Why undercut by a 1,000+??

[Kakure]

Snip.

I don't know where you got this idea that wasting hours of your life sitting in front of the market board (excuse me, "actively manipulating prices") makes you a "true businessman" while real undercutters are crying and throwing tantrums, but I'll tell you a few things about real business.

Real businesses in the real world secure market niches through drastic undercutting. Some of the largest businesses in the world have made brands doing precisely this (Walmart and Amazon.com come immediately to mind).

Real businesspeople in the real world sometimes act for reasons that have nothing to do with maximizing profit. They have grudges and feuds. They do things to celebrate or to give the neighborhood kids a safe place to do their holiday shopping or just because their spouses asked them to.

When real businesspeople cannot win, they change the rules of the game. You want to play "let's see who can check the market board most frequently." That is a stupid game, so I decide that we're going to play "how low are you willing to go" instead. I have good reasons for my decision, but it really doesn't matter. I don't have to have a reason for selling things at whatever price I choose. That is how business works.

If participation in the economy is bloodsport, then suck it up and act like it. You are right: there is nothing in a free market that keeps you from acting like a tool. But neither do you have any ground to criticize or complain when everyone else decides to change the game so it isn't rigged in your favor, and you certainly don't have any place suggesting that they aren't doing capitalism right just because they don't do what you want them to.

[Senfei]

I seem to have offended you, my bad. Let me try to be a little more concise of my point this time. My thought process on consistant undercutting follows the theme of effort = reward. If you put in the effort, you reap the benefits. You may not like it, much like a casual player may not like how they don't have enough time per week to cap out their myth tomes and fall behind... but is it the hardcore players fault the casual is falling behind because they do? This is my baseline on the subject.

My second point is that the economy in this game is weak, and undercutting is a much larger nuisance than it should be because your items literally will not sell due to how slow the market moves compared to the amount of items poured into it in some areas. If the economy was good, undercutting slightly would just mean your item doesn't sell first, it just sells later. In a good economy, undercutting by -a lot- would do nothing as it would be bought and re-listed at the current baseline price for profit. In a good economy, one player could not use walmart/amazon tactics because in a good economy, one player would not have the financial clout to do so. Your FC working together, perhaps. But you alone, no. But alas, this is what we have.

Anyway, opinions. We all have them. The only thing I think we can agree on is a point an above poster made. There is almost no use for gil in this game. That alone is a major problem that is creating a lot of the issues you are seeing/having. Fear of RMT or whatever you are inclined to believe as to why things are as they are, the fact is that beyond being a window dressing for our HUD there is very little practical reason to have a lot of gil.

[actionjmanx]

snip

Both Wal-Mart and Amazon are bad examples.

True, Wal-Mart undercuts the other competition in town but they do so at the expense of their minimum wage employees and overseas child labor. After undercutting for so long, the other business go under, making Wal-Mart the only option in town and giving them a pricing monopoly.

Amazon actively fights states in the US that try to pass laws to charge sales tax on internet-based transactions. How is that not an attempt to write the rules in their favor?

To suggest that "real" businesspeople don't try to maximize profit is both ridiculous and laughable. Of course they try to maximize profit; losing money is the other option. Ever heard of an oil company, pharmaceutical company or even a gun company "breaking even" and selling products at cost? Of course not; they post record profits year after year because they're maximizing profits.