Economics as a study is frustrated by the reality that the "rational consumer" is frequently a theoretical construct, and in reality consumers are quite irrational.

I am helping contribute my part to this frustration with my GTN behavior.

Basically, if I see a "crappy undercut" — like you know, one item is 500,000 Credits, then the next one down is 499,990 Credits — then I deliberately buy the 500k one, because it just annoys me.

Does anyone else have this habit?

Depends on how flush with credits I am, what mood I'm in, etc.

Sometimes I have definitely made a point to buy the slightly higher one, other times I'm just not in a mood to care, sort the GTN by price and buy the cheapest.

The only time I personally undercut by a very small amount, though, is if the price on something I'm looking to sell has already been driven down way lower than I want to put it up for but I'm hurting for credits so I can't afford to store it and wait.

Yes I punish the undercuts. When I undercut someone, its usually by quite a bit (usually 40k or more)

I been buying stuff like that and selling it for 39,999 credits more. Thanks!

This is why prices are lowering and lowering... Because people doesn't know how to undercut.

MK-9 will not be worth to craft anymore, selling for what 45k? Not worth it crafting this thing.

Micro undercut is the key to keep the price higher, some dumb people doing 5k undercut on a 60k mk-9 saying "I wanna sell faster", ok, if you do a 1 cred undercut you'll sell first and keep the price higher.

I usually undercut by 500 or so on smaller things, depending on the item. If somethings 50,000k, I'll go 45,000. If somethings 4500 I'll go 4000. I don't mean to do it maliciously, I just want it out of my inventory but want more then selling at a vendor. Credits aren't really a big thing for me. All of my toons have what they have, and have what they need.

And besides, on days I'm feeling super nice and like to rile up the fleet, I'll sell Packs/Crystals/Dyes for 1 credit each. I've pretty much whizzed away over a million credits over my time on this game, but it gives me a thrill and gives the fleet peeps a thrill knowing they could potentionally get a black/black dye for 1 credit.

It's all gravy to me.

I don't always sell on the GTN.

But when I do I undercut by 1 credit and blanket 5 pages with my stacks.

What ya gonna do, search through pages of my crafts to find the guys I buried? No, you're going to buy the cheapest one.

The goal isn't to be sitting on 800 crafts like a monkey, it's to sell them.

Maybe some people sell on the GTN because they have an OCD which forces them to craft but I only do it to make money.

Yes the market is usually crashed when I'm sold out but I never sell for long periods. Far too dull.

No, it did not occur to me.

If the price too low, I don't sell. If there are only a couple of items, I set it at the same price. I never seen an undercut by a too small amount, but then I don't buy anything extraordinary. The most expensive item I bought was in the realm of 40,000 credits not counting unlocks.

For me, the life's too short to worry about credits in a game.

Tiny undercuts are more than ok. What matter is being at the "top" of the list. That's all.

For augments this is very important, to keep the prices reasonable. If one crafter comes and instead of undercutting by like 10 creds, undercuts by 10k, then it's bad for all the crafters. It happens. Best is undercut just by a tiny margen, so you are at the top of the lowest price without hurting profit (yours and everyone else's)

Always gonna buy the cheapest. I typically undercut by hundreds, or thousands. I don't care if they're bought and flipped by the person above me: in the real world, that's called "wholesale", and people make a killing doing it.

But the real reason I do it (both buying the cheapest, and selling a LOT less than the person above me)? I'm lazy, cheap, and impatient.

that, in my opinion, is just silly... i'll always go for the lower price, dosen't matter if it's 2 credits or 2,000,000 credits i will always go for the cheaper one and be thankful for the poster that was kind enough to place it at a lower price...

Weenie undercuts annoy me as a buyer because it's obnoxious. You're not actually offering me a better deal, you're just trying to shove yourself in front of the line. So I look past you and pick the person who was in line earlier, because they're selling for — effectively — the same price.

