Extreme Market Board Undercutting is a Problem. Who ultimately benefits from this?

[Ultimatecalibur]

I get where you are coming from but to clarify I'm not referring to selling the finished product at a higher price.

For example if X is selling for 100k consistently,multiple times daily.

I bought the mats from other players for 50k and I sold my item at 100k as well, I'm making a 50k profit.

However, since I didn't spend that time farming/gathering items and instead did this for many items like X but with higher profit margins.

As opposed to someone, who spends hours farming/gathering themselves for a few items like X.

The person who farmed/gathered themselves has lost the time/opportunity to diversify into many/more lucrative markets.

Even though, my profit margins in terms of gil may be lower on individual items but collectively on multiple items, I'm fairly confident that I'd make more gil/hour.

Not everyone places the same value on their own time nor do they make judgements based on gil/hour rates. Some people enjoy the process of gathering all the materials needed for a craft or crafts, crafting those items and then putting them on the market.

Some people like playing the market while others like crafting and selling stuff. Both sets of producers sell stuff on the marketboard alongside players who just post the random stuff their retainers bring home.