Undercutters ruin AH and economy

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Hello and good evening to you all.

As Classic reaching its first month, I assume many of you has been trying to collect money for your mount and forced to hold off a spell or two just to save up for level 40(Paladins and Warlocks I see you out there!) That kinda pulls you into the world of the auction house where you sell stuff you don’t need and buy stuff you want.

But I want to address that, while that is all fine and dandy, undercutting is simply ruining the economy.

Let me explain.

If you want to sell something, maybe some mats of gear you picked up on your travels and think they might be worth something or come in handy for someone else, or you might took a few hours off your question and actually started farming with your proffesion to make a sold earning. All good and perfectly fine - that is how the economy rolls in this game. It is far more player driven than retail is, and most of the things you’ll need will be buyable on the AH.

But keep in mind, that when you sell something you, you compete with others who is also trying to do the same thing - they use the AH to their benefit and profit, but not just their own, but the economy as a whole. But try to respect that system when you use it. I’ve now seen SO many people trying to constantly undercut, and I mean waaaay down. I’ve seen people so desperate to sell of their stuff, that they don’t earn a dime vs the vendor price!

So for please, oh please - crying out loud! If you’re so desperately trying to earn some cash in Classic, stop constantly undercutting. It’s fine to some degree, but when all your earn is a 2s(silver) on a level 30 mats, just vendor your garbage. You are hurting the economy, and it’s a spit in the face for people who actually put in the time to collect said item.

A lot of you actually stood to earn SO much more gold if you didn’t drag the prizes down to the floor where nobody makes and money besides vendoring it, and then nobody gets the mats and can’t make their items ( yes, Far fetched thinking, I know)

So stop the undercutting already. You hurt yourself and everybody else, and last but not least the economy

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People like you have ruined world.

Economy is joke already with layerswapping, who cares about leveling mats.
On principle, I see that selling leveling mats should not make huge profit.

And it is bots mostly who put stuff under vendor price.

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Nothing you can do , it will be like this for a while, especially with layering.

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So what ? :stuck_out_tongue: some person tried to sell yesterday morning devilsaur leather for 6g guess what i bought 30 pieces and sold them for 10g50s each. If you wanna fix economy try to be smart and play a lot of hours. The more time you invest the higher the reward from the game.

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This is false.

Undercutting can only hurt the economy by driving competition out of business, then jacking up prices due to the newly gained monopoly, which causes a socially undesirable equilibrium on the market (as all monopolies do).

You can’t go out of business in an online game (besides account ban). Therefore, undercutting cannot hurt the economy.

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Seen a lot of posts like this over the years but it’s not true. Undercutting is just how the supply side of the economy works but that’s balanced against the demand and the price is the intersection of the two.

Let’s say, for example, you sell 10 runecloth bags at 10g each and someone comes along and lists a further 10 at only 8g each. The price that you can sell your bags for depends on the demand for bags.

If there is enough demand at that time for 20 bags, both yours and your undercutters will sell. If there is only demand for 10 bags, yours will not sell. In that case, supply outstrips demand so the market price falls correspondingly.

This is essentially how the AH works at scale.

If you’re being undercut you have two options:

  1. Lower your prices
  2. Be patient and hope that the surge in supply is only temporary (perhaps someone was power-levelling tailoring and made a tonne of bags in one go) and that in time, market forces will return the price to it’s sustainable rate.
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The AH is flooded with mats and nobody has any (decent) money. Therefore it’s reasonable to undercut those expecting “established” prices if you actually want things to sell. Same for weapons and armour. No point trying to sell decent BoE blues and epics now… people don’t have the money so save 'em for later.

When the server economies have developed more and the AH isn’t drowning in low level mats then prices will be head up.

It’s still better to sell on AH overall so you can still make good money. Just maybe not as good as you would like.

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I’ll be honest, I’m not even doing it for money, to me it’s just fun to see people rage over it :smile: And some madlads even undercut my lower than low prices, which is even funnier.

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I put a couple of silk bags on at a almost cost price and someone undercut me. So I bought all of his.

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I just put up 47 individual wool cloths up on the AH. Auctioneer sure makes things easier.

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Undercutting is fine as long as you only undercut by a tiny amount. Radical undercutting (selling something that usually sells for 2g for 10s) just starts a price war and crashes the market.

There’s nothing that can be done about it though. WoW is a free market economy, there’s no trade restrictions or regularities, and everyone is free to buy or sell as they please.

So instead of getting mad at the undercutters, use them to your advantage.

If you see someone selling usually expensive mats for a tiny amount, buy out the lot and then filter it back into the market at a heavy mark-up.

That way you profit from the other person’s idiocy - because yes, selling mats way, way below normal market price is stupid.

Whenever I see people doing stupid things on the auction house, rather than feeling angry at them I thank them. The people who do it are like walking bags of gold, ripe for me to exploit.

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Many if not all auction addons will try to do this automatically

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Most if not all undercut by 1c tho. Exactly because we don’t want to murder the economy.

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I love undercutting.

I always undercut by such an amount that even if no buyers are interested, some sellers will get rid of it to protect their goods.

Works fine in almost any MMO and best when there are lots of greedy goblins trying to get rich fast. The greedier they are , the more i profit. :smiling_imp:

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How about you mind your own business and stop telling others what to do?

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i always “undercut” on AH no matter what i sell.
Not much, but just enough so i get to sell my stuff.

Im not obligated to keep the price you set on your mats. Its about getting them sold, and if that means putting my wares at a lower price than yours, so be it.

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Undecutting is a handy tool for people who just want to unload stuff and are not interested in playing the auction house game. It is also great for people who do like playing the auction house as undercutters are profit for them. So… I don’t really see how this hurts the economy.

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You’re forgetting about the other part of the market. Yes, when you sell you are competing with sellers, but there are also buyers competing for your goods. If someone is selling way below the market average then all you have to do is stick your goods on for a higher price and be patient. Or you could even buy theirs and flip them. Your anger stems from not understanding basic economics.

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And I love guys like you. I love flipping the stuff you sell for cheap :slight_smile:

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Undercutting is how some modern companies destroyed their opponents.

I dont care about anyone else u know, i want money, I want it fast! So, I will undercut prices to sell my staff.

I dont care if others lose money and dont sell items. The only thing that matters if I personally get the money I want.