suggestion to fix AH

[Setin_Myways]

Given it is a known common practice to post to the ah to store items by pricing items where no one would buy them in their right mind, it makes seculation about the true state of the AH economy impossible to determine.

one of the faults of the AH is the idea that items are returned to the player. In a normal auction, someone wins. I think one way to address this issue is to have the ah set the min price, and allow the player to set a buyout, but if the item does not sell, the player does not get the item back, but rather gets what the highest bid was... if there is no bid, they get the minumum (this could be what a default store would pay...so you gamble the ah fees in a worse case senario)... This would 'fix' the ah economy in one week.

[Lorz]

It is really cute how you think the AH is broken.

Again why do you think its broken? Because i use it all the time to sell goods and it works very nicely. Im sorry you didnt get what you wanted to buy at the price you wanted. I suggest you go earn more plat to buy what you want....you know instead of coming here, claiming some fanciful problem with the AH and suggesting that it work so you can get the items you want at some minimal price. Really this is not a problem as you describe.

And to be honest for most good items if they had a mandatory minimum buyout set by the AH and not the market and sellers...well it would mean almost nothing available on AH.

So think before you post....because you didnt get what you wanted as cheap as you wanted it...DOES NOT MEAN the AH is broken.

[Fejj]

OP, did you think about your post before you wrote it?

Say I have a +3 Greataxe of Greater Elemental bane. I DON'T want to sell it for 5K plat. I don't use it much, so I'll put it out there to see who bites. I'll post it for 100K / 300K buyout. I won't part with it for less. So if it doesn't sell I get it back. I don't care if you don't like the price, there may be someone out there who does.

In NO WAY would I sell it for base price. All your change would do would be to take nice items off the AH and flood the trade channels.

To fix the specific problem you mentioned, I would implement a sliding scale on AH posting fees. First time on AH, a 1% posting fee for the first 3 auctions (or whatever it is now I forget). Then a 5% posting fee, followed by a 10% posting fee. After that add 2% for each time there after. (fee based on the minimum bid, not buyout) That should stop the "AH Bank" players you talk about.

[Khurse]

Given it is a known common practice to post to the ah to store items by pricing items where no one would buy them in their right mind, it makes seculation about the true state of the AH economy impossible to determine.

one of the faults of the AH is the idea that items are returned to the player. In a normal auction, someone wins. I think one way to address this issue is to have the ah set the min price, and allow the player to set a buyout, but if the item does not sell, the player does not get the item back, but rather gets what the highest bid was... if there is no bid, they get the minumum (this could be what a default store would pay...so you gamble the ah fees in a worse case senario)... This would 'fix' the ah economy in one week.

1) Who cares. I'd guess there are actually very few people who use the AH to store stuff. If they really want to, more power to them. You can always buy their stuff, if you want to pay the plat.

2) Your second part makes no sense.
- How is it the fault of the AH that it returns an item if it doesn't sell? If you list an item with Sotheby's, and it doesn't sell. You get it back,less some charges.If you list an item on the AH, and it doesn't sell, you get it back, less some charges.
- How are you getting "what the highest bid was" and not having your item sell? If someone bids on your stuff on the AH , the item has sold. If no one bids on your stuff, you get the item back. That's how auctions work.

This sounds like an idea thought up to force people who use the AH to have artificially low minimum bids, presumably so that people can pick up their items cheap.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

one of the faults of the AH is the idea that items are returned to the player. In a normal auction, someone wins.

I hate to tell you, but "normal" auctions have reserve bids too. Go check out ebay for example and see if you can buy something for less than the minimum bid of if the poster loses their stuff if the minimum bid is not met.

Your suggestion is short sighted and wouldn't fix the AH, it would kill it completely.

[Lleren]

If I could not set the minimum price I would accept for the item on the auction house, then I would no longer post decent items on the auction house.

Your suggestion would break the Auction House more then it is now.

Mind you with the incoming crafting system I will become less likely to post anything decent on the auction House as well, but hey, thems the breaks.

