Art of Undercutting

Article taken fromsomeone who drastically goes below their
Undercutting is an art form in its own right. Someprofitable price range and 2. you're now appealing
players undercut by 1 copper, others by 10-50%to another market entirely: your fellow
of the original price. Some use the Quick Auctionauctioneers.
addon which you can find detailed in this thread onTake armor vellum III's for example, I can sell
the JMTC forums.these for 2 gold each and still make a minimum
Many of you are probably wondering, well whatprofit. So I post three hundred of them for 2.5
does Markco do? Does he play the 1 coppergold each on any given day and every single one
fiasco and sit at his computer for hours waiting towill sell in 24 hours. The next morning I wake up
be undercut so that he can return the favor?and there are my armor vellum III's sitting pretty
Does he always stick to a 10% reduction of price,and being sold for 500% markup from what I
hoping to infuriate his competition? Does he enjoywas selling them at. In comes another 300 armor
talking in the third person?vellum III's for the auctioneers and buyers to pick
I'd have to say no to all three of those questions.up. I make oodles and oodles of cash and the
What I do is gauge supply and demand. Price ispeople buying me out relist for oodles and oodles
merely the bow with which I play the perverbialof cash. I win, they win, and the consumers win.
auction house violin. Undercutting is a powerful toolWhat's more, no one else has the cahonies to do
which will always negatively effect the price of anthe same, and if they do I will simply run the price
item. By being wise about how much and howinto the break even point which I know they can't
many items you undercut with you can keep thecompete with. That's my favorite way to
price from dropping too drastically, or you canundercut.
send it into the stinking pits of the earth, draggingKeep in mind that undercutting drastically effects
your competetition down with you.supply and demand. If you want your goods to
A normal undercut is what I like to refer to as asell quickly and efficiently then do not preform a
5% cut in which I am selling one or two items andsmall undercut with so many items that supply
want them to be the best deal when I think theygets too far ahead of the demand for the item.
are going to sell rather quickly. A severe undercutYou'll be stuck with items that quickly become
is when I want to drive off competetition andundercut and never sell. Remember that
force both the auctioneers and then buyers toundercutting is an artform, so don't go in there
grab my goods. I find that the latter is far morewildly waving giant paint brushes while drawing
profitable because 1. people will not undercutstick figures on a torn canvas.