Rant About the Auctions

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 12:53 AM

Not sure if this is the proper place but anywho:

Am I the only one who thinks that someone shouldn't be able to have a monopoly on all the auctions? There are apparently people here with hundreds of millions of EC and they are able to bid ridiculous amounts on creatures so that hardly anyone else can keep up with them. I don't think we should be able to look at all the popular auctions right now and keep seeing the same names for the highest bidder. I have nothing against these people but it makes me think that there should be a limit to how many bids you have at a time. Or perhaps a cap of some sort.

Perhaps...5 bids at once and then you have to wait for one of those to conclude before you can bid on a different creature. I don't think that's too much to ask and it would give other people a tiny bit of a chance to win an auction or 2. Or perhaps someone can only win a certain amount of auctions in a period of time? Idk. Just something to prevent monopolies at the auctions.

Also...why do people go to 1 ec auctions and jump it all the way to 200k ec within the first 12 bids? Doesn't that ruin the fun? Slow your roll and just have fun with bidding ping-pong. I dont know about other people, but i put up those types of auctions so that perhaps someone can get away with a cool and cheap creature. I put up an ami for 1000 ec and expected it to maybe go up to 200k. I never meant for it to be 5 mil ;_; Poor newbies don't have a chance for that. An easy fix would be to make it so that people cannot manually change the bid amount. Idk, these are just my thoughts.

bunnyshadow • 3 March 2014 at 1:14 AM

@ladynymeria I totally agree with that. 😊

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 1:26 AM

@bunnyshadow I'm glad, because I was starting to think I was the only one that saw something wrong with that stuff.

Deleted • 3 March 2014 at 1:47 AM

@ladynymeria
It depends on the EC they have. Nobody has EC that is stolen, hacked or bumped. All EC in the system is earned legitimately, and that doesn't mean that any user should not be able to bid on the auctions.

mrsgiggles • 3 March 2014 at 2:06 AM

Unfortunately, this is the nature of auction.

If we don't want money to be a determining factor, the pets should have been prizes in giveaways where the winners are determined at random.

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 2:15 AM

@mrsgiggles @frosted I think you two grossly misunderstood the point of my original post. I didn't mean that creatures should be cheap. I agree that Doovoos and Felindles are valuable and worth millions of ec. The point of my post wasnt to make it so that people could get those types of creatures for cheap.

Deleted • 3 March 2014 at 2:19 AM

@ladynymeria
I guess you didn't understand my point. Everyone knows that 500CC = 5mil EC some time ago. That is, 5mil EC = approx $5

There are users who might have paid $5 per each 5mil EC - and they might be using that very EC stockpiles to bid on the auctions.

dragon_collector • 3 March 2014 at 2:26 AM

Maybe we can separate the price range, like 1 EC- 1000 EC, 1001 EC-10000 EC, but that would probably not be fair anyways since the one with lots of EC will bid on those and the newbies wont have anything. Or maybe there could be a newbie auction where only eggcavers that are 6 months below can bid on any ones creatures.

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 2:33 AM

Im sorry @frosted, but I'm having trouble understanding your posts.

To specifically address your post @mrsgiggles: This is not the nature of auctions. Auctions in real life and even on other sites have checks and balances that allow things to work relatively smoothly. In real life, the auctions arent timed so there is no auction sniping. People bid until it reaches a certain amount that other people don't wanna exceed. In real life, we also have a set economy. We have a standard for how much certain things are worth. We don't have any standard of value here on Eggcave. Let's take the example of what happened on my Ami auctions. I can say that I truly believe that an Ami is not worth 5 mil+ ec. But because none of us know the base value for any of the creatures here, we have people buying things for huge amounts of money because 'well i dont know how much it is worth but i am willing to pay this much for it'. It is the equivalent of someone irl buying a couch from Target for 500$, auctioning it and it being bid on for 30,000$ because no one (besides the original buyer) knows its true worth but they are willing to pay that much for it.

On a certain other pet site that has an economy of its own, it also has timed auctions so people have the ability to snipe, but it balances that by not allowing people to manually change the bid increment. It also has shops and user-made systems that give everyone an idea of what certain things are worth. Again, eggcave doesn't have that. I personally think thatt Doovoos are the most valuable, most expensive creature on the site, but others don't agree and even if it was decided that the Doovoo was the most valuable, how much would it go for? 20 mil? 60 mil? 700 CC? We don't have a standard. On this site, 1 ec auctions mean absolutely nothing because people can change the bid to jump to millions if they want. It defeats the purpose of those auctions.

