Suggestions for improving bid system

[jackywongto]

Hi all

I am sure most of us have some feedback regarding the current bidding system. Lets take the initiative and propose to the mods some of the improvements that can be made to the current system.

Pls state your suggestion and back it up with a reason/ previous encounters. When citing any past experience, do note your tone, do not get personal and try to be objective. I dun wanna start a flaming thread.

Pls note that this will be just a suggestion/ feedback thread. So in the event if the mods feel that if it is not workable after due considerations or if your suggestions are not accepted exactly the way you proposed, please try to understand their constraints. But I am sure that if the points are reasonable and there are justificiations, there is no reason why they will not explore into this.

I will just pen the 1st point to kick off and others can add....

1) Have a separate sub forum for housing only bids thread. At the moment, the bids thread are in the Pasar Malam sub forum. With the massive number of sales threads as well as all the upping going around, if I want to find out which are the current bids that are open, I need to scroll through 3-4 pages of sales threads to try to locate them. Even that sometimes I might miss out and rescroll again. With a separate sub forum, we can now easily identify the current open bids and also do a quick reference to all the previous closed bids.

2) ....

[tian1974]

in the bid forum, can sub divided by different bidding item categories, ie. chiller, lightset, skimmer, livestocks, soft corals, hard corals, sps etc. easier for people to manuever and find the target items.

[albinosage]

1) Have a separate sub forum for housing only bids thread. At the moment, the bids thread are in the Pasar Malam sub forum. With the massive number of sales threads as well as all the upping going around, if I want to find out which are the current bids that are open, I need to scroll through 3-4 pages of sales threads to try to locate them. Even that sometimes I might miss out and rescroll again. With a separate sub forum, we can now easily identify the current open bids and also do a quick reference to all the previous closed bids. - jackywongto

2) Have a compulsory "buy now price". If your intention is share a high demand item with others and not to profit, then I don't see why a cap on the bidding is so difficult. Suggested "buy now price" can be the market price + how much more you think it is worth, or even $1000 for a single polyp of brown mushroom, we shouldn't put a cap on it. Let the bidders decide if it is reasonable and if you are selling with the sole intention to profit. - binosage

in the bid forum, can sub divided by different bidding item categories, ie. chiller, lightset, skimmer, livestocks, soft corals, hard corals, sps etc. easier for people to manuever and find the target items.

I think to sub divide a separate bid forum even further is too messy. Bidders can always subscribe to individual threads they are interested in bidding in so they won't miss out. The buy/sell forum currently, even with bidding threads, hardly exceeds a single page of new threads a day, once you subdivide it into so many categories, there will only be a couple of threads per forum haha.

[comycus]

1. Sellers should follow a set template when posting new auctions. Mods can, at their discretion, delete the thread if the pertinent infomation required is missing.

a) Name of item(s). Seller is encouraged to include photos of the item(s).

b ) Starting price. (There should be no reserve price) Seller can choose to include min/max price increments. All bids to be rounded up to the nearest dollar.

c) Condition of item(s) to be described as accurately as possible. The winning bidder has the right to reject the item if the condition is found to be otherwise.

d) Collection date and venue. As far as possible, time and date should not be changed to prevent confusion.

e) Auction end date and time. Max. auction period is 7 days.

2. Only 1 item per auction thread to prevent confusion. Bundling is cosidered as a single item.

3. Sellers can list a "Buy now price". Once hit, item is considered sold to the winning bidder and auction is closed.

4. Seller is obligated to sell to the winning bidder.

5. Auction closing time will be based on SRC time. (Located at the bottom right corner)

6. In the event that a sale falls through between the seller and highest bidder, seller has the option to reopen bid in a seperate thread, or follow through the sale to the next highest bidder. Next highest bidder is not obliged to follow through on the sale.

