[SUGGESTION] Auctioning Horses Using Preview Signs

I'm not sure if this idea is absolutely ground breaking or anything, but I was thinking about how hard it has always been to write in stats for every horse you have when doing auctions. Because you have to have at least ten horses, it can become a bit of a chore, having to write out all of the stats. Of course, you could take a screenshot of each of the horse's stats and post them all in, but this could cause page lag and can still take time to do, and may even need uploading to imgur.com first.

My suggestion is to cut the time that needs to be used to write in all of the stats, and also perhaps make it easier for auction bidders to find out all of the stats that they want.

As all of you know, the new preview signs addition is a great one and it could be used in many ways - including for horse auctions. My idea that I had today was to be able to use preview signs to auction horses. Rather than listing stats, people could go to the chest and preview the horses. This could make it easier for the auctioneer and in some people's opinion, may make it easier for the bidders too. Of course, some rules would need to be in place for this to work. For example, the exact location, residence and server of the preview sign would need to be listed, and perhaps more regulations like having to have a screenshot or having to write the lowest and highest percentages in the thread as an estimate could be introduced too. Indeed, you could still list the stats, but some may choose to auction in this way.

Here's an example:

Item(s): 27 horses
Starting Bid: 500r
Minimum Bid Increment: 100r
Auction Ends: 24 hours after the last valid bid
Where to view the horse stats: Use /v 18318 on SMP9, go to the door immediately left of you and use the preview sign on the chest on the right

Sure, this idea may be flawed, but it would be useful to find easier ways of auctioning horses. If you have any ideas of how to improve my idea or have a new idea of your own, feel free to suggest it below!

EDIT: hashhog makes the great observation that the owner can swap out the items. Does anyone have a plausible rectification to this problem?

Loving the heads idea, we could use this preview idea for that too! However, you bring up a good point. I'm not sure how we'll be able to regulate that. Either that means this idea is shot down, or somebody else hopefully has a solution! Thanks for the feedback!

*Heads over to 18318*

But seriously, I like the preview idea, however I have no plausible idea to rectify the swapping issue...

Edited the bottom of my post to ask if anyone has a rectification to the problem!

Unless those chests are put in a place where the owner can't open the chest after he starts the bidding(for example a public space, where only admins can use)... But I'm not sure if thats really possible...

It would work, but in the end, this would cause more work anyways, and so wouldn't really solve the problem I'm afraid

*Claps*

My answer to your first point is that bidders should have access to the game to learn the stats, because if they don't have access, they won't be able to pick up, and therefore shouldn't be able to bid. But I see what you mean. Especially with the scam part, I can't think of a decent way of stopping that, and I can't imagine there is one either. Hopefully horse auctions can somehow become simpler in the future, but for now, I do understand completely. Thanks for the feedback Krystal!

A note from me here mentioning that this idea is denied, but if you can think of some ways of how to overcome that last part (edited) in the original post then please enlighten this thread with your ideas. Thanks everyone.

Something that could rectify the issue is a script of some sorts or an optional EMC-Dedicated mod/plug-in that works on analyzing the contents of a chest and outputting, in text format, in an external file and listing the items and any attached stats on said item.. Like slot 1 is a Horse Egg, Type of Horse, Spd. X, Jmp. X, HP X, slot 2 is a diamond chest at X% durability with Thorns 3, Prot 4, etc... Another idea is timer locks for auctions, Basically a sign lock that is like [auction lock], where the contents of the chest cannot be modified but can be viewed via [preview] and when the auction is over the auction lock can be shift-clicked to add the winners name to the auction lock and that person is the only person that can open and take the contents until said chest is emptied.. Just an idea.. :\

Well Yeah, I agree on that... But that was a possibility for the horses fraud thing...
Like, Your idea is really good, for serious. But we gotta consider that not everyone is honest/ethic.
I guess for now, the forums will have to do... Thats the price we pay for unethics...

