What kind of auction is this...??

zachie
zachie Posts: 2 Arc User
edited January 2009 in General Discussion
I just bid in an auction with 1 minute to go, and it jumped to 21 minutes to go. So why is this even called an auction then?

If you want to get technical, yes in RL auctions another bid delays the finalizing of the sale, but for 20 minutes?? I don't think so.

On any online auction site I've ever seen, the time waits for no one... you miss out and dont watch the auction through you're toast. No extension for you. No item for you.

As you can tell (post count:1 *ding*) PWI forum newcomer so yeah... I was just wondering why the auction is ridiculous like this if anyone can shed some light.

~Z~
Post edited by zachie on

Comments

  • Jebbediah - Lost City
    Jebbediah - Lost City Posts: 126 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    Yeah the auction is anything but a real auction, you cant manipulate anything side how much gold sells for.
  • Saitada - Sanctuary
    Saitada - Sanctuary Posts: 3,220 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    There is a Finite limit to the amount of time that can be increased on an auction. So the additional 21 minutes is there to give a player anywhere in the world the chance to stop what they are doing, fly/run/walk in from where ever they are at, and decide if they are going to raise the bid, at which point a few more minutes are added to the auction. I think this can be done a total of three times (increasing overall auction time by a bid) at which point the auction goes into a fatal countdown and last bid on that countdown wins.

    This isn't "the real world" and the mechanics have been adjusted to reflect a game world where time is important to a player, and standing at an auction for hours at a time is not realistically feasable for many if they want to enjoy their limited gaming time. Hope that explanation helped some.

    Those more experienced with the mechanic of the auction system, please feel free to correct any errors I made.

    Saitada
  • Ren - Lost City
    Ren - Lost City Posts: 355 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    zachie wrote: »
    On any online auction site I've ever seen, the time waits for no one... you miss out and dont watch the auction through you're toast. No extension for you. No item for you.

    You clearly haven't used yahoo japan then. Don't even use ebay as an example, ebay is just **** for so many reasons.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    Zoe is so full of it, that he must be Karmelia.
  • Bobncut - Sanctuary
    Bobncut - Sanctuary Posts: 419 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    As long as we are talking weird mechanics of the auction system, can somebody explain the following to me? I see an item with a current bid of, say, 50K and a buy amount of 100K. I click on bid. The current bid goes up to 52.5 and I get a popup telling me that I have not bid enough to win the item. What does that mean? Is there a way to put in escalating bids and I just triggered someone else having to pay more or is the item actually listed with a current bid below the seller's reserve price?
  • rottweiler
    rottweiler Posts: 10 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    i could be wrong about this but it might be that u have to raise bid by a minimum of 5% of the current bid, thats wat its been like in another mmo i played too
  • Mosz - Heavens Tear
    Mosz - Heavens Tear Posts: 3,181 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    it actually adds up to 6 times or 2 hours i believe or has been my experience long ago
  • Nicarus - Sanctuary
    Nicarus - Sanctuary Posts: 4 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    Actually the auction went up 5 times in duration before the price got out of my desired range and I had to leave shortly thereafter.

    Which is another pro/con I can see, since sometimes a buyer only has a limited amount of playing time to win the auction as well, and someone keeps it going for so long the competition leaves... lol such as life.

    I see that this system greatly benefits a seller though, I sold a couple items I manufactured at well above what I would have pulled in selling to a NPC shop and sold more quickly than setting up a kitty. Sellers market I guess you could say.

    And I believe rottwieler is spot on with their answer... the minimum bid seems to go up by about 5% per bid, which that isnt all that uncommon... most auctions have a minimum monetary value which each new bid must exceed.

    Thanks for all the input everyone!

    ~Z~
  • Jrudora - Lost City
    Jrudora - Lost City Posts: 445 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    The systems there to allow the person auctioning the item to reap maximum sale amount of their item, rather than allowing people to bid "last second".
    Its rather frustrating at times, but I can see why this is fair.
    An auctions about who can bid the highest on an item, rather than how good your timing skills are anyways, at least that's why auctions seem to have been created.

    I could be wrong.
  • Solandri - Heavens Tear
    Solandri - Heavens Tear Posts: 2,843 Arc User
    edited January 2009
    It's more like a traditional auction. Every time someone bids, the auctioneer ratchets up the asking price and takes a little more time asking for more bids. IMHO the whole last minute sniping thing with eBay is one of the biggest wastes of people's time, antithetical to the whole concept of the Internet making things faster and saving you time. I'm glad they avoided it here.

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