Before I begin, let me just say, I LOVED your BID-ONLY AH idea!
Forgive my spelling errors, word mistakes, and sentences that are totally missing words or don't make any sense. I'm not very good in English and don't have time to proofread everything I'm about to type. AND these are just my opinions, they aren't meant to offend, upset, create anger, hate, malice, distrust, or cause someone to leave the kin, they are just OPINIONS. I will let the leaders use these opinions and add them to the salad/mixing bowl of other opinions and mix them up to help them come up with better ideas they may decide to bake up in the oven for us to try out. Hobbits do like pie!
I've been off for awhile, around 3 months, to return this weekend to find a new way of listing kin-only auctions, bid only, no buyouts. I must say, I LOVED IT! So much, it inspired me to list some of my items which I've never felt it was worth to do before, knowing that everyone had a chance at my items, not the select few who are on all the time and watch the AH for 24 hours for all the buyout deals, leaving those of us who can't be online a lot out of a lot of good items.
I chatted with some in kin chat when I noticed some bids going really high though, but that's what "BIDDING" is all about, it's an auction house for crying out loud. Some were thrilled to see it happening, others wanted to vomit in disgust. There were some people listing their items for only 2 silver buyout, that I would have gladly given 100 silver for. I ended up buying them for 2 silver buyout, but felt I was stealing at such a cheap price. There were some BIDS I did do and posted what I felt they were worth, whether it was silvers or gold. IF I got outbidded, I did not drive up the bidding price anymore, and I'll just wait until next weekend auction and hope same item will get listed again. Those who complained they got outbidded, ask the seller if they have more of the same item, for free or to list on kin-only AH. I know, some kinnies don't have that much cash and some said bid wars only benefited the super rich of the kin. But I stressed my point, if kinnies would post more of those high bid cash items, it would meet supply/demand, keeping the bids a lot lower. Bids only go higher when there is fear there isn't enough to go around.
Some kinnies are worried about other kinnies profiting off others when it's meant to be a "free" thing and help other kinnies. In kin chat some were speaking about donating what they make off the kin auction bids to the kinhouse rental fees, that they had no plans to profit anything from the listings because they were listed for the kin, not for their pockets. If you want to make a profit off your items, list them on NON-kin auctions, nobody is forcing you to list in kin-only if you don't like helping kin with free stuff. I liked the idea of donating money you do make off bids, helping the kin with rentals and purchasing of more items to help kin list more free items on kin-only AH next weekend. I agreed with some who believe everything listed on kin-only auctions should be for free to the kinnies, BUT if the bids go really high, so what, allow kinnies to bid on them, knowing that their bids are going back into the kin to support it, hopefully if kin player is honest. Or even taking the money you do make off "bids" and buying more items off the public AH to list in kin-only for free and at super low buyouts the next weekend.
BIDS - Great idea!!! Gives everyone a chance to bid on something they might like. Gives everyone a chance to see the "demand" of the items posted so the guild officers have a better idea of what items kinnies need the most. Some complain the bids are unfair and get to high, but if the bids are getting too high, maybe we should be posting MORE of those items on the kin-only AH so supply meets demand. If some want to bid(pay) more for an item then you think it's worth, why should it bother you, maybe they want to help out so kinny is getting something back for their efforts. Set a low buyout price to prevent a bid markup, but understand that if item gets bought in first hour, it denies other kinnies a chance at the auction. If some kinnies want to bid more for the item then you listed it for, list more of the same items or set buyout prices to prevent a bid war.
BUYOUTS - If you want to do buyouts, go for it, nobody is stopping you. Just hope you got more of that item so when it sales within the first hour of posting, you plan to post more to give other kin members a chance later on in the weekend who can't be online watching the auction house for 24 hours and actually want to play the game and go exploring, fighting monsters. I don't want to hear complaints from anyone to me if I buyout a lot of your 2 silver buyout items, since I play on 9 toons(all always needing something), when I would have gladly paid 100 silver to 1 gold to help kinnies or the kin itself through a bid.
Bid Wars - As I spoke of above, bid wars are happening because not enough of those items are getting listed to meet the supply/demand curve. Let's take the sturdy key for an example that started at 100 silver, is up to 12gold current as of this post, but it's the ONLY one listed. If you did a cheap buy out, someone would have gotten lucky within first the hour on a great steal, while every else missed out. By bidding, it gives everyone a chance at the key, not one lucky player who happens to play all the time and watches AH for 24 hours for quick deal steals. Don't want it to go so high, why not list 10 individual keys instead of just one or create a decent buy out price that won't allow bid price to get so high. Luckily, the player has already said, all proceeds from key sale will be going back to the kin to help with kin house rentals, so they won't be making any profits off of the high bid price. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. Player gets item they desperately wanted due to a kin-wide shortage and kin makes much needed money to help pay for expenses or use money to buy some more sturdy keys to list for free/low buyouts to kinnies next weekend.
Bid Wars #2 - I might have already said it, but also this helps kinnies to identify where more items are needing to be posted, to meet the supply/demand curve. To keep bid prices down, post more of same items or set decent low buyout prices still below the actual AH non-kin listings that won't allow bid prices to go too high. BECAUSE, the AH won't allow someone to bid more on an item then the actual buyout price. (Example: I wanted to give kinny 100 silver bid for an item, they had listed for 2 silver buyout. I couldn't pay 100 silver, because 2 silver buyout was blocking me, so I had to end up grabbing the item for only 2 silver since nobody else got a chance to see and bid on the item that was only listed for less than 10 minutes. I got lucky was surfing the AH when item got listed, so I grabbed it, it was a 2 silver buyout, no bid, had no choice.) I just wonder how many kin-only auctions I missed this weekend due to dirt cheap buyouts and I wasn't online at the right time looking at the AH at the right time to see it and purchase it.
Okay, enough of my rambling. Overall, I enjoyed the kin-only AH this weekend. Not sure where it will go from this and I hope my "OPINIONS" shined a little light on my side of how I saw things. Everyone else, put down your opinions and then give the officers time to take these opinions and give it some thought. I'm sure this wasn't meant to tick off anyone on purpose, it was just an experiment from what I understand and I hope it continues, but if enough kinnies give it a big stink, I'm sure it'll get canned and we'll be back to the same ole boring kin-only auctions I won't be participating in, because it will only benefit the "select" few who play all the time and watch the AH like a hawk for quick buyout deals.
Star... (/goes inside hobbit house, locks door, closes windows, HIDES and awaits for the sounds of pitchforks clanging, loud rude yelling/swearing, and sounds of many rotten fruits to hit the structure.)