I MIGHT be able to macromod this for you - it'll produce an image containing the info of all horse eggs in your inventory. No promises, but I'll give it a go.

I don't need this specifically myself, but I'm sure many have the problem of having to write everything out for heads/horse stats/enchants et cetera. Think it would avoid scamming completely though?

So wouldn't that make it so whatever they put in that chest have to match up the forum? Because if so, then it's the same as a regular auction, if someone pays for x item and gets instead y item, then they report it to a staff member, same can go for this preview chest.

Staff wouldn't have record of what item was actually in the preview chest before

Wouldn't completely avoid scamming. One way I can see of doing it is generating a timestamped page on the interwebs saying the exact items (and stuff like enchants, metadata etc.) that were in the chest, so if anyone does swap stuff round, there's proof they did.

For the record: I really enjoy auctions. I'm always excited to run them, I enjoy participating (even up to a point where I sometimes still participate whilst knowing that I could get stuff cheaper in-game simply because I'm enjoying myself) and if we can enhance on auctions then I'm all in favor.

However.. Now, I'm late to the thread and in all honesty: the first thing popping to mind was exactly what Kryssy said up there. My personal take on the matter is basically that although I can agree with you that auctioning a larger amount of horses could be a chore it's also a chore you chose for yourself. If you want a good auction you simply should put some effort into it. May sound harsher than intended, but... I'm a big fan of auctions and every time I run one I'm already using this set up but always optional; listed the items on the forums and in-game (preview). In my opinion putting effort into an auction comes with the territory.

Now, obviously I'm not writing all this just to share my (somewhat) disapproval of this plan, absolutely not! So... I think you should extend this plan. In my opinion you should always keep in-game and in-forum separate where auctions are concerned.

So why not try and organize (more) official auctions in-game in some kind of "auction house" as is being done in real life? If we put some effort into this (and I say we because if this was going to happen I'm all in) then we might even be able to make some kind of (weekly?) reoccurring event out of it.

Here's the idea:

Obviously a nice large build where we set up a few DC's with preview signs for public display. People can come here and get their stuff auctioned off while keeping the official auction rules on items in mind (to avoid confusion). The trick here would be that it's not the seller themselves who's organizing the auction but an official auctioneer. At least someone who is familiar with chat (can tell people to use /ch r, will also exclude people who keep talking in town chat, knows how to remove people from a residence if need to, etc. etc.), can keep control (see the removal from residence issue) and is reliable (no offense but obviously this shouldn't be a player who's only 3 days on EMC).

So how would this work?

We setup several DC's which both have a preview sign as well as space for an access sign. Say I want to auction off one DC of warts. I apply for the event, when accepted I get my own DC assigned to me and then I put my warts into that DC. Auction is going to be announced so people can check out that its really 1 DC of warts. But (hopefully) another person applies for 1 DC of netherrack and one DC of cobble.

In 1 round we'll hold up to a max. of 3 auctions at once. So, in the example above:

"Next we'll auction chest #1: DC of warts. Start bid is 5k, who offers more than 5k?" (all in chat!).

"Ok, sold to AuctionPlayer for 11k. Next up is #2: DC of netherrack".

(during this time one of the organizers (we need at least 2 - 3 people) will now walk over to the DC of warts and add the winners name to the access sign while the next auction is running).

The idea here is that this gives potential buyers the option to really buy in bulk.

After 3 auctions have run we'll take a 5 min break then get ready for the (optional) 2nd auctions.

The advantage

Some people type faster in chat than others, some people are better in keeping / maintaining control than others and (sometimes) some people can be more serious. Someone who wants to sell of his stuff in an in-game auction only has to cope with applying for the auction, attending (to put his stuff in a chest) and doesn't have to worry about all the hassle (warning people to use /ch r, making sure not to spam town chat, etc, etc.).

So; in game auctions which are organized for you.

I suppose we could even consider to request a small fee for participating (say 50r per auction, but if you don't sell your stuff then you get your entry fee back as well).

As said; it could even be a nice event of some sorts.