Guild Wars 2

I play the tp on occasion and find that people are constantly undercutting.
Now logically this would make sense, sell somthing for 1 less coin hoping for a faster but but it actually isn’t logical. However thought this way of thinking actually won’t do what logically you might it should do but actually apposite -cost you money!
What tends to happen is since there are SO MUCH undercutting happening people reduce their profit margins but alot.
Now many will argue -if I see 300K in offers I will NEVER get my item but in actually if your willing to wait a day you probably will. This isn’t just a few thousand playing the tp, there are 100s of thousands playing it (since the tp ranges across all the servers and there isn’t a tp per server).

So please before you think of undercutting someones offer from 50 to 45 keep in mind not only will you save money Not doing so, but you will still get your item in a reasonable amount of time.

Actually… the real problem is people who undercut by more than 1c. If everyone undercut by only 1c the profit margins would be fine.

Revolution.6301:

Now many will argue -if I see 300K in offers I will NEVER get my item but in actually if your willing to wait a day you probably will. This isn’t just a few thousand playing the tp, there are 100s of thousands playing it (since the tp ranges across all the servers and there isn’t a tp per server).

You want people to be more patient and wait for their items to sell so that you don’t end up having to be more patient and wait for your items to sell?

Tekyn.5376:

Actually… the real problem is people who undercut by more than 1c. If everyone undercut by only 1c the profit margins would be fine.

This.

I don’t mind undercutting since I do it all the time, but come on people? undercut on low end mats by 10 or even 20c each? why? what for?
Stop shooting yourself in the foot.

Tekyn.5376:

Actually… the real problem is people who undercut by more than 1c. If everyone undercut by only 1c the profit margins would be fine.

Ermmm, no, it’ll just reach the point slower, it’ll still reach it considering the TP is becoming more aggressive with 3rd party notifiers alerting players when they are undercut.

The buyers suggest “stop trying to get more from me than other sellers will accept for the same thing”

If you are being undercut,you priced too high in the first place.

Nike.2631:

The buyers suggest “stop trying to get more from me than other sellers will accept for the same thing”

If you are being undercut,you priced too high in the first place.

As a heavy TP buyer, I just purchase whatever comes up first, I don’t care or wait for the price to go down if I need it right away. Many are doing the same as me.

So how does your statement make any sense?
Maybe actually play the game and not the market, and see things from a player point of view.

The harm to their personal profit margins by undercutting by 1c is trivial. In general, people who are undercutting by 1c aren’t moving huge volumes, nor are they moving things frequently. Consider an average player who sells 20 items on the TP per day. A 1c undercut on every item likely results in every single one selling and costs 20c per day. That’s 1.4s per week or 72.8s per year. Even increasing the number of transactions by a factor of 10 still leaves the cost of this behavior at less than the cost of the average fast travel fee for a single movement per day. It seems to me that most people still fast travel to LA instead of using the cheapo option of traveling to the heart of the mists and using the portal for free. They’d save more by taking that extra 20 seconds once per day than they would by not undercutting 1c on every single transaction they make in a day.

As for people who make thousands of transactions per day, they don’t generally undercut by 1c except in certain (well considered) scenarios. In fact, many of them post their sales at higher than the going rate.

Syeria.4812:

It seems to me that most people still fast travel to LA instead of using the cheapo option of traveling to the heart of the mists and using the portal for free. They’d save more by taking that extra 20 seconds once per day than they would by not undercutting 1c on every single transaction they make in a day.

I agree but don’t forget that not everyone is equipped with a very powerful machine, loading the mists and then LA might takes a lot of time for those with a low-mid machine.
Considering that a lot of players prefer to play insteand of watching a very long loading screen twice you should just think that a good part of those players are not throwing away their money because they value their gameplay time and the 2-4s cost is acceptable for them.

I undercut by 1 copper every time, and by the time I am done putting things on the TP, vast majority of them sold, with a few that sell with in a few hours to the next day. I will continue to do this because it is free crap that I don’t want anyways, and I make a profit every time.

happyjedi.1372:

Syeria.4812:

It seems to me that most people still fast travel to LA instead of using the cheapo option of traveling to the heart of the mists and using the portal for free. They’d save more by taking that extra 20 seconds once per day than they would by not undercutting 1c on every single transaction they make in a day.