I understand why sellers do it. When you're selling a crappy enough product, or a flooded one, you will literally never sell it unless you're the first one people see. When enough people get that idea, if everyone undercuts by more than a penny, the price spirals to zero within hours / days.

There's a difference, though, between:

• 5 pages of Garbage Crafting Material #275, scaling from 500 Credits per unit to 495 Credits per unit.
  
• 1 page of a Speeder with 3 entries, for 500k, 499.999k, and 499.998k.
  

In the commodity example I don't split hairs because I understand how mass-garbage markets work. In the Speeder example, I just laugh and buy the 500k one because

And no, I'm not "thankful" someone listed at the same price -2 credits, because that's not "kindness". Just like I'm not going to drop what I'm doing and order on Amazon because TODAY ONLY: 0.000004% off all merchandise!

Weenie undercuts annoy me as a buyer because it's obnoxious. You're not actually offering me a better deal, you're just trying to shove yourself in front of the line. So I look past you and pick the person who was in line earlier, because they're selling for — effectively — the same price.

Let me offer you an alternative viewpoint.

Having sold items for quite a while, I have a good idea what the market will bear. For example, most [Artifact] implants I sell go for 80K-100K. If someone has listed an implant at 80K, I will list mine for 79.9K. Because that's what the market has told me is a fair price.

On the flipside, if the only implant for sale is listed at 200K, I'll list mine for 100K. Because if I list mine at 199.9K, it won't sell and I'm wasting time.

I also never get into price wars on my listings. I never relist until the timer runs out. Either my price was good enough, or it wasn't. If too many people undercut me, either the market has validly shifted (and I need to lower my expectations), or it hasn't and I'll wait it out.

If someone listed an implant at 80K and I undercut it to 60K, and the next guy comes along and undercuts it to 40K, and the next guy at 20K, we've just gone below the cost of materials. I'd need to abandon that market until it comes back up again. By undercutting by only a little bit, I'm actually being nice to the other crafters.

/2cents

I sometimes do, if it's only one or two credits. I see that and it makes me think; "Who do you think you're fooling?"

It's like when you see that used car or something, and the salesman says; "It's only $19,999.99!" Really? It's not $20,000.00? What a bargain! Sign me up! It's almost insulting as a consumer that they think you're gullible enough to be fooled by that one penny.

And to me it's less punishing those guys, and more like rewarding the people who respect me (the buyer) enough to post their stuff in round numbers.

• 1 page of a Speeder with 3 entries, for 500k, 499.999k, and 499.998k.
  

See now, if that were MY speeder, I'd post it at 499,750.

Let me offer you an alternative viewpoint.

 

Having sold items for quite a while, I have a good idea what the market will bear. For example, most [Artifact] implants I sell go for 80K-100K. If someone has listed an implant at 80K, I will list mine for 79.9K. Because that's what the market has told me is a fair price.

 

On the flipside, if the only implant for sale is listed at 200K, I'll list mine for 100K. Because if I list mine at 199.9K, it won't sell and I'm wasting time.

 

I also never get into price wars on my listings. I never relist until the timer runs out. Either my price was good enough, or it wasn't. If too many people undercut me, either the market has validly shifted (and I need to lower my expectations), or it hasn't and I'll wait it out.

 

If someone listed an implant at 80K and I undercut it to 60K, and the next guy comes along and undercuts it to 40K, and the next guy at 20K, we've just gone below the cost of materials. I'd need to abandon that market until it comes back up again. By undercutting by only a little bit, I'm actually being nice to the other crafters.

 

/2cents

+1

THIS!!!!

I do my posting EXACTLY the same.

To add to this:

- I will frequently purchase low posted items and re-post them at "normal" prices and they still sell. The seller who deep undercuts is selling him/herself short. But Thank You for being my "wholesaler."

