Crafters: Undercutting GTN pricing, I get it...but I don't!

[VinceTam]

i have a better idea.

 

Why don't you post your stuff on the gtn how you want, and i can post my stuff the way i want.

 

Galls me to all ends when someone tries to convince me that i should do what they think i should do.

 

I am fine with undercutting. If you would dare come to me with this garbage i would laugh in your face.

 

amen!!!

[Darkwords]

Once I get my new Rep maxed I am never touching the new dailies again...back to the old for me for better or same creds lol

[Darevsool]

There is no 'one size fits all' answer to this argument. This argument was paramount in the previous Star Wars MMO and has been debated in this MMO ever since the game launched 3 years ago.

 

Mats are either 'free' if you gather them yourself, or they cost credits if you buy them or pay for the missions. There's your time involved, less if you gather them (because you're playing the game, doing other stuff at the same time) or more if you just send companions out on the gathering missions, cycling your toons so ALL of them are doing something.

 

Gathering yourself = very low overhead

Spending credits = higher overhead

 

Both are valid, and if the item has a stable price on your server you're obviously going to make a higher profit gathering the mats than doing missions or buying them on the GTN. If a player chooses to not gather nodes, that is his/her choice.

 

 

As for undercutting...

I USED to hate resellers with a passion. When the first expansion came out for that previous Star Wars MMO I ground out the shipwright crafting profession largely using ship chassis and I sold them, cheap, in my store. Any time I got mails about someone buying more than a couple I banned them from my shop. I wanted to provide cheap chassis (because the stats weren't as good because I wasn't a 'master' shipwright while grinding) to as many players as possible, not provide a revenue stream for another shop owner who couldn't be bothered to actually craft.

That was then, probably about 9.5 years ago. Now, not only do I not care about resellers, I do it myself. It's pretty easy to use dailies to grind out 5-10 million if that's your goal. Using that you can buy a lot of cheap stuff on the GTN and mark it up to the price you feel is correct, or want it to be.

Generally I do it with CC market armor. If I see 2 pages of an armor piece for under 5k, I might buy all of them, spend less that 20k, and list 3 for 25k each. If I sell even one of them, I make a profit. At eight items per page, that's 16 items. I sell three and delete the other 13. If there are 16 items at that price, there's too many in the system. Even if none of them sell, a 25k loss is easily made up by running just a few daily missions.

The (imperial) Black Hole mission where you scan for spies gets you a tad over 7k credits. No combat, just button pressing, takes barely 5 minutes if you're very unlucky.

 

Oh, and about reverse engineering and the costs of the mats to go from green to blue to purple. If you want to sell purples, that's part of the overhead. If you figured out that it costs 350k in mats to do it, that's your 'admission price' to be able to do it. To me, that's just part of being a crafter. I don't charge extra for what it took me to get there. I charge for what it costs me to make them each and every time...the current cost of the mats (or whatever price I feel is appropriate at the time, which might not have anything to do with anything other than pulling a price out of the ether that I like).

Edited December 10, 2014 by Darevsool

[KrullD]

this is why i aim for 8 characters per faction..and I just make everything myself.

 

youre all greedy..and it leads tot eh darkside...oO

Edited December 10, 2014 by KrullD

[Digimanbyte_ID]

The GTN isn't that very well done and is a bother to put up for most people and its difficult trying to match prices of it to make a profit. Because of this most people will only care about the sale and may miss the actual going price. Plus you have to consider demand, especially with the recent leveling story plot boost many players may have been able level a considerable amount of alts to cover them for crafting goods and the new level cap, so most people won't be in demand for a few months at least.

 

Eitherway GTN dictates what the market wants. If you the market wants cheap prices, then suck it up and find a more demanding products to sell. If not then buy them out and sell it on you own price.

[demotivator]

What I never understand is the need to put a savagely low price. For example, if someone lists Green Goo for 10 million creds, then why would you list yours for 800k? That makes no bloody sense; do you not want to make money?

 

The correct price would be one credit less or 9,999,999. That way we can all make some dough and everyone will be happy. Only an inbred halfwit would price an item so savagely low!

