Auction house

Player-to-player trade

The auction house holds listings between players, settled in VED from the player's wallet (not the bank), always in whole VED, no fractions.

Buying from and selling to NPCs (Merchant, Alchemist, Technician, Farmer) is described on the NPC shops page.

Auction house

The auction house holds listings between players. It works on every server (lobby and islands) and there is a single shared one: a listing created on an island is visible in the lobby and vice versa. Open it with the /ah command (also /auction, /aukcja, /auctionhouse) or by clicking the Auctioneer NPC in the lobby (approx. x 21, y 41, z 73). The Auctioneer opens the same window as /ah and does not sell or buy anything.

A listing is either "Buy now" or an auction. There is no auction with a buyout price.

Currency

VED from the wallet, whole amounts only (no fractions or shorthand such as "1k")

Price

from 10 VED to 10,000,000,000 VED

Listing duration

from 1 to 168 h (7 days), whole hours, 24 h by default

Listing fee

1% of the price rounded up, at least 10 VED, non-refundable (fees)

Commission

5% of the sale price rounded down, deducted from the seller

Listing limit

from 5 to 17 active listings, depending on rank (limits)

Items

bought, won and unsold items wait in the Collect tab (collecting)

VED

goes straight to the account, even when the player is offline

Every player action (listing, buying, bidding, cancelling, collecting) takes a moment. A second one during that time gets "Wait, your previous action is still in progress."

Listing an item

1. The player holds an item in the main hand and types /ah sell <price> or /ah auction <starting price>, optionally with a number of hours. The whole stack in the hand is listed. Duration suggestions: 24, 48, 72, 168 h.
2. The game checks the price, duration and item (table below). Every error ends with a message and the item stays in the hand.
3. The game checks the listing limit and whether the player has the VED for the listing fee.
4. The item leaves the hand, the fee is charged and a numbered listing is created: "Listing no. 123 created. Fee: 10 VED."

If the listing is not created after the item was taken from the hand (e.g. a database error), the item returns to the inventory with the message "An item from the auction house is back in your inventory." The fee is not charged in that case.

Game items that cannot be listed: Teleportation Crystal. All other game items and ordinary Minecraft items can be listed.

Fee and commission

• For an auction the fee is calculated from the starting price, and the commission from the amount the item actually sold for.
• The fee is not returned after cancelling, nor after a listing expires unsold.
• Up to 1,000 VED the fee is a flat 10 VED; above that it grows by 1 VED for every started 100 VED of price.
• The commission is rounded down, so for a price below 20 VED it is 0.

Buy now

1. The player clicks a "Buy now" listing in the /ah window, then "Buy for ... VED" in the confirmation window.
2. The game re-checks the listing: whether it is still running, whether it is not their own and whether the buyer has the full price in VED.
3. All at once: the buyer pays the price, the seller receives the price minus the 5% commission (even offline), the listing disappears from the list and the item goes to the buyer's Collect tab.
4. The buyer sees "Bought ... for ... VED. The item is waiting in the Collect tab in /ah."

When two players buy the same listing at once, exactly one of them gets the item. The other sees "This listing is no longer available." and does not lose VED.

Auction bidding

A bid is placed with a button in the auction window or with the command /ah bid <no.> <amount>. The listing number is in its description in the window.

For a current bid up to 200 VED the raise is 10 VED; above that it is 5% rounded up.

Holding and refunding VED

• An accepted bid immediately takes the amount from the bidder's wallet: "You bid ... VED on listing no. .... The amount is held until the auction ends."
• At the same moment the previous highest bidder gets their amount back on their account, even offline.
• The highest bidder can raise their own bid. The same minimum raise applies, and only the difference is charged.
• You cannot bid on your own listing or on a "Buy now" listing. Bids cannot be withdrawn.

Bids are accepted right up to the end of the auction time. A bid placed in the last second does not extend the auction.

End of a listing

When the time runs out, the listing disappears from the list and can no longer be bought or bid on. Settlement happens within about 20 s after the end.

Cancelling

You cancel your own listing with the command /ah cancel <no.> or by clicking it in the "My listings" window.

After cancelling, the item goes to the seller's Collect tab ("Cancelled"): "Listing no. ... was cancelled. The item is waiting in the Collect tab in /ah." The listing fee is not returned. Someone else's listing cannot be cancelled ("This is not your listing."), and neither can an ended or sold one ("This listing is no longer available.").

Inbox (Collect)

Items from the auction house never go straight to the inventory. They wait in the Collect tab of the /ah window, with no time limit, and can be collected on any server. VED never waits in the inbox: it always goes to the account immediately.

1. Each entry shows the item, source, date (year-month-day hour:minute) and listing number. The oldest come first, 45 per page.
2. Clicking an entry collects the item into the inventory: "Collected ...."
3. Without room for the whole item the collection is rejected: "You have no room in your inventory." The entry stays in the inbox.
4. An entry collected a moment earlier (e.g. from a second window) gives "This item has already been collected."

