Undercutters

[Clethoria]

Actually, despite it being a dick move and seemingly dumb, destroying a market isn't. The reason many people think that in the english forums is because Americans tend to think short-term gains instead of long term. In the mid term to long term, destroying a market drives out competition, thus resulting in allowing a monopoly to reset prices back to the highly profitable levels (hence legislation to prevent that IRL). With luxury items like orchestrion rolls, the supply is only limited by drop rates, so valuation is a combination of how much someone wants an item versus how badly all the impatient sellers want to make those few extra gil.

Last I checked English forums included EU as well as players world wide who spoke English in general.

[Bloody]

Last I checked English forums included EU as well as players world wide who spoke English in general.

Yes, but Americans tend to be very short-term planners, especially in business. I'm not going to blanket the statement to other english-speaking groups because not all of them exhibit the same tendencies, and I don't exactly have a laundry list of which do or don't (to my knowledge) in my head, hence why I stuck with Americans, despite us not being the only users of the English Forums.

Uhm...except that there are no costs of entry into the market. People can re-enter the market anytime they like, whereas in RL, when a company is broke, it's broke, they can't just come back whenever they feel like. That's why undercutting cannot drive the competition out of this digital market - they can take their products off the market, wait for you to raise prices again, then get back in. That's not an option of RL companies.
Likewise, the only way to make real losses in the game market is to buy the mats off the MB and sell the finished good for less than the combined cost. Otherwise, the only losses you can make are opportunity costs.

It is rather funny to read, though, how people view the game's market from a company point of view and end up supporting the same practices that they would likely curse and condemn IRL. Just imagine internet providers and gas stations (i.e. luxury goods not necessary to live) would make pricing collaborations as many advocate here *shudders*.

There are some barriers to entry: how much gil does it take to acquire the raw mats to make the item in question? How much time does it take to acquire said mats if you don't have the money? How about the crystals to craft? Are you capable of farming the instance for that rare drop? It's all about commitment and effort. Yes, unlike real life a marketeer can recover quickly and re-enter the market if he or she so chooses, but many people who are driven out won't. They will just change markets.

Now, for that final point, I advocate for smart market management. I am not the kind of person who has the bankroll or desire to try and corner a market. But like the map seller, I don't bother with these undercutting wars. I pick a reasonable price that has a decent chance of selling soon unless the market crashes. As a professional, I do not endorse nor condone price collusions. In FFXIV, the transparency involved in supply pricing and somewhat vague demand valuation generally keeps the price of any given good in check, and that's what I follow to turn a profit.