[INFO/REFERENCE] AUCTIONS/WTS ETIQUETTE

[SatsLife]

This thread is for anyone, new or old, to BitcoinTalk that is interested in buying or selling bitcoin collectibles, and the unwritten rules of how to go about doing so.

This post will be updated continuously and compiled with suggestions from members who respond to this thread.  

Please post any info that you think should be added....




This is a work in progress.

SELLING

1. In the subject line of your post please label, in brackets, what type of sale you are conducting. [AUCTION], [WTS], [SALE], [RAFFLE], [WTT]

2. Post a picture of the item you want to sell, along with your username and date next to the item, as well as CURRENT BLOCKHEIGHT. This helps to verify you actually have the item you want to sell. If you are new to the forum, post the picture at imgur.com and provide a link or use BBCode to post.

3. Select an end time for the auction, including timezone. Adding a countdown timer is always appreciated. If the countdown timer fails to give the proper time for any reason, then the stated time will be used for the auction end time. Countdown timer can be found here...https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/create

4. List your price or starting bid in BTC, as well as the MINIMUM bidding increment.

5. List a payment address.  

6. Is shipping included? If not, how much extra is it? What country/region of the world is your item shipping from? (this helps buyers quickly determine whether or not they would like to bid/buy)

7. Allow buyers to utilize escrow service. This especially goes for new accounts. See below for common escrow procedures.



BUYING/BIDDING

1. Please keep posts limited to bids or questions regarding the item for sale.

2. If there are multiple lots for sale please specify which lot you are bidding on, followed by your bid.
ex: Lot 1 @ 0.02 BTC

3. To avoid confusion, please post an exact bid. Posting an increment to someone's previous post, especially without quoting that bid, can lead to unnecessary problems.


ESCROW

SNIPING

- Sniping rules can sometimes get confusing, especially if there are multiple lots in the same auction. (as we saw with the Gold Halving Coldkeys auction)

example: Any bid made within the last 10 minutes of the auction ending will extend the auction by another 10 minutes.

What does this mean exactly? What if there are 5 bids placed within the last 10 minutes of the auction? Does that mean there are 50 minutes added to the end of the auction?

It is much easier to follow an auction as a bidder knowing you have 10 minutes from the last bidder and the clock restarts with every bid. Feel free to copy and paste. Maybe eventually we can all just post "10 minute standard sniping rule" in our auctions and understand exactly what it means...

1. 10 minute standard sniping rule - Any bid made within the last 10 minutes of the auction, will restart a 10 minute clock for each bid thereafter. Meaning if the auction ends at 7pm and a bid is made at 6:51, the new ending time is now 7:01. If a following bid is then made at 6:55, the new ending time will be 7:05. This will continue until 10 minutes have elapsed from the last bid.

2. 15 minute standard sniping rule - Any bid made within the last 15 minutes of the auction, will restart a 15 minute clock for each bid thereafter. Meaning if the auction ends at 7pm and a bid is made at 6:46, the new ending time is now 7:01. If a following bid is then made at 6:49, the new ending time will be 7:04. This will continue until 15 minutes have elapsed from the last bid.

3. 1 hour standard sniping rule -  Any bid made within the last 1 hour of the auction, will restart a 1 hour clock for each bid thereafter. Meaning if the auction ends at 7pm and a bid is made at 6:25, the new ending time is now 7:25. If a following bid is then made at 6:42, the new ending time will be 7:42. This will continue until 1 hour has elapsed from the last bid.



AUCTION TEMPLATE

Below is a standard template that can be used for quicker auction listings. I removed the front bracket of each line to make it easier to copy and paste different colors and center alignment. All you need to do is add a bracket to the front of each line, and then fill in your auction info.


Add [ to the front of each line below.





center]

size=15pt]

b]

color=green] Starting bid per lot : 0.0 BTC [/color]

color=teal]Minimum bid increments : 0.000 BTC [/color]

color=red]End time : Sunday September 27th, 2020. 22h UTC+2 (Paris time) - Countdown Timer Link [/color]

color=purple]Sniping : 10 Minute Standard Sniping Rule. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5273821.0 [/color]

color=orange]Payment : Bitcoin address goes here [/color]

color=brown]Shipping : $0 worldwide with tracking [/color]

color=blue]Escrow accepted, winner pays fees. [/color][/b][/size][/center]

[1713875748]

1713875748

[krogothmanhattan]

When selling...

