So we've all seen the prices on the GTN. When someone sells something for say 20,000 credits you see another seller post theirs up for 19,999 just to get a quicker sale. Let me just say the second seller doing this is a douche. Why not just post your item for the SAME price as the last seller that way both of you have an equal opportunity for a quick sale without driving the prices down to almost nothing. If anything I try to keep my prices reasonable and most of the time I don't bother to check the going GTN prices because I know by now what my items should be going for, but it really ticks me off when some items I post don't sell for DAYS just because some douche decides to post their for a few credits less than mine. Which cause me to lower my prices lower than theirs because I have WAY too much inventory. Which then causes the same douche to try to undercut me again. Which then causes the prices to fall and everyone loses. If you see a low price MATCH IT. Don't try to be sneaky and try to be the lowest. You're only hurting yourself in the end by causing prices to drop below what the items can reasonably go for. And then don't go whispering me later asking me why I lowered my price so low. Edited October 24, 2014 by chosonman

So we've all seen the prices on the GTN. When someone sells something for say 20,000 credits you see another seller post theirs up for 19,999 just to get a quicker sale. Let me just say the second seller doing this is a douche. Why not just post your item for the SAME price as the last seller that way both of you have an equal opportunity for a quick sale without driving the prices down to almost nothing.

 

Because the way the system works is that the person who posts first is declared the cheapest. So if buyers sort by price lowest to highest (which they always do), the "older" items will come up first. That means the buyer will buy the older item first, so it is NOT equal opportunity:

 

1. someone has 5 item X posted at 20k each
   
2. I too post 5 item X at 20k each
   
3. the other player's 5 item X will supersede my 5 item X.
   
4. So his/hers will sell first.
   

 

So what am I going to do to get my item X to sell before my competition? I am going to undercut his price so that when the buyer sorts by price my item X come to the top of the list.

 

The issue is that you do not want the GTN to be a competition. Well sorry to break the bad news...it is a competition. And it is not that I want my stuff to sell fast - if I did I would undercut by far more than a handful of credits - I want my stuff to sell faster than my competition.

 

As to repeat undercutting, ideally eventually competitors drop out of the market for a while, let supplies dwindle and prices rise. And this is why one should ALWAYS check pricing: to see what the supply and competition is like. If value is low, why craft in the first place.... Make Credits NOT Stuff. If the stuff you make is not selling well, then stop making it and make something else.

 

Lastly, personally, I applaud those who undercut by 1 to 5 credits at a time. Why? Because they are keeping the value as high as possible while still getting themselves to the top of the list. Is it annoying to be undercut by that handful? Sure it is, but since I do it as well, I don't get up in arms about it.

 

Whom I dislike are those who undercut by hundreds or thousands of credits to get the quick sale when they would sell just as quickly if they undercut by a handful. But you know whom I dislike even more? Those who undercut the absolute lowest all the time. Why undercut the 15k single when there are many at 20k+? Undercut the 20k by a handful, you will still get the sale, you will make more credits, and you keep the value higher.

People will always search for the lowest price. I know I will. When I am looking for the mass manipulators generators to make some armor mods I will always look for the cheaper price and buy it that way.

 

When I get ready to sell I will search and find the price and undercut it by 1c or 500c. I do have a limit on what I will sell it for. If it is too low then I will hold on to it and wait out the market.

 

It is not being sneaky, it is just checking the market and seeing the price it is going for and working the price so you sell your item. Some people, yes will sell things at a very low price, but if you already know the lowest price you are willing to sell it then you are going to hold on to the item.

Honestly, I'm fine with the undercutting. I have, on multiple occasions, let the market drop really low, buy out the entire thing, and mark up by 100% and get sales. My most recent was about 800 Fibermesh at ~1500-1850 that I have sold for 2400+. I have 200 remaining in my stocks due to the market slowing down recently, but it will sell eventually.

 

I'm sure its different for crafting since inventory space can be a problem with non-stackables, but playing the crafting material market is like free money. Not to mention, it's not very time-demanding. I do it while playing 1-2 hours in the evening and logging on for 5 min every so often during the day when I'm home.

because I have WAY too much inventory.

 

I do believe we have found the issue...

