FFXIV ECONOMICS 101

[Darksword]

Sure there is.

"I DO WHAT I WANTS!!!!"

Its the general theme of the replies, anyway. Undercutting wouldn't be so bad if it weren't a double edged sword. "I am screwing myself to also screw other people!" is what drags it down to such a level of retardation. Its not even really cutting your nose to spite your face. It's just cutting your nose because it wasn't selling fast enough.

[kidvideo]

there is no logical reason to list it at 4k.

Listing for less than the "going rate" guarantees mine will sell first & fastest, IF I want it to move. I do this in FFXI too.

[TheCurls]

Which part of "she doesn't care about Gil and just wanna sell it" don't you get? Some people treat this game like...I don't know...a game and not a business.

There's a vendor for that.

Listing for less than the "going rate" guarantees mine will sell first & fastest, IF I want it to move. I do this in FFXI too.

But when things are selling for one price dozens of times per day, there is literally no reason to undercut like that.

[Ryuukishi]

Listing for less than the "going rate" guarantees mine will sell first & fastest, IF I want it to move.

This, precisely. I really don't see what's hard to understand. Yes, I realize that I could have made a little more gil by putting in more effort to follow the market and determine the ideal price. But by undercutting by a few thousand, I still make a good amount of gil, and it took less time and less effort. That's okay with me. I don't do this regularly, only when one of my retainers happens to bring me something valuable. I'd rather spend my in-game time and effort on other stuff than maximizing the profit I can make from the market board. It is that simple. The fact that this makes people mad blows my mind.

[PixelPirate]

FFXIV Economics 101 - People buy and sell however they please. Some people are dumb and some people are smart. Either way, I'm making a killing.

[brewbane]

It's the attack of the invisible hand!

[AlexionSkylark]

I see this same paradigm in every discussion I hear on EVE online (the most sophisticated virtual economy in a MMO I have ever seen, mind you). When you mine your own minerals there and then use them to craft stuff, you didn't enhance your profit margin to 100%, because you need to factor in your item's price the ammount of ISK you LOST by choosing to use the minerals to craft instead of putting them up for sale, and the TIME it took for you to mine them which you could be doing something else. It's a pretty undervalued concept.

Also... the bottom line of every MMO economy is there is really only ONE thing that has intrinsic value. ONLY ONE, AND NOTHING ELSE:

*** TIME ***

Time spent farming stuff
Time spent leveling up and equipping DoH/DoL classes
Time spent buying materials and synthing stuff
Time spent on dungeons to get those rare drops
Time.

You pay people so you don't have to spend that time doing stuff yourself. The entire economy of every MMO will ALWAYS boil down to this. Some things have a clear time/gil ratio, others have a more blurred line. When you understand that and begin adapting your thought process to acomodate this truth, everything become much clearer.

[ClaireAbigail]

You do realize that listing something for sale, whether at the price they're currently actively selling at or your ridiculous "I don't like money" undercut price, it no longer takes up a spot in your inventory, right? If you see something selling at 10k dozens of times per day, there is no logical reason to list it at 4k.

Which part of "she doesn't care about Gil and just wanna sell it" don't you get? Some people treat this game like...I don't know...a game and not a business.

[ApolloGenX]

Yeah... It's probably annoying to retailers when competitors give out coupons, too... but that's how it goes. Sales, coupons, discounts, it all happens.

Ever seen a "We'll beat anyone's price guaranteed"?

Yep that is a real thing.

[ClaireAbigail]

But when things are selling for one price dozens of times per day, there is literally no reason to undercut like that.

Yes there is. I want mine to sell super quick just to get rid of it but selling it higher than vendor price.

Or how about, I want a lucky person to get something cheap today to brighten up his day.

Or I can say I don't care if I loose 10-100 Gil as long as I made profit I'm ok

Or how I see it. I have a sadistic pleasure watching the market crash because of the stuff I did. I LOVE watching people whine and complain about undercutting them in Mor Dhona even though they were clearly overpricing the material or whatever I'm crafting. It gives me great pleasure knowing I made money and you didn't. If someone undercuts me kudos to them. I'll buy it and sell it to a higher price