I agree but don’t forget that not everyone is equipped with a very powerful machine, loading the mists and then LA might takes a lot of time for those with a low-mid machine.
Considering that a lot of players prefer to play insteand of watching a very long loading screen twice you should just think that a good part of those players are not throwing away their money because they value their gameplay time and the 2-4s cost is acceptable for them.

They’re loading into LA anyway, so the only additional time added would be the load to HotM (one of the fastest loading zones in the game) and the walking time from the portal to their desired LA waypoint.

However, the entire purpose of the post was to relate the fact that the money the OP claims people are losing is so small, most people don’t even think twice about wasting a greater amount just to save a loading screen.

Firegoth.6427:

As a heavy TP buyer, I just purchase whatever comes up first, I don’t care or wait for the price to go down if I need it right away. Many are doing the same as me.

If you are buying by accepting large quantities of sell-offer prices rather than placing buy-offers… You’re willing to pay such a premium for instant gratification that you really don’t get to complain that other people are using the TP in a way that makes their transactions fast. The guy underbidding you has placed an even higher premium on turnover than you have. Buyers and sellers more concerned with maximizing profits rather than response time IGNORE the lowest for sale offer.

eisberg.2379:

I undercut by 1 copper every time, and by the time I am done putting things on the TP, vast majority of them sold, with a few that sell with in a few hours to the next day. I will continue to do this because it is free crap that I don’t want anyways, and I make a profit every time.

If you’re more concerned with coin erned by the next time you log in, you might try this protocol~

• Right click the item and hit “buy more from Trading Post”
• Click on the item.
• Examine the number of items being offered above the lowest for sale – in particular you are looking for a ‘clot’ of offers. They might be arranged as 2, then 5, then 4, then 817 as the prices go up. The clump is generally very easy to spot.
• Now right click the item and hit sell on trading post.
• If the item is something you are cofortable changes hands thousands or even tens of thousands of times a day, attach your to the clump or 1c below the clump – not whatever crazy sell it this second price is up. Its not unussual to see a price that is actually 1 left over item that someone offered to standing buy-order – and then there is a 10-15% gap between that one item and the rest of the standing sell offers. If you don’t read it out, you just pitched money down a hole.

Basically you’ll gain more profits buy gauging how many of them you think will sell by tomorrow- and then inserting yours into the stack as close to the END of that volume as you can, rather than the begining.

On higher end stuff I’m regularly able to squeeze out 10-12% more profit by reading the for sale offers rather than trying to jump to the front of the que. On lower end stuff you can get more like 20-30% better returns by ignoring the lowest sale-offer and realizing that the price for the item flutuates a couple of coins either way hourly. Its still all sold when I come back tomorrow.

Firegoth.6427:

Tekyn.5376:

Actually… the real problem is people who undercut by more than 1c. If everyone undercut by only 1c the profit margins would be fine.

This.

I don’t mind undercutting since I do it all the time, but come on people? undercut on low end mats by 10 or even 20c each? why? what for?
Stop shooting yourself in the foot.

Sometimes, I undercut a large margin because I want to help lower the prices, especially for mats. You say I’m cutting profits for myself and for others, I see it as a public service where more people can afford more mats.

The problem is that nearly all items aren’t in high demand. In this game, they think it’s a good idea to have a few lodestones and ectoplasms as the key ingredients in every high-end recipe instead of a broader range of different things. Thus lots of things are sitting there, useless and unwanted.

Ill undercut if i want, Im not keeping overpriced stuff in TP to keep the OP happy.

I offer some insight as to why you occasionally see large undercuts:

One tactic I use from time to time in lower volume markets is to “burn the market”.

When a given item cycle’s profit margin grows too small, and I decide that it is no longer worth the time to work with these items, I will calculate my break-even point.

I’ll then accumulate a mass of the item(s) and list large amounts (relative to the estimated supply) of the item at the break-even point for several days. This is often a very large undercut, as I’m not interested in the profit so much as making sure no one else profits.

