How to make a successful auction
Ever seen auctions here on this forum and wonder how those amazing bids came to be? Well, you're in the right place for that! Here you can get advice & tips for creating a successful one yourself. However,before you look at this you should read the Eldemore Auction Rules here.
Ever seen auctions here on this forum and wonder how those amazing bids came to be? Well, you're in the right place for that! Here you can get advice & tips for creating a successful one yourself. However,before you look at this you should read the Eldemore Auction Rules here.
- 1: Choosing a pet;;
- Code: Select all
[center][size=150]Auctioning a(n) [PET NAME HERE(Don't know? Look it up in the Codex)][/size]
[PET IMAGE HERE]
[Intro here 'Hi, I'm auctioning off the...']
[b]Boosters:[/b]
[List your Boosters (optional)]
[b]Autos:[/b]
[List your Autos (optional)]
[b]Bids:[/b]
[Don't forget to link all of your bids here & rate them][/center]
Before you even begin an auction you'll need to choose a pet that you will not be too sorry to see go. A mistake that happens sometimes is that the auctioneer is too attached to their pet to trade it away. This creates a problem when a bidder happens to "auto" an auction, the auctioneer ends up cancelling or prolonging the auction. So if you feel hesitation when selecting your pet, I'd suggest you auction a pet which you have a double of. When you're choosing a pet, you'll need to be careful of a few other things:
- Rarity: If you see an auction with a common you probably won't bid unless you really like it, right? And pets with lower rarities are easier to trade for than bid for. It's the pets that have higher rarities and you might want to see how much value it can rack up before you consult others for opinion. Typically auctions with Rare+ get the most bids, but say you have a pet with...
Age: When looking at the rarity of a pet, there are two more factors to be considerate of. The first one is age, the general deciding factor of rarity in most monthly pets. Rares from years ago still exist, as do rares from this current month. However the difference in members over the years has contributed to the difference in the ratio between pets in circulation and players that want them. This could affect the...
Demand: Demand means popularity and as mentioned above, how many are circulating the site in ratio with the amount of users that want the pet. For example, the Phoenix Rune Drake has a lot of demand because there were few bought back in the beginning of the site, and now there are many users offering a lot for them. Demand is where, say, the Phoenix Rune Drake is only worth 70 baubles right now, but since so many people are after them the price gets racked up by people who want the owners of the drakes to sell them the pet, so they offer a higher price. Eventually this goes on until one user can offer so much that the others don't have enough or aren't willing to pay such a large price. This is why auctions are made, so this type of offering payment can be public and be seen by many people, and in order to have great bids you're looking for bidders that really want that pet, or that there is too little amount of the pet to go around with the community. Another example could be from just a regular monthly release. Sometimes the artists and staff release little "easter egg" pets, that have a slim chance of appearing in a monthly batch although they are technically part of the same litter of pets. By scrolling back through the Codex(Archive), you can see where this has happened in the past. Sometimes an entire batch of pets can be Ultra Common or Common when one individual is Rare. In addition to this type of special release, there are certain "celebration pets", often given out during staff birthdays, member milestone events, or events. When adopting these pets each player is usually given one or two, and those who are not online during the day or two when it is released do not have the chance to adopt them, further increasing their demand. So this factor may increase demand in those pets among the people who did not catch the release themselves. When you're auctioning something, you have to let the bidders know your preferences, hence...
2: Deciding your Preferences;;
Boosters: Now, sometimes boosters and auto's can get a little over when people don't fully understand what they mean or they don't want to part with the pet unless it is extreme overpay. It's not wrong, but it will sure get a lot less people who are willing to pay such a price! When choosing your boosters you want pets that are trade-downs of your auctioned pet. A trade-down is where you are breaking up the value of your pet into more quantity that adds up to the same value. So for instance, If I had an Albino Pygmy Rune up for auction, boosters would be asking for, say, recent bazaar pets. One bazaar pet is not worth the Albino, but added up the quantity of them will equal and possibly surpass the value of the rune. Boosters are only pets that you are seeking specifically that are worth less than the pet you are auctioning. You do not need to have boosters or autos. If you want a pet of equal value or overpay you will have to think about what you are going to list as your...
Autos: Auto's are pets that you will accept with no question within 24 hours when they are offered in the bid.
Eldemore Auction Rules by Jendalie wrote:-snip-
Ex: If you have a Silverleaf listed as an auto and someone offers a Silverleaf, you cannot then change the auto to Silverleaf+Elderwind.
