TOPIC: Guiding Principles for Auction Queue List?

Caleb M Davis wrote: If you're selling something at-cost, you cannot further reduce prices. Reducing the prices further simply means that the auctions are not funded. There is no "get it cheaper". Nobody running an Auction is ever going to sell the Auction at a loss. They are simply not going to spend $1000 of their own money for the privilege of mailing out a bunch of tokens to other people for less than what they paid for it. Unfunded Auctions never go cheaper; they just don't happen.

This isn't how I see it at all.

Ignoring the fact that there are the 9/10 random URs baked into the inventory, there is the chance at one of 60 Golden Tickets.

I think the main appeal of gathering community money and playing middleman is for the possibility of attending a GT run.

Auctions run at the end of a token season are totally different.... But you certainly don't see a glut of folks lining up to run 7.5k auctions at the end of the season.

I will likely be setting up an auction (as I have done for the past 2 years) at some point. I will do it when my schedule permits and it looks like there is demand. I'm not likely to get into a line to do it or not. If it fails, then it fails. If it succeeds, then it succeeds. This thread leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth, not going to lie. I completely understand the idea of "let's not be jerks to each other" and I think that's what you are trying to go for here, but it feels extremely control-ish, and clique-ish. You also mention discussion among a small group of people on a different communication platform, and wish to bring rules generated there to here. Last year and the year before and the year before we had auctions going concurrently. We will likely have them going concurrently this year. It has not been an issue in the past. I hope we don't make it an issue this year.

Having just completed an auction (thank you to all the bidders!), I intentionally did not immediately start another. The reason was absolutely that I wanted others who wanted to run one to have the opportunity. I certainly could have started one immediately, as the auctioneer is always the first to know when they are finishing the auction.

Yes, 9 or 10 URs and a chance at a GT is a nice benefit, but believe it or not, this is already a labor of love. The actual cash return without a GT is probably $600 or less, as you can hardly sell half of what you get most years. A GT is probably 50/50 or less at this point (pure speculation).

Setting a different endpoint certainly changes the game, as does withholding certain items, or adding additional.

Last year we had at least 8 auctions fund in short order, and a couple fixed price. I personally like the idea of as many different people running one as would like to.

I didn't think about it, but Caleb makes a great point, sometimes auctions don't fund and you get nothing.

I don’t like the idea of limiting who can run one.

I do think that some people would like to not step on one another's toes.

Fixed Price to me is basically a token store, not an auction.

Anyhow, I think there is something to be talked about here, not just a solution in search of a problem. If you've never been the one who thought to themselves, "I'd like to run an auction, but I don't want to upset anyone else" you might not understand.

I like the idea of giving everyone an opportunity to run one, but thats just me.

I appreciate this effort, and I think it would be good to put something together, at least as a suggestion, but it appears I'm in the minority.

I don't see the need to restrict the number of auctions on the forums, I don't see an issue with multiple running at a time.

I definitely don't think there should be barriers like a fifth level requirement.

I believe the reason for the original post was that a number of people (myself included) all want to offer an auction of one type or another and were making an effort to be considerate of each other. I don't believe there was any intent to leave out or overstep anyone not involved in the discord conversation (which I came to late).

I've been planning to run an Onyx 2021 auction since before I started my 2020. Part of the reason I offered the 2020 was to prepare for preorder season. I enjoyed it and would do it again. If I'm honest, I'd rather not wait long since I am planning to offer R/U bags and Onyxs which may have a more limited market.

With the number of people that want to run auctions now, I am considering offering my order as fixed-price instead. If I can sell enough of it, great, if not, I'll buy what I need from other sellers. Maybe that leaves room for someone else to do their auction.

If I do change my plans to fixed price, how would that affect my "place in line"? If I end up needing to lower a price because it isn't selling, when does it become too much like an auction?