Post pic with username and date next to item
Allow escrow to be an option.
End time of auction should be clear.
Countdown timer would be nice as well

[SatsLife]

Bidding: Please post your actual bid.   

What not to do....  + 0.0001 for lot 1-4.

Proper bid....         Lot 1-4: 0.0101 BTC

[Rainbowsky]

Countdown timer would be nice as well

Hello,

I am glad that krogothmanhattan and SatsLife took initiative to explain buying and selling process which will enrich the commutations among buyers and sellers.

Regarding the "Countdown timer", can someone provide us a step by step guide on how to accomplish this. For instance, which site is the best to get countdown timer and how can we post the "Countdown timer" clock within the thread so it will display the moving clock?

Thank you, Rainbowsky

[Rainbowsky]

Helllo,

Good morning from EST time zone.

I found a technical issue with bitcointalk when talking with several bitcointalk users this morning. I wanted to bring this technical issue to your attention so that this can be corrected for all users participating in the auction. Obviously, you have to test this feature in the test environment before you implement in the production environment if the feature is not readily available. In that case, we should have a guiding steps for the time being. To avoid confusions among bidders and sellers in an auction, "ignoring user" option should be disabled for all users in the main auction thread because users who are ignored by other users will not be able to visualize the bid placing by those users who initiated the "ignored' feature.  This issue can happen to anyone who is not able to visualize the bids and thereby can only bid based on what the last highest bid he or she can visualize.

This also can trick others who are participating in the auction. I think this is a serious technical issue. Luckily, I have large bitcointalk friendship based users with deep relation who are always watching the forum.

For example, user a, b and c ignored user x, y and z. Let's say user mike started an auction. During the auction all users a, b, c, x, y, and z placed the bids at a different time intervals. In this case, user x, y and z will not be able to see bids from user a, b, and c because user x, y  and z are ignored by user a. b and c. User x. y and z will be able to see bids from other users except user x. y an z.  

Best regards, Rainbowsky

 

[cygan]

for my auctions i have always used this timer, which i think is very easy to set:

Code:

[img width=200 height=80 alt=image loading...]https://seanja.com/secret/countdown/gif.php?time=2020-12-31-23:59[/img]

simply insert this line in the auction and set the time until when this auction should run - an example:



the timer now shows how long it is to the end of the month (cest zone)

[Rainbowsky]

for my auctions i have always used this timer, which i think is very easy to set:

Code:

[img width=200 height=80 alt=image loading...]https://seanja.com/secret/countdown/gif.php?time=2020-12-31-23:59[/img]

simply insert this line in the auction and set the time until when this auction should run - an example:



the timer now shows how long it is to the end of the month (cest zone)

Hello,

Love, you man. This is awesome. Best regards, Rainbowsky

[daburone]

I was thinking ... and maybe you guys won't agree... but what about obvious good faith typos that are immediately retracted? Like if you're selling a 0.1 BTC coin and someone bids 0.10 BTC and the next guy bids 1.05 (instead of 0.105). If the member instantly writes back "sorry!" we shouldn't penalize or make a big deal about it. What do you think?

Also the seller should reserve the right to refuse any scam or suspicious bids (after making reasonable attempts to look into it).

[Rainbowsky]

I was thinking ... and maybe you guys won't agree... but what about obvious good faith typos that are immediately retracted? Like if you're selling a 0.1 BTC coin and someone bids 0.10 BTC and the next guy bids 1.05 (instead of 0.105). If the member instantly writes back "sorry!" we shouldn't penalize or make a big deal about it. What do you think?

Also the seller should reserve the right to refuse any scam or suspicious bids (after making reasonable attempts to look into it).

Hello,

Yes. this could be an issue. First of all, mistakes can happen at any time. One way to easily solve this problem is to standardize the habit of placing bid. To do that, I would suggest that bid can be only placed based on the bid increment. If it is over the bid increment that is mentioned by auction seller then the bid will be nullified. This way, users who are placing bids by mistake or typo errors, will be ignored. So there will be no fight back and forth. I call this type bid as static bid because the bid increment is always same.

