I guess I won't be bidding for items anymore...

thezer0flux

I've been using the AH a lot since I started playing, but only the stuff I could buyout immediately. I've been selling stuff I find in world, buying stuff that's underpriced and relisting it, and even selling crafted items for profit. It takes time and patience, but it has been working and I've accumulated quite a lot of AD and items (even Zen-only items) playing the market. Well, today I decided to try my hand at bidding to see if I could get better returns. I noticed a trend of bid-only items going for less than buyout prices, so I figured I could make even more AD that way -- even if it did take a little longer to get the item.

Turns out it's not worth it. I had several auctions that I was watching and had the winning bid in each. I had the My Bids screen up watching the timers tick down to 0 while I still had the winning bid. I backed out to go claim my items, but the mail I got wasn't of the "You have won an auction!" sort. Nope, I got messages that I'd been outbid on each auction -- even though the UI told me I won. I watched the auctions expire while I still had the winning bid. I received no updates, and observed no changes, but regardless of what the UI showed, I'd lost and had no chance to make a counter offer. That's a big problem!

I understand that it's typical for bids to come in late, but the UI needs to update so people can counter-bid. If not, what's the point. The way things are now, I'd have to submit a random bid at the last second in the hopes I beat whomever might try and outbid me. That's stupid. Until the UI becomes more real-time, or until they implement systems to deter the last second bidding (by giving the previous high bidder a last chance to counter, for example), I'll just stick to buyout deals.

Does this frustrate anyone else? Is it just me?

pentnoir

On some items people will submit a bid in the very last second, leaving no time for anyone else to do anything or even give notice. The only way I've found to combat this is to also bid in the very last second, but at a higher rate than the default minimum, like 2 or 3 times. This way, if someone else gets in before me, it may still be possible to outbid that person.

Although, now I just dont care and will immediately bid a price that is close to what I think the moving average is at. If someone wants to bid higher, then thats, fine, I'll just move onto the next bid and immediately jack up the bid price there too.

eldarth

thezer0flux wrote: »

Does this frustrate anyone else? Is it just me?

Yep. Been that way forever. If I recall Gateway bids can outbid in the last seconds of an auction.