What this does is ensure anyone that undercuts me is doing so at a loss, and anyone who tries to sell at a profit will have their items stuck. I will be breaking more or less even.

What do I have to gain from this? The more people I drive away from this market, the better it becomes for me. The entire reason the margin shrinks is others try to profit, raising the demands for the mats/forge requisites/etc. The vigilant market watchers will simply mark their spreadsheets and just keep an eye out. I can do nothing about that. The majority will turn to other markets.

With this, I’m occasionally able to restore higher profitability to certain market lines i’m interested in, once enough people have given up and turned elsewhere.

Certain requirements are:
- Relatively unknown crafting / forging line.
- Medium to low trade volume. The high volume items tend to already swing to their natural equilibrium.

These items are almost exclusively in the middle tier, and are almost always equipment.
Popular things like ectoplasms, crafting materials and such have no way of being suppressed in this way.

It also happens frequently that the lowest sale offer for an item is three to four times the price anyone would ever pay for it. In cases like these, undercutting by one copper is wasting your listing fee.

It really depends on whether the item in question is a fast-moving commodity (usually crafting mats) or an item that moves very slowly (most other items). For commodities, I usually match the lowest seller or 1c below it if I see that the lowest seller has a humongous amount of stock on offer. For items, I price the item about mid-way between the lowest seller and the highest buyer. This usually still nets me a good return (much more than I would have gotten from just merching it to a vendor), and I also get the benefit of a fast, almost-guaranteed sale as usually nobody’s willing to undercut me by such a substantial amount.

I undercut because someone pisses me off by undercutting by 1c so, I’ll sell my stuff by about 10-20% cheaper and if I’m selling mats, I’ll split em up and sell em in stacks of 50 or so but still maintaining a price range of 10-20%. Someone pisses someone off, the undercut war starts. I don’t care I’m losing money. I’m getting my money faster and therefore I can invest it faster.

Stop the undercutting -_-

Well, stop the overpricing, then we’ll talk business.

There’s the saying, “All’s fair in love and war.” The same principles apply to both trade and combat. A stout heart and sufficient supplies will always carry the day.

First you must accept that BLTC is constant War.
Lower price is winner.
Lower price return you investment faster and you can invest you money in something new.

P.S.
I want to sell iron icot for 1g each too …. but … “C’est la vie”

In most markets I go into these days I do not even care about the prices others are listing their items for anymore. All I care about is my profit margin and I set profit margin goals of 20-22%. If the market is not able to give me this profit, I just get out of that market. If the margin is currently 50-60%, that is a great market for me since all the offers I make will look like xmas sale and sell so fast that I can rinse and repeat right away. Yes, all these people trying to get those 50-60% margins will be mad, but I get my margin goals fast and easy and that is all I care about. That is usually how the market works in real life, anyway.

A market without undercutting is essentially price fixing.

I undercut for the same reason you do :P
and I know you undercut /because/ you are complaining about undercutting.
That said, I like to punish people who undercut me :P For TP profit-making endeavours, I usually list maybe 1/4 of what I have for sale at a time. If someone undercuts me with a sizable amount, I undercut them with another 1/4 of my inventory Markets are always changing, so eventually the first one will sell. I can live with eventually.
I have also undercut by more than 1c. Either someone’s trying to manipulate the market, or someone accidentally bought 250 instead of 25 or w/e: the price is twice what it normally is. I know it will never stay there, so I don’t bother listing stuff quite that high (I do still list for much higher than normal)

Sadest thing is I over-price constantly, and its still sold by the following day.

Unless ther are 1000+ items at the lowest price, there is very little reason to undercut.

Revolution.6301:

I play the tp on occasion and find that people are constantly undercutting.
Now logically this would make sense, sell somthing for 1 less coin hoping for a faster but but it actually isn’t logical.

Selling something for 1c less isn’t about getting your money faster – it’s about sending a message…
The point is, for a short period of time, I want to be the one that is on the top of the list, because that’s the first order that’s served when someone buys/sells that particular item. Besides – do you really undercut sell orders?

