Dealing with big undercutting

[NorthernLadMSP]

There's a certain crafter on my server, that apparently thinks he is the ONLY one who deserves to be able to sell the HQ i170 crafted main/off hand tools. He will list these items after you have listed yours, and undercut every 10-15 minutes. He did the same thing on an Orchestration scroll I had listed, which resulted in the selling price of the two scrolls dropping from 450,000 down to the mid 200s.

[PROBOUND]

This thread has become very entertaining! #CrafterConfessionals.

[Jpec07]

As others have said, the best thing you can do to prevent undercutting from affecting you too much and to see consistent gains in Gil is to diversify.

Usually I'll wait it out if people are undercutting me. If the market gets flooded by trend hunters, it will usually bottom out in a week or so, and then bounce back in a week or two once those people have dumped their stagnant stock (as a note, if you have the buying capacity, it's good to build a reserve for yourself when they dump their stock, and artificially control the supply of the stock in question).

Prices will naturally decay over the course of a patch, but the markets are stable enough to function, I've found.

[Frowny]

I hate when it is an item that sells maybe once or twice a day and has kept to a trend yet someone proceeds to cut by a decent margin. Like come on, not like it will sell fast as say the mats.

[Gemina]

A golden rule I have is that the moment I get frustrated with an undercut, I chalk it up as a loss, and I no longer consider it marketable. Seesawing with a competitor with undercuts to the point it is no longer even profitable (don't forget to factor time along with gil) will only serve to frustrate time and time again. There are too many marketable items to seek out and sale to keep you smiling.

The MB is a dog-eat-dog world. There really is no etiquette to it. Trying to be courteous to the economy only seems to reduce your overall gains, so when someone undercuts by one gil, I only see a competitor trying to sale their stuff faster at nearly the same cost. My response as a buyer is I will buy the more expensive item to show the undercutter that reducing cost by 1 gil doesn't guarantee their stuff sells first. My response as a seller depends on the item, but typically I will undercut the item based off the average purchased price. If it gets undercut again, then it becomes clear that the competitor is willing to accept a loss that I am not. When the inventory space becomes more valuable than the item, off to an NPC it goes.

The only other time I can think of that I severely undercut is when cost of product is totally inflated from cost of mats, and also NPC availability. Again, you have to factor time as well, but I am far less likely to undercut an item that is available from an NPC and mats that take a good deal of time to acquire.

[BushWookie]

^ Your reasoning for buying the cheaper item is flawed because you have no way of knowing who undercut who first.

[Frizze]

^ Your reasoning for buying the cheaper item is flawed because you have no way of knowing who undercut who first.

True, you dont know who started it unless its on an item you buy a lot/watch regularly. Personally, i try to buy the one that costs 1 gil more too. I prefer the way the round number pricing looks, so i buy from the sellers who cater to that(its also how i price my stuff almost all the time).

[Gemina]

^ Your reasoning for buying the cheaper item is flawed because you have no way of knowing who undercut who first.

I'm buying the more expensive item, not the cheaper one. In any case you are correct, you cannot tell who undercut who in this situation either, but let's be real. If you see an item going for 9999, and another for 10000, do you really think the latter came later? There is a chance it did from a player trying to keep the markets competitive, but the chances are so low. So I do admit, by buying the more expensive item I can deny the sale to the competitor that deserves it more, but there is that whole dog-eat-dog that I mentioned earlier. The boards are usually not nice to those who are nice. That's just my own experience. I wish it was different, and I try to be courteous in any way I can.

[Keramory]

I have a difficult time feeling bad for those who complain about undercutting. In my experience I've noticed those who complain are trying to sell items for obscure prices regardless and are mad they can't easily profit like they used to. For the best example, I'll go out of my way to sell glamor dispellers for a 1/4th of the price on the Markets because people will try and sell them for 3-5k each when in the shop they're worth 500gil...or selling emperor gear for 50k a pop. I let the emp go a bit because its not originally available and you have to do a quest for it (simple as it maybe)...but 50k?

For honest people being undercut, its usually not by much or for long. No one is going to lose gil making an item over and over. Usually it fits in at its cheapest by the cost of the supplies to make it.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I have a difficult time feeling bad for those who complain about undercutting. In my experience I've noticed those who complain are trying to sell items for obscure prices regardless and are mad they can't easily profit like they used to. For the best example, I'll go out of my way to sell glamor dispellers for a 1/4th of the price on the Markets because people will try and sell them for 3-5k each when in the shop they're worth 500gil...or selling emperor gear for 50k a pop. I let the emp go a bit because its not originally available and you have to do a quest for it (simple as it maybe)...but 50k?

For honest people being undercut, its usually not by much or for long. No one is going to lose gil making an item over and over. Usually it fits in at its cheapest by the cost of the supplies to make it.

I sometimes list glamour dispellers and other npc items well over the npc price, if people are to lazy to check then it's not my fault :P