How to host a proper auction at EF (and how NOT to)

e-lite

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Posts
5,221
Location
Sweden
Society
Magnum Opus
Avatar Name
Xaero e-lite Cynque
Recently I have been getting myself worked up over the countless examples of bad auctions hosted right here on the EF boards. I am not going to personify the examples, as I am sure most of you have seen a few of them.

So how do you create and host a nice and clean auction at the forum boards? I am going to give a few nice guidelines.

Topic & forum section
At first, when creating the sales or purchase thread make sure to give the thread a relevant topic. Try use a short but relevant description of what the trade is about. Examples:

“Selling full nemesis (M)”
“Buying ML-35 & adjusted FAP”
“Trading Brigader coat (M) for black boots (M)


This way the forum members can have a good view of what’s up for trade without having to open each thread to find out. Example of bad thread topics are:

“-=~’SeLLiNg StuFFz lolz!!!’~=-“
“!!NEED SOME THINGS!!“


Topics like this helps nobody, and least it helps yourself. Leave out any special characters from the topic unless they are needed. Special character decoration is NOT “cool” and does not “look good”. You don’t want to browse a forum with topics like that yourself do you?

Make sure to post your trading thread in the correct forum section. If you are looking to purchase an item, then post your thread in “Buying”-section, and if you are looking to get rid of an item, well then you post in “Selling”-section of the boards. If you are offering the community services of any kind like colouring, healing, courier services and so on, then your thread goes into the forum section “services”.

Content of the auction thread
Now for the actual formation of your advertising there’s a few things that are important and will save you a lot of trouble.

Describe the item/service that you sell/buy well. Some things your costumers want to know are for example make and model if it’s a weapon. Model number if it’s a FAP. Brand, colour and sex if it’s clothing or an armour. If you are selling special designed and coloured clothing it might also be an good idea to post a screenshot of the clothes so your bidders know what they look like.

It’s also helpful if you look up your item and item stats at http://www.entropiawiki.com and include a link to the stats in your post. This way your costumers and bidders do not have to ask so many questions about the item in topic. For instance if you where to sell an A-3 Justifier Mk.V you could help out with providing a link like this: http://www.entropiawiki.com/Info.aspx?chart=Weapon&id=78

Prices & bids
Now it is time to put a price on your item that you are going to buy or sell. If you do not know the current ongoing price for an item you can always get a hint of the market value by looking at the in game auction history regarding your specific item.

If you are selling something, and choose to have a opening bid and/or a buyout bid for your item, then please make sure to let people know what current TT value the item have. If you are selling something at TT+2500 PED’s it will be of interest for the bidder to know if the TT value is 0 PED or 500 PED. The same goes for an item that you sell for a “total price” and not TT+. It will always be helpful to let the bidders know what TT value the item is delivered in for that “total price”.

When you as a seller of an item have decided your opening bid and buyout bid for your item, do NOT change the prices DURING the auction. Think of the forum auction as if it where the real PE auction. Once a bid is placed you cannot change the buyout price! If the buyout price is met then do not raise it afterwards! If you do this your credibility and reputation on the trading market will go down the drain. People do not want to trade with you again if they feel they have been mislead.

Duration
In the same manner that the real PE auctions have a duration, you should also consider having an ending date for your forum auctions. People feel insecure to bid at an auction that do not have an ending date or time. Auctions that “end when I think the bid is high enough” is not recommended. Serious buyers do not want to deal with their eyes blind folded. This is especially important for expensive items and important trades. Be sure to clearly specify an ending date and time. If you choose an ending time specified in your local time then also specify what time zone you are in. If you do not know what time zone you are in you can preferably use PE universe time (Hit “C” while in PE to find out the PE universe time).

Common sense & ethics
As the bids are coming in it is always nice to update the initial post of the thread with current highest bid and bidder, unless the bidder is highly anonymous, then just update the post with current bid. Although the bidders should always check the last post of the thread before bidding, to check what the latest bid was.

And finally, keep your post “bumps” to once a day. There is no need to bump your thread once every hour just to raise it 5-10 posts on the board index. People will find it anyway. When your auction successfully has ended, please update your initial post and let people know that this auction has ended and that the item has been sold or bought.



I think that was the most essential I had on my mind. Off course there’s plenty more, but most of it is common sense and ethics. Keep your head cool, do fair trading, have patience and understanding. Happy trading everyone.

