Undercutting: What do you think about that ?

[kushlol]

If someone wants to undercut its their choice no big deal really. Although greasy turbonerds that AH for gold to sell for money or the ones just simply obsessed with playing the ah will always complain about undercutters.

[Deleted]

Sorry but you're an idiot, plain and simple.
If you're an enchanter and you fucking see a scroll listed for 1999g you list yours for 1998g, not 1500g, you're fucking up your own market retard.. You wan't the scrolls to be as expensive as possible not fuck up their value by listing it for half price. I'd much rather have people undercut me by 1 copper then idiots like you listing shit for half price. Idiot. Go back to fucking primary school.

Oh my, you should propably have a cup lavender tea.

While you're calming down, think this out:
Your scroll is up for 1999g, it doesn't sell. The idiot keeps putting his scrolls up for 1500g.
Who makes more sales? Who makes more money?

Some pointers:
You're marging is higher.
He is not selling at a loss at that price.

Pro tip to all you Kings of the Auction house:
Praying for your overpriced auctions to sell is not a very good business model in a free market.

[Deleted]

I always undercut the lowest Buyout and Bid price for 1 copper

[Deleted]

If someone wants to undercut its their choice no big deal really. Although greasy turbonerds that AH for gold to sell for money or the ones just simply obsessed with playing the ah will always complain about undercutters.

No one who understands the basic workings of a free market complains about undercutters.
And you won't make any gold worth real money without that knowledge.

[Algorath]

Scroll on ah for 1700g/1999g.
I put mine up for 1699g/1999g.

Simple.

[Deleted]

Scroll on ah for 1700g/1999g.
I put mine up for 1699g/1999g.

Simple.

Of course with no regard to what the scroll is, what it cost to make, what they are generaly prized at and how much you your self would pay for it.

[Keltronn]

I don't mind undercutting by a few gold or silver etc... But when people undercut things by huge amounts, I get pissed. Just look at Pyrite Ore on Dragonblight Horde. They were selling for ~200g a stack (yes, economy is fucked on this server) so I decided to sell my 10 stacks for some quick gold. The next day they didn't sell so I checked up on the prices of them, they were now going for 80g - what the hell?? Somebody undercut my 5 x 200g stacks to 160g, somebody undercut him to 110g then another few undercuts to 80g... Seriously, what the hell are they doing? It makes me rage, undercutting by so much wont get it sold, it will just drive the market down. So I bought them all out and sold them for 200g. Rats.

[Deleted]

I don't mind undercutting by a few gold or silver etc... But when people undercut things by huge amounts, I get pissed. Just look at Pyrite Ore on Dragonblight Horde. They were selling for ~200g a stack (yes, economy is fucked on this server) so I decided to sell my 10 stacks for some quick gold. The next day they didn't sell so I checked up on the prices of them, they were now going for 80g - what the hell?? Somebody undercut my 5 x 200g stacks to 160g, somebody undercut him to 110g then another few undercuts to 80g... Seriously, what the hell are they doing? It makes me rage, undercutting by so much wont get it sold, it will just drive the market down. So I bought them all out and sold them for 200g. Rats.

Obviously there is over suply of Pyrite then. Is it really that hard to work out?

[Deleted]

been doing it for 6 years now
I rarely use the ah, if i do is because i need money fast, undercutting gives me almost insta cash

[Blooddeity]

No wonder there are so many problems with the world economy. People feel entitled to everything even making a profit on the things they sell. If you are worried about undercutters you are doing it wrong. Also if you are always being undercut and never sell your items on the AH maybe the problem is your competitiveness not the undercutters.

What makes me sad is that all the entitled WOW players are also part of the REAL economy. And when they lose their job, house or their car gets repossessed they cry disaster but they have no idea that it's simply their own stupid fault.

You might say hey leave IRL out of this, but the fact that people are complaining about undercutters or other aspects of WOW is the IRL problem of entitlement. So many people are clueless in real life and their WOW behavior is just a reflection of their real life incompetence.

People that don't read boss strats, don't come prepared to raids or are too "cool" to even remotely try to be good at anything in game, probably have the same attitude in real life. Most of them say Oh you are good because you have no life. But all those complaining probably never finished University or hold a stable job.

The ones that know to how to spend their time efficiently are doing fine in IRL and they are killing the bosses in WOW and making a killing on the AH. It's not mutually exclusive to be good at WOW and have a job,kids and spouse in IRL. It's actually the other way around. People that are scrubs in WOW are most likely to be scrubs in IRL too. Just a lot of screaming a shouting but little L2P, or as in real life they would call it get educated and find what you are good at and profit.

