Undercutting

[Seiryuukishi]

Selling items is more than supply and demand. More than marketing trends based on current and past behaviors. You have to realize that your consumers are human. That is to say today 80% may want to glamour their gear but next week they could care less for the rest of the games life time. The only things that are sure to sell on the market board unless crafters decide to level gathering classes is crystals in all forms. Even gear isn't a sure thing anymore as I am as certain as the sun rising every FC has at least one person with all crafting classes maxed leveled if not melded to the brim.

You cannot mistake wants and needs as being the same when it comes to marketing otherwise you'll be waiting on something that'll sit there for months. I need to eat. I need to sleep, etc. I want to play this game as much as I can but it will not pay my bills nor feed my family. In much the same way in this game people want to look great, they want their house to be the best. But will it make them better geared? Will their crafting classes be able to make 3 star items? Can they make the items or gather the items needed for their FC's goal furthering? Ifrit's Horn makes a nice piece of furniture to show off but it does nothing to further progression. Nor does it warrant a price tag of 900k much less 1 mil. Priorities always win out unless you have it to burn. That's how supply and demand really works.

[Giantbane]

Think of the market board as just another form of PvP. Undercutting is a great way of encouraging your competition to either find another market or enjoy reduced profitability

[DefendPopPunk]

This thread is new and unique! I have never seen it before and am glad it was brought up!

Sarcasm is new and unique! I have never seen it before and am glad it was brought up!

A person making a huge undercut that gets bought does not completely destroy the prices. One outlier does not make a trend unless the other sellers make it so.

Wow, no crap. That's exactly it. lol. This guy undercuts this guy and that guy undercuts that guy. It doesn't take much to understand how a cycle like that destroys prices. You make it sound like there are just two people selling at one time, the guy selling it at the sales history price and the guy undercutting it by 50%. Not the case most of the time. But those outliers reduce the price by a lot, and then get undercut by a few gil, then they undercut by another large amount, etc. Yeah I'm making exaggerations, assumptions, call it what you will, but you've done the same as well. The point is, there's almost never any reason to undercut by a vast amount, regardless of the "opportunity" it creates for other sellers. lol.

[Giantbane]

Wow, no crap. That's exactly it. lol. This guy undercuts this guy and that guy undercuts that guy. It doesn't take much to understand how a cycle like that destroys prices. You make it sound like there are just two people selling at one time, the guy selling it at the sales history price and the guy undercutting it by 50%. Not the case most of the time. But those outliers reduce the price by a lot, and then get undercut by a few gil, then they undercut by another large amount, etc. Yeah I'm making exaggerations, assumptions, call it what you will, but you've done the same as well. The point is, there's almost never any reason to undercut by a vast amount, regardless of the "opportunity" it creates for other sellers. lol.

If the market is able to be collapsed so easily then it wasn't all that stable to begin with. The price was being artificially inflated by an unspoken agreement between sellers to not really compete on the price.

What you're trying to advocate is to have more people participate in noncompetitive selling practices in order to keep your own profits high.

[DefendPopPunk]

If the market is able to be collapsed so easily then it wasn't all that stable to begin with. The price was being artificially inflated by an unspoken agreement between sellers to not really compete on the price.

What you're trying to advocate is to have more people participate in noncompetitive selling practices in order to keep your own profits high.

My profits? You're assuming I sell anything lol. No, what I'm advocating is for people not undercutting by ridiculous amounts for no good reason other than "gotta sell NOW!" I couldn't care less about Gil on this game, I have more than I really even care to use. You don't need much. I just empathize with people like the OP that kind of scratch their head at this type of behavior. I don't think you need to undercut by a large amount to remain competitive.

[Giantbane]

My profits? You're assuming I sell anything lol. No, what I'm advocating is for people not undercutting by ridiculous amounts for no good reason other than "gotta sell NOW!" I couldn't care less about Gil on this game, I have more than I really even care to use. You don't need much. I just empathize with people like the OP that kind of scratch their head at this type of behavior. I don't think you need to undercut by a large amount to remain competitive.

Fine, not you in particular, but for anyone really concerned that undercutting is "ruining the market" (like the OP), then there wasn't much of a market to begin with if it can be ruined so easily.

[CYoung187]

My profits? You're assuming I sell anything lol. No, what I'm advocating is for people not undercutting by ridiculous amounts for no good reason other than "gotta sell NOW!" I couldn't care less about Gil on this game, I have more than I really even care to use. You don't need much. I just empathize with people like the OP that kind of scratch their head at this type of behavior. I don't think you need to undercut by a large amount to remain competitive.

You keep trying to create scenarios where some undercutter ruins the market. If a market is going to drop that easily that is a supply/demand issue. What you describe is far from common occurance, and even the OP'S description is bland since we don't know the sale history.

I guess i should throw in some lol wow smh omg to try make everyone sound dumb also.

[DefendPopPunk]

You keep trying to create scenarios where some undercutter ruins the market. If a market is going to drop that easily that is a supply/demand issue. What you describe is far from common occurance, and even the OP'S description is bland since we don't know the sale history.

I guess i should throw in some lol wow smh omg to try make everyone sound dumb also.

Or try not to take it so personal, that might help. I'm not creating scenarios, mostly just speaking about what I've observed. Good for you that you haven't seen the same things, I guess? Yes we're all qualified economic advisors here so we're well versed on the concepts of supply and demand, but I always appreciate that one being brought up in threads like these. Once per page should do it. Oh...and lol.

[RichardButte]

Gil rains from trees.

Then no one should've been complaining about the cost of housing and yet they are.

Realistically, no one can be sure of the reason, but I'm sure undercutting by 80% isn't helping.

Let me put this another way: selling it 80% cheaper doesn't magically mean there's 80% more demand, and it certainly doesn't mean that you'll guarantee more of the market share because someone else is more likely to buy them all and resell them for the normal price.

Again, lowering prices does not magically increase demand in a closed system, which means people undercutting by this much are just screwing themselves out of profit as well as everyone else by driving prices down (though mostly themselves).

[Kyri]

Though undercutting can be a annoyance and greatly drop prices on things, most of the items currently going for ridiculous prices are severely overpriced vanity items. Horns should not be selling for so much and the price needs to be lower.. I feel your pain. Im trying to sell swimsuits after dropping a large quantity of gil on melds and fishing gear however I knew there was no way half a bikini was going to stay so high. Now, if we were talking about a item that put you on a close to BIS I could consider differently but for now the primal weapons are more vanity then anything and need to be lower.

Not only that but though horns are 1.2 on the board right now they were selling for 800-900k each so it's more selling the item at the normal price then the over inflated price currently being sought.