[Setin_Myways]

sorry folks - i missed that part in my post. I did not mean to say you could not set the minimum price. So, yes, you could do as you were expecting.

I do not feel the AH is broken either, but many people are ranting about how the econ is porked now and I am under the impression that it is not borked, but perhaps people are just posting things outrageously as a means of storage, a fairly common practice. My suggestion would prevent that behavior. Not saying it is right or wrong to do so, but if I was in the business of selling people extra bank space, I might consider this.

There would need to be a mechanism in place though that if the sale did not receive a bid, that the poster would get the minimum price or people could abuse this. So if you choose to take a chance on the AH, if it does not sell, you get slightly less than what you would have if you sold it to the store (minus the ah fees).

I am not saying this is needed or anything is broken, but rather, I think it would be nice to have items on the AH that are truly intended to sell. I think if this was the case, then people could make claims about the 'state of the economy' based on the price of items on the AH.

[stainer]

Why would people store items on the AH. That seems inefficient. You can just mail items to an alt and not open the mail. That lasts longer than 3 days for sure. Better yet, make a bank/mule character.

The thought that people use the AH for storage doesn't make sense.

[Memnir]

perhaps people are just posting things outrageously as a means of storage

So what if they are?
When I see something like that on the AH - I just laugh and keep scrolling. It does not detract from my day any, I have quests to run. I also don't think it's people using the AH for storage because the things I see for that price are junk more often then not.

[Khanyth]

People are ranting about the "broken economy" because it is the issue of the month.

The AH needs no changes whatsoever. While that does not mean it is perfect, there is no reason to change a system which totally polices itself. If you don't want to buy something from the AH, don't. If you don't want to pay the AH prices, use the trade/auction channel.

No reason to change something that doesn't need changing.

[flynnjsw]

sorry folks - i missed that part in my post. I did not mean to say you could not set the minimum price. So, yes, you could do as you were expecting.

I do not feel the AH is broken either, but many people are ranting about how the econ is porked now and I am under the impression that it is not borked, but perhaps people are just posting things outrageously as a means of storage, a fairly common practice. My suggestion would prevent that behavior. Not saying it is right or wrong to do so, but if I was in the business of selling people extra bank space, I might consider this.

There would need to be a mechanism in place though that if the sale did not receive a bid, that the poster would get the minimum price or people could abuse this. So if you choose to take a chance on the AH, if it does not sell, you get slightly less than what you would have if you sold it to the store (minus the ah fees).

I am not saying this is needed or anything is broken, but rather, I think it would be nice to have items on the AH that are truly intended to sell. I think if this was the case, then people could make claims about the 'state of the economy' based on the price of items on the AH.

Or you could not worry about others "behavior" if it is not effecting you in any way, providing you are not buying the item. People play the game how they want to, and that's how it should be.

[Setin_Myways]

Or you could not worry about others "behavior" if it is not effecting you in any way, providing you are not buying the item. People play the game how they want to, and that's how it should be.

I am not worried about other peoples behavior. Forgive me for suggesting something I think would improve gameplay. I am sure the AH is used in many ways I have not imagined. I see it as a way of taking a chance to get more for an item than the store will offer. I do not put things on the AH that i want, so if it does not sell on the ah, i sell it to a merchant... and I get what the merchant would pay minus my fees spent on the ah...

So in a way, my suggestion saves me the step of having to run the item to the merchant. I do not care about how others play. I think this is an improvement, thus i suggested it. i did pull an epic fail by trying to tie it into some of the things I have heard in the 'Hot topics' posts about the economy.

[eonfreon]

I am not worried about other peoples behavior. Forgive me for suggesting something I think would improve gameplay. I am sure the AH is used in many ways I have not imagined. I see it as a way of taking a chance to get more for an item than the store will offer. I do not put things on the AH that i want, so if it does not sell on the ah, i sell it to a merchant... and I get what the merchant would pay minus my fees spent on the ah...

