Marketboard Treatment

[Avoidy]

Some people really see the marketboard as a pvp arena and they don't even care about making money because they have so much at this point that it's about more than profit for them. They want to sell first, and that's it; and if you undercut them by 1 gil, they'll "teach you a lesson" by just crashing the market for fun. This can get really nasty when you're selling crafted items that have your username attached to the bottom of it, because people can see exactly who's undercutting them and take their anger beyond the market space. While I've never dealt with this personally outside of occasional undercutting, it doesn't surprise me to see this occur and I've seen people sort of talk about doing it more than once (the "crash market" thing, not the bully thing). Sometimes the only "aggressive act" you need to engage in to gain someone's aggro is to compete for the same market share. It's legit possible that all OP did was "dare" to sell something that a mentally ill market-pvp champ also wanted to sell.

Anyway, good luck out there. Some people in this game are really, uhhh, "Special" lmao.

[MikotoV]

Some people really see the marketboard as a pvp arena and they don't even care about making money because they have so much at this point that it's about more than profit for them. They want to sell first, and that's it; and if you undercut them by 1 gil, they'll "teach you a lesson" by just crashing the market for fun. This can get really nasty when you're selling crafted items that have your username attached to the bottom of it, because people can see exactly who's undercutting them and take their anger beyond the market space. While I've never dealt with this personally outside of occasional undercutting, it doesn't surprise me to see this occur and I've seen people sort of talk about doing it more than once (the "crash market" thing, not the bully thing). Sometimes the only "aggressive act" you need to engage in to gain someone's aggro is to compete for the same market share. It's legit possible that all OP did was "dare" to sell something that a mentally ill market-pvp champ also wanted to sell.

Anyway, good luck out there. Some people in this game are really, uhhh, "Special" lmao.

This sums up my plight well. Couldn't fit everything I wanted to in here but I post more soon.

[xenahawk]

With what you say i really dont think its anything personal i think its seems like they are just trying to corner the market especially if your friends see it too. Unfortunately undercutting isnt against the rule but hopefully if they are using tools like another post said is a possibility that it will be found with the investigation unfortunately if an fc is that big and popular with players that there is more then just one its easy enough for them to corner stuff like the markets on a specifc server. Havent seen it on ff but i have seen it in other games.

[MedicalChimp]

Hello everyone,

I am writing this post because I wanted to share my experience while currently trying to make gil on the market board and hopefully get some advice for how to deal with a bullying situation. ...(for length)... be honest I don't mind the undercuts, but purposely targeting me is a whole other issue.

They have gone as far as using members within their FC(s) to put several stocks up so that anyone thats interested in the materials will only go after theirs. And it's gotten so toxic because of retainer signatures that they have made versions of my name or used rude names each time I put something up or bought my things to relist and harass me with it. I've reported the player to GMs and they said they were investigating. I've changed my retainer names and I've had friends try and help me sell and they do the same thing to them. They have sent people to stand near me at market boards and even next to our FC home to watch me. I've even asked someone in their sister FC at the time kindly why were they doing this because I dont know them and if they would stop harassing me and they just laughed at me. This should not be considered normal behavior even if you are trying to make gil and I wanted to speak out and hopefully if anyone else has gone through this can share their experience. Honestly, the whole thing has made me start to want to stop in general and take a break from the game. So I am asking for genuine help and advice on what to do. Thanks for listening.

Quit giving them the satisfaction of caring. Either undercut them to where they're selling dirt cheap - buy all their stock and relist it higher, or find another market.

Either it's bots or it's people who've had a market cornered for a long time and aren't willing to give it up. If you can't own a market for a specific item or type - then you NEED to diversify or your wasting your time and losing out on profit. I accidentally drove down the cost of the quest fish for FSH quests by over 20k gil on my server in the last week. Ya know what I did? Bought the cheap stuff and relisted it at the normal price. Beat them at their own game - and then everyone wins. Just make sure that them selling at the low cost isn't manageable long term, or you're playing into their hands.

[NekoMataMata]

The undercutting is normal, but the rest of it is weird.

