Thoughts? (Up For Discussion) Bad /ah (In-Depth) + other related concerns

Good thing I am on Fall Break for this..

The CURRENT sells fee is 15%. 15% sells fee is VERY discouraging for people who may want to sell high tier rare items. It also just just doesn't fix the flooding junk issue entirely.

Here is why.

If you take a look at the items that are currently being listed in the auction house, you would see that they're just items that are being sold for convenience purpose for a debatably very affordable price. This is fine if you want to do it.. but.. that's not what an auction house is for.. They're for rare items.. Items that are suppose to get my attention and worth looking through. Not items like sea pickles and non-enchanted diamond swords for $50,000... THE JUNKS ARE STILL THERE. JUST LESS OF THEM.

Before anything else, this is a list of complaints for auction house pre-update:

1. No one really uses it
2. Never used for it's intended purpose (listing junks, advertising, and giving away stuff)
3. Junks
4. Too many junks
5. Way too many junks

THERE IS LITERALLY NO WAY OF TRADING THAT ISN'T ANNOYING OR SPAMMY. AUCTION HOUSE IS THE ONLY WAY TO EFFICIENTLY TRADE.

Why is this the case?

• Chat gets too spammy for trying to advertise a sell/trade (Even with shulkers. Not to mention the nerf on /ah for advertising that makes trading even harder now)
• Trading is also extremely annoying, as you would have to find the person first, then tpa the people interested to use local chat.
• /pwarp is EXTREMELY UNORGANIZED, especially on the larger PF server, so chest shops aren't the best way to sell/trade rares.

Here is what ALOT of other servers do to encourage players to push for a smoother flowing player economy that has auction houses:

• Flat fee for listing, to get people to THINK if the item is even worth TRYING to sell
• Listing limit, to get people to pick their BEST ITEMS to sell OR sell items that they think WILL SELL

Here is what was implemented to solve some issues but never solved and why:

• Limited listing slots is the only one that actually had some sort of impact but it doesn't really stop people from using it for the right purpose as people will still use it to make quick money on a mining trip or a crazy adventure as it's super convenient to sell. This alone will not do the job.
• UPDATE (10/18/2021): THERE WAS NEVER A FLAT FEE. LISTING FEE IS CHARGED AS PERCENTAGE OF LISTING PRICE WHICH IS WORST. YOU LOSE A PERCENTAGE OF WHAT YOU WANT TO ATTEMPT TO SELL SO, IF YOU DON'T SELL, YOU ARE PUNISHED HEAVILY FOR IT. INITIAL TAKE: Flat fee of listing for $150 is not enough. This is literally chump change. Even for new players. You might as well not have anything for it. This was intended to put a negative effect on listing junk items that don't sell like sticks worth $100,000 which clearly doesn't do its job. As it does not necessary discourage "junks" like iron swords to be listed at $20,000. This also makes it difficult for newer players to find a consistency on the market as some "normal" items are unreasonably priced extremely high. The "normal" items should be determined by player shops, which are what they are suppose to be for. Yet.. it's also discouraging to access these shops sometimes as they are clumped up with other pwarps.
• Sells fee of 15% (Oh boy.. I thought 10% was already bad.. but 15%? Yikessss. This doesn't combat the issue of trash overflowing auction house. I sell a regular diamond sword for $100,000 and lose $15,000 through the sell PLUS the small $150 FEE . $15,000 lost from a diamond sword sell is already ridiculous on its own but if you compare to the intended purpose of selling rarer items.. it's far worst. In a way, you are punishing people who are selling RARER items like TROPICAL HOE, SPOOKY PICKAXE, CUPID BOW, etc... Selling a GRINCH HOE for 50m and losing 7.5m in the process DOES NOT FEEL NICE AT ALL. NOT TO MENTION NOT SELLING IT.. You are pushing people to LOW BALL sells while people are trying to make a fair/or more profitable sell. It just doesn't make sense..

PERCENTAGE SELL FEE NEEDS TO GO it does not feel nice for the seller or buyer to have this

Suggestions:

• Method 1: REMOVE AUCTION PERCENTAGE SELL FEE. INCREASE NUMBER OF LISTINGS. INCREASE FLAT LISTING FEE to something more expensive so players take MORE consideration on what they're planning to list for sell. RETURN LISTING FEE OR MOST OF IT, to add incentives for players to put down a reasonable/safer price to keep market STABLE and auction house POLISHED. I SUGGEST $10,000-$25,000 per item depending on approach of the previous step.
• Method 2: REMOVE AUCTION PERCENTAGE SELL FEE. REMOVE AUCTION LIST LIMIT. INCREASE FLAT LISTING FEE to something more expensive so players take MORE consideration on what they're planning to list for sell. DON'T RETURN LISTING FEE to give a sort of consequence to greedy sell that reach for higher sell on RARE items and don't sell for market stability. I SUGGEST $5,000 to keep it affordable for convenient sellers but also opening up market for RARER items without the previous $100,000 price restriction while also giving a home to a combination of convenient sells and rare sells. (SAFEST METHOD)
• Method 3: MAKE AN AUCTION HOUSE THAT ONLY TAKES IN SEASONAL/DONOR CRATE ITEMS.
• Method 4: CHANGE AUCTION HOUSE TO QUICKSHOP AND MAKE A TRADING SYSTEM.

This is an extended and more detailed concern that was originally brought up recently again from: Open - Fix the economy: Auction house | Peaceful Farms

I tried to make the read a little interesting by highlighting the most important parts while adding some colors to emphasize some important points throughout it. I hope this gives a better insight from my perspective and many others as I really think the recent update on auction house felt very disappointing to me as it was more of a hotfix rather than a serious consideration despite it being brought up consistently over a year and half, if not, more. Fingers crossed.

Cheers,
Euphoric

 

It would also be nice for a poll to be posted on discord or something for updates that are this major like this. I know that this is a major update for many people who looked forward to /ah revamp, but I feel like the sample feedbacks are only taken from players who were on at the sampling time. If not, from a complaint of some sort directly.

 

Revised this post just now. Indicated where I made some changes, kept initial take slightly hidden, and added a few small points.

 

That's great! I know that a lot of people would still want to include items that may be hard/annoying to get, which is reasonable. It's basically what I've suggested for Method 2. It creates an opportunity that isn't as harmful as it is for people who may want to sell something very valuable while also maintaining the consideration of selling something less valuable in a larger quantity so it does not flood the /ah. You could also include a large percentage return listing fee for specific price range if it is sold so players who may be selling something less valuable that may sell to create a less punishing system for those who may not be able to fully commit to listing less valuable items.

 

Uhhh.. what? Can you explain how that's beneficial...?

You're going to be encouraging people to stretch for insane of amount of pricing for rare and junk items here.. You're putting penalty FOR sells but no penalty at all for NOT selling... It's like worst than the current one and old one.. It hurts both normal sellers and rare sellers.. In a way, you're forcing inflation LOL.

You meant to say that listing fee is returned upon sell right? That's the only beneficial change for both sides here.

 

Isn't that a good thing? What are the harms to that idea? A deposit so people can try to sell things that are LIKELY to sell instead of things that are just going to sit there? If you're suggesting that a FEE on sell is a better option, isn't that just worst than the original form of /ah? The items would just sit there and not sell. It's one of the main reasons the ORIGINAL original form of /ah was removed.. so flooding of extremely overpriced items would be listed with no fee. I've suggested refund of most of the fee but that also isn't taken to account.. I just don't see any other form of /ah that is better than this.