Also, neither of you have addressed the issue of users being able to have a monopoly on the auctions.

@dragon_collector Good idea, but I think that would create more problems than it would solve.

Deleted • 3 March 2014 at 2:39 AM

@ladynymeria
Unfortunately, buyer is king.
That is, the buyer can even bid $100000 on something worth $100.

The buyer is paying the price, and not anyone else - so there isn't much say for anyone else either.

== All the EC I do have is earned legitimately. I have spent money and time getting valuable creatures that I just traded off for EC. Florn egg, Flickle egg, and even Nyms - I've traded all these creatures for the EC I have and I do think that I have more opportunities to bid on the ECN auctions due to the upper hand I have.

== You can't get anything without hard work.

mrsgiggles • 3 March 2014 at 2:42 AM

@ladynymeria

It's hard to expect things to be fair in any auction system. If I want a Monet painting being auctioned off at Christie's, chances are, I won't be able to match the bids there because they are usually upwards of seven digits. Is this fair to me? Probably not, but that's the way things are, and I can roll with that.

If Eggcavern wants newbies to have a chance at getting the Onny and Macbot, as I've mentioned, they should have been prizes in a giveaway.

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 2:49 AM

@frosted I have no clue how old you are or whether or not English is your first language, but as it is you're making very little sense to me. That said, how dare you talk about how much work you put into making EC giving you more 'rights' at the auction. This is a virtual pet site. A person who joined the site last week has as much 'right' to bid on auctions as you do. Also, I not only compared the auctions on this site to auctions IRL, but also auctions on other pet sites. The point of the comparison is that auctions should have some sort of balance and this site doesnt. There are differences between RL and neopets, but neopets' auctions can still be compared to RL auctions (especially virtual auctions) with how they are kept in check.

@mrsgiggles IRL, a Monet is expected to be upwards of 7 digits. It is fair, so I don't understand your point. And never in any of my posts did I say anything about newbies being able to get Onnys and Macbots. My main point (which you 2 continue to avoid) is that there shouldn't be 2 or 3 really rich users bidding on all the creatures and not allowing anyone else to have a chance. Whether the 'anyone else' is a newbie or a veteran user who just doesn't have 93454095904039 ec sitting around. Have you considered the fact that there are rules IRL so that 1 person couldn't buy all the Monet paintings and hoard them and control the market on them? There are laws that prevent companies from having monopolies on products. No matter where you are, people tend to agree that it is unfair for 1 person to be able to have a monopoly on something. No one cares how long that person has been around or how much money that person has. No one person should be able to control the auctions.

metaphor • 3 March 2014 at 3:03 AM

Sorry, but that's how auctions--or any free market, really--work.

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 3:11 AM

Ok. Im kinda done with arguing about this, but @metaphor why don't you tell me about the time someone IRL walked into an auction with billions of dollars and bought out everything. Because that's basically what is happening here and that was my main point. Im not saying that there arent times that people will put everything on an auction just to ensure that they get it, but this is like 1 person putting everything on every auction to ensure they win all of them.

Deleted • 3 March 2014 at 3:11 AM

@ladynymeria
I guess the place where you come from doesn't educate you properly. You're ignoring my posts by falsely insulting my grammar, vocab, etc?

= Anyone can earn EC in the time that's spent posting around in the forums. It takes me hardly 30 mins to get a total of 1 million EC, and that means I'd be able to get a lot of EC within one day. I have fed over 1 billion creatures so far.

== Auctions were implemented a while ago, but only such suggestions arise when the ECN creatures came out. Why? Because the ECN auction led to over 100kCC worth of creatures being tossed into the Auction Center.

metaphor • 3 March 2014 at 3:12 AM

@ladynymeria

Lol, that actually does happen. I'm not saying it's fair, but it totally happens. Huge corporations like McDonald's have been known to go to auctions with cheap livestock and buy them all out before anyone else could bid.

aedia • 3 March 2014 at 3:28 AM

With auctions you just have to let things go sometimes...lol. 😋 I know many of the rares that were put up recently are worth a lot, so I can understand why they go for such high levels of EC...I just wish I had that much sometimes, but I'm saving x3 I know some people are putting up auctions for too much, but most of the time they go up because of everyone else bidding. There really already is a limit, since you cannot bid unless someone outbids you, so I think that it is fine the way it is. 😊

Currently I'm only able to make about 3,000,000 EC a month by feeding (recently I haven't had time though), but if you add that up in a year, that would be 36,000,000 and in two years that would be twice as much! So that is the reason why some people are able to afford so much, because they have worked hard by feeding or trading and gained the EC that they have.