 

Those other sellers are in the same boat with too much inventory...

 

I can craft more than I can sell, the demand just isn't there...

 

Perhaps you should lower your prices?

 

In fairness, lower prices don't always produce more demand, some items just don't have enough demand at any price.

What's really ironic is the guy who keeps under cutting me sends me a message saying "why are you selling so low?" And actually when I do check the GTN I usually put my stuff either at the same price or a little more depending on how many items of the same kind are posted knowing that it will eventually sell in a matter of time. But that all goes out the window when you got a bunch of desperate sellers unloading their stuff desperate to get creds asap when that happens you start a price war which is what's happened. Learn from the airline industry. Just match the other guy and everyone will be happy and you will make more money.

Learn from the airline industry. Just match the other guy and everyone will be happy and you will make more money.

 

#1 the "price matching" IRL you are talking about is just not the same. The person buying the ticket(s) wants to buy from airline X, but is willing to fly airline Y because they are cheaper. So airline X agrees to match airline Y's prices to retain a customer. Furthermore, companies will only go so far when it comes to price matching: i.e. in the past brick and mortar stores did not price match online prices (that is changing but not universal).

 

#2 many "price matching" deals include a discount above and beyond the matching price, so by undercutting by a little bit we are engaged in price matching.

 

#3 and last, the price matching you are talking about involves the buyer contacting a seller and stating, "seller X's price is lower than yours. Match it and I will buy from you." First of all the GTN does not have that option, and second, as I already said, if prices match exactly then the "oldest" item is declared the "cheapest." The newer seller has no recourse except to proactively match and discount existing pricing to get the sale.

I am truly grateful for people that only undercut by 1 credit. It's much better than 10-40% less that you see from most sellers.

 

Sure it's upsetting to be undercut at all, but as you get more practice at the GTN, you'll start to see opportunities everywhere. Most items change over time as well, you might be able to sell that 20k item next week or next month for 100k and make 5x the profit your undercutter did.

Edited October 24, 2014 by KevMeup

So we've all seen the prices on the GTN. When someone sells something for say 20,000 credits you see another seller post theirs up for 19,999 just to get a quicker sale. Let me just say the second seller doing this is a douche. Why not just post your item for the SAME price as the last seller that way both of you have an equal opportunity for a quick sale without driving the prices down to almost nothing. If anything I try to keep my prices reasonable and most of the time I don't bother to check the going GTN prices because I know by now what my items should be going for, but it really ticks me off when some items I post don't sell for DAYS just because some douche decides to post their for a few credits less than mine. Which cause me to lower my prices lower than theirs because I have WAY too much inventory. Which then causes the same douche to try to undercut me again. Which then causes the prices to fall and everyone loses. If you see a low price MATCH IT. Don't try to be sneaky and try to be the lowest. You're only hurting yourself in the end by causing prices to drop below what the items can reasonably go for. And then don't go whispering me later asking me why I lowered my price so low.

 

i buy the 20k in those cases lol

You could just get in contact with your competitors and form a cartel.

But even IRL cartels have a very limited life. Someone always ends up breaking the deal and undercutting everyone.

 

 

Or push their prices down until you can buy them out and re-list for massive profits.

 

Learn to play the market

i buy the 20k in those cases lol

 

And you are the exception, not the rule.

 

A question: what happens when you see pricing at 19950, 19975, 19990, 19995, and 19999? Do you go searching for the 20k 5 pages back?

Tbh when I see someone undercut by 1 credit, it annoys me lol. I get it going for a fast sell, keeping the market high, what rly angers me tho are those that undercut a 750k by 400k:mad:

And you are the exception, not the rule.

 

A question: what happens when you see pricing at 19950, 19975, 19990, 19995, and 19999? Do you go searching for the 20k 5 pages back?

 

Actually yes I do that, I take it upon myself never to buy an item that is undercutting the next one by less than 5%, 5% rule changes depending on how expensive the item is.

I always take a full picture of price range before buying anyway, so I am already flipping through several pages!

Edited October 25, 2014 by znihilist

You could just get in contact with your competitors and form a cartel.

But even IRL cartels have a very limited life. Someone always ends up breaking the deal and undercutting everyone.