But, there is one drawback because it will not be dynamic - users will not be able increment bids at their will. But there is another solution to this issue - users can place bids by incrementing the bid sequentially based on the bid increment mentioned in the auction thread by seller. In that case we can confer that users are consciously placing the bids at their will. I will give you an example so that you will understand. Let's say, Tom started an auction with bid increment with .001 btc. Users Jerry, Moe and Larry started to bid.  Now, if Jerry, Moe and Larry place their bids with .005 btc, it will be nullified because they are not incrementing with .001 btc. But if Jerry, Moe and Larry place their bids with .001 btc increment even multiple times with increment .001 btc it will be valid like last_higest_bid+.001, Last_higest_bid+001 and so forth.

The 3rd solution to this issue is to make 100% dynamic meaning anyone can place any higher bid from the last highest bid. Mistake can happen in that case. A reasonable decision should be taken by seller and admin and not being too harsh.

So, I believe I gave all possible solutions to the issue. So we can say so far we found 3 kinds of bid increments here:
1. Freezing Static Bid Increment
2. Sequential Static Bid Increment
3. Dynamic Bid Increment

Best regards, Rainbowsky

[anonymousminer]

I was thinking ... and maybe you guys won't agree... but what about obvious good faith typos that are immediately retracted? Like if you're selling a 0.1 BTC coin and someone bids 0.10 BTC and the next guy bids 1.05 (instead of 0.105). If the member instantly writes back "sorry!" we shouldn't penalize or make a big deal about it. What do you think?

Also the seller should reserve the right to refuse any scam or suspicious bids (after making reasonable attempts to look into it).

Hello,

Yes. this could be an issue. First of all, mistakes can happen at any time. One way to easily solve this problem is to standardize the habit of placing bid. To do that, I would suggest that bid can be only placed based on the bid increment. If it is over the bid increment that is mentioned by auction seller then the bid will be nullified. This way, users who are placing bids by mistake or typo errors, will be ignored. So there will be no fight back and forth. I call this type bid as static bid because the bid increment is always same.

But, there is one drawback because it will not be dynamic - users will not be able increment bids at their will. But there is another solution to this issue - users can place bids by incrementing the bid sequentially based on the bid increment mentioned in the auction thread by seller. In that case we can confer that users are consciously placing the bids at their will. I will give you an example so that you will understand. Let's say, Tom started an auction with bid increment with .001 btc. Users Jerry, Moe and Larry started to bid.  Now, if Jerry, Moe and Larry place their bids with .005 btc, it will be nullified because they are not incrementing with .001 btc. But if Jerry, Moe and Larry place their bids with .001 btc increment even multiple times with increment .001 btc it will be valid like last_higest_bid+.001, Last_higest_bid+001 and so forth.

The 3rd solution to this issue is to make 100% dynamic meaning anyone can place any higher bid from the last highest bid. Mistake can happen in that case. A reasonable decision should be taken by seller and admin and not being too harsh.

So, I believe I gave all possible solutions to the issue. So we can say so far we found 3 kinds of bid increments here:
1. Freezing Static Bid Increment
2. Sequential Static Bid Increment
3. Dynamic Bid Increment

Best regards, Rainbowsky

Stop trying to overthink this..... you guys will end up confusing yourselves.  The OP and first few comments will end up being helpful..... then you will see crap like this trying to reinvent the wheel.  alamjob239 (Rainbowsky) please just shut the hell up.

[MoparMiningLLC]

deleted to avoid derailment of the thread. I apologize. will try to perm delete after 24 hours.

[yimfinity]

Do we need a countdown? Maybe just a link that converts the end time to different time zones would be clearer? It seems like for popular auctions, it almost always goes to extended time and then the countdown no longer applies, or on the clock site itself, it counts up instead of down after which can be confusing.

[cygan]

Do we need a countdown? Maybe just a link that converts the end time to different time zones would be clearer? It seems like for popular auctions, it almost always goes to extended time and then the countdown no longer applies, or on the clock site itself, it counts up instead of down after which can be confusing.

i think so.
no more annoying googling for different timezones or calculating when exactly according to my time the auction will end
the timer shows you exactly how long the auction will run and can be calculated with each timezone