The way people price items is laughable at best!

[NorthernLadMSP]

Oh trust me, I'll play the game if that's what people wanna do. It's just annoying at how some of them go about it.

[Chihaya]

The only items this could truly apply for are items with materials bought entirely from a vendor.

''cost less then 10k'' Yes, but only because those materials are posted on the board for a total of less then 10k. It might well be that those items are underpriced, rather then the finished product being overpriced.

There is also supply and demand.
For example: if it bothers you so much, why not produce the item yourself?


Your reasoning is off. Undercutters are a problem because they also don't know the market. They will undercut 5 times a day for 10k each, even tho the item only sells at one specific time of the day. And even tho they only got undercut for perhaps 101gil themselves.


I do that all the time. But I don't undercut by 10k, but rather 100, 100 or even 1 gil. Precisely because I have entire stacks of the item. With that much future stock it doesnt make much sense to devalue the market.

Materials are underpriced? lol, that doesn't change the fact is hella cheap to make. Just like the glamour prism mentioned - cost maybe about 1k to make but people want to sell it for 6x the price - wonder why you get undercut? Sell 1 for 5k profit but takes forever or selling 10 fast for 1k profit each.

And yes, there might be some stupid people out there - and therefore I can take advantage and resell their items - more profit for me.
But alot of them know what they are doing and often stay in the same markets. No matter if it is just reducing the profit margin of each item by selling large volumes of it, or just stocking mats when it's low and driving people out of the market.

There is a demand or I would not be able to resell. The problem is people have the right now mentality, they cant wait more then 2 seconds to sell something. So people like me are happy to buy the item and resell it when undercutter's go to bed and because prices go back up.

You get your profits, they get there profits - both sides happy. Why are you making a thread to pretty much looking down on them.

I think Masamune is a special case where the supply is just too high - the prices are super low but also taking into consideration that there's tons of the items on the MB.

[Gillionaire]

Oh trust me, I'll play the game if that's what people wanna do. It's just annoying at how some of them go about it.

That goes back to point #3. They WANT you to be annoyed and move on to another market.

There are always ways to beat that though, but that does require a lot of resources.

The majority of the people complaining about undercutting are talking about a high % decrease in the items current market value. I'm unsure why you are arguing the point you are, surely you realise this too? Undercutting like that makes markets incredibly unstable and liable to crash.
It helps noone.

Yes it does (help someone that is), volatile markets doesn't mean everybody suffers. Let's set this straight. We're playing a close to zero sum game. Sure there's always green gil being introduced, but considering that a high-end crafter can move millions in a day, as opposed to what a green gil farmer can make in a day, I think it's safe to say that we're in a closed system playing with finite amount of gil. Especially true when talking about the niche of high-end crafting market where most of the goods sold are being sold to other crafters.

So, for every losses somebody endures, the profits have to go to somebody else playing the same market. People just don't see it as easily because it's not quite as evident, but to people like me who actually pay attention to names of retainers and actually KNOW to whom each of those retainers belong to, it makes the flow of money a little more visible.


Now having said that, I seldom undercut by large amounts like you described, but that's only because I crash the market as a strategy and I very rarely have to employ such tactic these days.. I used to do it a lot more frequent before and it still made me quite a bit of profit.

Try keeping track of retainers and see who's listing what and who's buying it.. Where the money's coming from, where it goes to, etc. It all starts to make a lot more sense. I've learned a great deal about playing the market just by observing how some of the other people play the market.

[NorthernLadMSP]

That goes back to point #3. They WANT you to be annoyed and move on to another market.

There are always ways to beat that though, but that does require a lot of resources.

I know, but I'm not going anywhere. In fact, I'm just getting started. Because, as of now, the only ones I'm selling are clothcraft. Once I get my other crafters to 50, I will be selling all types.

[Gillionaire]

I know, but I'm not going anywhere. In fact, I'm just getting started. Because, as of now, the only ones I'm selling are clothcraft. Once I get my other crafters to 50, I will be selling all types.

That's good then, if you consistently undercut them, almost to the point of no profit, you can and will eventually drive out your competition when he realizes it's not worth the trouble. Then you can hike the price back up for a while until another person tries to compete with you.

[NorthernLadMSP]

That's good then, if you consistently undercut them, almost to the point of no profit, you can and will eventually drive out your competition when he realizes it's not worth the trouble. Then you can hike the price back up for a while until another person tries to compete with you.

Well yeah, but I'm not the one who initiates it. I just will continue with what other people start.

[Wulfyn]

What makes me facepalm is when someone not only undercuts HQ they also undercut NQ at the same time lol.

[Rhas]

Before anyone jumps on me, its a free market and people are going to do what they want to do. (just a example) But I have to laugh every time I see a item selling well for 90k and then some one comes along and is selling the 4 of the same item for 60k and then the next guy comes along selling the same item for 40k! And before you know it the 90k item is worthless.

What I do is buy low and wait for the low ballers to go to bed and raise the price and profit when I wake up in the morning. If people could wait more then 2 seconds to sell something I would be out of business.

I like occasionally buying them all up and reposting for the price people were willing to pay in the 1st place Someone post 20k under everyone else sounds like a chance to make a profit to me

[Rhas]

You can try to play the market like that if you want.
But one day you're gonna be the one stuck holding the Hot Potato.
When that happens, don't come crying that "the item is now worthless" when you're stuck with a bunch of them because you tried to make a quick buck reselling it.

When you make over 1-2 million gil a week without even trying very hard this becomes much less of an issue

Choose your markets wisely is all i can say. Sometimes I've take hug losses to stock up, held onto them for a week or two and prices went back up again and them made my money back. Patience is also key. Just because they trend lower for a bit doesn't mean they will keep trending lower, its all about supply and demand after all.

[Airget]

At one point or another an item will lose it's value completely and sometimes that is enough for people to offload it as fast as possible.

Would you rather sell 5 of x item for 90k or would you rather offload your inventory of 50 of them for 40k? It's little things like that which add up, sure you can make 450k(excluding tax) from selling 5 of them at 90k but on the other hand you make 2mil selling them at 40k.

Let's look at the above again and just assume they take 20k to make, so making 50 cost 1mil. Now let's look at the above again.

You only sell 5 for 90k and made 450k that means you ended up losing 550k gil over that venture cause let's say the market crashed and now they are only worth 20k or less. On the otherhand because you offloaded it fast and sold for 40k you ended up with a 1mil profit and no loss. Those are the type of perspectives you have to keep in mind when and why people sell certain items at a certain rate.