Require Auctions to Post an End Date

I'm tired of seeing auctions that don't have an end date. These often say they will end when the bidding gets high enough or something like that, but that's not how an auction works. It's not truly an auction if someone doesn't have the possibility of obtaining the product (for lack of a better word) at that price. Have a reserve price if absolutely necessary (which I don't like but understand), but don't leave people hanging for weeks just because you don't like the price the auction has reached. Yeah, you might not get what your work is worth, but that's the risk you run when holding an auction, and that's why a (hidden) reserve price exists. So if the auction doesn't hit the reserve price by the end date, then the item doesn't get sold. You can always try reselling it, but pushing the end date back and back (or worse, not have one at all) is just frustrating and goes against the spirit of an auction.

Agreed. I think it would also be helpful for people to know in case they're wanting to save to put in a bid. In addition, it helps to know when you need to be around to make sure you don't get sniped. So if you know that it is going to end at a certain time on a certain day you can ensure you're paying attention to re-bid. Auctions not having end dates just seem silly to me. Especially when people have a habit of vanishing and some auctions just never end.

Maybe the countdown for the end of the auction could start when the first bid is placed, so someone wouldn't have to keep putting it up for auction, if that makes any sense.

By the way, are you talking about horses up for private auction or items in the forums?

Last edited on 2017-04-25 at 20:49:20 by DJ Hoofbeats

I fully support.

Here are some thoughts though, you are referring to auctions run through the forums right?

I don't see how it could be implemented without creating an official place(like the auction house for horses). I would like to see a actual auction house for items(maybe art? Not sure how that would work though).

I think it would just be something that the Mods would have to enforce. Add it to the TOS agreement or something. I don't know how difficult it would be to do, but perhaps if someone keeps doing auctions without an end date then they might be unable to post in the forums for a certain amount of time?

Honestly auction end times just seem so common sense that I was surprised to see so many auctions without them.

I voted not to support because I don't see any issue with auctions having adjustable end dates, within reason. Sure, it's frustrating when people leave an inactive auction going for weeks, but frankly that's not a good enough reason to implement a system that would create more problems than it would solve. In that situation you could either withdraw your bid, or message the owner to ask what their reserve price is and make them an offer.

If an auction is very active the owner should be able to keep running it until it's no longer getting bids, as this will enable them to get the maximum possible price for whatever they're selling, and gives all players an equal opportunity to get it. And if real life happens and the owner can't get online to manage an auction they should be able to change the end time to something more convenient. They shouldn't be forced to sell something for less than what they think it's worth. Sniping also becomes an issue when auctions have fixed end dates/times, and this is frankly an awful practice that disadvantages both buyers and sellers. It means a seller doesn't get as high a price for their item, and someone who would have been happy to pay more than the sniper's bid doesn't get a chance to do so. Those with slow internet connections are severely disadvantaged when auction sniping is allowed. Fixed end dates/times will also disadvantage those in timezones significantly different to those of the seller.

There's also issues of how this would be implemented. Either it would be coded in as an official game feature, which would work fine for game items, but not much else, or it would have to be policed by the mods, which just adds to their workload. Frankly, there's better things they could be doing.

This is not really something I'd be comfortable with adding to the terms of service because it would give mods an extra workload which I don't really want to do. We can make a guide post on the forums which maybe suggests they create an end date, but it's not something I want to make enforceable.