About 3 s after joining a server, a player with waiting items sees "You have N items to collect in /ah."

Notifications

A notification arrives only if the recipient is in the game on the same server where the event took place. Any server settles the end of a listing, so the end notice reaches only a player who happens to be on it. A player who is offline or on another server gets no later message about VED. They learn about items from the message on join and from the Collect tab.

Listing limit

The player's active listings count: listed and not yet settled, of both types. A rank gives a higher limit; with several ranks the highest one counts, and never less than the limit of a player with no rank.

Once the limit is reached, the next listing is rejected and the item stays in the hand. A slot frees up after a sale, a cancellation or settlement of a listing after its time runs out.

Auction house window

The window has 6 rows. The top 5 rows are listings (45 per page), the bottom row holds buttons. Nothing can be taken out of or put into the window: every click (including with Shift, a 1-9 key or a double click) and drag is blocked, also in the player's inventory, as long as the window is open.

Changing the category or sorting returns to the first page. The list does not refresh by itself; it shows the state at the moment the view was opened. Every button and every action re-checks the listing, so a stale listing only gives the message "This listing is no longer available."

Listing description

The listing icon is the listed item itself, with its quantity and its own description. The game appends below it:

• the seller and the type (Buy now or Auction);
• the "Buy now" price, or for an auction the starting price or the current bid with the number of bids and the minimum raise;
• the time left, e.g. "2d 3h", "5h 12m", "7m", and in the last minute "<1m";
• the listing number (for /ah bid and /ah cancel);
• a hint: "Click to buy", "Click to bid" or "This is your listing" (your own listing does not react to clicks).

Purchase confirmation

Clicking a "Buy now" listing opens a small window: the item in the middle, on the left a green "Buy for ... VED" button ("VED is taken right away and the item goes to the Collect tab."), on the right a red "Cancel". After the purchase, successful or not, the game returns to the list with the same category, sorting and page.

Auction window

Clicking an auction opens a window with buttons. Clicking an amount places the bid immediately, with no extra confirmation. Then the window reopens with the current amounts.

My listings and Collect

• My listings shows all of the player's active listings, from the nearest end. Clicking a listing that may be cancelled cancels it immediately ("Click to cancel"); an auction with a bid has the note "An auction with a bid cannot be cancelled".
• Collect shows the inbox (collecting), with page scrolling.
• Both views have "Back" (to the list with the previous filter) and "Close" in the bottom row.

Categories

The category button cycles through: All, Weapons, Armor, Tools, Blocks, Materials, Other. Every listing belongs to exactly one category, set when it is listed according to the kind of item, not its name.

1. A game item (from the item list) takes its category from its definition: weapon -> Weapons, armor -> Armor, tool -> Tools, material -> Materials, potions, food and the rest -> Other.
2. Any other item goes into a category by its Minecraft material, checked in the order of the table.

Game item categories

Sorting

Trade skills

The Trade domain has 4 skills and 2 professions. Domain description: Skills and professions.

Auctions and buying and selling in NPC shops give no points to any skill. Trade skills and professions do not change prices, fees or limits.

To be decided

• Notifications on one server only. A sale, an outbid and the end of an auction are seen only by a player who is currently on the same server. A player on another server or offline will not learn that their listing sold, that they were outbid, or how much VED they received. On joining they see only the number of items in the Collect tab.
• No history. The player has no view of ended listings, sales, their own bids or earnings. "My listings" shows only active ones.
• No search by name. Listings can only be filtered by one of 6 categories and sorted. With many listings a specific item is hard to find.
• Last-second bidding. A bid just before the end does not extend the auction, so the outbid player has no chance to respond.
• Cheap listings. The fee is at least 10 VED, which is more than 1% for prices up to 1,000 VED. At a price of 10 VED the fee equals the price and the seller earns nothing, and up to 19 VED there is no commission. Whether to keep it this way is to be decided.
• Bidding with one click. The amount buttons in the auction window place the bid and hold the VED immediately, without confirmation, while "Buy now" has a confirmation. A mistaken click cannot be undone.
• The "Minimum raise" description shows the whole minimum next bid, not just the difference from the current one.
• Trade skills. The design of the Trade domain assumes lower auction fees and more simultaneous listings with skill level. Fees, commission and limits currently depend only on rank. No formulas.
• Server crash during an action. If the server goes down in a fraction of a second while listing or collecting, the item is not lost: it returns to the player after about 5 minutes (on join, or within a minute if the player is in the game). In a very narrow window the same refund may hand out an item the player already has, i.e. duplicate it.
• Full inventory when collecting. If the inventory fills up exactly between the space check and the handover, the player sees "You have no room in your inventory.", but the item arrives anyway as a refund and the overflow drops at their feet.