Originally Posted by
maxthunder1
Let's just do what they do in XI and that is bidding. All you can see is what the last X amount of items sold for. You cant see how much some one put the item on the AH for.
That isn't bidding...
Bidding is offering increased amounts over a clearly stated bottom price and whoever offers the most within a certain time frame wins the auction. Being the first person to offer whatever the bottom price is and then no one bidding against you is nothing like an auction.
I'll never understand why so many refer to simple markets as auction houses, nor the blind market that so many seem to love from XI.
I still wish they'd implemented the 1.xx auction house that used to be by the docks. I'd imagined it'd be a real auction house, with bidding wars on items listed by other players or rare items generated by the system every once in a while. Actual auctions can be really fun and they're a social experience where you can get to know others who share your interests and get to learn how they're likely to bid for strategic purposes in the case of rivals. Sadly, Bahamut blew it to smithereens, there's nothing left opposite the ACN guild now
As for our markets, there is currently no weight to the things you put up for sale other than the max number of slots your retainer has (and with some people having 4 retainers, that's 80 slots, plenty of room for lots of things).
I think the 5% tax we have to pay every time we sell something should be applied the moment the item goes up for sale (or perhaps when you dismiss your retainer so you have a chance to cancel/change the sale if you change your mind), thus making us think more about what we put up, for how much, and if we're going to need to lower it. It would discourage 1gil undercutting wars and also discourage people from putting 5gil items up for 10mil just for the sake of it (I see that regularly and don't understand it at all but it is a little annoying if it looks like there's something for sale that you're looking for and it's just a troll).
Tax clarification for those unaware:
Note, the tax I'm referring to is the tax we all pay when we put things up for sale and they get bought. The buyer may also pay a tax depending on what city they or your retainer may be in but you as the seller must always pay the selling tax of the city your retainer is in. The tax theoretically can change from city to city (I think it's to even out how many retainers are in each and the actual amount of each city's sell tax can be checked with the retainer hiring NPC) but it's usually 5% and is clearly stated at the bottom of the price setting screen of every item you put up for sale. For example, a 100k item will give the seller 95k when it sells (5k goes to tax) while the buyer will pay 100k/105k (5k-10k goes to tax from their end) depending on if they're in the city the retainer is in or not, and the intercity tax doesn't affect what the seller gets either.