And although Skribulous already put it nicely, here as a general advice to all people complaining about the “tactics”, “manipulation” or “bad manners” on the TP: If you want your money quick, just serve the uppermost order and you’ll be fine. Otherwise you’ll end up in a shark pool you can’t handle.

As Dade Murphy (Crash Override) said: “Mess with the best, die like the rest”

I love undercutters. They just drove the price down on one of my markets so that the sell orders are lower than where I usually place my buy orders.

It’s so much easier when I don’t even have to wait for my buy orders to fill before relisting and heading out for the evening.

LFk.1408:

I offer some insight as to why you occasionally see large undercuts:

One tactic I use from time to time in lower volume markets is to “burn the market”.

When a given item cycle’s profit margin grows too small, and I decide that it is no longer worth the time to work with these items, I will calculate my break-even point.

I’ll then accumulate a mass of the item(s) and list large amounts (relative to the estimated supply) of the item at the break-even point for several days. This is often a very large undercut, as I’m not interested in the profit so much as making sure no one else profits.

What this does is ensure anyone that undercuts me is doing so at a loss, and anyone who tries to sell at a profit will have their items stuck. I will be breaking more or less even.

What do I have to gain from this? The more people I drive away from this market, the better it becomes for me. The entire reason the margin shrinks is others try to profit, raising the demands for the mats/forge requisites/etc. The vigilant market watchers will simply mark their spreadsheets and just keep an eye out. I can do nothing about that. The majority will turn to other markets.

With this, I’m occasionally able to restore higher profitability to certain market lines i’m interested in, once enough people have given up and turned elsewhere.

Certain requirements are:
- Relatively unknown crafting / forging line.
- Medium to low trade volume. The high volume items tend to already swing to their natural equilibrium.

These items are almost exclusively in the middle tier, and are almost always equipment.
Popular things like ectoplasms, crafting materials and such have no way of being suppressed in this way.

So you are the one selling mid-lvl yellow gear for half price… hummm
I have my eyes on those listings

Lots of people are out ‘in the field’. They can’t be bothered wasting time looking for the best price. They just want to empty their inventory quickly and they just undercut the lowest price by one copper. After a few people have undercut each other, we have a very low price. I don’t think it’s a great big conspiracy…just lots of people in a hurry. Eventually someone with more time will buy all the lower priced items and repost them at a higher price and we start all over again.

I think a small change to the UI can change a little of this behavior. I don’t play the market, so when I’m selling or buying, I’m looking at getting a fair value for something I have or want, so my motivations are a bit different from the traders, but I do sell a lot of stuff.

When I’m buying, I can see more than top of book, but when I’m selling it’s kind of a hassle to see more depth. When I’m selling something of significant value, I will take the time to go look at how many of that item are available at different price points, and what the spread is, but I’m not going to go through that hassle for something that’s not worth a lot to begin with (or is worth a bit more, but doesn’t have a lot of demand).

I think if I could see the top 5 price levels on the sell screen, I might price my stuff over the minimum sell order on more things. 10 levels would be better. That being said, I don’t see much difference in the sale time of things priced at the current minimum sell order and things priced at 1c under. If I’m going to undercut, I undercut by a lot, or fill a buy order and get it sold right away.

I think a lot of folks still haven’t wrapped their brains around how many participants the market in GW2 has… undercutting by 1c might be a useful tactic in a single server auction house, but it’s pointless in the TP unless you’re selling something that no-one wants (of course it’s likely to be priced at 1c over vendor anyhow so you can’t undercut).

On the other hand, complaining about people undercutting you by 1c is just as pointless. We don’t have the tools to do any high speed trading on the TP and leverage small shifts due to volatility (at least not legitimately). If your item doesn’t sell faster than people can undercut you, you picked the wrong price point. Of course I’m willing to wait a day or two before I give up on a listing. I understand that if you’re trying to make money on the market that might not be feasible.

Look if you stop undercutting you’ll make more money. Thats the point.

People will see somtimes 2 to 3000 of an item and panick and and cut a price from 35 to 36. But think about it, if there are SO MANY of an item then logically its liquid enough so there is no need to undercut.

On a side note: I’ve found that the ‘last’ price poster gets his/her stuff sold first. (I’ve tested this many times). So actually you should just repost your orders instead of undercutting.

