How to post or bid in an Auction - format, suggestions and netiquette

[Davih 1,340]

I decided to make a simple guide since there are a lot of new players that have no clues and i received (for some reason) a lot of PM from people asking me for suggestions.

So i can link this thread to them (in case you want to lock it) or if you want to pin it up, even better, your call. (feel free to edit it, i might also add more informations as they come to my mind or from other people's feedback)
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An auction should generally have this format:

Starting bid : 5s
increments : 1s
reserve: 15s
buyout: 30s
sniper protection :1 hour
no private bids

[additional informations on the items, pickup/delivery informations, special rules of the auction (multi-auction) or anything else that helps clarify anything that could not be clear]

 (see timer thread for infos on how to create one)


[image of the item, optional, either here on before everything]



Starting bid :      [pretty simple- what the auction starts at]
(min) increments :          [What is the minimum increase over the previous bid. I.e. 1s means that if the highest offer is 5.5s, you must at least offer 6.5s, you can still offer anything you want above that]
Reserve :       [You can either specify a price, or write "hidden". That means that you reserve not to sell the item if reserve price isn't met, if it's hidden, and the auction reaches the hidden reserve, you might edit it and write that reserve is "met" instead of hidden, it's generallly a bad idea to use hidden reserves (see below)]
Sniper protection:     [this is a very important part of an auction, often underrated, it is written in minutes, or hours, and it works like this: in an example where the sniper protection is 30 minutes, and there are only a few minutes left, or even 28 minutes left on the auction, and a bid is made, the auction automatically extends to  end 30 minutes after that offer, if someone makes another offer, the auction gets extended again to end 30 minutes after that last offer. until no offer has been made for 30 entire minutes, at that point, the auction ends. Any new bidder can join in, unless you care to specify otherwise. Usually, the lenght of the sniper protection is proportionate to the value of the item.
Buyout:  [Pretty simple concept, a buyout price is a price that allows you to automatically end the auction and purchase the item directly, if an offer that meets or exceeds buyout is made, then the auction is over]
Private bids:    [You should specify if you accept private bids or not, a private bid means that you would just trust the fact that the seller received an anonymous bid from someone that doesn't want to apper in the auction, and he will post it himself, it's usually a frown-upon feature that could be used to simply used to counter-offer your own auction, most people don't accept them]


Suggestions / netiquette.

-  Retracting.an offer is something that should generally never be done, a bid on an item is serious matter in which you are putting your reputation as a player/buyer, if you need to retract an offer, you should provide a serious reason, and it's usually very bad manners to just retract your offer because you changed your mind or found something better or cheaper on the market while the auction was running.
- Auction lenght shouldn't generally be too long - it's usually 2-3 days, longer auctions usually draw less attention or get forgotten, they might be used for particularly niche or valuable item, or maybe deeds, but it's usually best to not go over 3  days, very short auctions are also risky, you usually want at least a 24-hour timer so that people from all time zones at least have a chance to see your auction
- Editing/Extending should only be used in certain situations, editing the title, fixing errors is commonly accepted, so is adding a sniper protection halfway through the auction, or even lowering the starting bid if nobody offered yet. changing things like adding a buyout or extending the timer is a case-by-case situation, but it's usually best to avoid doing so.
Extending the timer just because the auction didn't reach the price that you wanted, is most likely a shady move, if the timer breaks(happens sometimes) and it's unclear when the auction is ending, it's different, and might be tolerated. adding a buyout or accepting one even though none was specified, is also a pretty bad move, even more if the buyout is proposed ingame (it could just as likely be the owner that faked a buyout to close the auction that wasn't going as good as he hoped)
- Hidden reserves are something that is best avoided, not because you're cheating other people with not selling the item after all, but because you're most likely not going to get many offers on them, as people hate them and usually don't even bother to offer anything on those, furthermore decreasing the perceived value of the item that you were trying to auction, you can still use them, but as an experienced trader i strongly suggest you against it.
- Making offers lower than starting bid is something that people sometimes do, it could be either trolling (if the offer is significantly lower than the starting bid) or someone that thinks that you overpriced your item and is offering what he thinks would be an acceptable offer, it's your call if you want to accept them or not, but you should generally refrain from doing offers way lower than the starting bid.
- Comments in other's people auctions can be fun, and are sometimes accepted, if they are friendly, or suggestions, but they also make the auction "less readable" so you shouldn't go on too long and start chatting on an auction, negative comments are instead a very bad habit that shouldn't be taking place on auctions (and will probably be moderated) if you disagree with someone's price and really can't keep it for yourself, you should preferably PM the guy or at least stop at the first signs that your comments are not appreciated.
- Refusing to conclude the trade is also, obviously, bad behaviour that will, or should impact negatively on your reputation, if you win an auction you are pretty much "forced" to buy the item for the amount you offered,.Haggling, not answering in 1-2days, or plainly refusing to fulfill the trade should be avoided at all cost, and you will be pretty much subjected to how seriously the seller wants to take your motivations, some might just shrug it off or try to find some middle ground, some other might never want to deal with you again or even go as far as publicly shaming you (which is not forbidden, if made in the right way and staying in the ingame-context), so yeah, just don't do that.
- Tracking sniper protection is not automatic, but the best way to do it is to check the post with the last offer, it usually has a string written above saying "posted x minutes/hours ago" just refresh the page to have it updated  , In case you weren't checking, If you mouseover it, it also says the time it was posted at, so you can just check if at any point 2 offers were made apart for more minutes than the sniper protection is, in that case, they will not count. Being flexible in accepting offers that were posted a few minutes later is not a "kindness"  that you do to a guy coming in late, it will most likely be seen as bad behaviour and lack of seriousness, and should be avoided.

Feel free to ask questions or give me your opinion if i missed or misinterpreted something that you feel should be different.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Davih

[Enniskillen 114]

Very good guide Davih, surely lot of people will benefit from it (myself included)

 

Thanks

[Craft 75]

Well done and thank you for taking the time to write this up.

I recommend it be pinned or at the very least, used to formulate an official pinned guide.

[Davih 1,340]

12 hours ago, Craft said:

Well done and thank you for taking the time to write this up.

I recommend it be pinned or at the very least, used to formulate an official pinned guide.

Yep, you can literally copypaste it, fix the english and post it with someone else's staff account, i 100% will not mind/care

[Magg 46]

+1 Please pin this

[hellsbliss 9]

❤️ you davihh

[Dokhida 35]

Can we please get this Pinned

[Pandalet 1,848]

Incorporated into new 'How to auction' posts in WTA sub-forums.  Thank you for the work you put into this!