TriadCity Message of the Day
2012-09-10

A second form of auction is now online.

Real-time auctions have existed from the begriming. Use the auction command to place an Item on the block. One of TriadCity's friendly automated auctioneers will get you the best available price. The auction completes while you watch, and when it's done, your proceeds are deposited into your bank account - or the Item is returned to you if it fails to sell.

This works very happily. The downside is that you have to be present, that is, logged-in, to start the auction.

Now there's an alternative mechanism, thanks to the good folks - or anyway the neutral folks - at Southby's Auctions in the Southern Third.

Southby's will place your auctionable Items into a long-term queue. From there, they'll be placed by Southby's on your behalf into the usual real-time auction process you're familiar with. Southby's are acting as your agents, storing your auctionable Items and putting them on the block for you, whether you're online at the time or not.

Most generously, Southby's extracts no additional commission for this service. You'll be charged the usual 5% auction fee. But that's all.

To place an Item on long-term auction, simply take it to the Southby's office at the corner of Avenue Colette and Temple Road East in the Southern Third. Give it to the cashier bot there. If it's accepted for auction, the cashier will thank you, and will give you a small receipt printed in a rather old-fashioned way on, of all things, parchment. You'd think the Southern Third would handle all this electronically, but, the people at Southby's insist on the ancient rituals. That receipt is the only record of the transaction. Don't lose it. If you change your mind about auctioning an Item, that receipt is the only way to get it back. Give the receipt to the cashier, who'll return your Item to you.

Note that Items left for long-term auction will eventually time out if unsold. Southby's will simply Trash them in that case. It takes a very long time for that to happen. If you're worried about it, use your receipt to recover your Item.

There's currently no limit to the number of Items you can place on long-term auction. Please don't over do it. We suppose you could create a kind of denial of service attack on the auction house by filling its storage areas with low-value Items. If that happens we'll make this impossible, and we'll send the responsible characters promptly spiraling down the nearest death trap. This is not an invite to experiment with new forms of death. Please use the long-term auction mechanism for the purposes intended.

NOTE: Affects on Items held for long-term auction DO NOT expire while the Item is in storage. Thus, Actuated herb sachets remain actuated while awaiting auction.

NOTE: this is a really good way for higher-level Herbalists to make sachets available to the game world when they themselves are not online.

Extensive changes were required to piggyback this feature on top of the existing real time auction mechanism. We believe we've tested the snot out of both auction flavors. Please Bug any aberrant behavior you encounter.

Thanks! Use the bulletin boards to holler with questions.

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