AH Etiquette when someone clearly over bid?

[kewitt]

What have you done when it happened to you?

I am torn because someone over paid for something on the AH, not just by 1k or 10k but big time.

[Eyeballed]

If you want to be completely fair, give back the difference of the going rate. If it was me, I'd keep half and offer half back.

[Llana_Virren]

As someone who has done that before (and never gotten gil back) I say keep the difference.

Here's why:

Regardless of personal feelings, the game does offer multiple layers of security to ensure you know how much you're paying for something. A lot of times we might get in a rush, and overlook it, but that's the burdon of being in a rush.

I'm sure you've looked around Jeuno and seen plenty of tools (I mean, mules) who put single-piece dynamis currency in their bazaar for 100-piece prices hoping to catch a quick gil. Is this morally right? Perhaps not, but if players take responsibility for their own purchases, then those tools (sorry, I meant mules again) wouldn't be reaping any benefit.

So, if you personally feel compelled (as you said, you're torn) then do what you think is fair. However, it would do much more for a player's psyche to understand the consequences of their actions.

[Demon6324236]

The "right" thing is to give them the gil back, the "wrong" thing to do is to keep it for yourself and pray off their mistake, the choice is yours either way because it was their mistake, they will learn more if you keep it for yourself, however they will probably not hate you if you return the money.

[Arcon]

Give it back. It's the sensible thing to do. The game has enough asshats as it is, making enemies can be done a number of different ways.

[Kincard]

Nobody would argue that the person bidding shouldn't take responsibility for their mistake, but nobody's going to consider you ethical if you make a conscious decision to profit off of someone else's misfortune, either.

[Fynlar]

If they send me a tell explaining themselves and don't come off as an ass while doing so, I'll usually give the money back.

Otherwise, if they don't do this, chances are I'll never even notice that they overpaid. I don't look at the gil I take out of the dbox, I just take it.

[Mirage]

If they ask nicely, I would give back most of the money if they made an accidental bid that was orders of magnitude bigger than the going rate is. If someone paid 100k for a 10k item, I would probably give them back 60-70k or something. If they bid 1M for a 10k item, I would probably give them back ~8-900k, again, if they asked nicely.

If it was for example paying 200k instead of 100k, I wouldn't really care, and just keep it all.

[Caketime]

I would use the windfall to purchase a gaudy, overpriced hat.

[Vold]

Small amounts like 100k or a million are easy to talk about giving back. Let's get down to the real issue here, someone over paying, assuming that they are over paying and not being generous because they're quitting, by 100 million gil. If you found 100 million gil in your del box because someone meant to bid 10 million, would you be so forgiving on returning most of that back? When in FFXI it's not easy to earn 100 million gil. You might can do it over and over. I can. But I will never consider it easy. It's nothing but a major chore, and downright "impossible" for the player without crafts and or multiple accounts at their disposal. A person can make 100 million gil selling nothing but beehive chips. Has anyone done it? I doubt it. The possibility isn't in question, the motivation is.

So the real question is can you return 100 million gil? because returning even just 10 million isn't THAT hard to do. 100 million can make a lot of dreams come true, however. Even for me I'm not so sure. It'd be tempting to have a "free" 99 Mandau but ultimately I probably would return it if the person were on their knees over it. However I would secretly be hoping that they were pricks about it before I ever opened my mouth because then I would just keep the gil as a big FU to someone presuming right off the bat that I'm an evil bad guy for being on the receiving end of their mistake. That doesn't usually happen, though. Usually it's "oh god have mercy on me masta that's my life savings I'll quit if I lose that"

I generally would not feel great about obtaining something like 99 mandau or a KC or a new relic or whatever that's worth a fortune at the cost of someone's life being temporarily ruined, not to mention knowing I did not really earn said item for myself. But if you come off as a spoiled little brat then I doubt I'll have much of a problem over it. You can go buy more gil from RMT or something. You'll live, Mr. gold spoon in mouth.