Undercutting

[Jojoya]

that is the way to win.

You're assuming every seller looks at the marketboard as a game to win.

Not all do. For some, they're just trying to make a bit of gil off things they don't want/need.

That's where it gets weird in a game. Not everyone is participating for the same reasons.

[dspguy]

You're assuming every seller looks at the marketboard as a game to win.

Not all do. For some, they're just trying to make a bit of gil off things they don't want/need.

That's where it gets weird in a game. Not everyone is participating for the same reasons.

True. Also not like the real world. Capitalism is king and people aren't doing work for free (willingly). Sadly the market gets destroyed by just a handful of players undercutting by 50% because they don't "play the marketboard game" competitively.

[Jojoya]

True. Also not like the real world. Capitalism is king and people aren't doing work for free (willingly). Sadly the market gets destroyed by just a handful of players undercutting by 50% because they don't "play the marketboard game" competitively.

But those who are can always buy up their items since most of the time they won't relist. And it can make the game a bit more challenging for those who are out to win since they need to figure out how to combat the influence of those who aren't while staying ahead of their competition..

[Liam_Harper]

Sadly the market gets destroyed by just a handful of players undercutting by 50% because they don't "play the marketboard game" competitively.

As I've said before, if a handful of players can destroy an entire market, that market is fragile. And that's the issue. Far too much supply and anyone can easily flood it. It relies on every seller having a silent agreement to leave the prices high and only undercut each other by tiny margins so the few who get a buyer will make lots of gil. Which is unrealistic, especially in a free market.

I've made tons of gil and been undercut endlessly. Who cares. If my market got destroyed, my market sucked. Find a new one (admittedly difficult now with bots and braindead crafting, but undercuts aren't the issue there). I never understood the concept of "marketboard PvP", it's all in peoples heads. If there's demand your stuff will sell. As long as you make some profit it's all good, you aren't entitled to a high price just because it sold for that price all week. Getting hung up over that and being stubborn on getting that one high price is a good way to stay poor. Just shrug and take your profit, wait, or move market if it's not profitable.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I know this is a *huge* first world problem.

But really, we need to make it a reportable offense if someone undercuts massively. I'm seeing items that were previously going for over a million gil go to less than 200k in a day because people undercut by 200k each.

This is making it nearly impossible to make *any* money on the MB.

nope lol (Only thing that needs fixed is bots)

[PlanNeun]

Yes and no.

Many sales in this game are not decided by price, but simply by a player wanting that item. They don't care if the item costs 500k or 100k. They will buy it. Then it all comes down to who has the lowest price at that time. So, you can either sell it for 100,000... or 499,999. But it will sell all the same.

While I know supply and demand makes sense to a lot of people, in this MMO, that's not always the case.

Let me put it this way. Let's say I list a piece of gear for 250k. All the recent sales are for around 250k. And another player comes in and lists it for 200k. It isn't like this "deal" is announced serverwide that "Soandso is selling the Body Piece of Pwning for 50k less than the going rate!" Nope. What actually happens is that another player sees the price drop to 200k and then lists theirs for 150k. And the next person lists it for 100k - and so on and so on.

It has very little to do with the price (when it comes to commonly available items like crafted/gathered items). It has everything to do with who has the lowest price.

So either rob yourself of 100k by undercutting by 100k, or undercut by a few gil like the rest of players on the server. Players are fooling themselves if they think their items sell faster because of how much more they undercut by. They don't. And in the cases where someone undercuts by enough to warrant another player buying them out - all you did was hand a bigger profit to a competitor.

Why do you concern yourself if a player choose to loose gillies or not, don't you believe in a free market?
If I want so sell things for 33999 in my anti bot war, then I should be allowed to do so!

[KatherineOrnitier]

If want to report people for undercutting then you also want to report people for overpricing cause they are the same and are both bad reasons.
Cause how would that even work? Who determines the price and whats "too little" and and thus reportable/banable.

To me it just seems that you had a way of making money for a while and got upset when people came in and undercut and don't want to do anything else to make money.
I also make money on the MB, mostly via buying and selling. It's all about supply and demand and a little luck.

[Tiramu]

But yes and no applies to that as well. Some players do care about the price. Not everyone is rich.

That's why things like Universalis are becoming popular. It's also why so many players were demanding that SE make crafting and gathering easier. They felt like they couldn't afford to get many of the things they wanted because the few who were bothering to craft had a stranglehold on the market and thus prices.

By pricing high, you're chancing that there will be some player on your home world willing to buy at the higher price. The higher the price goes, the smaller the chance of scoring a sale. The smaller the pool of potential buyers, the smaller the chance that one will bite.

So it's not necessarily foolish at all. It's about understanding the item you're trying to sell. How many others are likely to be selling it, who is likely to buy it, what wealth do they have access to, and if buyers are likely to data center travel to get a better price. More and more buyers are using things like Universalis to get an idea of where they can find the best price. If you've priced the item of out of range for some of the interested buyers or far above what it's selling for elsewhere, you have slowed down how quickly your item is likely to sell.

Not everyone plays to get as rich as possible and so they won't care that they "robbed themselves" of 100k if they already have the things they currently want.

I'd point out that when these undercutters come along, a lot of the time what happens is that other crafters/sellers snap them up and relist at normal price. There are several of us on our FC who do this on higher demand items all the time when the lazy start undercutting stuff to oblivion. Im sure the same calls of "plebs have tanked this market, buy em while their stupid cheap and make a profit" happens in every FC with crafters in it.


That the stocks sell same to next day or two shows these people arent engaging in supply / demand but more don't understand the market.

[Tiramu]

Honestly this. I have to empty my inventory and my retainers.
You undercut me by One gil? I'll crash the market.
Dont want me to do It? Then dont undercut me.

Lol, you dont crash the market. We come along, think "well, thats nice", buy the undercutters stuff and craft it up or just outright relist it.

It happens all of the time. Ever noticed one person buying up all of the stupid cheap listings? And if they don't, then you probably just blew your profit on a market against people who didn't care.

[ValkyrieL]

Need to add a 25% relisting fee for bots
Everyone gets a daily free listing a day.
If you want to bot by undercutting 10x a day than you will pay high fees