-snip-
Meaning, if you've listed a pet as auto, you've got to accept that pet as an auto, so make sure you choose wisely. Personally the best way for me is to imagine a trade with your auctioned pets on one side and the auto on the other, and think, Would I accept this trade? Once again, you don't need an auto, but it's a good way to tell bidders what you'd like to see out of your auction. However, if you only wish to let them know things you'd like to see, use "boosters". Keep in mind that an auto can be one or many pets, and it can even be a combination of your boosters. And just a reminder, another sign of a good auction is choosing realistic, not impossible autos. Situations in the past have included asking straight up for Elderwind Ancients and Phoenix Rune Drakes for Rare pets, or even Ultra Rare pets. Although it's a step towards obtaining those, it's not a very good one because considering the difference in value, it's very unlikely you'll get such an offer for it. It's also good to have a sense of rarity in your head while planning auctions; if the gap between the pets is too big, don't ask for it. Remember, this is an auction, not a trade, and auctions usually only involve the one (or set) of pets you have on your side. If you get bids, a good way to make sure you have good and fair trades is to be prepared when...
3: Setting up your auction;;
An auction thread should have these basics; whether you want to pretty it up a bit or spread them out on multiple posts is up to you!
1. Your pet that you're auctioning! A link to the pet in your Homestead should be in place for the bidders to be able to see that you actually own the pet, and so that they can send a trade for it when offering their bid. Bidders, make sure you send your bids as TRADES, not suggestions. Auctioneers, make sure your pet isn't in a "for wishlist only" group unless you only want wishlist for them. Bidders should be FULLY PREPARED for the exchange when bidding, and not withdraw at the last moment when the auctioneer has already cancelled all the other bids to accept yours.
2. Your rules; these should be secondary personal preferences to the Eldemore Auction Rules. These are to keep your thread and auction in line and orderly.
3. These are a summary of tips as mentioned above;;
Auctions should be set up with no regrets from the auctioneer; although not required, it's much more efficient for your auction to...
- 1. Have the pet you're auctioning off in a group like the first "Ungrouped" group, or in one that says "Auction"
2. The group should not be wishlist locked, unless you are running a wishlist only auction.
3. Bidders should send all offers as trades, and should not have any complaints or regrets when and if the offer is accepted
4. When an "auto" is offered, auctioneers must accept the trade immediately, or up to 24 hours after the trade is sent. They cannot cancel or change the auto at this time.
Deciding your Scale: You'll need to choose how you rank each bid. Some of the common ways are:
Smilies:
(Smilies vary depending on the user)
Scale of 1-10
1/10, 2/10, 3/10, etc.
(The scale can go up to 5 or up to 20, it doesn't matter. You can have decimals too if you have a hard time judging a bid.)
Form may look like this: (Delete everything in [ ])
Auctioning a(n) [PET NAME HERE(Don't know? Look it up in the Codex)]
[PET IMAGE HERE (preferably the pet's thumbnail link in your homestead]
[Intro here 'Hi, I'm auctioning off the...']
Boosters:
[List your Boosters (optional)]
Autos:
[List your Autos (optional)]
Bids:
[Don't forget to link all of your bids here & rate them!]
4: Evaluating your bids & Deciding on a winner;;
Ask Others: There are many places to ask others for help. If you have friends on Eld you can ask them, you can PM me (I don't mind c:) or your friendly staff members if they're not busy, or you can post in the Is this a Fair Trade Thread, or the Is this a Fair Cross-site Trade Thread for off-site auctions. They can be used to evaluate your bids and make sure you're getting fair trades for your auctioned pet. Another element you need to consider is...
Informing the Bidders: Say you are auctioning an Ultra Rare pet, and someone offers another Ultra Rare from the same time period and same species. You check the bid on the Fair Trade Thread, and it turns out it is fair. Then you get another bid with an Ultra Rare, two rares, and some baubles. You check in the Fair Trade Thread again and it turns out the new bid is better for you, but it isn't what you wanted as an auto. You can then PM the first bidder with a kind message saying that they've been outbid, and asking whether they'd like to stay in the auction, but with no means of pressuring the bidder. This is just so that if the bidder's run out of pets to bid they don't have to keep them in a closed group waiting for the auction results and not being able to use them to trade when they've been outbid and don't have/don't want to add any more.
Picking the Winner: Great! There is a bid you like/some auto-ed your pet! Accept the bid within 24 hours if it's auto, or rightaway if you like the offer. When you go to cancel all the other bids, and if you're planning on hosting another auction, especially for the same pet, it's a good idea to inform the other bidders of what you're auctioning next, because they might want to bid again! If you're not, you can have the mods lock the thread by changing the title to 'Lock, Please!' or you can edit the post and put on the new pet for auction, and the list goes through again, but by this time you'd be far more experienced and be able to decide a few things yourself!
Important Links:
The Eldemore Auction Rules
The 'Is this a Fair Trade' Thread
The 'Is this a Fair Cross-site Trade' Thread
I hope this thread helped, any questions can be posted here ^w^
Edited 7/11/16 ; organized some of the formatting as well as edited the Rarity, Boosters, Autos, and Demand paragraphs. Added the Age paragraph.
Edited 7/12/16 ; Added some more details within paragraphs