I burst out laughing every time the AH gives me this message. When I’m selling common mats that have a supply in the 1000’s, of course I’ve got to drop the price.
I start laughing even harder when it says “the last goods in at the price sell first”. Are you kidding me? With supply in the 1000’s? That just means the poor merchants who put their goods in first at the lowest price are going to have to rotate their goods back in at a further reduced price.
It’s basic supply and demand. When supply is plentiful, prices have to drop. I think whoever came up with the current AH procedures and “tips” must have failed Economics 101 in college. 
50 Likes
I often sell my stuff at like 30% below market value these days just to ensure they sell, i simply don’t play enough to hang around and constantly relist my items. I just got sick to death of nothing ever selling.
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There should be an achievement for undercutting because it’s basically AH PVP at it’s finest. I still remember the name of the person that drove me out of the AH market, never to play AH again.
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1 copper undercuts are pretty meaningless now.
If you don’t undercut: You’re first out until someone else posts at that price or less. Then you’re not anymore.
If you do undercut: You’re first out until someone else posts at that price or less. Then you’re not anymore.
Either way, the people posting after you are going to sell before you, because they’re just going to match your price (or undercut again by 1 copper despite it doing nothing).
But the people dropping market price by like 20-30% to try and make a quick sale? They’re still getting their sales.
People don’t have an issue with dropping their price a copper or a negligible amount of gold on slightly more expensive items to match the price and be at the front of the line to sell.
But they do have an issue losing 30% of their profit to try and match a singular instance of what they’re selling. Better to wait for it to sell and keep the higher price. Or buy it themselves to relist it at the higher price.
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Sounds like you failed to understand how last-in first-out works.
There is no difference between posting your mats at the same price as others vs. undercutting. Unless you think people won’t buy at the current price. But if you’re undercutting, for example, a 5g trade good by 1-5s then this is highly unlikely.
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Basic economics doesn’t work when money is virtually infinite. Blizzard could set a flat price for everything on the AH if they wanted to, and your Economics won’t mean squat.
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i have no idea how the AH works sorta, i just undercut by like 5 silver or 5 gold. and i always sell
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See, the problem is that I may put my mat in at that lowest price, with another 1000 there at that price. Suppose even one person lowers the price, as they should with that much supply. Then, nobody at that “no need to undercut” price is going to sell anything. And many more merchants are going to post on top of the new price. The other 1000 that don’t sell will have to be reposted at the new price. And it will be driven further and further down by market pressures.
And since I understand basic economics, I sold my mats first in at a lower price a long time ago, cashing out of the flooded market before the price went down even further.
I have tremendous success selling almost everything I post within a day by undercutting as makes sense.
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AH is all botted now anyway isnt it? Humans dont compete well against bots.
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I don’t sell stuff enough on the AH to play the relisting game every day. So when I want to sell something, I market it a decent amount below the current price to ensure it will have a good chance of being bought.
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uh… i undercut all the time, and haven’t seen this message.
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I undercut just to get rid of stacks of stuff in my quarterly guild bank clean out. And only if I can get more than selling it to a vendor.
I really need to learn to stop being such a packrat
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No, you really don’t. People like you are why the AH is still a hot mess.
Because people like you keep lowering the price.
Stop doing THAT, and the prices won’t fluctuate so badly.
No, you did. You proved it with the parts of your post I quoted.
YOU are the problem, not the AH or the other people using it.
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And players would make a seller community or sell in trade and the AH won’t mean squat lol
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Hmm, isn’t Blizz HQ in California? 
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WoW’s economy has been studied in universities multiple times and they USED TO have an economist on staff. What are you even talking about?
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OP and other people who undercut like that are morons who don’t understand LIFO. Even when Blizz gives them a warning and an explanation, they still don’t get it.
Unless you are undercutting by an amount that will prompt other sellers to buy yours out to relist, you are just screwing yourself out of gold and dropping prices for no reason at all.
Blizz really just needs to implement a PO system like GW. I think their system is the best of any game.
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My feeling is that the AH changes were to stop players from being able to make larger amounts of gold. So that when it comes to buying things like the Dino mount players will buy more WoW tokens for gold.
1 Like
LIFO is a pretty dumb system, it it’s also irrelevant when undercutting is still a thing.
If someone was willing to undercut for 20-30%, then the market price isn’t well tied to the labor necessary to farm or craft the item.
We buyers don’t care, of course, and will snag what ever is cheapest.
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I have little patience.
I often do deep undercuts like 50%… I’m selling to the ones who buy stuff to resell at higher price.
I figure we’re sharing the profits.
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