Neofriends only auctions

[Nika]

I just borrowed the ALP's chokato tcg, and did a neofriend only auction to get it back to Izzy, which went smoothly. During the time of the auction, though, I suddenly got a ton (by my standards, at least) of random neofriend requests. Does that normally happen when you private auction popular items? And since I do have a few random neofriends I don't actually know, is it risky for me to auction items this way?

[Izzy ♥]

I have my Neofriend requests blocked, and I still get people NEOMAILING me asking that I add them so they can bid on my avvie item auctions... especially when I'm doing reduced collateral lending.

 

As for the random friends, it depends though generally I would recommend only having people in your friend list that you trust not to bid. This is especially true for reduced collateral lending as random people might spot a "great deal" in their friend's auction and bid - then you're held responsible for losing the ALP's item. It happened once before, where someone's neofriend bid on the ZDAP they had up for me, and that user ended up having to pay the difference back to me so I could replace the ZDAP since their so-called friend wouldn't reverse the sale.

[Russ]

I definitely would delete all of my "Friends" who I don't actually know off of my friend list if I were going to do a private auction.

[Nika]

I hadn't thought of that until I started getting these neofriend requests. I trust almost all of my neofriends (they're definitely not shady like that person who got the ZDAP), but I do have a couple of strangers I'll take off of my list before auctioning again, just in case. Thanks for the warning-- that would be a really terrible thing to happen and I'm glad this board is up so people can see. :)

[Welcome Back Apathy]

It definitely is risky having neofriends you don't trust. I'm guessing the item was for reduced collateral, but collateral over 800k? Personally, I don't have any neofriends I don't know from my guild. That way, I can trust them.

 

One thing that's good to know is that they actually have to be looking at your auctions to know you're auctioning it. This is rare.

 

Another thing that you might consider: how much is the collateral reduced? Put as big of a minimum increment as you can, and have the person you're doing the transaction with bid IMMEDIATELY as it is up.

 

For example:

Oh, look, I have a bony grarrl club. Yaaaay! (I'm lying. This is just an example.)

I put it in the auctions for 1 np. WHAT? WHAT ON EARTH IS SHE DOING?

Don't panic! My minimum increment is 29,999,999, bringing the price to 30,000,000.

My friend bids on it and pays 30,000,000.

Another neofriend sees it, but they would have to pay about 60,000,000.

 

Note: I would test this first, because I'm not sure if you can do minimum increments that are more than the amount of your starting price. If you can do it, this would work out much better for discouraging your shady neofriends. Can somebody else shed some light on the minimum increment? If not, it can be tested by putting up a junk item for auction, starting bid of 1 np and minimum increment of 9,999,999 or something. Trust me, nobody will bid--and if they do, I trust you'll be a good Samaritan and give it back.

[Izzy ♥]

You can't do increments higher than the starting price :P Also, there is a maximum auction price of 20mil (max 10mil start and max 10mil increment) so if you want it to go higher you have to have people bidding against each other.

 

The main problem comes when someone else bids before I can though. Like recently a user borrowing the FQD forgot to put the auction up as NF-only, and in the couple of hours before I saw the auction someone else had bid. That meant that if I wanted to bid I would've had to fork out 400k extra (since the increments were 400k) and bid 1.8mil :( So I left it and used their collateral to buy another doll. To that person's credit though, they did contact the user who had bid before me and try to get the original doll back.

[Welcome Back Apathy]

You can't do increments higher than the starting price :P Also, there is a maximum auction price of 20mil (max 10mil start and max 10mil increment) so if you want it to go higher you have to have people bidding against each other.

 

The main problem comes when someone else bids before I can though. Like recently a user borrowing the FQD forgot to put the auction up as NF-only, and in the couple of hours before I saw the auction someone else had bid. That meant that if I wanted to bid I would've had to fork out 400k extra (since the increments were 400k) and bid 1.8mil :( So I left it and used their collateral to buy another doll. To that person's credit though, they did contact the user who had bid before me and try to get the original doll back.