[Lomppa]

I always undercut with only 1c as i know am going to sell more of the item, and buy pushing the price lower then i have to it would only come back to haunt me later on. And when your dealing with items you have 1000+ of or more it does hurt if the avg price drops with a few gold.

But then again i sell tons of gems,scrolls,ench mats and FL epics.

[Niter]

I just think it is fairly normal.

Competition is ever present, so whining about it just pointless.

Sometimes people will sell their goods at a much lower price because they want the profit faster, so that money can turn into another kind of investment. It really depends on what your goal is. If you need fastest possible money, you are going to sell your stuff by a price that benefits your strategy.

If you are annoyed by that you can always buy and re-sell afterwards for a higher price. See it as an opportunity instead of a hindrance.

Diversify your goods and make sure you can handle the competition. If the prices are going lower and lower, it is because supply/demand ratio is not favouring you.

It is logical to try and keep your goods at the highest possible price (because it benefits you) as much as it reasonable for another to circumvent your strategy, lower their price and make sure they sell more than you do, making more profit than you.

Play your cards well, and have different cards to play!, and you are going to be just fine

[Psilar]

Hello

I'd just like to know what you think about undercutting. Many peoples says it's bad, many others says it's acceptable. What about you ?

For my part, i think it is acceptable, but only if it's done by a fair amount. Let me explain:

Not so long ago, i looked at the AH to know the prices of the enchanting scroll that grant +20 stats to chest (peerless stats). There was 2 of them at 1999g each. I made a scroll, and listed it for 1499g. 2 hours later, someone else listed 2 of these scroll for 1299g. This is what i call "fair and acceptable" because they are actualy willing to sell it cheaper than mine. No problem with that.

Another case now. I looked at "delicate inferno ruby", and the lowest ones listed was at 149g. I list 6 of them for 139g 99s 99c. 30 minutes ago, someone else list 10 of them at 139g 98s 99c. I personaly find it very irritating. Should i be that much irritated ?

So, what is your opinion about undercutting ? Is this acceptable to undercut by a fair amount ? and if it is, what is the threshold between a "fair" amount and a "not-fair" amount ?

Another thing: 2 weeks ago, i had about 400x inferno ink sleeping on my bank. I looked at the AH: 30g each. I listed all of them for 15g each, just to get rid of these. Couple of minutes later, i get a wisper from someone who is known to be an "Auction house player" on my server. He told me i was killing the economy by dooing that. I asked him why he didn't just buy all of them and relist it for more, and his answer was some kind of wall of text about how the economy is working.. and well, i didn't understand half of what he meant.. (i know very little about economy, and i'm still trying to understand why the gasoline prices is gooing up these years.. lol).

Okay I didn't read this entire thread, but I read this post and a couple others. Undercutting by 1s or 1c is great. Here's why.

For every good, on average, X amount will be traded or sold every day. In stock market terms this would be volume. So once you pick a niche of the market you wish to deal in you will get a feel for this. Typically there's no point in putting up 10 glyphs of pick pocket. You would be hard pressed to sell 10 a day let alone 10 a week. So whenever you see someone put 10 up, they just wasted deposits. This is a product which you just cannot move quickly. Using this same glyph as an example. Seller "A" has one up for 150g. You're looking at your glyph and realize its high specialized and pretty much worthless in the whole scheme of things. You decide to put it up for 100g.

In this example you just wasted 49.99.99g. Due to the nature of the glyph and the demand for it, the buyer is going to spend 100g or 150g. He or she does not care what the price is when they decide they want that glyph.

Next example. You have 10 Bold Inferno rubys. They are going for 75g on the AH. You put them up at 74.99.99. Due to the nature of these rubys there is very high demand. Competition is fierce and being undercut at any second is a possibility. If you put up any more and a handful, 2 or 3(max of 5), you are throwing away your desposits. You simply will not sell them quickly enough before you get undercut.

When you undercut by large amounts, greater than 1c, all you're doing is driving the price down. You are getting less money and your fellow sellers are getting less money. If you keep reposting an item and it's not selling it may be time to re-evaluate the cost. But if you're dealing with "hot" items, Herbs, raw materials, gems, potions, flasks, or food people will pay more than an average price if you sell them at the right time. Typically in the early/late evening or on tuesdays or wednesdays.

