[Suggestion] Improve Sticky Bump Auctions

[tsuki]

I think the Sticky Bump auction system could use some quality-of-life improvements. Right now, it heavily rewards being online during the final minutes of an auction.

For example, I was recently outbid with around one minute remaining. It took me a little while to realize why I kept losing bids every week, but it seems like a lot of people deliberately wait until the final few minutes before placing their bid. Once you understand how the system works, there is a pretty obvious incentive to wait until the last possible second rather than bidding normally.

At that point, there is basically no realistic opportunity to react or purchase more Bump Coins in time (since I had to wait for crypto to confirm and such). In theory, someone could even wait until the final second to place their bid, which gives an advantage to automated bidding or bots over normal users who cannot sit there refreshing the page until the exact moment the auction ends.

This is especially awkward when auctions end late at night or early in the morning depending on your timezone and you might not be online for various reasons.

I saw that proxy/"hard bidding" has been suggested before, and I think that would already help a lot. For example, let users enter the maximum amount they're willing to pay and automatically increase their bid when someone else bids, up to that limit.

Another option would be a simple anti-sniping system. For example, if someone places a bid within the final 10–15 minutes, extend the auction by another 10–15 minutes. If someone bids again during that extended period, extend it again until there are no further bids.

[zerogott]

Originally Posted by tsuki

Right now, it heavily rewards being online during the final minutes of an auction.

Yeah, that is how auctions work.

[tsuki]

Originally Posted by zerogott

Yeah, that is how auctions work.

Not really. The issue is that with a hard cutoff, the smartest strategy is literally to avoid bidding normally in the first place. You just sit there until the last possible second and drop a bid when the other person has no realistic chance to respond. This also makes it cheaper for you since it helps you avoid an actual bidding war, which also costs Elitepvpers money.

At that point, you're not really winning because you were willing to pay more, you're winning because you timed your click better or because you coded a 5 minute Python script to automate it for you at the final second. It's a pretty cheesy way to win an auction, especially if you happen to be asleep or at work after waiting 30 days for it to end, even though you would've happily paid x5 more...

[Luke]

Yes, hard-bidding is on the list.

For example, if someone places a bid within the final 10–15 minutes, extend the auction by another 10–15 minutes. If someone bids again during that extended period, extend it again until there are no further bids.

It's working like that already, if you bid below the final 5 minutes of a sticky bump, it will get resetted to 5 minutes again until no one outbids anymore.

[0x41^4]

Originally Posted by tsuki

Not really. The issue is that with a hard cutoff, the smartest strategy is literally to avoid bidding normally in the first place. You just sit there until the last possible second and drop a bid when the other person has no realistic chance to respond. This also makes it cheaper for you since it helps you avoid an actual bidding war, which also costs Elitepvpers money.

At that point, you're not really winning because you were willing to pay more, you're winning because you timed your click better or because you coded a 5 minute Python script to automate it for you at the final second. It's a pretty cheesy way to win an auction, especially if you happen to be asleep or at work after waiting 30 days for it to end, even though you would've happily paid x5 more...

As zerogott said, that's literally how auctions work in real-life, lol.

Some auctions start with a minimum bid, while others don't. For those without a starting bid, it's pretty common for people to wait until the final few minutes, or even the last few seconds, before placing their bids. In fact, it’s so common that there’s literally a term for it: “bid sniping.”