Guild Wars 2

I spent the last hour or so on an undercutting war on the TP (on buy orders), one copper increment at a time. It’s silly, and it keeps players from actually playing the game.

A better solution would be to put a limit on undercuts, based on the value of the buy offer.

For example:
Let’s say the undercut limit is 5%. This means that if the highest buy offer on an item is 10g, I can either match it at 10g as well, or put a buy offer that is at least 5% more, which is 10.5g. Meaning, I can’t put a cheapshot buy offer of 10g and 1 copper. (Or I can post a buy offer at a lower value than 10g, of course.)

This ensures that the item reaches its “stable” market price faster. And players drop out of the bidding war faster, and so can actually spend time playing the game.

No. There are many reasons why this is a bad idea and a lengthy topic about this already exists.
Under the current system you are free to put in a buy offer at 10.5g, if you wish. If you chose to put in a buy offer at 10g 1c, thats your choice and you have to live with the consequence that the possibility of being overbid is higher.

Buy orders are for people who are willing to wait. If you got into an undercutting war then you are being too impatient. That’s not a fault of the trading post and the way buy orders are set up. Just put up a buy order and leave it. It may take a few hours but it’s always filled unless the price was at a too low level.

No… just because you had a bad experience doesn’t mean its broken.

Consider the mechanics… if I wanted to sale 100 Charged lodestones… (made up numbers for example) the buy orders were at 2 gold, but the sale price was at 3 gold.

All I would have to do is place a quick buy order for 2.95 gold for 1… then wait a few seconds for everyone else to have to place a buy order at that same price. Then sale all of mine instantly….

This makes sense in my head anyways lol

Here’s (one of) the previous threads about this. I linked this one as it received a response from John Smith, the ArenaNet Economy General Operations Director:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Min-1-price-difference/first

Astral Projections.7320:

Buy orders are for people who are willing to wait. If you got into an undercutting war then you are being too impatient. That’s not a fault of the trading post and the way buy orders are set up. Just put up a buy order and leave it. It may take a few hours but it’s always filled unless the price was at a too low level.

Yeah, when I clicked on this topic, I expected it to be about sell orders. There is no reason at all to put a minimum value on “undercuts” for buy orders. Unlike with sell orders, there is no re-listing fee on buys. Bidding wars are actually a good way for items to reach an equilibrium price near its “actual worth” with basically no risk to the bidder. The same would be true for sell orders if not for the re-listing fee, which I wish ANet would just drop. Prices would be free to reach equilibrium. Right now sellers have to guess a bit rather than letting the market entirely determine the appropriate sell price. The re-listing fee does put some pressure on the seller to set the price lower, which benefits buyers, and the re-listing fee is a bit of an extra gold sink. So maybe that is why ANet doesn’t allow free re-lists.

Sums it up well I think.

I thought there was already a minimum value on undercutting? That minimum value is 1c.

Chris.2587:

I spent the last hour or so on an undercutting war on the TP (on buy orders), one copper increment at a time. It’s silly, and it keeps players from actually playing the game.

A better solution would be to put a limit on undercuts, based on the value of the buy offer.

For example:
Let’s say the undercut limit is 5%. This means that if the highest buy offer on an item is 10g, I can either match it at 10g as well, or put a buy offer that is at least 5% more, which is 10.5g. Meaning, I can’t put a cheapshot buy offer of 10g and 1 copper. (Or I can post a buy offer at a lower value than 10g, of course.)

This ensures that the item reaches its “stable” market price faster. And players drop out of the bidding war faster, and so can actually spend time playing the game.

Or you could learn your lesson, and not participate in Price Wars. If someone else is actively trying to get that item, simply put in a Buy Order much higher. It’s entirely your fault for putting in 1 Copper increases on an item that you know someone else wants.

PS – It’s not called “undercutting”, it’s called out bidding

Also bear in mind that there are bots in the TP too. I’m not saying this is the case, but man it would be hilarious if it was.

if you feel this bidding war is taking time away from you playing the game simple answer is to not participate in it, make an order you are comfortable with and walk away, let the order do its thing

This isn’t a very good disguised whine thread :\

You can’t really complain about others out bidding/under cutting when you’ve just admitted you’re actively doing it without this whole thread being seen as you wanting everyone else to wait at the back at the line while you’ve deemed yourself to have special cut to the front of the line powers.

Chris.2587:

I spent the last hour or so on an undercutting war on the TP (on buy orders), one copper increment at a time. It’s silly, and it keeps players from actually playing the game.

You could have undercut by 5% after you realized it was a bidding war, waited for your competition to bow out, and then relisted at your preferred price point later. You chose to spend your game time on the TP.

Chris.2587:

A better solution would be to put a limit on undercuts, based on the value of the buy offer.

This ensures that the item reaches its “stable” market price faster. And players drop out of the bidding war faster, and so can actually spend time playing the game.

It’s not in the least clear that this would be “better:” for some items, players would be reluctant to cut at all, meaning the price would drop more slowly (not more quickly). This would mean farmers of the item would get more, but everyone else would pay more. That tends to lead people to stop “playing” and start grinding, which, I believe, is the opposite of the intent of the OP.

Generally, rules make markets less efficient, not more efficient. So, again generally speaking, you only want to add regulation when the market is failing in some way. Currently, there’s no evidence that there is a gap that needs to be addressed by ANet intervening.

edit: subject|verb agreement

Works both ways too. Over the weekend I and possible 2 or 3 other people kept on overbidding each other by 1 copper for a particular item I wanted. I eventually decided to sit on my current offer and just go to bed. Next morning I woke up to find all but 3 of my buy orders filled.

In short: sometimes it’s better just to be patient. The velocity of the GW2 market is VAST, and all it takes is a swing in demand/supply for large price shifts to happen.

Yeah, it sucks to get undercut, but it’s a lot worse when you get undercut by 10% and the demand moves far slower than supply, and a trend starts at the new, significantly lower price. They’re both undercutting you, and reducing the value of your items.