[MikotoV]

This nightmare of an experience only started after entering markets that were doing particularly well in sales. I did my research and looked at price histories and quantities that people were buying up. I differentiated mine from this player because I knew not everyone was buying 99 stacks or large amounts. And the tactic seemed to work until all of this happened. I'm guessing this player felt incensed by me re-entering the markets after successful sales and used extremities (such as those I listed before) to make sure I didn't enter it again so they could properly get it back to their control and have their monopolies. Selling has been a struggle for me ever since because of my signature being attached to my retainers and I only have 2 compared to their several and fc mates. I am also a working person along with my friends so I cannot babysit my retainers or the market like they do all day unless I have a day off.

Nonetheless, I've just decided to take a pause on selling things and pulled what I did have up because the FC continued to grief me even when i shift prices. I hear and appreciate all of your guys' advice on putting up more things, fighting back and such but unlike them I don't thrive for drama or want to invest energy into their toxicity after all this. It seems like it would only fuel the fire. My friends and I are looking into shifting towards another data center to resolve this.

As for the mental health, yes that could indeed be a factor and I am probably not the first person they have targeted or engaged such tactics with nor will I be the last. I will not bash this person (or people) if they are struggling from such issues, but my hope is that if they are suffering then they need to reach out and seek professional help and follow their own slogan advice and relax because at the end of the day this is a game. I also hope the Dev's look into changing the mechanics for the market board for specific issues like this so that no player has to face this and those that engage in this disgusting behavior are properly disciplined for it.

[Bukachu]

How are they locating the items you've posted tho? considering market board runs on awful engine and there're tens of thousands of items

[KairiElise]

How are they locating the items you've posted tho? considering market board runs on awful engine and there're tens of thousands of items

They mentioned before they entered leathers and I'm guessing some other material/endgame markets. It wont take someone whos glued to the market board and possibly vengeful long to scroll through all the different types and find their retainers since they only have two. And especially if they have their signature on the item.

[LianaThorne]

Typically from my experience if you're being singled out by someone then you did something to piss someone off. I'm gonna guess either were not getting the full story or someone that is selling the same item is just trying to scare off competition. Solely judging it off undercutting isn't enough though to assume it is targeted harassment and just sounds like paranoia, you'd need some form of admittance or threats by the people doing it. They might have just laughed at you thinking it's specifically aimed at you when they're hitting multiple different areas of the MB in reality. Asking a seller to stop selling and undercutting in this game though is a pipe dream.

As far as RMT goes, I highly doubt anyone who is actually neck deep in it would even sneeze at a random MB seller when their gil is farmed through other means (like Eureka) and their exchanges take place usually through mannequins these days because it's easier and no MB tax. Unless you're somehow affecting that market to the point that it's affecting their profits (which unless youre making billions isn't a likely situation), I wouldn't lean too much into that idea.

[Conadrium]

Not to say that it's the situation in your case but some bots actually do. Big FCs are an easy place to hide from attention.

But a big FC also isn't going to go out of its way to harass a random player. A random player doesn't have enough market power to make a difference. If they're using rude names on their retainers (which can be reported if the names are ToS violations), they're more likely to be rude for the sake of being rude to everyone who might look at their listings instead of targeting a single player.

Your best course of action is to ignore them. Even if they truly are trying to target you specifically, they can't stop you from posting your listings. Being undercut isn't a problem as long as the items you're listing are popular. And so what if they buy your items? Isn't that why they're listed - you want someone to buy? Stop paying attention to who's doing the buying and there's even less problem.

Yeah this seems weird. She claims they harass her and are rude but the only example is retainer names similar to hers? She doesn’t own the name and no one cares what the retainers name is they buy from so why would they bother. If they’re named *her retainer*eatsbabies or something THAT is reportable harassment but she hasn’t given any concrete examples of ANY behavior that’s a violation.

In fact two things she mentioned are "sending people to stand next to me at the market board," and "buying my items to relist and harass me." Anyone can come to the marketboard, and they can't SEE what you are doing by having their toon be physically present. And as for buying your items thats a good thing? Once they own it they are free to do whatever they want with it, including relist it. If you wanted more for it you should have listed it for more.