I am trying to avoid the auction center since I always end up putting in bids that I know I'll never win, haha. So many nice creatures in there recently....but someday we'll be able to better afford them hopefully. 😊 I don't think that changing the auctions will fix anything. I know I rarely win auctions, so I can relate to being a tad frustrated at times, but this is just an online game, so I try to have fun with it. 😉 😸 ❤️

mastergemma • 3 March 2014 at 3:32 AM

@ladynymeria
I actually don't see why they can't have more than 5 bids, it would be pretty unfair if they couldn't

As for those who jump from a small amount to a large amount.... i hate those guys

@frosted
I don't see why all the creatures can't just be separate raffles but instead they have a few raffles -_-
Couldn't they expand the amount of winners to make more people happy?

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 3:33 AM

Oops. Looks like I didn't realize that this was some livestock auction and we should all expect Mcdonalds to come in and buy everything. My bad. I thought this was a game site meant to be fun for all users and therefore meant to have things balanced out to be as fair as possible (even though stuff isnt always fair irl).

@frosted I am genuinely sorry if I insulted your english or offended you.

I am getting angry and that is a sign to me that I should leave this topic alone before I get downright rude. Apologies if I was indeed rude to anyone.

blub • 3 March 2014 at 8:37 AM

I have to admit I sometimes bid a lot more on a creature, but generally only if I see that people are way underoffering.

I don't have billions EC, but I accept that I could never get a creature through the auctions.

What does bother me is the sniping, I would like some rules on that, since it's about timing, not how much you are offering.

About the 'people not offering on more than for example 5 rare creatures' I could see something work like: if you are offering more than 1000k on a creature, you can only offer on 2 more creatures (or 5, whatever works the best), do this again, and you can only offer on 1 (or 2) more creatures. This could be annoying if you are already offering on more creatures, even if they are under 1000k, but it would make people more aware of offering and how much they want this creature (but people could still keep offering on the creatures they already offer on).

I could see a limit on howmany creatures you could offer on anyway, no matter how much you offer.

It's just an idea, and I apologize if my english isn't great, it's not my native language

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 9:54 AM

@frosted Wait no. I just read the rest of your comment and now I'm livid. I am allowed to voice my opinions and rant on the forum if I want. Who the heck are you to tell me to be quiet? Don't like my suggestions? Shove off. You didn't have to read or comment on what I said. If I said something oppressive or offensive, I'd be more than happy to apologize and shut my mouth, but I was clearly expressing my opinions and frustrations about some pet site auctions. If the only thing you took from what I said was that I was trying to get creatures more easily, that suggests that your reading comprehension is lacking. There is more to communication than spelling. (have you considered that you're arguing for this system because it benefits you?) I don't care about the Onny and Luvlei and whatnot because I have no interest in those creatures outside of using them to trade for things i really want. If it was just me being frustrated because I was too poor I wouldn't say anything, but its not just that. There are tons of people on the site who feel like winning good auctions are impossible no matter how much money they have available to them. The issue isn't just 'ooooo I want more rare creatures'. The issue is that the auction system has flaws that have become more obvious with the recent popular auctions.

I said I was done but I really can't stand people who never got the kindergarten lesson of 'sharing is caring'. It would not be unfair at all to limit EVERYONE'S bids to 5 creatures at a time. That is still 5 creatures you could be taking. If we used the creatures from the Eggcavern auctions, you could win the Onny, Goblar, Mummar, Luvlei and Rhinedorf. And as each of those auctions concluded you could offer on another one. Like seriously? That isn't good enough for you all?

And your first sentence also doesn't make sense because part of my /rant/ was my frustration with my cheap auctions not being maintained. As an owner, with the system as it is now, as soon as I put the creature up for auction it is out of my hands. I can try to tell people to chill out and not jump up the bidding, but ultimately I can't do anything. I am frustrated as both an auctioneer and a buyer. And I have every right to voice my frustration thankyouverymuch.

mrsgiggles • 3 March 2014 at 10:04 AM

I just reread the post by @frosted, and I don't see where you are being told to be quiet.

Frankly, I thought the discourse was very civil so far. If you're going to get livid because other people disagree with you, maybe it's time to take a deep breath and step away from the keyboard. I think you're way overreacting here.

Deleted • 3 March 2014 at 10:46 AM

@ladynymeria
We have not hacked the site or something to have millions of EC. If you want to be in competition, try it in a fair way.

