GW Auction: Questionable extensions of auctions

[Longasc]

I have and had some auctions running that followed this scheme:

The item is offered for say 3 days. No reserve price is set.
Not many people bid on the item, the price is rather low.


Probably too low for the seller. Despite having set no reserve.
Guess what follows?

5 minutes before the auction ends the seller extends it for say 3 more days.
Your bid is still in.

Again, nobody else besides you bids. The seller waits till 5 minutes before the auctions ends ... -> 3 more days ...


This game continues till someone bids enough, THEN the auction ends OR till you are annoyed and decide not to buy item anymore.

I enjoy the liberties to modify my auction on Guildwarsguru anytime, but this also leads to abuse by quite a lot of people.

Holding back the cash for items that I will potentially have to buy is what you can expect and demand from a buyer: That he can pay for the stuff he won in your auction.

But these ever-extending auctions tied up some 120k of my money that I could have spent on other offers. I rarely ever have more than 300k in Storage.


This method leads to asocial behaviour and inacceptable low trade standards. Please think about limitations and safeguards against this unfriendly practice.

[Dralspire]

There are a couple issues here.

Automatic relisting due to no winning bids: The auctions you refer to have reserve prices that your bids do not meet. Accordingly, there is no "winning" bid.

Automatic relisting transferring the high bid: Yes, the relisting transfers the existing highest bid. However, your bid is still not winning due to the transfer of the reserve price.

Editing auctions in progress: Sellers are not able to edit auctions if there are any bids.

In so many words, this is not unfriendly behavior on the side of the seller, but rather a result of no winning bids leading to auctions being relisted.

[hulk88]

I know how you feel longasc. When I first started this I saw something at a very low price so I bid and waited till deadline. I then learn about the reserve price :confused: . But its up to the seller about doing that to protect their own profits so it is to their advantage. So my tip is to just not bid on reserve priced items unless someone else hit it already.

The stuff I put up has no reserve prices, cause I want to make it fair game for any bidders out there. Thats my two cents. :cool: