How to host a proper auction at EF (and how NOT to)

[e-lite]

Recently I have been getting myself worked up over the countless examples of bad auctions hosted right here on the EF boards. I am not going to personify the examples, as I am sure most of you have seen a few of them.

So how do you create and host a nice and clean auction at the forum boards? I am going to give a few nice guidelines.

•Topic & forum section
At first, when creating the sales or purchase thread make sure to give the thread a relevant topic. Try use a short but relevant description of what the trade is about. Examples:

“Selling full nemesis (M)”
“Buying ML-35 & adjusted FAP”
“Trading Brigader coat (M) for black boots (M)

This way the forum members can have a good view of what’s up for trade without having to open each thread to find out. Example of bad thread topics are:

“-=~’SeLLiNg StuFFz lolz!!!’~=-“
“!!NEED SOME THINGS!!“

Topics like this helps nobody, and least it helps yourself. Leave out any special characters from the topic unless they are needed. Special character decoration is NOT “cool” and does not “look good”. You don’t want to browse a forum with topics like that yourself do you?

Make sure to post your trading thread in the correct forum section. If you are looking to purchase an item, then post your thread in “Buying”-section, and if you are looking to get rid of an item, well then you post in “Selling”-section of the boards. If you are offering the community services of any kind like colouring, healing, courier services and so on, then your thread goes into the forum section “services”.

•Content of the auction thread
Now for the actual formation of your advertising there’s a few things that are important and will save you a lot of trouble.

Describe the item/service that you sell/buy well. Some things your costumers want to know are for example make and model if it’s a weapon. Model number if it’s a FAP. Brand, colour and sex if it’s clothing or an armour. If you are selling special designed and coloured clothing it might also be an good idea to post a screenshot of the clothes so your bidders know what they look like.

It’s also helpful if you look up your item and item stats at http://www.pe-wiki.info and include a link to the stats in your post. This way your costumers and bidders do not have to ask so many questions about the item in topic. For instance if you where to sell an A-3 Justifier Mk.V you could help out with providing a link like this: http://www.pe-wiki.info/Info.aspx?chart=Weapon&id=78

•Prices & bids
Now it is time to put a price on your item that you are going to buy or sell. If you do not know the current ongoing price for an item you can always get a hint of the market value by searching www.peauction.com for ended auctions regarding your specific item. Once you found the auction history for your item, it’s also helpful to include a link to it like this: http://www.peauction.com/itemlisting.php?id=1046

If you are selling something, and choose to have a opening bid and/or a buyout bid for your item, then please make sure to let people know what current TT value the item have. If you are selling something at TT+2500 PED’s it will be of interest for the bidder to know if the TT value is 0 PED or 500 PED. The same goes for an item that you sell for a “total price” and not TT+. It will always be helpful to let the bidders know what TT value the item is delivered in for that “total price”.

When you as a seller of an item have decided your opening bid and buyout bid for your item, do NOT change the prices DURING the auction. Think of the forum auction as if it where the real PE auction. Once a bid is placed you cannot change the buyout price! If the buyout price is met then do not raise it afterwards! If you do this your credibility and reputation on the trading market will go down the drain. People do not want to trade with you again if they feel they have been mislead.

•Duration
In the same manner that the real PE auctions have a duration, you should also consider having an ending date for your forum auctions. People feel insecure to bid at an auction that do not have an ending date or time. Auctions that “end when I think the bid is high enough” is not recommended. Serious buyers do not want to deal with their eyes blind folded. This is especially important for expensive items and important trades. Be sure to clearly specify an ending date and time. If you choose an ending time specified in your local time then also specify what time zone you are in. If you do not know what time zone you are in you can preferably use PE universe time (Hit “C” while in PE to find out the PE universe time).

•Common sense & ethics
As the bids are coming in it is always nice to update the initial post of the thread with current highest bid and bidder, unless the bidder is highly anonymous, then just update the post with current bid. Although the bidders should always check the last post of the thread before bidding, to check what the latest bid was.

And finally, keep your post “bumps” to once a day. There is no need to bump your thread once every hour just to raise it 5-10 posts on the board index. People will find it anyway. When your auction successfully has ended, please update your initial post and let people know that this auction has ended and that the item has been sold or bought.



I think that was the most essential I had on my mind. Off course there’s plenty more, but most of it is common sense and ethics. Keep your head cool, do fair trading, have patience and understanding. Happy trading everyone.

Mr. e-lite

Excellent guide. Only thing I miss is that when someone struck a deal with you, if you then decide to butt out because someone offered a higher bid, you'll turn out looking like a proper !!!! who just managed to waste a lot of people's time.

[e-lite]

Originally Posted by ViagraFalls

Excellent guide. Only thing I miss is that when someone struck a deal with you, if you then decide to butt out because someone offered a higher bid, you'll turn out looking like a proper !!!! who just managed to waste a lot of people's time.

Yeah people, what Mr ViagraFalls said! Very important!

[MudKicker]

[SIGN]Nice post Mr. E-Lite!! Id +Rep ya but I must spread some around first. Ill try to abide by these rules from now on.... [/SIGN]

[Euhura]

Nice guide E-lite. + rep

[Sharyn]

The guide is on my "Likes" list too...

I am usually a tidy person and Mr. e-lite seems to be one himself.

Maybe that'll chatch on to most of the ppl that let the writting express to much of the messy minds

...I think I need a 12-hour long sleep now.....brainstormed too much for this reply

[Witte]

Good post!

Would like to point out that on wiki there is an auction system. It might be usefull to use in combination with a post here. Could make auctions go easyer. I put some stuff there that is collecting dust in my storage, more as a test. http://www.pe-wiki.info/Chart.aspx?chart=Auction

[e-lite]

Thanks ya'll for the feedback.

[Oblivion]

Very nice guide e-lite, you said it all in a couple of phrases...now people be careful and make some nice Threads about Selling/Buying!

G'luck to ya all

[Scorpion]

I was checking what people were selling today while at work. Wow is all I can think of. No buyout or changed buyouts, "anonyomous bids". No end date. The list goes on. What a load of, well you get it. Good job e-lite, I only hope that people will start to use this as format for auctions here.