 

Curses. Well, I learned something new. So how on earth do people buy BGC?!

 

Well, anyway, for these neofriend auctions: do what Izzy said. Offer an increment equal to your starting price. So if you're trying to lend for 2 million, put it at 1 million and then minimum increment of 1 million. Then if you do it as fast as possible, someone would have to bid 3 million to get it.

[Nika]

So I left it and used their collateral to buy another doll. To that person's credit though, they did contact the user who had bid before me and try to get the original doll back.

 

I guess that's one of the situations where full collateral is really important. I'm glad it worked out but it's definitely a situation I'll take steps to avoid, and I'm glad to know all this before getting the collateral together for, say, the ALP's meowclops.

 

 

So how on earth do people buy BGC?

 

I feel ya, I wonder this about SuAP all the time! It must have to be bidding wars in 10 mil increments, but what a risky item to put up for auction.

[Izzy ♥]

For the larger items, most people do not sell for pure :) They get the buyer to convert their pure into ETS battledome items - Kelpbeard's Trident, Sword of Sardsken, Pirate's Cutlass, etc - and then bid a total of those items via trades.

 

Otherwise you can get your friends to bid alternately up to the desired price on auctions, but thats complicated and requires you to have rich friends too so most people use the items method above instead.

[Sweetdang]

Auctioning is reaaaally confusing. I didn't understand most of that -

 

But let me get something clear: When you auction something, it goes to the highest bidder without you accepting?

[Ruka]

But let me get something clear: When you auction something, it goes to the highest bidder without you accepting?

Yup, it's not like the trading post where you can either accept or reject the offers. :)

[Sweetdang]

:O

 

That is very scary. So is there is time limit or time set before it goes, or is it auto by the amount of bids - e.g after the 5th bid, it goes auto?

[Ruka]

Judging by how I read your question, I would say the first option. :)

[Sweetdang]

What is the time limit?

 

Auctions are risky things. :sad01_anim:

[Ruka]

2 days. However, people won't see what you are auctioning until it's down to its last 30 minutes.

 

Hmm... why do you find auctions risky?

[Sweetdang]

Oh, two days. I thought it was like 30mins, then it would auto accept the highest vote.

 

Can you reject a single offer? Or must you cancel your whole trade/

[Ruka]

Nope, and I don't think you could do anything else once it's already auctioned.

[Izzy ♥]

You set the time limit when you auction the item - options from 1 hour up to 2 days.

 

Once an item is up for auction it will sell to the highest bidder. There is no option to cancel auctions once you've started them.

[The Meepit Commando]

That is scary, I guess you would have to delete all untrusted NFs before doing it.

[GameOfTricks]

I want to ask something because I never really understood it. What's up with lending items through auctions? Wouldn't it be easier to just go to your inventory, select the item and click on "give to neofriend"? And I do not understand why would someone borrow a paint brush, for instance, not use it and then give it back through auctions again? I'm sorry if I sound really dumb, but I never really understood this.

[Rune Valentine]

I want to ask something because I never really understood it. What's up with lending items through auctions? Wouldn't it be easier to just go to your inventory, select the item and click on "give to neofriend"? And I do not understand why would someone borrow a paint brush, for instance, not use it and then give it back through auctions again? I'm sorry if I sound really dumb, but I never really understood this.

It is for item security. For example, you are borrowing an expensive Battledome item - a Ghostkerbomb worth 7mil, you don't just go sending it off willy-nilly ;) You use the auction house to send the item over while the other person borrowing will give you the NP to assure you that they won't run off with your item. In the event that they do, you at least have the collateral amount of 7mil to buy yourself a new Ghostkerbomb. You COULD send it via "Give to NeoFriend" but you have no way of knowing if someone will take advantage of your kindness and run off with your item, leaving you 7mil poorer.

 

If you have any further questions, feel free to send me a Private Message. This thread is 4 years old and shouldn't have been opened for discussion :)