Hey all — I'm running presale token auctions again, and this time I've built a dedicated site to run them instead of doing everything by hand in the thread. Wanted to give a heads up on what's changed and why I think it'll be a smoother experience for everyone bidding.
The link:
Utaku's Auctions
A few things this does differently from other auction sites you may have used, and from doing it forum-post-style:
The auction ends exactly when the funding goal is hit — not whenever I get around to switching it off. This was actually one of my biggest frustrations with other auction sites: bidding stays open past the point where the lot is fully funded, so the seller may end up collecting more than the lot actually costs. My tool checks the funding goal automatically and closes things out right when it's reached. No overfunding, no bidding past the point it matters.
You can bid on multiple items in one shot. Instead of posting (or clicking through) one bid at a time, there's a "Bid on multiple items" option that lets you see everything open at once and submit quantities and max prices for as many items as you want in a single go. Much less back-and-forth than a forum thread.
Bids are true maximum (proxy) bids, eBay-style. You tell it the most you're willing to pay — the tool figures out what you actually owe based on the other bids, and you'll never pay more than one bid increment above whoever's right behind you (and never more than your own max). No guessing games about what to bid to "just barely" win.
You can see exactly where you stand, live. Every item shows whether you're currently winning it (all, part, or none of it), your current price, and how many other people are bidding — no need to ask in the thread whether you're still in it.
Your identity stays private from other bidders. You register once with your real info (for me, for payment/shipping), and you're given an anonymous moniker that's the only thing other bidders ever see. No more your name attached to every bid in a public thread.
You can revise your bid anytime an item's still open — no need to post a follow-up, it just replaces your old one.
Automatic results and receipts. Once an auction closes, you can pull up "My bids" anytime to see exactly what you won, what you paid per item, your subtotal, a flat $12 shipping fee, and your total due — and I can do the same to generate the results email and get payment set up quickly.
Multi-quantity items work fairly, too. When there are multiple copies of something up for bid, everyone's allocated by their max bid, and nobody pays more than one increment more than the next winner — same fairness as a single item, just extended to lots with quantity.
If this is your first time using it, there's a "How it works" link right on the page that walks through all of this — worth a quick read before your first bid, but it's not long.
Looking forward to running auctions again — let me know if you have any questions before jumping in!
— Utaku (Utaku's Trade Caravan)