7. Commercial and Mass sellers cannot auction items.

8. As far as possible, reefers should refrain from TCSS to avoid confusion.

[comycus]

Have a compulsory "buy now price". If your intention is share a high demand item with others and not to profit, then I don't see why a cap on the bidding is so difficult. Suggested "buy now price" can be the market price + how much more you think it is worth, or even $1000 for a single polyp of brown mushroom, we shouldn't put a cap on it. Let the bidders decide if it is reasonable and if you are selling with the sole intention to profit. - binosage

Bro I think it's good to have a buy now price. But sometimes seller might not know the item's worth, tt's why putting up for auction.

I agree, sometimes seller is thinking of getting a quick profit because he perceives there is demand. But demand and supply right? willing seller-willing buyer theory.

If we put a compulsory buy now price, can predict alot of bids will just put a ridiculously high buy now price, defeats the purpose also.

Just my 2 cents worth!

[albinosage]

If we put a compulsory buy now price, can predict alot of bids will just put a ridiculously high buy now price, defeats the purpose also.

Actually I think that's the real purpose hahaha. If someone puts a ridiculously high price, then we will all know his true intention and after a few repeated stunts, people will avoid him, whereas, if someone "buys it now" at the ridiculous price, then it just proves your "willing seller-willing buyer theory". Win-win solution in my opinion

[comycus]

Actually I think that's the real purpose hahaha. If someone puts a ridiculously high price, then we will all know his true intention and after a few repeated stunts, people will avoid him, whereas, if someone "buys it now" at the ridiculous price, then it just proves your "willing seller-willing buyer theory". Win-win solution in my opinion

lol true true!

Call me an economist by blood, but I still believe that by setting a compulsory ceiling price for all to follow, we distort the demand and supply. For example C is very busy at work and seldom checks the forum in the day. One day C come home to check SRC and finds an auction for a rare fish he's been dying to get. But too late, bid closed coz buy it now price is hit, although C is willing to pay more for the fish.

In this case, we can say jtb for C coz he wasn't around to monitor the auction.

Or we can say that in this case, the auction system failed coz it becomes like a normal pasar malam sale. First person to agree to the seller's price gets the item, thus distorting the 'true' market value of the item. This is especially true if a low buy in price is set.

To me, the main benefit of an auction system allows the true value of the item to be reached, and not on a fcfs basis like that of a pasar malam sale (in most cases, not all though). It gives seller less headache on whether he is setting a price which is too low or too high. If market dictates a low price, jtb for seller. if market dictates a high price and seller makes a profit, we shouldn't be too upset right? The market will eventually correct itself as more ppl see the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon. I have seen this happening a few times in SRC already actually.

Tt's why i only suggest optional to state buy in price, up to discretion of seller. In this case, if seller always don't state buy in price and auctions his items off at v. high prices, we will also know his 'true intentions'

[albinosage]

Yup, spoken like a true economist hahaha. I think the question is, whether we want to turn our forum into a trade driven one, by dedicating so much thought and resources to set up a bidding system. Your ideas reflect the true spirit of a fair auction house, but we are not eBay. The approach I suggested incorporates reefer's wishes to conduct auctions, but at the same time, not encourage profiteering and turn the forum into an auction house.

End of the day I'm glad this is something for the mods, and not us, to have a headache over .

[ReDDeviLs]

hey guys,thanks for all the suggestions..

we love such inputs! esp this round. infact we did think of being strict on such guidelines and rules but we also worried that we maybe too strict and users think we are pinpointing at them as individuals.

if we can allow such handling from the mods to be tis strict at this area,we will be more then glad!!

[ReDDeviLs]

fyi, infact i have done up guidelines for the auction sales.waiting to be vet and publish only

[comycus]

fyi, infact i have done up guidelines for the auction sales.waiting to be vent and publish only

Let's put it on trial of 2 weeks, and if there are no violent objections, make it compulsory. Guidelines too weak la

[ReDDeviLs]

haha dont worry, the rules are very strict. i dont think u guys will like it LOL!

[wilsontantw]

haha dont worry, the rules are very strict. i dont think u guys will like it LOL!

Dear Nigel, just to check. Since these rules are meant for us, any possibility of gathering feedback prior to them being passed on as "laws"?

Pretty sure we don't wanna increase the number of "petty crimes".

Of cos admin/mods hold the final decisions.

