i'm thinking of building a running an auction house in SMP, for of corse, auctions on things like swords and tools, i think this'll be quite fun for everyone, and i'll give it a go :3

basically, i put things up for bid (everyone can) and they can either bid for it or buy it now,
bidding for it is less money than buying it now, but the bid can be lost, someone else can bid higher than you, whereas buying it now lets you win it straight away, if you get outbidded, you get your money back

post your opinions here:

_________________



Leader of the Might City of Varlos

So what currency are we going to use? My faction uses gold nuggets. And how would we make this fair?

_________________

gold nuggets would be best
and basically you bid, if you get outbidded, you get your money back, if you buy now, you just buy it like it was a normal shop, if someone buys now, and youve bidded but you were the top bidder, you also get your money back,

the items last for a total of 1 week, if you are the highest bidder by the end of that, you win it

people can put things up for auction, it is pretty much free and you can change how long it last on the auction table, and if someone wins the item, you get the money, if someone doesn't win the item (no bids), then the item gets returned to you,

i hope this has explained this a bit better for you

_________________



Leader of the Might City of Varlos

I think a better system would be:
Bidding
-A player places a bid on an item, and notes it via a sign written by the player.
-If a player wants to place a higher bid, he places a sign next to the bid before him, and lists his/her price.
-At the end of the items time, the player with the highest bid pays how much he/she owes the seller.
Buying now
-The seller lists a price for players to fulfill.
-The customer who pays first, gets the item.

I like this idea. The currency could indeed be gold nuggets.

My only problem is where would we get the items we'd be selling? Since Ops can't give out items you'd have to supply them yourself and if we had people sell their items I don't think many people would do it.

_________________

but we would need like a mile for all the signs...

plus it would just be a gathering of chests, it's a center, there will be signs put down, but iside the buiding, if you get what i mean

_________________



Leader of the Might City of Varlos

I think to prevent an exploit being made where the user places a high bid, and then can't get online to either pay for the item, or bid higher, a different system needs to be used.

I think a better system will be to have a coded auction where everyone attends and calls out when they want to bid. The auction master has to gradually step up the price until people bid, and keep hold of the user who bid. At the end of the day, when all items have met their reserve bids, the auction master collects the currency from the winning bidders, and then dishes out the items.

This method allows for all users to be online at a time. It also allows for users selling items to set a minimum reserve that is not known to the public, and it can also allow for some strategies being formed which allow the sellers to bid on their item to try and boost it's value (with the drawback that if no one else bids after them, they have to pay for the item).

Operators and Admins can sell special items, like enchanted tools, or experience point packs (10xp for 5 currency or whatever), or items they found, or want to sell. Due to it being a bidding method, they can also set minimum reserves for very very powerful items.

In terms of a reserve, the sellers inform the auction master of what they are selling, and if there is a minimum reserve to be met.

IE: I will sell 1 diamond sword with no enchantment, and will set a minimum reserve of 20 gold nuggets with a starting price of 5 gold nuggets.

The auction master can note this down in a notepad or a piece of paper or whichever, and when the auction comes to the diamond sword, the auction master starts at the starting price given. He does not announce the reserve price to be met.

If the bidding price of the diamond sword meets 20 gold nuggets, or higher, the item is sold to the winning bidder. If the bidding price does not meet 20 gold nuggets, the item is not sold, and the winning bidder gets to keep their nuggets. The reserve price is announced if it has not been met, but otherwise is not announced if it has been met.

If a common bidder crashes, or logs out, 1-2 minutes are given for them to log back in and continue bidding. If they log back in, it is up to the auction master to inform them of the current item, and the previous bid, and their bid before they logged off (if they bid before that time). If they do not log back in after the 2 minutes, the current winning bidder is the last user to bid, and the bidding continues.