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Auction house under cutters.
mikal
Member Posts: 203 Arc User
Its getting kind of annoying seeing the value of many items go through the floor because people want to undercut so badly.
I just made a fancy pair of gemmed exquisite elemental trousers, i spent a good 70-80k worth of resources so the typical asking price of 140k seemed a very reasonable profit margin. At the time of posting mine was the cheapest option, but only by a little. After checking back i noticed that someone had undercut me at 139.5k, but then someone else had undercut the undercutter to 130k.
So this leaves me with 2 options
1. Take my item down and repost it at an even lower price
2. Keep my post up and hope that after the cheaper ones sell i wont be undercut again.
Do people really not realise that if you start an undercutting war we all lose?
I just made a fancy pair of gemmed exquisite elemental trousers, i spent a good 70-80k worth of resources so the typical asking price of 140k seemed a very reasonable profit margin. At the time of posting mine was the cheapest option, but only by a little. After checking back i noticed that someone had undercut me at 139.5k, but then someone else had undercut the undercutter to 130k.
So this leaves me with 2 options
1. Take my item down and repost it at an even lower price
2. Keep my post up and hope that after the cheaper ones sell i wont be undercut again.
Do people really not realise that if you start an undercutting war we all lose?
4
Comments
No, they don't realize it. You're right. People who know how to utilize the AH will always post a smidge below the cheapest item listed, but those who drop the price by thousands confuse me. They are costing themselves AD so they can guarantee their item will sell first because no one will want to under cut them. I guess it is a "better than nothing" mentality, but I like to get the true value of something. Same thing with people who list 6 of the same item back to back. You are created a new standard price when you do that, and there is a huge chance that by the time your six items expire, there will be twice as many cheaper listings up there.
Shoe on the other foot, I think a lot of that comes from people who don't list as often or don't understand the suggested price that pops up when you choose your item is just that. A suggestion.
My suggestion to you, mikal, is if you have a high enough VIP level that you don't have AH posting fees, pull your item, hold it for a few days, and then check prices again. As long as it is only one person doing crazy undercuts, the prices generally will level back out.
Set the price at what you want for your item. If someone else sets a lower price, that means that person simply is willing to take less for their item.
> Undercutting the competition has been been around forever. It is the way businesses operate. The only way around it is change it into a giant retail store, where you item sits on the shelf with thousands of items at a set price determined by Perfect World.
>
> Set the price at what you want for your item. If someone else sets a lower price, that means that person simply is willing to take less for their item.
A fair point but my issue isnt with the principle of undercutting persay, it's the amount i'm being undercut by. If this was just 500 diamonds lower than my asking price, they would still sell faster than i would. But when they drop the price by 10k they themselves are open to an undercut. At what point do you stop just saying "stuff happens" when the value of all items on the AH have decreased by 20k or more. By default i either knock 20,000 off my price or don't bother selling, i wont get a sale anyway.
I'm not going to be okay with that just because it's what people do
The poster who said that behavior has been around forever is right, as is the poster who said there are two possibilities. I will also say there is a third possibility, which is being too new to the finer points of the AH (we were all there at one point in our lives with our first experience with in-game AH's). Well... there is also a fourth, which is sometimes people aren't bright enough to figure out the AH, but that is mean so I won't elaborate.
Regardless of the reasons, it is frustrating, especially if that is AD you needed in your virtual pocket. It won't happen every time, though. Just practice patience, and you will be good.
> there is another possibility. the item is currently way overpriced and the person who cut down by a lot knows it. if everyone is holding steady at a price and no one is buying over the course of a week it's pretty clear that it's not set at a price that the market will bear.
That is a possibility, unfortunately we can only post in line with the current market value and try to get the best return. All i know is that the gemmed elemental trousers are not cheap to make. 2 elemental aggrogate, 1 unified elements and a dragon egg....thats at least 70,000 AD worth of resources.
> Its getting kind of annoying seeing the value of many items go through the floor because people want to undercut so badly.
>
> I just made a fancy pair of gemmed exquisite elemental trousers, i spent a good 70-80k worth of resources so the typical asking price of 140k seemed a very reasonable profit margin. At the time of posting mine was the cheapest option, but only by a little. After checking back i noticed that someone had undercut me at 139.5k, but then someone else had undercut the undercutter to 130k.
