Undercutting and Marketboard Manipulation in FFXIV

Many players will simply undercut the current cheapest item by a single Gil. This method serves entirely to just get your item to the bottom so it sells before other players. Sometimes controller players may undercut by a few hundred or thousand just due to it being tedious to undercut say 65,438 gil down to 65,437 but the idea is still the same.

This method is generally very non intrusive to other players allowing you to coast by and hope your item sells. In busy markets you can end up finding yourself pushed out of the market by players undercutting more harshly or more regularly.

Some players will intentionally undercut by large amounts of gil with the aim of either pushing players out of the market or by trying to increase the demand for items so that they sell faster. People may undercut by tens or even hundreds of thousands of gil.

Players end up getting pushed out either due to being uneasy about the volatility of the market with prices dropping rapidly or by it simply not being profitable to them anymore.

If a market drops to a really cheap price due to a lot of undercutting, you can simply buy up any cheap items and then list again at a higher price.

This does come with some risks, as the players who undercut harshly might do it again, or the price you are trying to set the market at might be naturally too high to produce a good demand.

One more secret method would be to list items under different retainers and almost make it look like undercutting is already happening. This may scare off potential sellers. Alternatively, you could have one retainer listing the items at higher than you plan to sell for, and have a second retainer listing at the price you plan to sell for making it look like a good deal.

As unfortunate as it is, botting can occur in some markets where players have software that allows them to automatically undercut. With the risk of getting banned, we would never recommend this, but this does not mean you can not take advantage of them.

Due to being automatic, they generally have a minimum that they will sell. If you know this minimum you can take advantage of it. Some bots may purchase items below their limit to re-list and sell, giving you a lot of sales, while other bots may not have a floor and you can trick them into selling goods at a super low price for you to buy and sell yourself.

You can also entirely avoid the Market Board by trying to sell via Party Finder. Some players will advertise their sales in Party Finder and shout across different zones to further help advertising, either to sell items that can not be sold on the market, or to offer players a deal on things such as gear without the hassle of undercutting.

This can also help you find clients that may return in the future for more items or on new patches. You do not even have to sell items you can simply sell your services.