One way to fix the frequent slight undercutting issue is to hide the ‘actual buy out’ price. So a seller has 3 values to set, not just 2.
-Starting_bid (SB)
-Actual_buy_out (ABO) (hidden from buyers)
-Buyout_is_less_than (BILT)
The key is that the actual_buy_out (ABO) is hidden from buyers (until they buy it and it shows on the mail receipt.) You can copper undercut the Buyout_is_less_than (BILT) price all you want, it doesn’t matter, because a buyer would select all of the BILT entries that have a BILT less than the most they’d pay for. The one entry from the group of selected entries that has the lowest ABO is the one purchased.
This gives sellers who don’t undercut every hour or so a chance to sell goods when there are active undercutters.
Would your competition try to determine your ABO prices by buying some of your items themselves? I’m sure they will. To counter-act this regularly adjust your ABO by a modest amount on each posting to keep them guessing.
To streamline a buyer could select just one entry, then click a button that selects all entries with BILT values at or less than the one selected. Sellers would just have one extra value to set. AOB could default to BILT .
That would be a good bidding system. Though I don’t think bidding is used that much. Most entries have starting bids just under buy out price, so one might as well just buy out instead of waiting for the auction to expire using a bid.
A poor solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.I’m sure that when you list something you don’t even look at the items already listed,you just make up a price in your head and post it.Undercutting by you? Fine.Undercutting by someone else? Not fine.Right?
Sure, you can look at others BILT prices when you post, and you know that they will undercut your BILT with their BILT soon after. But that’s OK, if your ABO is lower than their ABO you can still make the sale. They don’t know your ABO, so they can’t easily undercut it, no matter how much time is on their hands.
It’s a solution to a problem that exists for people who don’t spend alot of time on the AH. The current system is a solution to a problem for people whom do spend alot of time on the AH.
So what you are saying is for example…
Seller posts an Item for (SB) 1000g with an (ABO) of 900g and a (BILT) of 999g 99s 99c and nobody except the seller can see or know what the ABO is except the person who actually purchases the item by clicking the buyout button?
This next part I may be misunderstanding what you are saying.
You seem to be saying that once the item is bought out the person will actually be buying the item from AH that has the lowest (ABO) whether it is from the person they click buyout on (person who has lowest (SB)) or not? I could be misunderstanding what you said. If I understand correctly then I think I like your idea.
People may not do much bidding now but if the system Cyberdemon suggests is implemented or one similar to it then adding in your suggestion of an escrow system could work well together and be a lot of FUN for people who play the AH a lot. Cyberdemons system would be mainly for the seller and yours could be mainly for the buyer.
This has to be true: SB < ABO < BILT
So in your example something like 1000 BILT, 999 ABO, 900 SB.
You’d be clicking buyout for the group of selected entries. However only one entry is actually purchased, the one with the lowest ABO. In the event of equal ABOs, it just gets the first one, or randomly chooses from them. After buying one from the group, it would be useful to have the remaining still selected, so if you wanted more just press the buyout button again to get the next cheapest ABO in the group.
I think this system will allow more time for questing, raiding, and pvping, while still being able to make sales, no matter how often someone else undercuts your BILT price. They are not going to know your ABO price.
Ya having it auto bid up to a set amount would be nice, another way to free up time!