The only other thing I could say to explain this is the following. The prices you set do not create demand. Demand is what it is. People either want your shit or they don't and they will pay the lowest price they can. If you undercut everyone by a huge margain, when a buyer comes along of course he will buy your item. But you have to realize if you undercut by 1c or 100g, that buyer would have bought your item either way. You are losing out on the difference in your undercut.

The AH in WoW, is very different than the real world. When I run a business I don't have the luxury of knowing what every other merchant in the world is selling the same product for. Anyone who undercuts by large margins in the real world would be accused of unfair business practices.

---------- Post added 2011-07-16 at 06:59 AM ----------

Sometimes people will sell their goods at a much lower price because they want the profit faster, so that money can turn into another kind of investment.

fail fail fail fail fail. When I go to the surpermarket(read AH) because I'm making T-bone steaks on the grill tonight, I'm leaving the surpermarket with T-bone steaks. I'm going to pay what I'm going to pay. Since advertising works extremely poorly on the AH, unless you count spamming trade(but if you're gonna do that why even put them on the AH?), theres no benefit to undercutting by a much lower price. This would be like having a sale without advertising for it.

If I sell 100 T shirts everyday for $10 a piece..why am I going to suddenly lower the price to $8. You wouldn't EXCEPT, if you were having a sale, and you were hoping volume at a lower price would net a large profit then fewer goods sold at a higher price. In the real world this is called having a sale or a discount, but this is accompanied with advertising. This is not very feasible in WoW.

Lower prices DOES NOT = Faster sellage. It means less profit, or no profit(you might as well be deleting the item).

[Deleted]

Okay I didn't read this entire thread, but I read this post and a couple others. Undercutting by 1s or 1c is great. Here's why.

For every good, on average, X amount will be traded or sold every day. In stock market terms this would be volume.

Volume is based on suply and demand. Demand is affected by price.

So once you pick a niche of the market you wish to deal in you will get a feel for this. Typically there's no point in putting up 10 glyphs of pick pocket. You would be hard pressed to sell 10 a day let alone 10 a week. So whenever you see someone put 10 up, they just wasted deposits. This is a product which you just cannot move quickly. Using this same glyph as an example. Seller "A" has one up for 150g. You're looking at your glyph and realize its high specialized and pretty much worthless in the whole scheme of things. You decide to put it up for 100g.

Bad example. Glyph deposits are 1 copper. But you have a point, low volume goods shouldn't be sold in huge amounts.

In this example you just wasted 49.99.99g. Due to the nature of the glyph and the demand for it, the buyer is going to spend 100g or 150g. He or she does not care what the price is when they decide they want that glyph.

Yes, he or she does care. Simple examples: New players, low level alts, players with little gold.

Next example. You have 10 Bold Inferno rubys. They are going for 75g on the AH. You put them up at 74.99.99. Due to the nature of these rubys there is very high demand. Competition is fierce and being undercut at any second is a possibility. If you put up any more and a handful, 2 or 3(max of 5), you are throwing away your desposits. You simply will not sell them quickly enough before you get undercut.

This is true if you like to camp the AH. If you undercut to 50g you have a good change of campers buying you out netting you instant sales.

When you undercut by large amounts, greater than 1c, all you're doing is driving the price down. You are getting less money and your fellow sellers are getting less money. If you keep reposting an item and it's not selling it may be time to re-evaluate the cost. But if you're dealing with "hot" items, Herbs, raw materials, gems, potions, flasks, or food people will pay more than an average price if you sell them at the right time. Typically in the early/late evening or on tuesdays or wednesdays.

Now you get it.

The only other thing I could say to explain this is the following. The prices you set do not create demand. Demand is what it is. People either want your shit or they don't and they will pay the lowest price they can. If you undercut everyone by a huge margain, when a buyer comes along of course he will buy your item. But you have to realize if you undercut by 1c or 100g, that buyer would have bought your item either way. You are losing out on the difference in your undercut.

Now you don't. Suply, demand and price go hand in hand.
High suply pushes prices down. Prices going down increase demand. High demand increases prices.

The AH in WoW, is very different than the real world. When I run a business I don't have the luxury of knowing what every other merchant in the world is selling the same product for. Anyone who undercuts by large margins in the real world would be accused of unfair business practices.

Is wallmart accused for selling everything cheap? Do low-cost carriers get accused for selling flights cheaper than regular airlines?
Besides, you should compare the WoW AH to online auction houses. And that isn't accurate either since the products in WoW are all of the same quality.
The WoW AH is a free market. Nothing special or different about it, just simple rules and that is it.

