I wanted to get some feedback from some of the players and see if this is something we could go to the moderators with, so let me know what you think...
I was thinking it would be really nice both as a buyer and seller on the auctions to have some type of an autobid feature.
By autobid I mean: (like some other very popular online auction sites have available)
If an item is currently priced at 10k and I am willing to pay 40k for it, but obviously don't want to bid 40k all at once if I don't have to, have a system that would place my bid at 11k, and increase my bid automatically up to 40k if I was outbid on an item.
I know that with a lot of auctions they end at times that are awkward for me, either late at night, or just at a time when I am unavailable to competitively bid at the end of the auction.
I understand that this would impose a great deal more responsibilty on the servers in managing auctions, and on the moderators to ensure no artifical inflation of bids...
I had two ideas to help offset some of the additional responsibilitys, both would technically affect the seller's net earnings on the sale, but one less directly than the other:
The first would be to have a "premium auction" type option for the seller. This would simply be a checkbox to fill in when posting your auction which would enable the autobid feature. The seller would be charged a flat rate, or percentage of sale price (which ever is easier to manage for the servers) to allow bidders to use the autobid feature.
Obviously this is going to take money directly away from the seller for utilizing it, but should net much higher yield once the item sells, as it will generate more action in the auction.
The second option would be to charge the bidder a percentage for utilizing the autobid option. For instance is a bidder is willing to use autobid up to 40k charge them a percentage or flat rate premium. A low percentage premium could be charged to all bidders, or a slightly higher premium only charged if you are the winning bidder.
A last option would be to include the autobid feature as another benefit to the supporters... Only allow supporters to offer the autobid feature on their auctions, or to only allow supporters to use the autobid when bidding.
My feeling is that only giving supporters the option to use autobid when bidding may give them too much of an advantage when bidding, and would discourage some newer players who may otherwise stick with the game and become supporters, but allowing them to create autobid auctions would benefit all players bidding on the auctions... again positives and negatives both ways.
Obviously there are a great deal of options here, and they could be used in any number of combinations. Percentages could be based on bid ammount, sale ammount, or NW of item. Percentages and flat rates could also be charged when starting an auction or placing a bid, or when the auction ends...
Lets get some input from everyone if they would be interested in such a system and if so what types charges they would be willing to incur to utilize it!
