Merchant Archive

1) Give Master Merchants an Auction house ability. They can work in association with the Mayor (Master Politician needed) and place the structure within a city. (To keep # of Auction houses down further, require said city to be Metropolis in size and improved Job Market, limited to ONE Auction house per planet,6 per server) - This also gives Master Architects a new building to craft - and potentially a new type of Vendor for them to build as well. (instead of the Merchant creating one, it would need to be crafted, as to be tied into the database & give several professions benefits from the new idea)

2) The Auction house can hold a fixed number of the new special Vendors. This would make it so Auctions for different types of items could be restricted to one Vendor - IE, A Food vendor could only accept and Auction food items. These vendors if created by Merchants would use up 2 Vendor slots instead of one. In addition, now that we have the GWVS, it creates a place NOT tied to the whole system that people without Merchant can sell their wares. Since about 10% of the player base uses Trade Forums, this opens up Auctions to the 90% who stay in game.

3) Seller would then offer his item to the Vendor, specifying his Minimum price, Increments and duration. Suggested maximum duration of 7 days. Note that there should be no buyout price - If someone wishes to sell items at a fixed price, they would need to use a standard vendor or the Bazaar. Also, Auctions should be not be able to be cancelled - if the seller chooses to sell at auction, they take the risk of the item selling at a lower price than if they sold it personally. Additionally, this system could ALSO be used to introduce Consignment sales to the game.

4) Buyers can search each vendor for items they desire. They can input an opening bid, and a proxy bid. Again, no buyout price should be listed for an Auction. Emails send outbid notices when Proxy bid is exceeded.

5) Auction houses would be "paid" through a 5% fee on the final sale price. 1% would go to Merchant, 2% would go to the city Hosting the Auction house, the remaining 2% goes to "Imperial Taxes".

I think by adding a system such as the one laid out above, we can keep the Bazaar for the lower end items, Fixed price items on personal vendors, and create a new way for Merchants and Cities to gain prestige. As a by product, it would stimulate the in game economy to do just that - stay in game.

Message Edited by Phaelyn on 03-24-2005 12:56 AM