 

 

Or push their prices down until you can buy them out and re-list for massive profits.

 

Learn to play the market

that doesn`t work some ppl just refuse logic, I had i guy undercutting by 10-15k on 60k-ish products and i pm him to tell him if he undercuts by 1 credit that is enough for him to be ahead of everybody and make a higher profit for himself, at which reply came with "This is how I do things fck off" and the problem isn`t just that, it`s that other ppl instead of ignoring the 1-3 products that are underpriced massivly they undercut the guy that undercutted with 10k+ instead of ignoring his stuff that will fly off the GTN pretty quickly and undercut the seller after him they continue the undercutting the Stupid 10k undercutter and now the market is fcked for a few days.....This is how those large gaps between prices form, it only takes 1 guy minimum and then everybody follows.

 

I`m ok with getting undercut by 1 credit because I do the same when I`m on, they say u snoze you lose, but when I`m online the race is on:rolleyes:

So we've all seen the prices on the GTN. When someone sells something for say 20,000 credits you see another seller post theirs up for 19,999 just to get a quicker sale. Let me just say the second seller doing this is a douche. Why not just post your item for the SAME price as the last seller that way both of you have an equal opportunity for a quick sale without driving the prices down to almost nothing. If anything I try to keep my prices reasonable and most of the time I don't bother to check the going GTN prices because I know by now what my items should be going for, but it really ticks me off when some items I post don't sell for DAYS just because some douche decides to post their for a few credits less than mine. Which cause me to lower my prices lower than theirs because I have WAY too much inventory. Which then causes the same douche to try to undercut me again. Which then causes the prices to fall and everyone loses. If you see a low price MATCH IT. Don't try to be sneaky and try to be the lowest. You're only hurting yourself in the end by causing prices to drop below what the items can reasonably go for. And then don't go whispering me later asking me why I lowered my price so low.

 

Not a student of the free market ?

Tbh when I see someone undercut by 1 credit, it annoys me lol. I get it going for a fast sell, keeping the market high, what rly angers me tho are those that undercut a 750k by 400k:mad:

 

You mean the people who are potentially selling the item for what it is actually worth?

You mean the people who are potentially selling the item for what it is actually worth?

 

There's a difference between what an item is actually worth, and what people are willing to pay for it.

 

Take for instance a MK-9 augment kit. On my server they run about 55K, give or take a little bit. Now, the mats needed to make the item don't even come close to that but people are willing to pay that price because they need, or want, the item.

 

To be honest, those items could be marked up another 50% to about 75K and they would still sell.

You mean the people who are potentially selling the item for what it is actually worth?

 

How do you calculate a crafted item's worth?

 

If all the materials were gathered from the field then the materials to craft the item cost you - the crafter - zero credits

If all the materials were acquired through missions then the materials to the craft item have a specific cost based on:

• the cost of the mission run
  
• the base 5% failure rate
  
• the crit chance that the specific companion who ran the mission has.
  

But if all the materials were bought off the GTN...Oh wait those materials had to be acquired somehow. So those materials should either be valued at nothing - because they were gathered from the field - or they should be valued at the cost to acquire from mission. But no they are typically valued FAR higher than that. but why? Because as DariusCalera points out, item value is based more on what buyers are willing to pay than their cost to acquire.

 

The effort of acquiring the schematic or materials in the first place, and the time it takes to craft said item have value. And other players are willing to pay a premium so that they can save time and effort.

 

So, I ask the question albeit on a slightly different tack: how much is your time worth to you? My time is worth as much as I can get without gouging. Watching market trends on the GTN for a long time, I know what the upper value of a given item is, and I rarely go above that. And guess what? When I have gone above that high value mark, the item(s) don't sell.

 

Buyers determine value, not sellers. And if buyers are willing to spend 20k on a crafted item that costs 7k in GTN valued materials, as I seller, why should I argue?

Exactly, don't get wrong there can be a "going rate," for a good while but once those on the market are gone its time for someone to set the price again. Even if it's much higher this time, if you disagree with the price this time it's simple don't buy

To those who are crafting items to sell on the GTN, try to check if there is a glut of that item or not before you make it, it is one of the things that leads to insane undercutting.