 

I am much more annoyed by people undercutting by one credit (and always proceed on buying the item that was listed for 10M) than those who at least grow some b***s and really undercut.

[danielearley]

I think 125K is a fair Price.

 

I don't buy purples for 100k as I don't think this is a fair price, I rely on my companions, I get a purple generally once every 6 missions so about 20k for 2. Other Mats I get are from doing FP so no actual cost.

 

So I think it's wrong to say overheads are high, they are if you buy Mat's from GTN but if you're a crafter, the chances are you are producing your own!

 

Greed is the deciding factor on the current price, if you wish to start a Cartel Please go ahead and buy and resell at a higher price if you want, the people posting for below your Cartel Price will still get the profit they require, you just take the risk for when the market changes and become saturated.

[DEE_licious]

I am much more annoyed by people undercutting by one credit (and always proceed on buying the item that was listed for 10M) than those who at least grow some b***s and really undercut.

 

IMO A big undercut is acceptable in a couple situations.

 

1. Time and time again, your item dosn't sell. Its time to simply unload it rather then take the ~ credits from a vendor.

 

2. Some jerk is trying to sell 1 green goo for 10mil credits. Obviously no one is going to buy that, so put up a reasonable price.

 

Usually, 1 credit down is always the way to do it.

Edited December 10, 2014 by DEE_licious

[Pagy]

this is a video game. this isn't real money.

 

having said that, if I undercut a price I increase my chance to sell in a timely manner. its a free market and by selling lower my margin is lower. if I could have sold it higher, undercutting represents my opportunity cost. if you overestimated my willingness to sell an item given the cost or materials or time to gather, that's your problem not mine.

 

if u want to control prices, then buy everything out and set the price. until then I'll sell for whatever price I want to. deal with it.

[Master-Nala]

What I never understand is the need to put a savagely low price. For example, if someone lists Green Goo for 10 million creds, then why would you list yours for 800k? That makes no bloody sense; do you not want to make money?

 

The correct price would be one credit less or 9,999,999. That way we can all make some dough and everyone will be happy. Only an inbred halfwit would price an item so savagely low!

 

The assumption here is that a person searches for the item first to compare prices. I do that for big ticket items, but some stuff I have a set price I list at. For example, I list crafting missions at 3x what the GTN suggests rounded up to a whole thousand. Why? Because I play the game to pew pew at Imps or poke Pubs with my lightsaber. If I wanted to play the market, I could. I just choose not to.

[tdmaha]

I have been very successful at selling things on the GTN the way I see fit. That will not change now or ever...

 

Are you expecting people to come to you and be like...oh hey I'm looking at selling item A what should I place it on the GTN for that will make you happy? Really is that how you think things work?

[Elfa]

Seeing as how easy it is to get the mats for the latest version of Bio, I wouldn't at ll be surprised to see the kits become cheaper than the install price, around 40k.

 

What can I say OP, its called market PVP. When I played EVE, there were 3 forms of PVP combat, space, market and forum. Anywhere that you compete with other players to win is PVP, the market is just another battleground.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Elfa

[mefit]

Undercutting is Glorious , paying anything over 10m in this game is retarded and stupid .

I have every craft maxed out and all the gathering maxed out .

Does not make me entitled to set retarded prices and then cry when someone sells it for a more reasonable price .

 

Competitive market is always hurtful to the greedy.

 

Think of yourself like a mom and pop store and the undercutters as WalMart . In America we call it Capitalism .

 

Besides , if everyone could have it their way they would all sell for your prices but no one wants to sit in a line waiting for their stuff to sell . No one .

 

You have to understand that you are not the only one with that ability to craft or gather any item and it is likely more than a hand full are going to be putting their items up with you and do not want to wait till never for their items to sell in pure luck that they are picked before you .

 

So impatience causes the market to cut down to better selling prices that players can more than likely afford . Thus getting you money and them getting their item .

 

You want to wait out a overpriced item to sell , that is your choice .

Edited December 10, 2014 by mefit

[Brewski]

Seeing as how easy it is to get the mats for the latest version of Bio, I wouldn't at ll be surprised to see the kits become cheaper than the install price, around 40k.