I never liked the idea that MMO markets are training grounds for day traders. I guess this is how Wall Street brokers relax.

Revolution.6301:

Look if you stop undercutting you’ll make more money. Thats the point.

People will see somtimes 2 to 3000 of an item and panick and and cut a price from 35 to 36. But think about it, if there are SO MANY of an item then logically its liquid enough so there is no need to undercut.

On a side note: I’ve found that the ‘last’ price poster gets his/her stuff sold first. (I’ve tested this many times). So actually you should just repost your orders instead of undercutting.

You really don’t get markets do you? People are “undercutting” (fancy word for selling at the lowest price) in order to beat their competition (you) so that they can turn their profit and immediately move on to the next profitable market. In the TP game “churn” is important. People who are looking to make money trading in the markets want to see an opportunity and flip it fast so that their money isn’t tied up in an asset for days while they wait for the price to come back. If your money is stuck in an asset you can’t use it for the next big trade. Choosing to not undercut you is in no way a profitable activity for me what so ever. If it bothers you that the markets move fast then you might want to think about not playing them. Finally for all those folks who will give the “why don’t you actually play the game” comment. We all play a game that has an open and functional marketplace, that marketplace is free for actors to participate in however they want. The actions of those individuals helps to make markets more liquid (because they are ‘market makers’) and if you still have a problem with it, it’s the way ArenaNet made the game. It is what it is.

Why?

I always undercut by 10copper or so. I make a ton of gold just farming mats and junk (with whatever rares that pop up after Orr runs)..

My stuff sells, and I have gold for what I want.

Could care less if I undercut you. Does not effect me one bit.

In my previous MMO it was referred by a dev as market PvP.

Behellagh.1468:

In my previous MMO it was referred by a dev as market PvP.

If I could +1 Million this comment, I would.

I will not. Prices on the trading post are already absurdly high. If I can 1) do my part to lower the price of an item and 2) get that item to someone who really wants it but doesn’t want to pay out the nose, I will.

Players undercut so that they are next in line to get the sell order done. If they undercut by small margin then they want to maximise their profit, however, if they undercut by a large margin then they still want to make profit but improves the probability that someone will buy it sooner than later.

Think about it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t play the TP, but has half a brain to get a fair deal.

I don’t have any need for ectos, so I sell rather than salvage rares. This is the “safe” money, as I’m not gambling on how many or few ectos I may be able to sell off.

Given that rares are a niche-flip market due to the vast number of levels, prefixes, and suffixes, I can be sure that simply clicking “sell to highest buy order” can often knock my profit margin by as much as 20s in some cases.

So when I sell I check the difference between buy/sell. if its reasonable (within 2-5s or so), then I’ll just sell to the buy order. if it’s an obvious flip (e.g. Obscure L79 rare with 30 buy orders at 15s below the sell order) then I know I can make better money by undercutting the flipper by a few silver and still sett the item within the hour.

I’m not focused on my profit percentage. I honestly don’t care. I’m not against people playing the market and I always smile a little bit when I encounter an obvious flip as such because I know there’s some enterprising individual out there risking a big pot of money for a bigger payoff. I like that that exists in the market.

However

I want the money for my rares fast, and I want roughly what they’re worth, give or take a few silver. I don’t bother with the 1c undercut game because in my experience it just results in me spending more time playing the market against people who actually enjoy playing the market. I’ll go for the 1-5s undercut because I’m still getting very near the market value of my item, but I’m still selling it within the day or even hour.

This allows me to make solid money from drops and the MF without actually needing to play the market and worry about my profit margin. Which in turn allows me to spend my time doing things I enjoy, like getting more drops.

PopeUrban.2578:

I want the money for my rares fast, and I want roughly what they’re worth, give or take a few silver. I don’t bother with the 1c undercut game because in my experience it just results in me spending more time playing the market against people who actually enjoy playing the market. I’ll go for the 1-5s undercut because I’m still getting very near the market value of my item, but I’m still selling it within the day or even hour.

