the majority's favor anyway, in or out of the game's world.

[Jinrya-Geki]

I like it being undercut. I think it's absolutely stupid when something like the Jaded Crook sells for half a million gil. Common items should never be over 10k.

When everyone else is a crafter what do you expect?

[Oscillate_Wildly]

Well said Bruce, and put a lot more eloquently than I could have. D:
There is no debate that people will undercut you, but it is THAT kind of undercutting that is asinine and troublesome.

@Jinrya: Jade Crook requires high rank crafting with 2 sub crafts, the creation of Nephrite from Jade which was, until now I guess, a rarer drop by only one type of mob. If I were that crafter I don't think I'd want to bother with leveling my craft knowing that I could make a bigger profit making wood chips all day. When you pay for an item you pay for more than just how common it is, but also by how much time went into making it.

Like Bruce said, prices would logically be dictated by the cost of mats, and time, not by how fast you can sell and just because. \:

[viion]

Two very frustrating instances I've had were selling Pearl Rings and two Broken Aeolian Scimitars. The pearl rings I was putting up for 50k a ring and was the only seller. I'd sell at least two a day and then I started to get competition against one person. Not only did this person undercut, they lowered the price by 60%. Now, I ask you, if you have only one other person as your competition, how is it smart to immediately go to your floor price? If it were blind pricing with just a history, people tend to not do this. At least, not as often as in FFXIV.

Because he is most likely not looking for a profit or a lot of gil, he most likely just wants to get rid of the item. I do this all the time with gear, I'll throw it up for stupidly low amount just to get rid of it, its better than NPCing

[Rentahamster]

You'd think most people are smart enough to understand basic game economics, but it does seem to be challenging to some people. . .

Those are not the only ways to judge value and gil equivalent worth of an item, you know.