First things first - I have previously abused the auction for evo points, as announced.

Now that is out of the way, it has been mentioned before but the auction is open to abuse in a few ways. Those being:

1. "Fake" listings to obtain evo points, from both listing, bidding, and selling - bidding has already been fixed with a previous change

2. Maliciously setting up listings and extending deadlines to lock up other players resources

For point 1, I have attached some recent examples - see how the player repeatedly does the same auction with a short timeframe, so they can re-list it. See how they have also cunningly then put a different creature up after doing the same thing a couple of times - very subtle.

This same player then, presumably, has put up another auction, with of course a secret reserve price. They then allow the one that was not bid on by me to lapse, the Worry of Wanderes, but have repeatedly extended the ones I have - why, for what cause? I wonder.

I propose solutions to all of the above:

1. Cap the amount of listings someone can do to 10 per week - that seems generous

2. Remove the ability to set a reserve price - you can already set a starting price, that can be used as a reserve essentially, it is also, more importantly, public information

3. Either remove the ability to extend an auction (which is an unnecessary feature in my opinion - if it is so important to sell, re-list it) OR if an auction is extended and the reserve not met, allow the bidders to withdraw funds, including the one in the lead

For point 3, I am more in favour of removing extensions entirely, as otherwise even if the reserve is met you could still extend the deadline to lock up funds.

I'm interested to hear from people, particularly @Fang Archbane

5 minutes ago, Ledah said:

1. Cap the amount of listings someone can do to 10 per week - that seems generous

2. Remove the ability to set a reserve price - you can already set a starting price, that can be used as a reserve essentially, it is also, more importantly, public information

3. Either remove the ability to extend an auction (which is an unnecessary feature in my opinion - if it is so important to sell, re-list it) OR if an auction is extended and the reserve not met, allow the bidders to withdraw funds, including the one in the lead

This seems sensible.

I raised 3 as being an issue previously but didn't have a good solution, I think this is sensible

1) cap the total amount of sales per month is a very good ideea
2) no, reserve price hidden is also a way to test the market and see what people would bid for something, even if you dont want to sell it. Advertising it would make those not matching it not participate so no real community feedback on that potential sale
3) auctions can be extended only once. The ideea is that if you place an auction and see it get some heat, you could want to extend it to see what others would auction. I think it has legitimate fair uses. Getting resources locked is a risk, but the resources get back to you eventually, and nobody forces you to get them locked, if you see a certain player does this to you on purpose, next time font bid on his items.

Not sure what you are saying about withdraw if auction gets extended, you can do that anytime no?

14 minutes ago, Ledah said:

1. Cap the amount of listings someone can do to 10 per week - that seems generous

2. Remove the ability to set a reserve price - you can already set a starting price, that can be used as a reserve essentially, it is also, more importantly, public information

3. Either remove the ability to extend an auction (which is an unnecessary feature in my opinion - if it is so important to sell, re-list it) OR if an auction is extended and the reserve not met, allow the bidders to withdraw funds, including the one in the lead

I agree with all 3 points.

Also, while not exactly in abuse territory (as far as I know), I'd also think it'd be interesting to:

4. Charge a cancellation fee, as there are a lot of things that end up "cancelled by seller". I think "testing the market" by setting things up for auction is detrimental to potential buyers (N) and only benefits the seller (1).

4 minutes ago, Muratus del Mur said:

1) cap the total amount of sales per month is a very good ideea
2) no, reserve price hidden is also a way to test the market and see what people would bid for something, even if you dont want to sell it. Advertising it would make those not matching it not participate so no real community feedback on that potential sale
3) auctions can be extended only once. The ideea is that if you place an auction and see it get some heat, you could want to extend it to see what others would auction. I think it has legitimate fair uses. Getting resources locked is a risk, but the resources get back to you eventually, and nobody forces you to get them locked, if you see a certain player does this to you on purpose, next time font bid on his items.

Not sure what you are saying about withdraw if auction gets extended, you can do that anytime no?

Fair point on the reserve, I hadn't thought of that.

Auctions can be extended more than once - if you check the third image, which is just the listing of the anni Elu, Fang has extended it twice for 24 hours as per the log.

You can't withdraw from an auction if the reserve is not met and you are the lead bidder.

I could set an auction with a 1,000,000 gold reserve and keep it extending it to lock up funds, based on what I have seen so far. The lead bidder would never be able to withdraw their funds.

PS: I do like the idea of a cancellation fee Aelis, I think cancellations are capped now though, but have not checked properly.

fixes eggy will announce shortly:
- max 16 auctions per month regardless of their outcome, canceled, concluded, etc
- you can widthdraw if reserve is not met, but not once sale is guaranteed
- you can extend an auction only once