I like that most of us interested in offering auctions are making an effort not to interfere with each other. I do wonder if having perhaps one auction and one fixed price offering would give buyers some options, but it might be worse in the end if demand can't support both. Ultimately all of this is based on the goodwill and trust of the community as well as the demand of the token market.

Now I'm not sure what to do. I have a portion of my order "pre-sold" and I don't think anyone is in a big hurry, but since I am pretty much set on Onyx and Bags I want to post while there is demand for such things.

Part of me wants to say "let the free market decide", and part of me really likes the fact that we are making the effort to be considerate of each other.

TL:DR
I think that this is a conversation worth having, I think we should try to understand each other's points of view, and I hope that all of us are able to participate in a way that doesn't ruin it for anyone else.

Daniel White wrote:
Discuss.

Yeah, no. Silly idea all around. If you don't get enough bidders because they were seduced elsewhere, well, too bad.

I'd personally like a queue thread of some kind. It doesn't have to be any kind of super serious rule thing, it's more that I'd like to run an auction, it seems like fun. I've never run one before, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I know that several other people have said they want to run one, and it seems like generally accepted practice here to wait for the last one to finish before starting a new one.

I'm curious if there will be auctions set at a lower than $7,500 success point. There may be someone that is willing to be more at a break-even point, or even take a slight loss, for a chance at a Golden Ticket.

I think the concept is good. I think the rules suggested in the first post are not.

I'd say simply maintain a post that has the "queue" order of players with their type of auction and aim to not hold two of the same auction type at the same time.

Give a max time period before the next auction of that type can be posted (in preorder something like 12 days maybe) and a threshold for posting earlier (current auction is 90% funded)

That gives loose guidelines on when to post and helps to avoid multiple players cross posting the same auction types in conflict with eachother.


I don't see a reason that a lightning auction/bid auction and a fixed price auction can not run concurrently. They are different experiences and not likely to negatively affect eachother.


That's my $0.02 on the subject

Thanks for the feedback. Seems like there's a lot of people who just don't like the idea for whatever reason.

I still think a queue is helpful to make sure we're not stepping on eachother's toes, and that concurrent auctions are bad for everyone.

However, it's clear to me that there's not enough support for this idea right now to really make it work, so I personally don't intend to try and implement it in any formal manner.

My hope is that people like Ral and Derg don't get sandbagged by some third party because they're being courteous to me or Azzy, even without a formal queue. If folks start behaving that way because of their "freedom to run an auction whenever," that'd be a real shame. I don't really want to see people get burned because they're being courteous and considerate.

Wade Schwendemann (Dr. Uid) wrote:
Yes, 9 or 10 URs and a chance at a GT is a nice benefit, but believe it or not, this is already a labor of love. The actual cash return without a GT is probably $600 or less, as you can hardly sell half of what you get most years. A GT is probably 50/50 or less at this point (pure speculation).

I think different folks value their time differently.

Running an 8k may be a labor of love for some...for others, it may represent the only realistic chance the individual has at a GT.

Also, let's not assume that $500-600 is something to sneeze at. For players with limited means, that amount could be a considerable boon. Not everyone is running with relics and full TE.

Arnold wrote:
Running an 8k may be a labor of love for some...for others, it may represent the only realistic chance the individual has at a GT.

This is certainly true for me. I would love the chance to participate in a GT run someday, and this is the only way I'm likely to ever find one. The random URs also help me build for alternate classes and "guest" builds. On top pf all that, running the auction was FUN (though it is a lot of work and responsibility)

I also had more than one bidder during my auction thank me for offering it because it gives players with smaller budgets a way to purchase PYP, Trade Goods, and other "big order" bonuses. That was nice, and made me feel like I was bringing value to the community as well as doing something I wanted to do.

If we can keep the auctions the positive experience that they have been, I think that is good for us and probably good for True Dungeon as well.

For my part, I'll do my best not to hamper other's auction efforts with my own, whether that means to wait my turn, or switch to a fixed price offering.