How do you deal with constant undercutting?

[Zephanoa]

I think patience is your best bet unless you are being targeted or a change has made a particular mat easier to get and so on. People will always list lower if that is their perogative and most people do so that they can get a quick sell.

[Ramesses]

Yes, patience... definitely agree.

Most of the time, the undercutters who drastically lower their prices unfortunately don't have a simple understanding of patience.

[TattersailNightwish]

If I see the board looking something like this:

49,999
50,000
52,000
52,000

I will buy the 50,000 one, because the 49,999 guy is being a #$!.
It's like the #$% on The Price is Right that bids $1 more than the guy right behind him. It may technically help but it's a @#$! move.

[Liam_Harper]

I will buy the 50,000 one, because the 49,999 guy is being a #$!.
It's like the #$% on The Price is Right that bids $1 more than the guy right behind him. It may technically help but it's a @#$! move.

I don't understand this tbh. Why is he being a #$%?

He's undercutting the guy at 50k, but has the good manners and sense not to crash the market for the both of them. The guy at 50k still has a solid chance to sell his item if he's on a different market, like Uldah instead of Limsa. It's better for both sellers.

I mean, as a seller I'd much rather be in competition with that 1 gil undercut guy than Sir Marketwrecker. A 1 gil undercut doesn't necessarily mean a bot or someone undercutting every 10 min either, that's a different topic. Just curious what it is about 1 gil undercuts that irks people so much?

[TattersailNightwish]

I don't know, maybe it's just me. I'm not exactly drowning in gil, so every time I log in and something I thought would have sold by now didn't, and I check the history and one sold for one gil less, that's irksome.
When you have a lot of money I think you view the MB as a steady long-term source of income. When you don't, its more like "I need gil NOW"

I'm sure if I had a couple million I couldn't care less.

[Zephanoa]

Undercutting by 1g is just childish... I can see that they're just trying to keep theirs at the top of the board but when things don't sell very often it means my incidental items never sell. I'll usually check the history and put an item up for what it seemed to sell for in the past. If someone keeps 1g undercutting me I start lowering the price by about 2% each time. Usually others will follow suit, adjusting a bit, so mine is never so low as to be attractive for resale. If they match my price, even if their listing is above mine due to Retainer name, I don't undercut at all.

The fact is that I am the worst monster when it comes to the board.

Have you ever bought out an item that was confirmed for Fashion Report to put it up for over ten times its original price? Then someone puts 3-5 of them up all weekend, adding more when they sell, and regularly undercutting by 5-10% until they're selling for near what you paid.
Perhaps you found something people like for glamour that uses very cheap mats and listed it for nearly one-hundred times what it cost you? One day ten of them are listed for half what you're charging, driving the price down, with more following until your price looks ridiculous compared to the sale history.
Or perhaps even buying vendor items and listing them for double or triple their cost? It seems good until they start being listed for vendor price plus market tax and an additional 1000g.

That's what I do.

I see people in this thread complaining about listings being under the regular price, that it annoys them, and it annoys me just as much to see listings trying to take advantage of situations to charge way more than the item is really worth or previously sold for. I attempt to correct this. It's not completely altruistic: seeing prices shift and change over the course of time, desperately squeezing as much profit as possible from the situation, while I make steady returns is pretty funny.

You're nicer than I am, I will half something if I get undercut. It usually sends a signal pretty quickly :P

[RuleofThree]

There used to be a few people like that on Zalera too, which attracted a lot of hate! One of them claimed that he ruled the marketboard... which I thought was pretty arrogant and silly. By contrast, another one said he/she just wanted to maximize income, and this was his/her interest. He/she turned out to be a really nice person.

I don't think any of them use bots. I think a lot of people just play the undercutting game every 1/2 hr when they're online. Personally, I try to do that too as much as I can while online. But there's a limit to how far this can go...

For example, Person A was selling something at 1.2 million. I undercut him with 1.19 million. Person B then undercut me at 1.18 million. I will then undercut again at 1.17 million. Person B then undercut at 1.16 million. I now slow down, and undercut with 1.159 million. Person B then undercut with 1.158 million... the depreciation rate is slow so far, so we just continue this undercutting game non-stop.

But then, Person C appears and undercut at 850K. Person B then follow suit with 840K. I now go down to 830K. Person C then undercut at 450K. Person B then go 440K. At this point, I increase my price back to 1.19 million, and quit the undercutting game. Both Person B and C's items were sold 3 days later at around 380K, and they continued to sell more at low prices. Then, 2 weeks later, my item was suddenly sold... at 1.19 million. This is a true story! This is how I play my undercutting game.

How do you know who they are? Does the Market Board only list the retainer's name on the selling list? Not your character's name? Is there something I'm missing? Is there a way to find out?

[Shadygrove]

You're nicer than I am, I will half something if I get undercut. It usually sends a signal pretty quickly :P

A signal to crash the market BIG TIME!

"Ain't no time to wonder why WHOOPE we are all gona die!"

[Godwack]

Change price to 2gil and buy them off. problem solved.

[Frizze]

How do you know who they are? Does the Market Board only list the retainer's name on the selling list? Not your character's name? Is there something I'm missing? Is there a way to find out?

If the person is making the thing that theyre selling, it should have a makers mark on it. So even if i dont recognize the retainer named comebuymyshniz, if its selling crafted gear that has the maker marked as "Allup Inyourshniz"(not a real person as far as i know, just an example name to explain) then you can reasonably expect thats the player youre dealing with.