- I do not always undercut the lowest price. If there is one item posted at X and a half dozen posted at X+5000, I will undercut the X+5000 rather than the X, because chances are my stuff will still sell.

a penny saved is a penny earned...

as someone that constantly struggles to get the credits for those overpriced items in the GTN, often missing them because they expire or sell out before i get the credits accumulated, you can bet your bottom dollar i will still go for the cheaper one, and if it's at what i think is a reasonable price, not the "GTN (arbitrary) Standard", i am thankful when someone posts something i want really bad at a price i can afford...

it's those that buy it when i just have barely enough, and i'm out trying to scrape up the rest, then they flip it for 3x what it was originally priced for that i believe need the punishing, as that appears to happen far too often... for example; i'm currently trying to scrape up enough credits for the Black/Pink & Pink/Black dyes, but i'm certain by time i have what the lowest are asking someone's gonna buy them up and sell them for 1Million++ a piece, it never fails...

Does anyone else have this habit?

Heh. No, I'm cheap, so I tend to buy whatever's cheapest. But I've considered doing this before.

Then again, I'm often guilty of undercutting people by 1 credit or less, so...

Yeah, I totally understand the motivation on the seller side, don't get me wrong. My point here wasn't to try to lecture people about their listing habits.

I was honestly just curious if anyone else has this technically-irrational habit, and then figured I should explain my own motivation better.

Like I said, I have a lot more slack about stuff like:

• Crafted items
  
• Gathered items
  
• Mission items
  
• Consumables
  

Because I understand how those markets work — supply always exceeds demand, profit margins vs. cost of materials are extremely tight, and if anyone breaks rank and starts massive-undercutting then the entire thing becomes unprofitable within no time flat.

As for someone who has say a valuable moddable weapon (Volatile Conqueror, for example), I understand their perspective as a seller — "I know I can get 5mil for this, so why should I request 4.5mil instead of 4.999999 mil?"

The logic being, like others have said, you know the market will bear that price and you assume that no one will suddenly change their mind about an expense like that because you swap between 4.5 or 5mil listing. And if you go much lower (say 2.5mil), you'll just a trigger a relister snagging it and pricing it 'properly' anyway.

It's just a conflict of interests between buyer and seller. I know why you're weenie-undercutting, but since it's not actually a better deal in any serious way for me, I just reward the player who got there first and laugh.

In a real world situation your argument is flawed though if say the fruit grocer is selling apples at $2.00 per kg and then there is another grocer a couple stores down selling for $1.98 per kg are you still gonna pay that extra 0.2c just to spite the second grocer two stores down.

If you are nickel and dimming you are most likely going to buy from the second grocer if you aren't worried about the cost you will buy whichever one you see first can you really fault and punish people for using tactics that are used in the real world.

In a real world situation your argument is flawed though if say the fruit grocer is selling apples at $2.00 per kg and then there is another grocer a couple stores down selling for $1.98 per kg are you still gonna pay that extra 0.2c just to spite the second grocer two stores down.

I get what you're trying to say, but unfortunately the grocer analogy doesn't quite play.

In TOR, every item crafted is 100% identical in every way to another item with the same name. In the real world, this grocer that is selling things for $0.02 more expensive may also have a better quality product, or perhaps his staff is friendlier and you like going there, etc.

Basically, if I see a "crappy undercut" — like you know, one item is 500,000 Credits, then the next one down is 499,990 Credits — then I deliberately buy the 500k one, because it just annoys me.

 

Does anyone else have this habit?

I buy both, depending on mood; amount of money available, etc. ...

Apart from me NEVER buying ANYTHING for 500.000 Credits ... I never have that much money at hand, usually. I need one week to get that amount, by doing dailies. I need two weeks to get to 700.000 to 800.000 Credits - and then I normally spend them on stuff, so I often get to 14.000 or so again. Back where I started. Repeat the whole cycle.

Actually, I'm always asztonished that someone buys what I'm crafting. It's not that I can't craft good stuff - I just don't sell it regularly. Plus, I just don't regard it as being that much to wish for, from a buyer's perspective.