>
>
>
> So this leaves me with 2 options
>
> 1. Take my item down and repost it at an even lower price
>
> 2. Keep my post up and hope that after the cheaper ones sell i wont be undercut again.
>
>
>
> Do people really not realise that if you start an undercutting war we all lose?
>
> one can say you did the same thing by undercutting the guy before you as well instead of putting it up for the same price as the other guy and wait for him to sell his.
The original sale price was 140,500 AD, i posted for 140k flat.....hardly a devestating undercut.
Thats all its been on this forum lately is people crying about this and that its a game not real life problems get over it and move on. Most of the complains are whats they do themselves.
> > @tiberiusrex#6660 said:
>
> > there is another possibility. the item is currently way overpriced and the person who cut down by a lot knows it. if everyone is holding steady at a price and no one is buying over the course of a week it's pretty clear that it's not set at a price that the market will bear.
>
>
>
> That is a possibility, unfortunately we can only post in line with the current market value and try to get the best return. All i know is that the gemmed elemental trousers are not cheap to make. 2 elemental aggrogate, 1 unified elements and a dragon egg....thats at least 70,000 AD worth of resources.
>
> ah see. that's probably a big part of your problem. it's really not worth it to make those anymore. there are much better pants and shirts from the new skirmish. I doubt there is any market for that at all anymore
Well i see them as still valid for levelling characters, i take your point though and thank you for not being a.....hamster....about my opinions. Some parts of the game are frustrating.
Because of the way this particular niche in the market works, if you are not the lowest price when someone decides to do the task, and buy rather than make it themself, you will lose the sale. The masterworks quest items follow a slightly different pattern from most items on the AH.
OP - Sunshine: 16000 IL
Casual Dailies
> I have noticed lately that the demand for AD is very high, I think because of the marks and wards needed for upgrades since 12B and moving things fast at almost no profit is the trend right now...It's a buyer's market
Its a real problem at the moment, having to try and find a middle ground between profit and actually getting a sale. I can just sell the unified elements and aggrogate rather than using them for crafting i guess.
OP - Sunshine: 16000 IL
Casual Dailies
The one thing no one thinks about are that the above thoughts are what the under-cutters want you to have. Maybe they're trying to corner a market. If you had 4 alts making unified elements, but someone dropped the price to something you can't afford, would you keep checking a month later or move on to another market? Maybe they pulled a 200k AD mount from an epic dungeon, but don't want to babysit the item on the AH. Since they got it for free, they'll take a 30k profit loss as they didn't pay for it in the first place.
I have, numerous times, posted items as an under-cutter. I'm not righting the market, I just have a single item and I don't want to babysit it on the market. I post low enough that people are timid enough to avoid undercutting me so I can get it sold. The longer I sit as lowest price, the greater chance I have to sell said items. I don't feel like I'm losing anything as I didn't pay for it.
Having been on the other side, that is highly annoying. I have posted items and been undercut by a drastically lower price. I either eat the profit and underbid them or let them have it. I'll sometimes drop items to my storage toon and he'll repost a month or so later when the undercutter had definitely gone away. It sucks, but I do it too. Again, its worth the loss to not babysit something I got for free.
If they're undercutting an item you crafted or made, they've found some way to get the materials cheaper. Otherwise, they wouldn't be undercutting the way they are.
If a market sector has many vendors then they fight for sales. In a sector where quality, style, and any other factors apart from price are a variable then marketing can be used to influence sales. Until someone invents the Gucci Coalescent Ward, or the Unified Elements by Versace, the only variable in the NWO market IS price.
As supply outweighs demand, prices drop.
When stocks run low on popular products the price goes up.
Vendors agreeing to fix prices will never happen. Or, rather, it will never work because some entrepreneurial individual will see an opportunity and happily undercut the cartel.
If someone is happy to sell for a certain price, and someone else is happy to pay that price, then THAT is a fair deal.
But what others here are seeing as a problem I saw as an opportunity. Because I bought that item, then immediately resold it at a higher but fair price. Within a day it sold and I made a nice profit.
Remember that if someone is selling at a crazy low price they are either desperate or ignorant, but either way you can exploit their disadvantage for your own gain.
Tomas, Human Devoted Cleric
Dragon Shard
But that usually only works some of the time.
Then again, there have been a few times where the undercutting war was so severe and i was bored enough to when it got low enough, just to buy out the stuff at distressed prices and resell it where it started. That route requires more of a bankroll.