Undercutting

[Toutatis]

I don't care if people undercut as I make a lot of money from these people. Still, I don't understand the point of slashing the price of an item by +10% when an item has been selling pretty well at a certain price. Do the under cutters even check the sale history of an item?

When EW came out, materia was going for some pretty amazing prices except during weekend afternoons where prices would drop 80%... I had the choice to sell mine at similar prices or wait for the market to move up. I ended up buying about 60 lvl IX materia at 10-12k and resold them at 55k during the night in not even two hours.

As for overcharging, there is no such thing on the MB if the items are selling well. Market value is whatever people are ready to pay for an item at a given time.

[Ryaz]

It was really bad this patch, especially with crafted gear. I saw stuff drop to 1/100th of the original price in a matter of a couple days... and a lot of it was people undercutting by huge margins. Some of it I just didn't get, like good. Thavnairan Chai was selling for 8-9k a pop on my server for HQ and selling decently well. Next thing I know, some dude drops the price in half and it spiraled down from there.

[Vahlnir]

It was really bad this patch, especially with crafted gear. I saw stuff drop to 1/100th of the original price in a matter of a couple days... and a lot of it was people undercutting by huge margins. Some of it I just didn't get, like good. Thavnairan Chai was selling for 8-9k a pop on my server for HQ and selling decently well. Next thing I know, some dude drops the price in half and it spiraled down from there.

A lot of that has to do with the ease of access to crafting/gathering. Tomestone mats have also been very easy to get and sell. I can put a stack of 10 hides (usually amounting to around 150k) on the MB and it sells within a minute or so 9 times out of 10. The prices have dropped since day 1, sure, but they seem to be bottoming out a bit on my server, at least for now. A drop in prices was to be expected, and they will likely drop again soon.

[Escalon]

Oh, I gladly undercut people, IF those people are selling things for ridiculous prices.

Like when the new Master recipes dropped, people were selling 1 serving of food for like 12k gil. Like no, I wont let you have that profit. I will undercut you to a more reasonable 3k-5k and flood that MB with the cheap food.
I am a c*nt ? HECK YEAH
When I did not had Gil and did not know how to make Gil in the game and was just leveling, I never could afford decent food from the MB. So if it means that some newb and or hardcore raider gets cheap food on your expanse, I will do it over and over again.

[Sclair0]

Isnt undercutting part of balancing the economy? If someone puts up a ton of stuff way low for the amount of effort to make/get it then you can buy out all their stuff and make a major profit. Then eventually the market stabilises behind a price right?

Sure it'd be nice if everything stayed at a million gill sale wise, but as patches continue and people jump into the market supply goes up and demand goes down, natural for prices to tank.

[Baingoleth]

Put things up with whatever price makes you happy, The market will correct. If an item is high demand, someone will buy everything up cheap and re-list higher anyway.

[kaynide]

Re: Buy orders and sell orders/How it works in GW2

Wind crystals are on sale:
1,000 at 75 gil
another 1,000 available at 100 gil
a final 5,000 at 500 gil

Bill makes a new sell order: 100 wind crystals at a price of 50 gil, currently making a new lowest price.

Ted puts in a buy order: 5,000 crystals at 50 gil.

Then, Don puts in a buy order: 5,000 wind crystals at a price of 200 gil.

What happens:

Bill’s 100 crystals sell first, at 50g each, to Ted.

Then Ted still has a remaining 4,900 crystals he wants to buy for 50g each but no one is selling at that price.

Don then gets all 1,000 at 75 gil, then 1,000 at 100 gil. He still needs 3,000 but no one is selling at 200 gil or less.

And then the market shows:

There are 5,000 available at 500 gil. (The current lowest “want to sell” ceiling)
There is a buy order that wants a further 3,000 crystals at 200 gil each. (The current highest “want to buy” floor)
Ted has to wait until Don gets all of his crystals, raise his buy price above 200 gil, or just buy the current available stock at 500 gil.

Current Wind Crystal Celing/Floor: 5,000@500g / 3,000@200g

Other random players who want to buy or sell quickly need to price somewhere between that ceiling/floor. Or match the current ceiling/floor as a kind of “buy/sell it now” option.

———

The only way to tank this is to be able to put in a massive buy or sell order that no one can compete with, in which case you will lose lots of money buying stock at overpriced value or by selling too cheap. Or alternatively controlling the supply (which is impossible in this game; there aren’t limited notorious monster drops/resource nodes/etc that players can monopolize)

As long as they sell for outrageous prices, people will be riding that gravy train. And as soon as they get too cheap to be worth the time, people stop farming them.

[Eraden]

I have no crafting skills. I do not care to craft. My character is a level 90 miner and level 90 botanist. I make most of my Gil by selling gathered materials to the market board. That having been said, I have NO PROBLEM with undercutting and selling for lower amounts. It benefits the crafters in my guild. Heck, it benefits ALL crafters. Eventually their prices go down as it becomes less costly for them to make items and competition spurs them to lower their prices. On occasion there will be gathered items that are in demand and you can make a few extra Gil for a while selling those items. But eventually the market corrects itself again and prices drop back down. Honestly, if people want to make good coin by selling on the market board, they should be prepared to put a little effort into understanding the economics of the system. I think some people expect to make a fortune with a single item. Time and time again, my experience with the market board has shown that this is not a "California style gold rush". It's more of a "slow and steady wins the day". In short, I think the market boards are working as intended.

[UsagiAndCrepes]

All is fair but at the end of the day there are some fundamental truths. This is something people have been complaining about forever and in all likelihood they will continue complaining about it for decades to come.

I don't think it's necessary to take the discussions too seriously. Allusions to economy from a perspective of people in a world with scarcity and finite resources doesn't fit too well with a game where resources are theoretically infinite and non essential. In that sense throughput always plays a bigger role than anything else. Everything else is roleplaying economics.

[kaynide]

I have no crafting skills. I do not care to craft. My character is a level 90 miner and level 90 botanist. I make most of my Gil by selling gathered materials to the market board. That having been said, I have NO PROBLEM with undercutting and selling for lower amounts. It benefits the crafters in my guild. Heck, it benefits ALL crafters. Eventually their prices go down as it becomes less costly for them to make items and competition spurs them to lower their prices. On occasion there will be gathered items that are in demand and you can make a few extra Gil for a while selling those items. But eventually the market corrects itself again and prices drop back down. Honestly, if people want to make good coin by selling on the market board, they should be prepared to put a little effort into understanding the economics of the system. I think some people expect to make a fortune with a single item. Time and time again, my experience with the market board has shown that this is not a "California style gold rush". It's more of a "slow and steady wins the day". In short, I think the market boards are working as intended.

You're not wrong regarding a lot of things in this game, but whenever there is a new fancy-pants thing that people are impatient over, it costs a ton and can be extremely profitable to sell them. Especially materials for the newest glamour (usually locked in treasure hunts), the actual glamours themselves or the newest minions. Right now we're talking the "XX of Happiness" set.

At any rate, there are so many avenues to make money in this game that the market is entirely unnecessary for making cash long term. Essentially anything you do can net money- so if you've found a niche that works for you, work it!