Broken Market Board by Rich Players.

[Zukar]

really the only way to combat something like this is to make piles of said items and sell them individually at a lower price, yea it sucks, but it's how I manage to get some honest buyers out of it and, well, if those who just buy them just to sell them again buy my items, welp, tough shit cause I saw through that buyer and will continue to combat them till they see they're not winning a fight that easily

[AceOfCakez]

I personally find this to be the joy of a free market. Anyone can buy or sell as they wish. My advice is to look for another item to sell instead of trying to sell the same stuff over and over again hoping to get a profit.

[Flashgordon1975]

If I would want to be nice to some poor sods and make good stuff available for cheap, then why shouldn't I be able to do so?
The Market Board isn't primarily there to let people get rich.

Besides, one person can't make the market prices crash unless they flood the MB with items. The prices only crash if a lot of other people also lower their prices like a bunch of mindless lemmings.

You are wrong. It can ruin the market for the short to medium term, and long term if someone is hardcore. Most times people don't craft one of something and sell it at a lower price. They craft a bunch and sell many at a lower price and that price becomes the norm. The lower price does not increase the quantity sold often, it is just decreases the margins. I am already filthy rich in game, but the idiocy still boggles my mind. The worst thing they did was stop gating many recipes behind specialists. The MB heavily favors people with unlimited time to sit by a retainer bell now.

[Flashgordon1975]

I personally find this to be the joy of a free market. Anyone can buy or sell as they wish. My advice is to look for another item to sell instead of trying to sell the same stuff over and over again hoping to get a profit.

I agree to a degree. The point comes though when some super users become so dominant in the market that it ruins a significant part of the game for others. Really the only way that they were able to combat this was through gating many recipes behind specialists and requiring crafters to be dependent upon each other. This is not the case and now you are at the whim of super crafters with endless time to sit and watch the market board.

To be clear, gil can still be made.

[Nixxe]

I agree to a degree. The point comes though when some super users become so dominant in the market that it ruins a significant part of the game for others. Really the only way that they were able to combat this was through gating many recipes behind specialists and requiring crafters to be dependent upon each other. This is not the case and now you are at the whim of super crafters with endless time to sit and watch the market board.

To be clear, gil can still be made.

I've dabbled in the markets of players that were suspected of being bots or otherwise just dominate the MB in some way, and from what I can tell, they generally just undercut a few times a day and are simply waiting for players to grow frustrated with a lack of sales and move on to other items. They aren't really doing anything special, and they're completely beatable, but a ton of players, for whatever reason, just seem to instantly become angry and upset the moment they encounter the slightest inconvenience when dealing with the MB.

[Edax]

I've dabbled in the markets of players that were suspected of being bots or otherwise just dominate the MB in some way, and from what I can tell, they generally just undercut a few times a day and are simply waiting for players to grow frustrated with a lack of sales and move on to other items. They aren't really doing anything special, and they're completely beatable, but a ton of players, for whatever reason, just seem to instantly become angry and upset the moment they encounter the slightest inconvenience when dealing with the MB.

It's because going through menus and repeatedly punching in numbers is quite tedious. Most players would rather be doing something else then spending more time with their retainer's menus.

[Nixxe]

It's because going through menus and repeatedly punching in numbers is quite tedious. Most players would rather be doing something else then spending more time with their retainer's menus.

Nobody is stopping them.

[Wulfyn]

I'm not rich, but if I find a bargain on your server I will buy the cheapies and make profit on my server. It's business. If I can go server shopping then so can the lazy players who buy marked up items. No one else to blame except themselves. I do try to price things reasonable when I do acquire mats at bargain prices. That said I am not getting rich anytime soon.

Having 8 characters with 6 retainers can be tedious no doubt. 48 retainers 20 sell slots each.... takes forever.

[Waruji]

I'm pretty new to FFXIV and the only other MMO I've played is ESO where you can only sell things through the chatt or if you're part of a guild - which I'm not. Because of that I didn't really think much of the price I was setting. I just wanted to clear my inventory (I really, really miss ESO crafting bag in this game) somewhat and get a little more then if I sold it to NPC characters.

When I set the price I generally put less than the top prices because I just wanted to get rid of it (I'm mostly selling a few items at a time - no huge amounts). When I first opened the compare price list I though the prices were way too high, no way these low level things were worth that much. Since I've become aware of the whole undercut thing I've raised my prices a bit but every time I feel as though I'm ripping people off. If they're high level items, I can understand it being a bit expensive but otherwise? Not really.

EDIT:

I just realized this thread has been inactive for a while. Sorry, I didn't mean to necro it.

[Liam_Harper]

It's generally not a rip-off because at the higher levels you can make gil far more efficiently. Dropping a few hundred thousand on stacks of materials is nothing when it saves you hours gathering and can result in a million gil, for example. For a new player like yourself, this gives you an important source of income. It's mutually beneficial.

For a random example, low level ore like Silver Ore is used in Manasilver Nuggets which are a lv74 craft. A nugget sells for 4000 and the leve gear we make from it can sell for 100-300k. Therefore Silver Ore at 400 gil each is a bargain for us and saves time.

Same for low level crafting or gathering gear. If I'm an experienced lv80 player with millions and decide I want to level a crafter to 80, spending a few hundred thousand on low level gear or leve quest items increases my leveling efficiency. I'll make millions easily when I have that lv80 crafter, so it's an investment and well worth it.

In other words, if it sells, it's not a rip off. Enjoy the gil