[Psilar]

Oh my, you should propably have a cup lavender tea.

While you're calming down, think this out:
Your scroll is up for 1999g, it doesn't sell. The idiot keeps putting his scrolls up for 1500g.
Who makes more sales? Who makes more money?

Some pointers:
You're marging is higher.
He is not selling at a loss at that price.

Pro tip to all you Kings of the Auction house:
Praying for your overpriced auctions to sell is not a very good business model in a free market.

But they do sell. An item that has a volume or 1 or 2 a day, when that buyer comes along he's not gonna care what the price is if it's 1500 or 1999.

I tried the other week to sell a Durotar Scorpion for 1500g. I tried for days. Lowered it to 1200g. Didn't sell. Then I accidentally put it up for 3000 instead. Low and behold the next day it had sold despite me trying my best to sell it the previous week for 1/2 as much.

If you have a Power Torrent Scroll or a rare pet, don't underestimate the power of stupidity, or the desperate nature of some pet collector.

[avengingbt]

Personally I'd rather you undercut me by 1c. Getting undercut by 500g is such a slap in the face, not only have you undercut me, but you're driving down the price too.

I have no issues with people undercutting me, just don't destroy the price for when I DO manage to get a sale.

[Dancing Monkey]

Hello

I'd just like to know what you think about undercutting. Many peoples says it's bad, many others says it's acceptable. What about you ?

For my part, i think it is acceptable, but only if it's done by a fair amount. Let me explain:

Not so long ago, i looked at the AH to know the prices of the enchanting scroll that grant +20 stats to chest (peerless stats). There was 2 of them at 1999g each. I made a scroll, and listed it for 1499g. 2 hours later, someone else listed 2 of these scroll for 1299g. This is what i call "fair and acceptable" because they are actualy willing to sell it cheaper than mine. No problem with that.

Another case now. I looked at "delicate inferno ruby", and the lowest ones listed was at 149g. I list 6 of them for 139g 99s 99c. 30 minutes ago, someone else list 10 of them at 139g 98s 99c. I personaly find it very irritating. Should i be that much irritated ?

So, what is your opinion about undercutting ? Is this acceptable to undercut by a fair amount ? and if it is, what is the threshold between a "fair" amount and a "not-fair" amount ?

Another thing: 2 weeks ago, i had about 400x inferno ink sleeping on my bank. I looked at the AH: 30g each. I listed all of them for 15g each, just to get rid of these. Couple of minutes later, i get a wisper from someone who is known to be an "Auction house player" on my server. He told me i was killing the economy by dooing that. I asked him why he didn't just buy all of them and relist it for more, and his answer was some kind of wall of text about how the economy is working.. and well, i didn't understand half of what he meant.. (i know very little about economy, and i'm still trying to understand why the gasoline prices is gooing up these years.. lol).

Why would anyone say it's bad?

Who cares.

Post on the AH at whatever price you want.

If someone cries to you about it, put em on ignore, and tell em to grow up.

[Maldread]

Hello

I'd just like to know what you think about undercutting. Many peoples says it's bad, many others says it's acceptable. What about you ?

For my part, i think it is acceptable, but only if it's done by a fair amount. Let me explain:

Not so long ago, i looked at the AH to know the prices of the enchanting scroll that grant +20 stats to chest (peerless stats). There was 2 of them at 1999g each. I made a scroll, and listed it for 1499g. 2 hours later, someone else listed 2 of these scroll for 1299g. This is what i call "fair and acceptable" because they are actualy willing to sell it cheaper than mine. No problem with that.

Another case now. I looked at "delicate inferno ruby", and the lowest ones listed was at 149g. I list 6 of them for 139g 99s 99c. 30 minutes ago, someone else list 10 of them at 139g 98s 99c. I personaly find it very irritating. Should i be that much irritated ?

youre kidding right? you got it backwards... the first guy jewed you out of 300g. the second guy, well you can just take your auctions off and undercut him and lose like 3c. who cares?

[Deleted]

I don't see why you guys are trying to punish people for trying to maximize their profit. Me for example, I post enchanting mats and cut gems on the AH and I HATE when people undercut with more then a gold. Because then the prices will go down and I make less money. People who undercut by like 5g+ on enchanting mats are pretty darn stupid, it won't sell faster, you won't gain more money, it's just a loss!

[Deadlycaster]

sure it annoys me to find all my auctions undercutted by 1c but then i will just do the same thing when i notice im not the cheapest.
so yeah id say undercutting is lame but everyone else keeps doing it so why not?