Merchant Archive
Thread: Auction Houses
Message Edited by Fidgiter on 01-11-2005 01:23 PM
I don't have any issues with this but without automatic payouts to the original owner of the item it is going to be an issue getting people to let a merchant take posession of a item worth more than 6k and giving the money back later when the auction is over.
DocSavag wrote:
If you are explaining this correctly and I am understanding it I would support this. It looks like Merchants would get the ability to put items up for auction in the auction terminal and anyone could bid on them. Only merchants could act as an auction broker so if you wanted to sell your very high priced item you would have to get a merchant to put it up for you.
Folks will still buy and sell by the existing channels but a shrewd merchant would find these deals then put them for auction in amore controlled enviroment. This would save some risk and hassel by the consumer while having the potential to turn a profit for the merchant.
I don't have any issues with this but without automatic payouts to the original owner of the item it is going to be an issue getting people to let a merchant take posession of a item worth more than 6k and giving the money back later when the auction is over.
A system for consignments is something I hadn't considered. (A consignment is when someone has an item to be sold and employee's the merchants services to broker the auction) The idea swimming around in my noggen is a little too complex. I'll ponder on this some and see if I can figure a simple and equitable solution.
Regarding consignment sales (where the cash would go to the original owner, not requiring the merchant to fork out their own cash ahead of time), i've got a mechanism detailed here which i think would be pretty easy to implement within the given system
Borion_Sunrunner wrote:
Cool idea.
Regarding consignment sales (where the cash would go to the original owner, not requiring the merchant to fork out their own cash ahead of time), i've got a mechanism detailed here which i think would be pretty easy to implement within the given system
I saw your post Borion and I think that approach may work. I'll make edits to my initial post in yellow and let's see if it works
Fidgiter wrote:DocSavag wrote:
If you are explaining this correctly and I am understanding it I would support this. It looks like Merchants would get the ability to put items up for auction in the auction terminal and anyone could bid on them. Only merchants could act as an auction broker so if you wanted to sell your very high priced item you would have to get a merchant to put it up for you.Folks will still buy and sell by the existing channels but a shrewd merchant would find these deals then put them for auction in amore controlled enviroment. This would save some risk and hassel by the consumer while having the potential to turn a profit for the merchant.
I don't have any issues with this but without automatic payouts to the original owner of the item it is going to be an issue getting people to let a merchant take posession of a item worth more than 6k and giving the money back later when the auction is over.
A system for consignments is something I hadn't considered. (A consignment is when someone has an item to be sold and employee's the merchants services to broker the auction) The idea swimming around in my noggen is a little too complex. I'll ponder on this some and see if I can figure a simple and equitable solution.
Give it some thought and see what you come up with. This idea just screams Merchant Auction Broker which is a cool idea if you can get in safeguards to allow people to work securely togehter. I would love to see an thriving auction house instead of what we have in the bazaar. Frankly the current auction functionality of the bazaar should be removed because it is worse than useless.
Happymob wrote:
This sounds pretty good to me. I've always thought it awkward that people have to use the forums, or the in-game auction channel to move rare goods. A controlled in-game auction system always made the most sense to me.
This proposal neatly allows auctions without removing the merchant monopoly on out-of-bazaar sales.
The Trade forums accomplish the one thing that is imossible in the game. They allow you to postcentralized advertisements of your products in an areaof high-volume walk-thru traffic. I personally think they take away from the Merchant profession and would be in favor of an in-game replacement that gives advantage to Merchants. The existance of the Trade forums takes away from any requirement of Merchant for players to sell their goods. Loot templates make millions without the need for any Merchant support systems. Can anyone say this is a fair situation, especially when you consider the cost of the most basic merchant skills in game?
Fivo Asia
Fivo Asia
Cafa wrote:
Happymob wrote:This sounds pretty good to me. I've always thought it awkward that people have to use the forums, or the in-game auction channel to move rare goods. A controlled in-game auction system always made the most sense to me.This proposal neatly allows auctions without removing the merchant monopoly on out-of-bazaar sales.The Trade forums accomplish the one thing that is imossible in the game. They allow you to postcentralized advertisements of your products in an areaof high-volume walk-thru traffic. I personally think they take away from the Merchant profession and would be in favor of an in-game replacement that gives advantage to Merchants. The existance of the Trade forums takes away from any requirement of Merchant for players to sell their goods. Loot templates make millions without the need for any Merchant support systems. Can anyone say this is a fair situation, especially when you consider the cost of the most basic merchant skills in game?
Fivo Asia
Fivo Asia
Just speaking as a normal player here, just starting off merchant again though.
While an auction house would be a great idea I honestly don't see it working unless they add in some incentive of some sort. An idea like this works perfect in a game like WoW because it allows the player to still have complete control over the item and not involve a middle man, as long as some other more direct way of selling an items exsists most loot farmers will go that route. No offense intented but it's nothing I personally would ever use, even if I hadn't just picked up merchant to handle sales, I would still go to the trade forums instead as it allows me to handle it all directly.This would of worked perfectly if done this way from the start, people would be use to it and wouldn't think twice about using it but as it stands now no loot seller will try and track down a merchant to handle his items (and could be hard if your limiting the number of items each merchant could put up for auction).
You could say have them get rid of the trade forums but you know as well as I would that won't happen and even if it does it would create a large dislike generated towards merchants from the player base and they would simply ignore the in game auction house and use a 3rd party auction site to post their items to, we've already seen at least one pop up.
To the above poster quoted, what makes it unfair that a player is able to sell his OWN item? Even if you get rid of the official trade forums people will simply push to a 3rd party site to sell their loot instead, less hassle for them then having to track down a merchant to list their items for them.
Message Edited by Praeses on 01-16-2005 02:33 AM
Message Edited by Praeses on 01-16-2005 02:33 AM
Praeses wrote:
You could say have them get rid of the trade forums but you know as well as I would that won't happen and even if it does it would create a large dislike generated towards merchants from the player base and they would simply ignore the in game auction house and use a 3rd party auction site to post their items to, we've already seen at least one pop up.
I never suggested getting rid of the trade forums or the auction channel. With or without auction houses there will be people who will use these other tools.
There is no meaningful mechanism for auctions in the game and I think this would give value to the consumer, to the cities that host them and to the merchants that use them. While some folks will continue to work the traditional means there are others who haven't. Auction Terminals may appeal to those who do not like to trade on forums or thorugh a spammy channel.
Fidgiter wrote:Praeses wrote:
You could say have them get rid of the trade forums but you know as well as I would that won't happen and even if it does it would create a large dislike generated towards merchants from the player base and they would simply ignore the in game auction house and use a 3rd party auction site to post their items to, we've already seen at least one pop up.
I never suggested getting rid of the trade forums or the auction channel. With or without auction houses there will be people who will use these other tools.
There is no meaningful mechanism for auctions in the game and I think this would give value to the consumer, to the cities that host them and to the merchants that use them. While some folks will continue to work the traditional means there are others who haven't. Auction Terminals may appeal to those who do not like to trade on forums or thorugh a spammy channel.
Very few will, once again most people dont like dealing with a middle man when they dont have to and if very few people will use them then why take the time to implement this when that time could be spent on other parts of your profession that would see alot more use?