Undercut Hell

[DenzelTaru]

I am fully prepared to get shot down in this thread by the undercutters themselves but I just don't understand these people and it's driving me insane.

All weekend I have been selling an item and profitting well out of it, I started by undercutting the best price by 1gil.. this keeps the price at the same ammount and if anyone wants to undercut me at 1gil they are VERY welcome to.. all our stuff will sell for the intended price eventually and everyone is happy.. yes you have to keep an eye on the market but thats fine because we are all profitting.

So by the middle of the day, the item I was selling was 375k and I was selling them very regularly.. all of a sudden some moron places one on the market for 200k.. an undercut of 175k..

The problem with this is.. when someone comes to put theirs up for sale they will no longer look at the regular price to undercut they will look at the lowest which is now 200k.. So I had to buy this guy out.. "job done" you may say, he got his quick gil.. but what people don't realise is they are damaging the economy.. if SE won't give us blind auctions then we are responsible for the economy and if people keep crashing it then no one is getting anywhere.. 200k is CHEAPER than the items used to make the item.

Thats one type of undercutter the next is this:

By morning I had been undercut to 350k thats fine i guess, I lose out but its not as drastic as 200k.. but then someone comes on and undercuts to 345k.. instead of 1gil he cut by 5k.. undercut him to 1gil again and he drops it 10k.. then another 10k.. in 10mins he devalued the market to 300k..

Undercutting by massive ammounts is really stupid guys why do you do it.. it infuriates me and I am sure alot of crafters agree.

TLDR

Undercutting is fine, its how you make your sale, being the top of that list.. but do it by sensible ammounts and stop ruining the economy.

and I am not interested in any trolly comments they won't be read or responded to, I put this up because I believe its valid and the sensible people here will agree

[CYoung187]

Scenario 1: You just made an easy 175k, you should be happy

Scenario 2: you are attributing to the undercutting war just as much as the other guy. Sounds like you should be patient instead of adding the the undercutting war. This will happen with items that have little demand. Some people take taxes into account when undercutting and want to be the lowest price no matter what nation the buyer is buying from, so 1 gil is not always the most sensible option.

But yeah everybody is only "sensable" if they agree with you, good one.

[NyarukoW]

Stupid undercutters give you excellent opportunities to buy low and sell high. Buy their stuff at 200K and sell it at 375K. Profit on their foolishness. If you don't guts to flip the item, then that means you got no confidence in your 375K price which means it isn't worth the price you are trying to gouge people at.

[Prototype909]

The value of a good is what someone is willing to pay for it, don't cry just because someone else is willing to make less money than you.

[Havenchild]

Maybe I'm one of those people that just feels a cheaper market for the buyer is better for everyone.

[AdamFyi]

Waterproof cotton was selling at around 800k-ish on Cactuar. I kid you not when I say this; The cost of the item dropped to a mere 200k within an hour which is just crazy. First it dropped to 650k, then it fell to 500k, then it collapsed under the weight to 315k, then finally plummeting to a mere 200k.

[Lemuria]

Scenario 2: you are attributing to the undercutting war just as much as the other guy. Sounds like you should be patient instead of adding the the undercutting war.

I tried that once... gave it a couple of weeks. By the time I went back to it, the price had dropped from 400k to a mere 50k. Now THAT's what I call an undercutting war.

In truth, it's all down to supply and demand. If people were buying them at a decent rate, people would get their sales quicker so there would be less undercutting. If they're not as well sold as other items, then they'll be undercut to oblivion. Only the very rare and lucrative items are exempt from this.

[Amenian]

Maybe I'm one of those people that just feels a cheaper market for the buyer is better for everyone.

Actually no. I know on your individual item it might seem that way, but you're failing to see the big picture. Think of all the gil sink items in this game. Housing is a good example. By keeping market prices high, those same buyers can sell their stuff at a higher amount thus being able to afford gil sink items like housing. When you keep market prices low, it makes it harder for everyone to make money and you have actually made the game more difficult for those buyers you thought you were helping.

[NyarukoW]

Waterproof cotton was selling at around 800k-ish on Cactuar. ...then finally plummeting to a mere 200k.

If there are lots of the of the stuff being offered at 200K, then that is where the price of the stuff should be. It was way overpriced to start with. The price that does not sell is not a valid price to start with, it might as well be infinity times 2. That is just an irrelevant data point.

Look if you got 50 mil on hand and believe the stuff should sell at 800K, yet you see 20 of them at 200K, buy up all 20 for 5mil. If you sold 7 of them at 800K, you'd break even, and still you can profit from the next 13 even if you choose to flood the market at 100k because you just wanted a clearance, to clear your inventory.

... you're failing to see the big picture. Think of all the gil sink items in this game. Housing is a good example. ....

If think you are failing to see the big picture. Even with items being bind on equip or consumed, the fact that as more players come to game there will be more items being put on the market, and that fact alone means the prices should decline over time. The ability to produce the items will also increase with time which also leads to price decline. The free flow of goods for all players is good for all players, the lower prices make the flow more free and more steady. The walmarts of the world are successful because they know this, and it is same in a simulated economy in game.

BTW your so called gil sink item gets getting price reductions to over time and becomes less of gil sink over time, while more gil keeps getting injected into the game economy. The gil supply keeps growing, because there are infinite quest rewards, dungeon rewards, etc that constantly pay out gil, just like the items constantly being found. The only reason prices are high for any item is because the consumption of the item is exceeding the ability of the player base to supply them.

[Doki]

Before patch day I bought 8 of each "Pirate's" item for 2 character's 4 retainers, and 2 more to hold onto. I paid on average 500 gil for them and about half of them sold within hours of the patch going live for 25k a pop. However the remaining 6 or so dropped to 8k since people undercut so badly, even on items clearly in demand. Since the items were unique, I couldn't just easily buy them all up and resell them. I still got rid of all of them and came way out ahead, just annoyed that people suck so much at making real gil.