Mr. e-lite :D
 
Last edited:
Excellent guide. Only thing I miss is that when someone struck a deal with you, if you then decide to butt out because someone offered a higher bid, you'll turn out looking like a proper !!!! who just managed to waste a lot of people's time.
 
ViagraFalls said:
Excellent guide. Only thing I miss is that when someone struck a deal with you, if you then decide to butt out because someone offered a higher bid, you'll turn out looking like a proper !!!! who just managed to waste a lot of people's time.


Yeah people, what Mr ViagraFalls said! Very important! :wise:
 
[SIGN]Nice post Mr. E-Lite!! Id +Rep ya but I must spread some around first. Ill try to abide by these rules from now on.... :wise: [/SIGN]​
 
The guide is on my "Likes" list too...

I am usually a tidy person and Mr. e-lite seems to be one himself.

Maybe that'll chatch on to most of the ppl that let the writting express to much of the messy minds;)

...I think I need a 12-hour long sleep now.....brainstormed too much for this reply :girl:
 
I was checking what people were selling today while at work. Wow is all I can think of. No buyout or changed buyouts, "anonyomous bids". No end date. The list goes on. What a load of, well you get it. Good job e-lite, I only hope that people will start to use this as format for auctions here.
 
Excellent post, +rep

Now someone just needs to add a link to this post in all the auctions who do not follow these "rules" :)

[edit]You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to e-lite again. You post too many good posts man :cool: [/edit]
 
+rep, nice guide :)
 
Nice.

But another thing many ppl forget is to write if it is Male/Female versions of Armour/Clothing. :wise:


Edit: Ooops you allready covered that one
*Blush*
 
Ted said:
Nice.

But another thing many ppl forget is to write if it is Male/Female versions of Armour/Clothing. :wise:


Edit: Ooops you allready covered that one
*Blush*

Hehe :D I tried to cover it all.

I just wanna post in this thread to bump it, and hope that auctions on EF improve alot. Latley there has been a few more nightmare examples.
 
I like this guide, and I think it should be a sticky thread in the auction forums here. Otherwise it will not be useful, because it is already disappearing beneath the other threads...

In the last week I realised that nothing has changed, still most auctions are a mess, so I hope that maybe this guide will become a part of the forum rules, I pesonally think this is necessary.

There was a few days ago already a thread about how auctions here at the forum can be improved and it had further suggestions which I really liked:

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24842

Maybe this could also be a part of further rules, I would support it a lot!
 
Bird said:
I like this guide, and I think it should be a sticky thread in the auction forums here. Otherwise it will not be useful, because it is already disappearing beneath the other threads...

In the last week I realised that nothing has changed, still most auctions are a mess, so I hope that maybe this guide will become a part of the forum rules, I pesonally think this is necessary.

There was a few days ago already a thread about how auctions here at the forum can be improved and it had further suggestions which I really liked:

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24842

Maybe this could also be a part of further rules, I would support it a lot!


Well yes, If people think this post is good and useful it should be sticky. But thats for MindBuster to decide. I don't know if he saw the thread. If you think it's worth it then perhaps you could PM him and ask for it to be sticky.
 
PE Time

FYI, PE time is shown as "InGame Time" at the bottom of all forum pages

:wise:
 
Veranol said:
FYI, PE time is shown as "InGame Time" at the bottom of all forum pages

:wise:

Yes that is true, I will add that. It wasn't when the article was written :)
 
I'd like to bump this thread, because I am getting angry about another thing related to auctions...

If you host an auction, you also should take care about that it finishes properly. In more than half of the auctions I bid, the responsible person never showed up again. This cannot be normal practice!
 
I'd like to add something:

If a seller sells the item(s), it should be self-evident, to post this in the thread. I find it unacceptable, to frequently see threads where people (including myself) bid, only to be informed, that the item has already been sold.

As a seller you should immediately after selling the item(s) post this in your thread.
 
Bird, why are you bumping other people's topics? Doesn't make sense to bump 15 topics, because the first bump is then on the bottom again :confused:
 
Since this is a sticky topic, I would with the permission from the EF admin like to update the initial post a bit. We since the last VU now have a new way to find out market price for an item. "PE" is also now days "EU" and small stuff like that. Thank you.
 
Okay having lost a bid to a bidder who placed a private bid to the seller.

I'd like to state or suggest: if your putting up an auction, state if your going to take silent bids or not.

Example:
Auction type: Public bids only
Auction type: Private pm bids only
Auction type: Public and pm bidding allowed

My losing said auction was partly my fault for not checking the main page of the initial post to see a private bid had come in.