So in a way, my suggestion saves me the step of having to run the item to the merchant. I do not care about how others play. I think this is an improvement, thus i suggested it. i did pull an epic fail by trying to tie it into some of the things I have heard in the 'Hot topics' posts about the economy.

This would not be an improvement. I don't want the AH to dictate to me what price I have to accept for an item.

Just make the run to the Vendor. Leave the AH alone.

[mws2970]

The AH is ok the way it is set up now. If someone doesn't buy my item, I get it back and can always repost it for less than I did the previous time or I can run to a broker and sell it.

/not signed

[Bogenbroom]

Given it is a known common practice to post to the ah to store items by pricing items where no one would buy them in their right mind, it makes seculation about the true state of the AH economy impossible to determine.

one of the faults of the AH is the idea that items are returned to the player. In a normal auction, someone wins. I think one way to address this issue is to have the ah set the min price, and allow the player to set a buyout, but if the item does not sell, the player does not get the item back, but rather gets what the highest bid was... if there is no bid, they get the minumum (this could be what a default store would pay...so you gamble the ah fees in a worse case senario)... This would 'fix' the ah economy in one week.

Just to dissent from the venom, I, too, think the AH could use some improvement to create some form of disincentive to over pricing items.

I am not sold on one method or another, but I do believe someone placing an item up for auction ought to undertake some level or risk *OR* pay to avoid the risk.

I've toyed around with the idea of tracking what items sell for and adding to the posting fee if the minimum bid for the item is set at more than 25% less than the average sale price. Then, if the item sells, return that excess to the poster. That doesn't create an egregious penalty, but might help slowdown the rate of inflation.

It does come down to a philosophical argument on whether or not posting to the auction house should create any risk to the seller and if so, how much of a risk.

Comment, though. Your title says "fix the AH." I would using the word "fix" for features that are working as designed. Even with the best of intentions "fix" has somewhat insulting connotations when used to describe something that is WAI.

[Setin_Myways]

yeah, i see it like gambling when using the AH - i agree, the title is quite inaccurate... but thought provoking :} I do say that i do not think it is 'broke'. I do not know how to edit the title though - 'improving for my self centered purposes' would have been better than fix.

[Cauthey]

Given it is a known common practice to post to the ah to store items by pricing items where no one would buy them in their right mind, it makes seculation about the true state of the AH economy impossible to determine.

one of the faults of the AH is the idea that items are returned to the player. In a normal auction, someone wins. I think one way to address this issue is to have the ah set the min price, and allow the player to set a buyout, but if the item does not sell, the player does not get the item back, but rather gets what the highest bid was... if there is no bid, they get the minumum (this could be what a default store would pay...so you gamble the ah fees in a worse case senario)... This would 'fix' the ah economy in one week.

Instead, what about "flagging" BS priced items? If you and x other players flag the item, it pops up as "Buyer Beware." ?

[Setin_Myways]

Instead, what about "flagging" BS priced items? If you and x other players flag the item, it pops up as "Buyer Beware." ?

While this could be subject to abuse, i think this would be a huge improvement. A noob like me that does not really know if a Large devil scale is worth 400K or 800K would benefit from this. Perhaps something that showed what the 3 month average selling price of a given item is would work just as good.

[sebastianosmith]

A noob like me that does not really know if a Large devil scale is worth 400K or 800K would benefit from this.

Would a nood such as yourself benefit from using the AH search? Items are worth what the buyer is willing to pay. If a search reveals that large devil scales are going for 400kp, then price yours accordingly. Free markets are not always kind but they are always correct. If the market says something of worth X plat, then it's going to fetch X plat in the AH. Simple, effective and ultimately fair.

[somenewnoob]

Only thing I'd like to see added is a 15 minute rule, where if you get a bid close to auction end time it extends the auction 15 minutes to allow more bids from other buyers.

It's frustrating if somebody times it just right and puts in a bid 0.2 seconds before the auction ends and you just lost the auction.