How do you react to being undercut?

[rotam]

I can understand If the cheapest item on AH is 10.000 gil and then someone put theirs at 9.999 or 9.990, its reasoneable, i do it. but I dont understand when the cheapest item is 10.000 and then the troll comes and put his 6 items at 5.000.... seriously... wtf???

[AlahnSiegrain]

You should take a look at 2 star items' undercutting. They really undercut by like 100k sometimes. Makes you wonder about people's rush these days... XD

[yumeyume]

1. Buy their products if it is cheap cause you know some items will sell.
2. Don't sell your products and wait until the price comes back up. Sell your items another time when nobody is selling.

If they undercut a huge amount, you know they are not making any gil on a long run. Buy them out - and resale the products.

[Nenin]

1. Buy their products if it is cheap cause you know some items will sell.
2. Don't sell your products and wait until the price comes back up. Sell your items another time when nobody is selling.

If they undercut a huge amount, you know they are not making any gil on a long run. Buy them out - and resale the products.

Easier said than done with two-star items.

I'm happy to buy a few tier III or even tier IV materia priced far below the rest. They sell fast and I can afford to put away a few hundred thousand for a day or two until they resell. Unfortunately I'm not made of money so I can't buy and resell HQ darksteel items when they dip below the base ingredient costs multiple times a day.

New crafters frequently try to make some lvl 70 gear the split second they can afford the materials. When the item doesn't sell overnight they get antsy and slash the price. They don't care that they are losing money on it because they just want the liquidity of actual gil back. Seeing as how it only takes 1-3 days to get any craft to 50 this is becoming a serious problem.

[Zigkid3]

I can understand If the cheapest item on AH is 10.000 gil and then someone put theirs at 9.999 or 9.990, its reasoneable, i do it. but I dont understand when the cheapest item is 10.000 and then the troll comes and put his 6 items at 5.000.... seriously... wtf???

As Nenin touched upon, it has to do with liquidity. Sure they can do 9900 gil instead and get more out of it. But some people prefer smaller and faster profits (if they themselves managed to get it for even cheaper than 5k) as opposed to larger and slower.
What a lot of people don't realize when flipping items on the market is to look at the turnover of that item. most people worry just about the money, and look at the history just for the prices. However it's also beneficial to look at the dates/times items were bought. are the most current entries in the history all from just today? a mix of today and yesterday? or is it slow and only have had a few buyers over a long time period?
So if they actually got it for 2k, see its selling for 10k they can sell for 9k and wait a maybe 2 days or sell it at 5k for smaller profit and get it in hours.
It honestly depends on the person. It's also likely the same person is selling the same item for two different prices on two different vendors to trick people into buying up the lower one making them think that they can sell for higher, though that's less economic and more psychological but that could be it too.
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I find it funny when i see people complain about undercutters, if you can't deal with an undercutter then you shouldn't be in the market. period.

[Wazabi]

Sadly, this really isn't going to change until the developers change how price adjustments work...

The misconception that you get taxed when you post the item will "fix" undercutting is misguided. When people realize that there's a price changing cost, they'll be more careful with their pricing, posting it at a lower price where there's a higher probability of selling. The price will just start lower. A better crafter or more efficient gatherer can still undercut you since they are more efficient at making/harvesting the product than you. Also, this still benefits the cash rich players where they can afford to take greater risk. It will also benefit traders who are able to read the market better or more spend more time than most other players. In the end, the better traders will still be better off than the regular traders.

The proposed change does nothing other than create a false sense of security and an illusion to players who doesn't understands the intricate mechanics of trading.

[Haprimac]

I don't really follow the market that much, I just post the NQ craft crap I don't need or the junk I made to get first time recipe-xp. If they sell, yay, if they don't, they'll hang there for a week or so before I can be asked to vendor them/adjust prices. So far I haven't really had any problems selling the stuff, except for those eyes of ice that had been hanging in my retainer for 3 weeks, oops.

[Rupel]

I typically don't react to undercuts.

It's probably due to the fact I see the trade-goods I put up for sale as an investment, but I normally put my items around mid-market value. My rationale behind it being that someone's going to come along and snatch every undercut they can for themselves, so I might as well play it patient and make that extra profit fraction.

[MentalPoison]

I react different ways, if its a market im not in much, I just drop to half or more after 1-3 of the cuts. Then I always sell and right away, avoiding having to play cat and mouse with somebody fighting so desperately for small profit items.

If its one of my market like Mythril Ingots, Cobalt ingots, or Darksteel nugs.. I flood the market and drown them out. Not a single player has been able to withstand this yet for any prolonged time, after a few hours to a day- they sell out and dont make more. Ill drive both of our profits down so low that they lose money and dont consider making anymore stacks of it.

[MithrasInvictus]

If I am willing to eat the loss and it won't result in a write-down of my manufacturing overhead then I just eat it and be done with it. If it is clearly a market fluctuation because of some unusually large flood of product, I just maintain my price until those undercutting are sold out.