But still had I known initially private bids would be accepted I wouldn't have been so stupid as to assume they would all be public (as all bids had been up till the last day) and would have increased my bid. But since I only looked at the last page of the auction thread I lost and IMHO it sucks for both me and the auctioneer who could have earned more money.

So please note the types of bids you will take pretty please,
for your own sake and ours the buyers.
 
Another twist i've seen, it's probably not new.
Is agian pm bidders.

Auctioneers don't be fooled by these last minute decietful (yes I said decietful) pm bidders.

If you get a pm bid at the end of your auction and time runs out give the last bidder a chance to out bid that pm bid.

You're only cheating yourself out of potentially more money from a bidder who is cheating the system because your not around. It's not fair to the last bidder or yourself.

Here's an example of what I mean.

You have a last bid of say tt+100 ped. Your acution ends at 20:00
You've made it clear who the last bidder was and the bid.
That bidder sees it's past the auction time and they think they've won.
You log in 5 minutes maybe even an hour later
To see a pm bid for tt+1501 placed at 19:30 you contact the pm bidder and you sell to them.
The last bidder is totally f$%$ked because the bid wasn't public and they had NO chance to out bid it.

Do yourself a favor and let that last bidder have a final chance to place a bid. Don't let some decietful bidder rob you of a larger sale simply because they bid before your auction was over and now it's over so you feel obligated to sell it to them.

Don't feel obligated what they did was a sneaky dirty trick to rob the last bidder of the buy and likely robbing you of precious peds to boot!

In fact you'd be better off not taking pm bids at all. But this is only my opinion. Since having all bids be public, if the last bidder fails to place a bid over what was made public before the end of the bid then it's no ones fault but their own for not bidding. If you get such a war for your item you would IMHO be best to even allow the bids to have gone over your end auction time so someone doesn't pull a sniping trick and try to make you take less money because they waited till the last minute. This is why EU puts the extra 5 minutes on when you place a bid in the last 5 minutes. };>)

Don't let you or your bidders be cheated.
 
Last edited:
Even though this is a sticky, I figured I'd bring this to the forefront of potential EF auction-goer's minds again.
 
Since this is a sticky topic, I would with the permission from the EF admin like to update the initial post a bit. We since the last VU now have a new way to find out market price for an item. "PE" is also now days "EU" and small stuff like that. Thank you.

Old request I know, but generally there's no need to request permission to edit your own sticky. In fact we kinda hope people do keep their sticky's up to date.

My own suggestion for good EF auctions would be, particularly for items with significant markup, to include a minimum bid increment and a sniper rule (e.g. a bid in the last hour of the auction extends the deadline by an hour). Its generally fairer for both seller and bidders that way.
 
Old request I know, but generally there's no need to request permission to edit your own sticky. In fact we kinda hope people do keep their sticky's up to date.

My own suggestion for good EF auctions would be, particularly for items with significant markup, to include a minimum bid increment and a sniper rule (e.g. a bid in the last hour of the auction extends the deadline by an hour). Its generally fairer for both seller and bidders that way.

10 months for a reply... better late than never. :laugh:
 
And if I may ... if someone is using "MA/ingame" time to end their auctions, to please be aware that the forum MA/ingame clock is one minute faster than the one ingame when pressing "C" ... this caused a great stress with my armor auction that just ended. I indicated that the auction ended at 23:59 MA/ingame time in the original post, and when I saw a couple of posts at the 7pm forum time, I was ready to take the last post prior to that time for the sale. However, I was told by the individual who posted the additonal bid about the time difference, and that I (in essence) wouldn't be honoring my "MA/ingame" time if I didn't take the last bid, because she posted while it was still 23:59 ingame.

Moonie and I checked this, and she was absolutely correct, so maybe 711 can make an adjustment so that times are in sync. I really got caught between a rock and a hard place with this one, and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to experience this. I really don't feel right about what happened.
 
You didn't do anything wrong MS9, not your fault. At the end of the day the highest bidder got it and the other basically just left it too late.

These sorts of problems crop up quite a bit though, i think a rolling deadline extension, or a rule that all interested parties are contacted and given a chance to outbid last minute bids, should eliminate them.

Doesn't matter so much with little items, but worth it when you're delaing with k PEDs.

10 months for a reply... better late than never. :laugh:

Well it was to admin not mod ;)

Anyway, better to contact people with PM, than hope they are subscribed to a thread...
 
Last edited:
Back
Top