If you want to spend time giving things out to newbies, you cna spend some money and do a lot of giveaways.

I've given out gifts worth 100k+ CC (that's over $1000) and even if I start giving out my whole cove, the number of newbies without anything valuable will still be a high number.

Also, I don't see any post where I told you to shut up or whatsoever. I was suggesting that these suggestions only come up when there's something big happening out there in the auctions and so.

dafni • 3 March 2014 at 11:03 AM

I'm always intersted to read other people comments and ideas on the site, but I can't get the point in this post honestly.

I mean, it's ok to share what you feel about the auctions, but I can't see the problem here. If I had tons of ECs I will buy all the critters I want, as probably you and all other Egg Cave users will do... So what's the point in feeds and sell eggs for raising ECs if than we should put limitations?

On auctions, well, it's the way they work. The person with higher money ammount wins, amen. If we change that, it wouldn't be auctions anymore, but something else like raffle or donation. I would kill for have enough money for that Balrog cause it's the last creature I have on my wishlist, but I can't so whatever, in future I'll found another chance.

Sorry to say that, but reading your posts it seems like you start to be frustrated not cause the auctions can be upsetting but cause you can't get what you want, and I'm sure this isn't what you want to say, so maybe it's time to relax a bit. It's just a game as you said, don't take this too seriously. xD

ladynymeria • 3 March 2014 at 12:30 PM

@frosted Of course I was directly referencing you. You joined the conversation and I was addressing you. I can't be bothered to care anymore. I am way too old for this and have already spent way too much energy on this.

@mrsgiggles They edited the end of their post to be less rude. What they originally posted is why I snapped off but whatev's. Believe what you will.

If you wish to believe that I'm just whining because I personally can't get any creatures, go right ahead. But I truly believe that even if I had all the EC in the world, I would feel guilty snatching up all the auctions. I worked so hard during the Valentines day event that my wrist starting hurting really bad. But at the end of the event I still spent a lot of my time sending chocolates to people who weren't able to afford their first Ami and I made sure to give a lot of my Amis away for cheap. I did the same thing with CRW and the Halloween event because this site is supposed to be a peaceful escape for me and others and I like being able to make people happy with a cool creature they want. If you don't think everyone should have a fair shake, that's your opinion. But i have a hard time accepting everyone turning around the desire for fairness as some sort of malicious selfishness on my part.

kiryko • 5 March 2014 at 6:01 AM

That's just become annoying.
When you see in you're dreaming about,auctioned and you can afford that.You wait and suddenly *BANG* 50 mln EC bid. Don't tell me about feeding and trading not all people could buy CC and not all of them have time to get millions by feeding.
Auctions now become impossible place to get something.
Sorry if this was written before,I've just got brocken by this.
Sorry if I tell things as they are-it's my Birthday and I guess I have right to write what I think.

mastergemma • 5 March 2014 at 6:15 AM

@kiryko
Agreed

Or whoever is auctioning it should just put it as a higher start in the first place to not get the less-than-10-million side of EggCave hopes up

((it's the Onny isn't it))

Deleted • 5 March 2014 at 6:18 AM

This is getting serious.
I request @ladynymeria to stop lying.
== I never edited any post :\

I never told her to shut up or whatsoever

Deleted • 5 March 2014 at 6:43 AM

Aha, must write something down 'cause things are getting serious. D: I do agree with @dafni. If I had tons of ECs like @frosted has, I would bid on every creature I want, at the point of overoffering ... the site is about getting creatures after all, right? owo

I don't see the point of limiting the auctions to 5 bid per person, after all a rich people with one single bid can win with a huge offer. xD This morning I wanted to bid on a fangtharp in the Creature Auction, and @frosted bid 2mil (which is also a fair price), so I had to give up 'because I'm low on EC at themoment. I'm supposed to be angry for that? owo Auctions is all about offering and try to win ... there is no point to think about anything else or getting angry because someone won an auction I wanted. xD The best thing to to is to work hard to gather ECs and wait the right occasion to bid and win, like everyone else do. 😊

@frosted I don't agree on a thing you said, though ...
"Lazy people never get anywhere." >>> not true. 😋 I'm a lazy eggcavern and I'm a great feeding machine. ùwù

(Ok, enough with my foolish things, over and out)

Deleted • 5 March 2014 at 7:09 AM

@wererage
That's more like it. I only had around 100mil when these auctions started :\ I traded over 50 creatures and I have around 750+ mil now and I might be receiving more.

Creatures that would have sold for 50k+ CC - that's $500+