This allows me to make solid money from drops and the MF without actually needing to play the market and worry about my profit margin. Which in turn allows me to spend my time doing things I enjoy, like getting more drops.

That’s my reasoning and strategy too. I’d rather be spending my game time out and about doing things rather than refreshing the TP window every 2 seconds. XD

In real life, conspiring to not undercut each other would be called a cartel, and is illegal. Free markets don’t work if you remove price regulation via supply and demand.

I especially dislike when people sell something for only 5 copper more than it’s worth to a vendor. Thus making it pointless to post your item for its REAL value. People still dont know that the game “taxes” your return.

X The Manimal.5293:

I especially dislike when people sell something for only 5 copper more than it’s worth to a vendor. Thus making it pointless to post your item for its REAL value. People still dont know that the game “taxes” your return.

If there are thousands available at 5c over vendor, the item isn’t worth anything to players. In fact it’s so worthless that they’re willing to pay a few coppers just to get it out of their bag. I really don’t think that many people are completely ignorant of the tax on the TP, the tax just isn’t high enough to make it worth the time to hang on to crap so they can vendor it to make an extra 10c.

Time is money. Penny wise, pound foolish. et cetera et cetera.

Nike.2631:

eisberg.2379:

I undercut by 1 copper every time, and by the time I am done putting things on the TP, vast majority of them sold, with a few that sell with in a few hours to the next day. I will continue to do this because it is free crap that I don’t want anyways, and I make a profit every time.

If you’re more concerned with coin earned by the next time you log in, you might try this protocol~

• Right click the item and hit “buy more from Trading Post”
• Click on the item.
• Examine the number of items being offered above the lowest for sale – in particular you are looking for a ‘clot’ of offers. They might be arranged as 2, then 5, then 4, then 817 as the prices go up. The clump is generally very easy to spot.
• Now right click the item and hit sell on trading post.
• If the item is something you are comfortable changes hands thousands or even tens of thousands of times a day, attach your to the clump or 1c below the clump – not whatever crazy sell it this second price is up. Its not unusual to see a price that is actually 1 left over item that someone offered to standing buy-order – and then there is a 10-15% gap between that one item and the rest of the standing sell offers. If you don’t read it out, you just pitched money down a hole.

Basically you’ll gain more profits buy gauging how many of them you think will sell by tomorrow- and then inserting yours into the stack as close to the END of that volume as you can, rather than the beginning.

On higher end stuff I’m regularly able to squeeze out 10-12% more profit by reading the for sale offers rather than trying to jump to the front of the queue. On lower end stuff you can get more like 20-30% better returns by ignoring the lowest sale-offer and realizing that the price for the item fluctuates a couple of coins either way hourly. Its still all sold when I come back tomorrow.

This is the procedure I follow with every single one of the many hundreds of items I list each day. It would be so much easier and profitable for all if Anet made the buy and sell screens merged, or at least showed both the top 5 buy orders and top 5 sell orders on the same screen while you’re selling an item. It would also get rid of jumpers.

example: Highly traded material.
Clotted sell price of 1000 of the item is 1s
Bulk buy order of 1000 is 50c
Someone lists 10-20 at 51c (same one with the bulk buy order usually)
Since the average person going to sell their item is unable to actually SEE the “going rate” instead of the hyper-undercut price, they will simply stack it in with the 10-20 at 51c, thereby losing half of the value per item listed and increasing the likelihood that people will simply sell to the buy order.

Now, if the top 5 or so sell orders were visible at the time of listing your item then the seller could make a more logical and informed choice as to what price to list their item(s) for.

It would save a ton of player time by not having to follow the same time-consuming protocol for every single item you list, would encourage more conscious sellers, and it would absolutely cut back on the damage being done to the market by greedy people taking serious advantage of this lack of information.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

Players undercut so that they are next in line to get the sell order done. If they undercut by small margin then they want to maximise their profit, however, if they undercut by a large margin then they still want to make profit but improves the probability that someone will buy it sooner than later.

