Undercutting by 1 gil?

[Dark-Saviour]

What I really hate is when an item sells so much that you can see all sales are from the past HOUR at some points and someone constantly slashes the price. They make a ton of the item and put them all up for up to 90% off....and they keep doing it, until that is the "new price", when people were perfectly fine, clearly, buying it at the old price. I can understand you people who don't work the market and just put stuff up that you end up with but these people who are clearly making the item to sell and keep coming back to do it over and over again really get under my skin....

Can't say it's often the case, but one scenario that can lead to that is if someone is going for the crafting achievements.
Started working on the BSM one a while back and I had so many cobalt rivets... So many... I can't be arsed to try and split stacks, so I actually do just try to list them as full stacks at or just below normal price, but a number of them did sit for a while (and then undercutting happened... a lot...), so I could see people trying to unload them quickly since inventory space is at a premium...

Buyers have 2 options. They can either look through the sellers and find the cheapest deal and buy it right now. Or they can put up a buy order for the price they are willing to pay and wait for a seller to accept that price. Might take a day or 2 but will save you money.

Sellers have 2 options. They can either look through the buy orders and sell to the guy who will pay the most right now.. Or they can put a sell order up for there own price and wait for a buyer. Again might take a couple of days but you'll get more money

It's an incredibly balanced market system where the value of items is determined equally by both buyer and seller. And generally patience. If you need it right now be prepared to pay more. But if your not in a hurry you can save a load of money and get it a better price.

GW2 does something similar, but it just aggregates all of the sales, so you don't have to look through individual listings. Say 200 people post 2 of a material each for 67 silver and this is the lowest price; if you post 4 of yours for the same price, buyers will simply see 404 available at 67 silver and yours will sell after all 400 preceding your listing have been bought at that price.
Same thing with buy orders.

I'm rather fond of the individual unit sale aspect of the GW2 system, but the whole setup also makes it convenient for people who want to manipulate markets.
Not that it would necessarily be more 'complex' otherwise; just more tedious, I suppose. :-/

[Moonlite]

When are we getting a cross data center MB so Balmung can really scare the rest of the servers? Undercutting people get so caught up in it items will drop below vendor price. Materia has been good so far in SB but IN HWs near the end you could consistently see sub vendor prices and you can just see the tread marks of lower price, lower price.

It must be the horrible interface/coding of the MB but in other games RMT usually clean up all sub vendor price items. But you can consistently find sub vendor prices. So it must be to much hassle for them to bot the MB and vendor.

[NinjaTaru72]

Depending what I'm selling us going for, but I'll undercut anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand..

OH your selling this item for 10k? I'm selling it for 7k.

Your selling this for 80k? I'm selling it for 65k.



Im not a crafter, or a gatherer. I just sell what u get. I don't care much for the market.


Like on my server fat cats were going for 600k. My fisher venture brought me one for the first time do I sold it. Easy 500k. Few days later I got another. Another 500k.

Then a week later (2 days ago) suddenly cats are 2.5mil. So i sold mine for 1.4 this time. Cuz 2.5 is crazy, and it sold fast

[Mikki]

snip

I don't necessarily think this behavior is bad since you tend to be selling one at a time and it will go fast. So it doesn't have a chance to hurt the market as much, unless several people undercut you before it can sell. What IS harmful is when someone purposely gathers/crafts a bunch of one item and does this. People who actively work the markets need to also keep in mind market history and current sales volumes. If the item usually sells for much less and isn't selling as much at this new inflated price then yes. By all means, slash the price back down.

What I really hate is when an item sells so much that you can see all sales are from the past HOUR at some points and someone constantly slashes the price. They make a ton of the item and put them all up for up to 90% off....and they keep doing it, until that is the "new price", when people were perfectly fine, clearly, buying it at the old price. I can understand you people who don't work the market and just put stuff up that you end up with but these people who are clearly making the item to sell and keep coming back to do it over and over again really get under my skin....

[GetFoesReqd]

It doesn't bother me personally, but as a sort of symbolic sign of respect, I kind of adjust the undercutting a bit based on the value of the item. I know others here have said they do the same. Like, something worth a half a million, I undercut by maybe 500 or a thousand, the price stays relatively stable, and it "feels nicer" to not see the one gil thing, even if it really doesn't mean much. It's kind of a pointless courtesy but at least it shows a little consideration I guess. In the end though, it really doesn't matter, and one gil is a lot better than some hateful price tanking crap like a 50% undercut. But then again it is also a free market, and some times the trouble with those is people will kick them in the nads like they want on Funniest Home Videos.

[Jazalin]

I undercut by one all the time. Why should I care what someone else is selling something for, i just want my item to sell first at the highest possible cost. The markets on this game are whacked anyways. The real problem is people not knowing what they are doing and posting a 25k item for 500gil. That is what kills the market. Its not competition, its just someone not knowing what they are doing.

[technole]

Sometimes you are filthy rich and just need to get something out of your retainer so you sell below NPC cost to get rid of it. It's peanuts compared to other things you maybe selling for profit. Sometime you sell for well-above NPC cost to cash-in on "convenience fees".

Some markets are artificially inflated or low depending on your server. A more adept raiding server generally has more end-game crafters so the market is usually in buyer favor where undercutting is more lethal, so you can't inflate. Then you have servers where even glamour prisms run 10k+, and that is just an easy opportunity to sink that greedy hand.

[Mikki]

Yeah, no doubt there are people who are just trying to unload their retainer so they sell at a huge price slash. However, selling for under vendor price just seems stupid. :I You'd get more profit and instantly if you just sold it to a vendor and it wouldn't be taking up a precious slot on your retainer's shop. There is literally zero reason to sell things at less than vendor value or even at vendor value with perhaps the exception of the coins for people who want to move gil among characters. If your inventory is so cluttered and you really want to unload it and care so little about the profit, just vendor it. lol. I always vendor items that I can't get at least 1k profit off when my inventory is too full for comfort.

[Cypherious]

The biggest problem seems to be oversaturation of the market. That's when the undercutting really gets out of control. Like the "Alumen bidding war of 2017". The market became overloaded with Alumen, and everyone was trying to undercut everyone else. It got to the point where I just gave up trying to sell Alumen on the MB. I think a lot of the recent undercutting has to do with the new housing coming with the latest patch. People are selling off what they can, in order to have the gil for a piece of the Far East.

[Vahlnir]

Undercutting by 1 puts your item at the top, and doesn't tank the price. I do this pretty much all the time. Sometimes I cut it by a few hundred, but usually just 1...unless someone's really overpricing something, then I'll list it for whatever the item sold for last.