Undercutting

[dragonfire8974]

<sarcasm>Oh dang why didn't I think of that. It's always been done so there's no problems guys. I should use this on anyone who's ever been discriminated against.</sarcasm>

So how would you fix undercutting? break some legs? force people to comply? Standardize prices? If someone is desperate to get rid of an Item, they'll sell it for less.

Almost like supply and demand work in game...

[DefendPopPunk]

So how would you fix undercutting? break some legs? force people to comply? Standardize prices? If someone is desperate to get rid of an Item, they'll sell it for less.

Almost like supply and demand work in game...

Did I say anything about fixing undercutting? If you had read any of my posts, I didn't say anything about fixing undercutting. My big deal is undercutting by massive amounts for no good reason (like in the OP's example). Also, the post you quoted was a (failed) attempt at hyperbole to show that saying "we've always done it" is not a good reason to excuse any kind of behavior. Yes, I'm familiar with the concept of supply and demand (read my earlier post? lol). I feel I've already addressed this. So, to reiterate, it's understandable to undercut reasonably (open to interpretation, of course), but undercutting by massive amounts for no good reason is a problem with undercutting. So, saying there's NO problem with undercutting is just flat out wrong.

[dragonfire8974]

Did I say anything about fixing undercutting? If you had read any of my posts, I didn't say anything about fixing undercutting. My big deal is undercutting by massive amounts for no good reason (like in the OP's example). Also, the post you quoted was a (failed) attempt at hyperbole to show that saying "we've always done it" is not a good reason to excuse any kind of behavior. Yes, I'm familiar with the concept of supply and demand (read my earlier post? lol). I feel I've already addressed this.

I did read, and I understood your hyperbole, and i'm not looking to chastise you for it. In fact, i agree on that point. My point is undercutting for 'no good reason' is probably due to someone wanting to get rid of an item, and thus is a supply and demand issue. someone has more supply than they would like, and thus they will lower the price to create a more immediate demand.

EDIT: Seriously... I got the point of that quote and I thought it came across well because it is absurd reasoning to think that 'we have always done it' is a good justification for anything and is still used today to screw some people... /digression

[DefendPopPunk]

I did read, and I understood your hyperbole, and i'm not looking to chastise you for it. In fact, i agree on that point. My point is undercutting for 'no good reason' is probably due to someone wanting to get rid of an item, and thus is a supply and demand issue. someone has more supply than they would like, and thus they will lower the price to create a more immediate demand.

And that's a fair point. But undercutting by a vast amount doesn't necessarily stimulate demand. Some people might just flat out not want what you have to sell, so undercutting it by so much serves no purpose. It might work in some cases, but not always.

edit: Also, I said this earlier on as well, but I mainly empathize with people like the OP that are kind of puzzled by the randomness of some undercutters ("Hmm, it's selling for 1mil? Putting mine up for 500k"). I don't think it's on us to really come up with a solution for this. If it's really such a huge problem, I'm sure the dev team would address it in some way. That doesn't mean it's not worth talking about, especially if it bothers some people. People come in and try to shut down the conversation with a "get over it" attitude, and well, that's kind of a bummer. There are lots of valid points on both sides.

although it does ensure their item will be picked first when someone comes to it. It may not create demand for that product, but within the product itself, it tilts the scale towards the undercutter. not to defend the Walmart practice of marketing, but holding out for a certain value for the product is a long game

Yeah, but this also grants credence to another idea I brought up. And that's how this practice ends up ruining the prices on some items. This tends to happens with items that take longer than a couple days to sell. I've seen it happen, and sure I understand the market will reach an equilibrium price at some point. The seller either settles for the smaller sale price or forfeits selling that item altogether, and just moves onto something else. This can be used to corner the market (like someone else in this thread mentioned doing) and maybe the guy is able to raise the prices back up. Most of the time though, the item stays low and overall profits on the item are diminished. I've seen it happen recently with housing items and seeds after 2.38, but I wouldn't say those are the only categories affected.

[dragonfire8974]

And that's a fair point. But undercutting by a vast amount doesn't necessarily stimulate demand. Some people might just flat out not want what you have to sell, so undercutting it by so much serves no purpose. It might work in some cases, but not always.

although it does ensure their item will be picked first when someone comes to it. It may not create demand for that product, but within the product itself, it tilts the scale towards the undercutter. not to defend the Walmart practice of marketing, but holding out for a certain value for the product is a long game

[dragonfire8974]

Yeah, but this also grants credence to another idea I brought up. And that's how this practice ends up ruining the prices on some items. This tends to happens with items that take longer than a couple days to sell. I've seen it happen, and sure I understand the market will reach an equilibrium price at some point. The seller either settles for the smaller sale price or forfeits selling that item altogether...

another Cogent point. But I don't see a resolution to this problem unless there is some market regulation limiting the range of prices of an item around a certain standard set by the company.

Maybe a more interesting fix would be making items wait a week before they are posted, thus everyone has the play a longer game while selling things instead of trying to grab immediate gold.

[DefendPopPunk]

another Cogent point. But I don't see a resolution to this problem unless there is some market regulation limiting the range of prices of an item around a certain standard set by the company.

Maybe a more interesting fix would be making items wait a week before they are posted, thus everyone has the play a longer game while selling things instead of trying to grab immediate gold.

That's interesting. I've also seen mention in the past of there being a listing fee as well, which might help to reduce the tit-for-tat pricing wars that tend to occur. These types of fixes would require some will on part of the dev team though, which I'm all for if they even consider the issue.

[kidvideo]

So how would you fix undercutting? break some legs? force people to comply? Standardize prices? If someone is desperate to get rid of an Item, they'll sell it for less.

Almost like supply and demand work in game...

I'll provide answers for whiners.

So how would you fix undercutting? Free market. Not a problem.
break some legs? Illegal. Racketeering.
force people to comply? See above.
Standardize prices? Price fixing is illegal.

As with any business: adapt or close your shop.