Agreed, but that does not work in the GW2 economy due to the Mystic Forge.
One person can make a buy order of 1000 for the lowest price you’re able to on the TP for an item they will use in bulk in the Mystic Forge. The problem comes, not from someone listing their item far below the “going rate” so they still get a profit over vendor price and it sells very quickly, but from the person who made the bulk buy order.
Example:
Vendor value 10c
Buy order by one person for 1000 at 11c
Going rate 1s
The person that made the bulk buy order will list 20 at 12c (1c above their bulk buy order)
By the time those 20 are sold they would have had 200-500 of their buy order filled by people who figured they’d get the cash-in-hand instead of listing it at 12c, because what’s 1c anyway.
So to the person with the bulk order they plan to sacrifice 20 of the item at 12c in order to fill half of their buy order at nearly 1/10th the actual “Going Rate” of the item.
And since people perceive the 12c to be the new going rate they will simply add to the stack, thereby erasing 88c from it’s value permanently. Before too long, the stack of sell orders at 12c is large due to all sell orders being forced to be added into it….not to also mention that all of the sellers listing this item at 12c are actually taking a loss since they sell for less than the vendor price due to the sales tax and listing fee.

Had this person not manipulated the market in this fashion in order to get what they wanted in bulk at the cheapest possible price, the item would have sat at the 1s “Going Rate” since that was the balance point between supply and demand for the item. It was artificially lowered to its base price by a person working a flaw in the system.

Then again, my personal feeling on the GW2 market is that all items listed should simply be added to a stack and when someone buys one from the stack a random item from the listing is selected. So sell your item to a vendor, or add it to the stack and eventually it will get selected randomly to be the one purchased. The price of the stack could be 150% the value of the item or more depending on the rarity. This way the drop rates for items could be adjusted by Anet based on the supply of the item on the market in “The Stack” to balance out with the demand for the item. The market could even be made to automatically influence the drop rates of the items based on the demand so as to keep a manageable amount in the stack.

That’s my view, anyway. I like order, logic and consistency.

Actually, it’s even simpler still. All items find their price by the amount people are willing to sell for and buy for. There is no problem here, it’s simply the way an economy functions. However, as in any economy, we have special interest groups that seek to control some niche of the economy solely for their profit. That’s actually not a problem either as long as they don’t have the means to regulate anything. Let the market come to a natural homeostasis and everything will be fine. No worries mates.

I never undercut.
Depending on the rarity and availability of the item I’m selling,
I will either match lowest seller,or increase the price.
Items such as crafting mats and greens are sold within 24 hours.
Rares and exotics may take a couple more days.

CrockD.8257:

Revolution.6301:

Look if you stop undercutting you’ll make more money. Thats the point.

People will see somtimes 2 to 3000 of an item and panick and and cut a price from 35 to 36. But think about it, if there are SO MANY of an item then logically its liquid enough so there is no need to undercut.

On a side note: I’ve found that the ‘last’ price poster gets his/her stuff sold first. (I’ve tested this many times). So actually you should just repost your orders instead of undercutting.

You really don’t get markets do you? People are “undercutting” (fancy word for selling at the lowest price) in order to beat their competition (you) so that they can turn their profit and immediately move on to the next profitable market. In the TP game “churn” is important. People who are looking to make money trading in the markets want to see an opportunity and flip it fast so that their money isn’t tied up in an asset for days while they wait for the price to come back. If your money is stuck in an asset you can’t use it for the next big trade. Choosing to not undercut you is in no way a profitable activity for me what so ever. If it bothers you that the markets move fast then you might want to think about not playing them. Finally for all those folks who will give the “why don’t you actually play the game” comment. We all play a game that has an open and functional marketplace, that marketplace is free for actors to participate in however they want. The actions of those individuals helps to make markets more liquid (because they are ‘market makers’) and if you still have a problem with it, it’s the way ArenaNet made the game. It is what it is.

Actually I do buddy. Talking down to me is a logical fallacy and is rude of you. Oh and I’m not sure if you know this but this isn’t real life. So encouraging people to make more money so I make more money at the same time is doing the community a favor. Again stop the undercutting and overcutting since it really does kills many markets. I’ve seen entire markets killed for weeks because someone undercut or overcutt just to sell faster even though they would probably sell at the same speed had they just priced it normally. Since the last buyer/orderer is sold/bought first!!