 

I would still make money on MK-10 Augment kits at that price, and I do 90% of my harvesting via crew skill missions, so it is possible it will drop that low. That said, you have to be pretty optimized to manufacture them that cheap, and it partially depends on crits, so I doubt it will drop that low. I'm still guessing it will stabilize at about 60k in 3-4 weeks and my profits on them will go back to what I was making daily pre 3.0 on Mk-9 augment kits.

 

On topic, when I undercut by a large amount, which is rare, it's usually for one of the following reasons.

1. I have too many of a slow selling item in stock, and I need to reduce my inventory quickly.
   
2. The current list price is so high I know from experience it won't sell at that level.
   
3. The market has a temporary shortage of the item, and I know it won't last.
   

 

#3 is worth noting in that it applies to the OPs example. Right now, the market will not support 150k for an augment kit. You may sell a couple, but at any moment the market will be flooded again, and prices will plummet back to the more stable price.

 

In those case I tend to price higher than my standard price, but far enough under the hyper-inflated price to appear to be a good deal. (Say 120k in the example above.) Even doing that, I often end up re-listing half my stock in an hour when everything has dropped back down.

 

Playing the market can be an art, and a mini-game in and of itself for those who want to make the big bucks. That said, if you don't enjoy it, just gather mats and sell then at 1cr/unit less than the going rate and you'll still rake in loads of cash.

[mefit]

I as a consumer when I choose to be do not need anything of the GTN to have fun in this game .

Even with the Class Nerfs and new Skill Trees .

I can easily sit back and farm dailies and in the end be just fine with what I get and slowly craft or buy whatever I might need in between .

 

So when I see something retardedly price , I just laugh and know either someone desperate , stupid rich , osomeone who does not know better will buy those items , or they won't sell .

 

The night I bought a bunch of RNG Boxes and got Revan Reborn boots , they were going for 1mil at the least .

When I got around to selling them it was 300k .

To be honest the boots do not look special and I can see that price so I matched it with the lowest price because in the end I did not need the money and do not want the item .

If I was more patient and played the GTN like a stock broker I would have waited a couple weeks but I bought this game to play the game not the GTN .

[Canavet]

My favorite thing is when people are stupid enough to sell so low.... even the vendor will give me more then the person is asking for. There was a period of about 3 months where I was buying lvl 450 Investigation mission for a 1/3 of the price the vendor would give me. I was buying those missions up in the hundreds and made a couple of a mil buy the time the price got to where it should be.

 

Damn!!!! Those were good days...

 

If ppl want to undersell... go ahead and I'll keep doing my homework on the prices. I don't mind.

[Edzew]

What I never understand is the need to put a savagely low price. For example, if someone lists Green Goo for 10 million creds, then why would you list yours for 800k? That makes no bloody sense; do you not want to make money?

 

The correct price would be one credit less or 9,999,999. That way we can all make some dough and everyone will be happy. Only an inbred halfwit would price an item so savagely low!

 

and what i can never understand is why the hell would someone put green goo up for 10 million credits in the first place???? the people that are putting it up for 800K are just being more reasonable! just like some of the people that put up Satele Shan's tunic up for 1 million.... you aint gunna sell it for that any time soon so why even bother? especially when there are 5 other people with it sitting at 600K already.

 

I am much more annoyed by people undercutting by one credit (and always proceed on buying the item that was listed for 10M) than those who at least grow some b***s and really undercut.

 

i am the same way!!! and i hate seeing those people that just lower their price by one credit. there are times when i under cut by 10K up to a lot more and the least ive ever undercut someone is by 1K, there is just no point to undercutting by just one credit... that's just dumb

Edited December 11, 2014 by Edzew

[HazardousMatt]

What I can't stand are people who undercut *just* to exploit the UI and are obvious with it. The other night I was buying stuff to assemble a new look for my Sith Juggernaut. For the chestpiece I wanted, the cheapest result was 1 credit less than the one right after it. I bought the one that was 1 credit more. It made me feel better.

 

If you're going to undercut the competition, friggin' undercut 'em. Don't just exploit the UI. And by "exploit" I do not mean "cheat." I mean "take advantage of."

Edited December 11, 2014 by HazardousMatt