How do you deal with constant undercutting?

[BluntGamerChick]

Not really sure if this belongs here, but I figure others who are into crafting would have the best idea of how to handle it.

There's not much you can do. It is frustrating, i know but, the competition for sales in the market place is ever bit as cut throat and competitive as it is in the real world. There are a few things you can do but it takes a lot of work to get it going. As one person pointed out you can try selling items that your competitor doesn't sell or you could make more of the item and sell it at a much lower price. Cutting down your time/overhead can be accomplished by using retainers and your spare time while in que for groups to gather the items you need using your land skills and hunting drops. Once you have have the materials gathered to make a lot of the item then you flood the board with your wares at a lower price and in that way corner the market on the item. Make sure you place the items in as many of the cities as you can while maintaining superiors numbers. Also know your market. On my server most people seem to gather in Limsa and Uldah in order to raise their skills or catch up on skill leveling so there is a lot of need for lower to mid level items like Ore, gems stones, Alchemy and weaving materials. So i tend to gather as many as i can of all materials not sold on merchant NPC's and i usually make a decent profit doing so. You can also make a good profit by gathering up stacks of 99 of the harder to find items such as hidden items from mining and botany. Lots of people dont want to or haven't the time to put in the time to gather these items and it sells well and if you have the max number for a stack its more likely to sell. people are looking to level up their skill asap. the m,ore mats they can get at a decent price the more they will buy.

[BluntGamerChick]

Not really sure if this belongs here, but I figure others who are into crafting would have the best idea of how to handle it.

Sorry, I never know how much i can type in a reply so i split my response to two posts. Another good way to make many, and i'm sure you have heard this term before, Diversify. Make sure that you are supplying the most variety of items on the market. You can never tell just what the public is going to be in the mood to buy and or when. Some items alot of people are buying mats for crafting other times they are looking for stacks of items to hand in to the provisions NPC for the grande companies hand it exp and seal boost. Other times people want decorations for their houses. One of the best sellers when it comes to items is making High quality items that are used in the guild quest for the disciplines. For example if you make high quality potions used to hand into the alchemy guild masters quest then it will sell cause many people are catching up their crafting buy chain questing. they put off leveling their crafting skills in favor of leveling their characters and now are taking time to go back and catch up. So while they do have money to spend but not the skill to make these items they will most likely buy your high quality quest item to hand in and speed through their quest lines.
Make everything you can. furniture, indoor out door items for houses, potions, quest hand in items for every quest you can find, materials for crafting in both large stacks for leveling and smaller stacks for individual item creation. Never let your retainers slack off. make sure they are constantly on ventures and make sure your handing in all unneeded item drops and or old gear you don't need into the provisioner to get seals to buy more venture coins. Once you build the momentum of your money making machine it will be easier to maintain your in game business.
once last thing. While hunting and or gathering materials do not forget to do the hunt boards because they give you money for each marker and while gathering be sure to do all your treasure maps because they drop many materials and money. Every Gil counts. Never forget that. Also if you are lucky enough to get the portal from a dragon skin map be sure to have a friend or two standing by before using the map in case a portal appears. You will need help to finish that rare dungeon and the pay out, if you manage to succeed, is very nice.

[Thamorian]

With the constant undercutting, I do wish there was a like a lock-in timer preventing someone from constantly updating their prices to undercut. Doesn't have to be long. Maybe like 30 minutes or an hour. You put up an item for sale, set your price, then when you dismiss the retainer, it locks in the item and you can't retrieve it or change the price until some time has passed. Probably not gonna be a popular suggestion but would prevent the undercutting bots and the no-lifers who do nothing but sit at a retainer from undercutting every 5 minutes.

[Nixxe]

Probably not gonna be a popular suggestion but would prevent the undercutting bots and the no-lifers who do nothing but sit at a retainer from undercutting every 5 minutes.

I don't see why people feel they deserve to get the same results as players who invest more time and effort into it. If someone wants to undercut something every five minutes, let them. They'll spend all of their time doing that, while you're presumably having fun and getting your money's worth for your sub off doing other things. The game already puts a pretty huge limitation on players in the form of retainer slots, even if you buy extra retainers. This generally ensures there is a niche for everyone to occupy in your server's economy.

Furthermore, it will prevent people who make a mistake in their pricing from correcting it as soon as they realize it. I'm sure the people who spend all their time watching the market board will be thrilled for that though, since it means more cheap goods for them to keep undercutting you while still turning a profit.

[Thamorian]

I don't see why people feel they deserve to get the same results as players who invest more time and effort into it. If someone wants to undercut something every five minutes, let them. They'll spend all of their time doing that, while you're presumably having fun and getting your money's worth for your sub off doing other things. The game already puts a pretty huge limitation on players in the form of retainer slots, even if you buy extra retainers. This generally ensures there is a niche for everyone to occupy in your server's economy.

Furthermore, it will prevent people who make a mistake in their pricing from correcting it as soon as they realize it. I'm sure the people who spend all their time watching the market board will be thrilled for that though, since it means more cheap goods for them to keep undercutting you while still turning a profit.

And how many of these "people" are actually human? When I see the same few people undercutting no matter the day or time, then I think we need some kind of limiter. And people can check their prices before closing the retainer.

[Nixxe]

And how many of these "people" are actually human? When I see the same few people undercutting no matter the day or time, then I think we need some kind of limiter. And people can check their prices before closing the retainer.

Probably more than you think. After all, if you're on to see them undercutting you, then all you've discovered is that their play times are similar to yours.

[Elamys]

Probably more than you think. After all, if you're on to see them undercutting you, then all you've discovered is that their play times are similar to yours.

I'd wager at least a few of the constant, instant undercutters are botters. If you're always getting undercut instantly by the same people what are the actual chances that they're always on at the same time as you and always able to undercut right away? It's like when I tried to give the benefit of the doubt to gathering botters, that we just had the same play schedule and goals. There's almost zero chance that they'd always be at the node at the same time as me, playing at the exact same times.

[Ninkyo]

I tend to message the competitor and crush him by totally flooding everything he's selling until he stop being an ass and play the pricematch game

They're usually pretty cocky at first, but after selling jack-shit for 2 weeks they changes their mind

[KageTokage]

Trying combat botters by undercutting them doesn't really work because they don't feel a need to factor in the labor cost involved in gathering/crafting and will readily drop their prices much lower then legitimate players would be comfortable with if it means getting faster sales and/or making their competition back off.

Most of the food/infusions on my server are going for a measly 3.5-4K a piece right now because of them and that feels too low in the time/profit ratio to even bother with.

[Maxsdad]

"then undercuts the lowest price on the MB by one gil "

I don't worry one bit. Personally,I refuse to buy ANYTHING from someone who plays that game, and I know a lot of people who believe the same way. But if you figure the varied tax applied to items, a lot of times it's cheaper to pay a little extra from your local vendor or even travel to the selling city if it means saving 100k in taxes. But if you're a crafter and you've been playing this game more than 6 months, you count your gold in tens and hundreds of millions. My little Lalafell, Ish Kabibble, uses 100 gil notes just to light her Cohiba Red Dot cigars. If you really want to have the best price, charge 10 or 20% less than this goombah. Hell, charge 50% less. IT'S JUST A GAME! IMO the best idea of how to handle it is to not handle it at all. Yes, the gil is a measure of our success as crafters, but it's actually meaningless. It won't buy me a bigger fishing boat, it's not going to pay for my grandkid's college, and it won't pay for my wife's new boobs.