 

Other times massive undercutting is cause by people charging way to much for an item. For example the Cartel Market item that increases your character slots by 1? Most of the people who want/need that are Free to play and Preferred players who are capped at 250k and 350k credits each, by pricing them OVER 1 MILLION CREDITS you are putting it out of the reach of the ones who would buy it and most people who do have a subscription will go "Ah hell no!"

 

To be honest, those items could be marked up another 50% to about 75K and they would still sell.

 

>_< 75k should be the minimum that they sell for, 100k the top

More to the point, a given item is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. I have to wonder then complaining about undercutting, how the price was set in the first place. Did YOU get undercut and get upset because someone undercut you? Honest question.

 

The notiont of just noticable difference comes into play when determining price. There are no other ways to differentiate your product on the GTN. No service plans, no expert salesbeings detailing the features and creating a friendly environment to trade in. Its all based on price some bit of irrationality players quixotically inject into their decision making process.

 

Are there accepted norms? Perhaps. It annoys me when someone lists for 1 credit less but I don't lose sleep over it. If someone blows the bottom out, it creates an opportunity....buy it and relist it.

 

Effectively working the market in this game takes, above all, patience. Couple that with a little critical thinking and you can get filthy rich in no time.

 

The GTN doesn't completely conform to a free market where it is assumed people act rationally and in their best interest because its entertainment and play money. People do stupid things with their play money because they don't care. (granted, people do stupid things with their money in real life too that don't appear rational to anyone with a modicum of common sense) They don't know that Rainbow Gems sell to the vendor for 150 each so they list them for 95 credits. Again, these are opportunities. When people want to give away free credits, oblige them.

I find it mildly annoying sometimes but mostly I completely ignore under-cutters.

 

I get familiar with my market and know what my stuff is worth and then I price accordingly.

 

If someone undercuts me then mine will sell after his sell out. I only put up 1-3 of each item at a time so even if I do undercut someone else his will still sell when mine are gone if we both have good prices.

 

And absolutely buy out the crazy low under-cutters IF you know the market well enough to know for sure you can resell them for at least enough to make it worth having the credits tied up until you can sell that many extra.

 

I also make a few thousand a day just buying stuff people put up for less than vendor cost and then selling to vendor.

that doesn`t work some ppl just refuse logic, I had i guy undercutting by 10-15k on 60k-ish products and i pm him to tell him if he undercuts by 1 credit that is enough for him to be ahead of everybody and make a higher profit for himself, at which reply came with "This is how I do things fck off" and the problem isn`t just that, it`s that other ppl instead of ignoring the 1-3 products that are underpriced massivly they undercut the guy that undercutted with 10k+ instead of ignoring his stuff that will fly off the GTN pretty quickly and undercut the seller after him they continue the undercutting the Stupid 10k undercutter and now the market is fcked for a few days.....This is how those large gaps between prices form, it only takes 1 guy minimum and then everybody follows.

 

I`m ok with getting undercut by 1 credit because I do the same when I`m on, they say u snoze you lose, but when I`m online the race is on:rolleyes:

 

Yeah, the cartel thing was kind of a joke. It's actually extremely unethical and illegal in most places.

 

You have to remember, the guy undercutting by massive amounts is probably trying to drive the market down so he can buy out and flip the products.

 

If he pushes everyone down to 25% of market value, he's making 400% on the turn around.

On the flip side to this, some of us undercut by 7% (yes exactly 7%) to give the option of someone to buy the item, re-list it for it's actual value and make 1% profit (6% cut taken out).

 

Also, if I ever buy mats, I point blank refuse to buy the lowest price. Why? Pretty simple, I'd like the price to stay fairly low so avoid the lower prices within reason. The person undercutting by 1 or 5 credits, that's okay. The guy undercutting by 1k+ but less than 7%? Bit stupid really as i'll avoid buying from them as afaik they're driving down prices to flip items.

 

It completely depends on how you view things, but the 1 credit reduction, there really shouldn't be an issue there as they're NOT driving down prices by doing so. You have to view the GTN as a long term thing if you truly want to profit from it, if you have to re-list your item then where is the harm?