FFXIV ECONOMICS 101

[Gramul]

Supply and demand. Let the market live, grow and change in accordance with what the people need, want, and can provide.

[LineageRazor]

Actually read through the whole opening post. And, as is usual with the case of anyone talking about undercutters, it is mostly wrong.

No item in the game has a "true" price, with the possible exception of the NPC sale price (anyone that sells goods for at or less than the NPC sale price is either stupid, forgot to set the price when they clicked the "Sell" button, or is deliberately providing cheap goods to random customers for some reason, possibly generousity).

Price of goods in this game is decided by supply and demand, and the total amount of gil circulating in the server. That price is not static; it fluctuates all the time. You CANNOT expect an item that sells for X gil today to still sell for X gil next month. Or next week. Or even NEXT DAY.

Players that undercut by significant amounts will only affect the market for a brief time before it stablizes again. If demand is high, their goods will be gone before you even notice and your stuff will STILL sell at your desired price. If demand is low, then their undercutting will help to stablize the prices at their new, correct price, and your flinging nasty tells around will not do a thing to change that except spread a lot of unnecessary negativity and hard feelings.

When setting prices for an item, don't get stuck on attitudes like, "this item is worth this much". Look at the history; that is MUCH more important than what prices are currently on display. Watch for trends - if the last dozen HQ items sold for 2000 each, you probably aren't going to have much luck putting them up for 5000, even if the six currently in stock have a 5000 price tag. If the last dozen HQ items have steadily been decreasing in price, then you need to price to match the trend. If you price to match the trend, and you STILL don't sell, then the items are worth even less than you thought - it might be time to try a new market.

Diversify. You should not pin all your hopes on a single product. Even if you control the market now, eventually someone else is going to see you have a good thing going and muscle in for a piece of the action. If a market becomes saturated with sellers, prices will inevitably go down as supply exceeds demand. It's time to find a new product to sell - or better yet, be selling other products all along. Don't be "that seller who makes Buttons in a Blanket". Make other foods, make equipment from other classes if you can.

Accept that players who farm their own materials will be able to sell much cheaper than players who buy materials from the Marketboards. If farming/gathering bores you, that's your perogative, but just because the materials for an item add up to 1700 gil doesn't mean there aren't folks who feel comfortable selling those products at 1300 gil - after all, for them that's 1300 gil profit! Why not just sell the mats for greater profit? Because mats sell slower than food, and take up more market board slots.

Looks like you already have an understanding of the value of selling in smaller stats, so I won't dwell on that.

tl;dr: If you are having trouble selling a good, it is YOUR FAULT, not anyone else's. No one can control a market for any length of time. If you're not selling, you've priced too high for the current market. Don't get angry at other sellers, and for goodness sake don't YELL at other sellers. Instead, reexamine your own selling practices, and determine whether the market can still support you at the level you desire. If not, it's time to move on.

[Ronyx]

Just got one question! How were you able to track the guy down? o.O; Those names there are his retainers name, so there no way you can know who is the person behind the retainer.

[Sadana]

Just got one question! How were you able to track the guy down? o.O; Those names there are his retainers name, so there no way you can know who is the person behind the retainer.

Crafted items have the crafter's name on them. That may be how.

[Dude]

I do laugh when people are selling things for less than their vendor worth.

But, I don't understand why people complain about the video game economy. First of all, you can completely control the prices of goods with a big bank roll. If you think X item is worth Z, buy up all under cutters and put it back up for sale at your price. You will make a profit on the turn, control the price and the other person will get their quick sale.

Other than that, this game economy is about ease of life and rarity. People have money to spend in this economy too. Unfortunately, there are not that many rare items that can be driven through the economy and support a huge market. But I think Square really does try. Materia moves well and has stable prices.

[ClaireAbigail]

If it's something crafted, the name of the crafter of the item will be at the bottom of the item box thingy

[Chihaya]

Sending nasty tells cause someone undercut you... I'd first file harassment GM complaint then blist you.

People have the right to set whatever price they want.
If you think it is too low, do what you did, buy it out and sell it at higher price.
Of course smaller stacks sells faster, a lot of the people aren't looking for a stack of 99, just a few will be enough to do their quest/raid whatever.
There is no lesson here, just a rant thread.

[ruinedmirage]

I must've been the worst undercutter of them all. I gave stuff away for free, made relics with my own mats and materia, gathered and made stacks of 99 HQ foods to give away. I just did crafting and gathering on request, because I felt I profited more from helping people out of kindness than from getting another white pixel next to the yellow one.

Seeing people light up from free crafts, free melds, free mats, and even free gil donations was something that COULDN'T be bought, it DIDN'T have value in gil, and was absolutely PRICELESS. But as I had more and more fun doing that, I got more and more hate for it (stealing customers, as it were). I eventually realized ......... I was going against the typical flow. People are supposed to take advantage of the weak and extort whenever possible.

That's when I left.

[Raeanya]

I must've been the worst undercutter of them all. I gave stuff away for free, made relics with my own mats and materia, gathered and made stacks of 99 HQ foods to give away. I just did crafting and gathering on request, because I felt I profited more from helping people out of kindness than from getting another white pixel next to the yellow one.

Seeing people light up from free crafts, free melds, free mats, and even free gil donations was something that COULDN'T be bought, it DIDN'T have value in gil, and was absolutely PRICELESS. But as I had more and more fun doing that, I got more and more hate for it (stealing customers, as it were). I eventually realized ......... I was going against the typical flow. People are supposed to take advantage of the weak and extort whenever possible.

That's when I left.

This. Just last night there was a player that shouted on the Steps of Nald that they needed gil for teleports. I invited her to party, got together, and sent her 50k gil, disbanded the party, and continued on with my day.

[LineageRazor]

But as I had more and more fun doing that, I got more and more hate for it (stealing customers, as it were). I eventually realized ......... I was going against the typical flow. People are supposed to take advantage of the weak and extort whenever possible.

The nobility of your actions is greatly diminished by the fact that you use them to shame other people. If you truly intended your generous actions to be their own reward, you would never have felt the need to bring them up here. Instead, you did. It is clear that you actually were working to put yourself into a position of moral superiority from which you could lord it over other people you consider to be beneath you. Classy.