Just for thoughts.

[jackywongto]

Dear Nigel, just to check. Since these rules are meant for us, any possibility of gathering feedback prior to them being passed on as "laws"?

Pretty sure we don't wanna increase the number of "petty crimes".

Of cos admin/mods hold the final decisions.

Just for thoughts.

I think that is a wonderful idea.

but instead of gathering feedback through the entire community, maybe just handpick 1 or 2 more senior reefer and check if they have any comments/ suggestions/ concerns regarding the guidelines.

feedback can be passed to the mods who will make the final decision.

[ReDDeviLs]

dont worry guys,i always gather feedbacks from reefers randomly. we will discuss with the team first at the sametime get some feedback from reefers.your turn may be here soon!

[Eniram]

Hey guys, sorry off topic but do we still need to resize pictures before posting? What i know from the old web page the picture re sizes itself but with this new face the pictures appear as it was uploaded.

[albinosage]

Hey guys, sorry off topic but do we still need to resize pictures before posting? What i know from the old web page the picture re sizes itself but with this new face the pictures appear as it was uploaded.

Better to resize still. Anyway the old system just resizes the thumbnail, when you click to enlarge, it still displays whatever you uploaded. Not very nice to click on a thumbnail and suddenly BOOMZ! You get a full screen and have to scroll to see the whole image or find the "close" button.

Also for practical reasons, I believe the extra large images will cost Larry a bomb in bandwidth used. It's only polite to help him save a bit of cost

[TayHongSiang]

May i know wat sort of "penalty" for auctioners who violate the guidelines? and does the guidelines protect the buyer? for instance, does the buyer has the right to back-out if he/she realised the condition of the coral, equipment, etc...is not what it turns out in the picture or claim by the seller as it is? And what happen if there r disputes between the seller and buyer, do they settle on their own or the mods can come in to give fair judgement?

It seems more and more reefers are using the bidding system to sell mediocure stuffs...from my perspective.

imagine a reefer happen to have a loose frag from his rock of common mushroom and decides to auction it...de...??? does the guidelines prevent such things from happening? And if someone does that, what will be the action taken?

[Harlequinmania]

May i know wat sort of "penalty" for auctioners who violate the guidelines? and does the guidelines protect the buyer? for instance, does the buyer has the right to back-out if he/she realised the condition of the coral, equipment, etc...is not what it turns out in the picture or claim by the seller as it is? And what happen if there r disputes between the seller and buyer, do they settle on their own or the mods can come in to give fair judgement?

It seems more and more reefers are using the bidding system to sell mediocure stuffs...from my perspective.

imagine a reefer happen to have a loose frag from his rock of common mushroom and decides to auction it...de...??? does the guidelines prevent such things from happening? And if someone does that, what will be the action taken?

That is why the new reputation come in place.. just like in ebay, people get other rating for being a good seller ect...

We are unable to control each and every sales here, still it is buyer to check on the things that he is bidding before deciding to buy.

The guideline serve as a guide to prevent people from abusing the forum .

[Soul]

I like the 'recently added pic' banner look but can the pics be linked to their respective thread when we click on them?

[Harlequinmania]

you mean the photo in the Gallery section ? Yes, you can see larger pix when you click on it.

[ReDDeviLs]

May i know wat sort of "penalty" for auctioners who violate the guidelines? and does the guidelines protect the buyer? for instance, does the buyer has the right to back-out if he/she realised the condition of the coral, equipment, etc...is not what it turns out in the picture or claim by the seller as it is? And what happen if there r disputes between the seller and buyer, do they settle on their own or the mods can come in to give fair judgement?

It seems more and more reefers are using the bidding system to sell mediocure stuffs...from my perspective.

imagine a reefer happen to have a loose frag from his rock of common mushroom and decides to auction it...de...??? does the guidelines prevent such things from happening? And if someone does that, what will be the action taken?

Hi bro, the above questions you mentioned are all included in the rules of auction. just waiting to take effect if its approved!

both seller and buyer are all heavily affected with the new guideline. it will be very strict but inturn will be fair and will protect either party.