Auctions

General

There are two ways to auction those items you have no need for: the message board and the NPC auctioneer. There are benefits and drawbacks to either method.

Both methods of auctioning have the same benefit, you can get money for an item you have no use for. Rather than throw the item in the trash to be lost forever, find out if anyone needs it. Place the item up for auction.

It is important to note: You can not use both auction methods for the same item. If you place an item on the NPC Auctioneer then it is not available to be auctioned on the board. You can announce the auction on the board but no bids or deals should be accepted. When using the Auctioneer, let him manage things for you. He does a great job.

Message Board

These are some suggestions for placing items for auction in the forum that should help you get the best price for your items.

1) Consider placing your items on your vendor or the Auctioneer in the Brit bank first, Especially the smaller items that are not worth a lot. You have quite a bit of control over how the item sells on the auctioneer, sometimes more than here in the forum. You will also find that the prices you get that way are usually very good, Usually because the auctioneer is used much more than this forum & by more players. If you have one of those REALLY SPECIAL high end items, or a list of several VERY GOOD items, they may do a bit better here.

2) PLEASE describe all items FULLY!! This means a complete description of ALL properties, age, repair status, # & type of magic charges, color, if it has been used at all or not & whatever else you can come up with. (Please ID ALL magic items first!) This applies to any item placed here as well as on the auctioneer in the Brit Bank! The better your item is described, the better chance you have of selling it for a good price.

3) PLEASE keep the number of items you are selling in any one thread to no more than about 8-10, and number each item separately on single lines. If you get too many items in one thread it will become confusing and you WILL NOT get good money for all your items. Sell those really really great items separately.

4) PLEASE know what the item is worth on THIS Shard!! before you set any sort of a starting bid. Just because you can get 850K for the Silver Ubber Club of Whacking on OSI does not mean that that is what it is worth here. Check out past auctions & talk to various players to get a fair market value if you have no idea, and also remember that the numbers you get are usually on the high end. The statement "I saw one of those sell for 250,000 3 months ago" does not always mean that that is what they are worth right now.

5) PLEASE PLEASE! Set a REASONABLE starting price/bid IF you feel you must set one. DO NOT start the item out at what you think the most it is worth. If you do, you will get only 1 mayber 2 bids, if any. An auction is a way of selling an item for what is the actual fair market value at the current time. You will do considerably better by starting the item for 50-60% (or even less) of what you feel it is worth and let the bidders push it up. The more people you can get interested in your item and to place even 1 bid on it, the more will come back and bid just a little higher because they may get it for the extra 5K. If you go back and check the auctions on this board that have sold well, you will see that most have a lot of bidding going on due to a low start price and you will see that is really how the best prices are also obtained. Also note that some of those items went for more than what they were actually worth solely because of players trying to outbid each other.

6) ALWAYS Set a specific ending rule/time for the auction. Remember that this shard is played on from all timezones around the world and not everyone will know what '3pm Saturday CST' means, as well everyone sees a different posted time on their computer screen. Also, not everyone will see the auction in the next 24 hours. What seems to work best is to close the auction at a set period after the last bid placed. (Most common are 24 or 48 hours). This ype of closure actually promotes the bids to get in early & often as everyone is hoping that theirs is the one that will cause everyone else to drop out, and allow players to earn a little extra gold for that item they just gotta have. If you set a fixed time for the auction to end (e.g. 3pm Saturday) you are promoting everyone waiting until 2:59 to place a single lowball bid. The results from this are that you will NOT get the best return for your item, and some players will miss the cutoff due to time zone miscalculations..

7) Once the item is placed here, do not turn around and place it on the auctioneer in game or sell it privately. This is not fair to the players that bid on your item. And I will guarantee you that the players that bid here WILL note that it was done and ignore your future items. If someone contacts you ingame with an offer, ask them to place it on the board. You will do better in the long run that way and you will probably find out that the person that was bidding here on the board will better their offer anyway. If there are NO bids on your item after 48 hours, then close the auction off. If there IS a bid on it, YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO HONOR IT!! No matter what anyone else has offered you elsewhere.

8) When the auction is ended. Declare it so. And make arrangements with the winning bidder to get the item to them ASAP. You can drop the item off to them at their place in a .owned bag for gold return via L&F, or you can meet them in game, or you can receive a .owned bag at your place with the gold that you would place the item into & return via the Lost & Found.

And as a final note: Please remember that you win some and you lose some. By this I mean that there are times that that great item will not sell for what you thought it was worth, but there are also going to be other times that that little item goes for way too much. Overall if you are fair & generous in your dealings on this shard, you will be treated even more so.

It is after all The World of Dreams!!

Min. Bid

On some items up for auction you may see a minimum bid. This practice should be used sparingly if at all. Asking for a minimum bid tells other players what you want for the item. This is by no means absolute! Bidders are free to offer a lower amount if no one has met the minimum bid. It is then up to the seller to decide to accept that bid or not.

If you decide a minimum bid is necessary for an item keep a few things in mind:

• Demand: Is this item going to be in high demand to a large or small group of players?
• Magics on the item: Is this a powerful item or weak item? Does the item have a charged effect? Is there a skill bonus? Is it silver? Is it a "slayer" weapon?
• How much would you pay for this: Decide how much you would pay for the item and then take off a percentage. Just because you would pay 50K for an item doesn't mean everyone will. Maybe you should ask for 25K for the item and let people bid what they can afford.

Remember, the higher you set a minimum bid the more people you possibly exclude from the bidding. On most items it isn't even necessary to ask for a minimum bid as the bidding war for the item can easily surpass your hopes.