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Why are auctions so user-unfriendly?


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I recently got back into Scrap.tf, and when I learned that auctions were ready for use, I was interested. Unfortunately, the standard of quality here is much lower than it is anywhere else on this site, with unappealable bans, super short times to pay for items, etc.

 

What confuses me about all of this is that the rules here are much stricter than the rules for raffles. While I understand that raffles are less "important" than auctions, from the perspective of a bot, I would imagine it's largely the same -- it stores an item until the event is done, then trades it away, just for something in return instead of for free. Why, then, do you only have 24 hours to pay? I can be called away from my computer for a day for any number of reasons, and while I won't lose items I win in raffles I will lose auctions I win. Why have such a restrictive policy?

 

I'm sure the owners of this site put a lot of effort into the auction system and want it to be used, but I struggle to see why people would use it when it's so easy to lose your winnings.

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As someone who auctions off a handful of items I like the 24 hour window. I might not auction off as frequently as others or as much but if there wasn't a time limit or if there was lets say a week to pay off your items it would actually be worse. Here are a few of my personal experiences with this.

 

I have had multiple auctions where someone would bid the same items on multiple auctions so they might win more than one auction with the same bid but only one person actually gets paid leaving the others to wait a day then redo the auction. Related to that I had someone post in the comments that they traded one of their items in a non-scrap.tf trade so they couldn't complete the payment that way.

Those are unfair for the other bidders as well as the auctioneers as bidders missed out on an item that they wanted and the auctioneer has to relist their item with the hope that the other bidders try to find it again.

 

As for the bans and the 24 hour turn around for payment. Even as a bidder I feel this is more than enough time. It wasn't even a substantial bid, if anything I think the winning bid was a ref or two above the actual value of the item but even after seeing that the winner was online multiple times on steam and scrap.tf during that 24 hour period and still did not complete the payment got me concerned.

 

I have bid on a few auctions myself and during those times I was busy working retail or doing things around my house. However, I was still responsible in paying for an item in an auction that I was committed to get. Scrap.tf is mobile-friendly it may take a bit longer but i have completed auction payments through my phone, it took me about a minute to do. I even made sure that when I made trades during the time of the auction that I didn't touch the items that I used in the bids. It simply baffles me to see people complain about only having 24 hours to pay off a bid when there are multiple ways to access the website and complete it in a short amount of time. If it was a week away before the auction ended that is understandable but most should know what they are doing the next day or two and should be capable of planning accordingly.

 

If you are planning on committing to something on an auction really think about it before you bid because if you don't truly intend on completing the payment or can't hold onto those items for a few days then it is unfair for both sides, the auctioneer and your fellow bidders who are part of the scrap.tf community.

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4 hours ago, Ezekiel Wedlin said:

Have auctions ever gotten bugfixes? Just wondering.

 

They seem to get worked on but no one actually says anything about what gets done.

 

Like for example, just recently, the way bids show up is different. Now in bids, the est. value changes according to the IF of the Auction. So for example, if you bid something worth 10 refs with a 90% bid, the bid will be 9 refs and in the bid your item will say "est. value: 9 refs" even though it's worth 10 refs.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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