Auction Law

Otherwise known as the player auction handbook. Where players learn how listing, bidding, timers, fees, and delivery work at Nilgiri shopkeepers — the auction-style market behind Shop Law.

A Banking Guild account is required for commerce (help auction). Shop-room commands that browse or buy stock without listing or bidding stay on Shop Law; this page is the auction and offer path.

Related: Shop Law · Banking Guild · Postal Guild · Creation Law — Shops · Game Law (Economy)

At a keeper with Acts.SHOPKEEPER, hand goods with auction. From help auction and MobileScript.shopkeeperActAuction:

auction <item> <start-price>
or auction <item> for <n> gold
with return postage: auction <item> <start-price> minimum <min-price>

The start price must be greater than zero. A minimum, if set, must be ≥ 0 and ≤ the start price (S.noAuctMinCost). The item leaves your inventory into shop storage and appears on list.

In-game help for auction (base listing covered by taxes; Constant.COST_AUCTION_LISTING = 0):

> auction headress for 10 gold
You hand a pontiff's headress to the armorer.
Account #0000-10A9 debited 0gc for auction service #00F31DC3 'a pontiff's headress' by Quenyarhun
Okay.
The armorer whispers to you, "Taxes cover the cost of your listing."
>

With a minimum (in-game help demo; fee follows weight × mail multiplier):

> auction the plate for 500 gold coins at a minimum of 200 with note
You hand the golden eagle breast plate to the armorer.
Account #0000-1000 debitted 106gc for auction service #01A3EEB9 by Quenarhun
Okay.
 
The armorer whispers to you, "That'll be 106 coins, please."
>

From help auction: if you list without a minimum and the item never sells, the shopkeeper may dump it free of charge. If you need the item back, set a minimum and pay the postage deposit. Ask value on the item first (see Shop Law — Value) for the live listing / shipping quote.

Grammar notes: in-game help spells headress; some help demos print debitted / Quenarhun while Bank.java ledger text uses debited and help auction uses Quenyarhun. An older no-minimum sell demo still shows a non-zero listing debit from an older fee table — live COST_AUCTION_LISTING = 0 and the tax-cover whisper above. Trust the bank line and whisper you see.

While an item is still in its auction window (owner-listed, time remaining), bid with offer, not buy. Bids below the next allowed price are refused; a successful bid debits your account. Example:

> list
The armorer informs you of its auctions and sales:
1) #01A51392 500gc : 'the golden eagle breast plate' (6 days offers:0)
2) #01A513CB 123gc : 'a great golden eagle shield' (6 days offers:0)
3) #01A513D2 61gc : 'a pair of armored golden eagle leggings'
> offer 125 gold for #01a513cb with note
Account #0000-1001 debitted 125gc for auction #01A513CB by Silk
Okay.
The armorer whispers to you, "Thanks for your offer! Your account will be
deducted. Should you be outbid, your offer will be refunded."
> offer 1 gold coin for item #01a51392 with note
The armorer whispers to you, "Your offer is too low. Try 500 gold coins."
> list
The armorer informs you of its auctions and sales:
1) #01A51392 500gc : 'the golden eagle breast plate' (6 days offers:0)
2) #01A513CB 125gc : 'a great golden eagle shield' (6 days offers:1)
3) #01A513D2 61gc : 'a pair of armored golden eagle leggings'
>

By list number:

> offer 125 gold for #1 with note
Account #0000-1001 debitted 125gc for auction #01A513CB by Silk
Okay.
The armorer whispers to you, "Thanks for your offer! Your account will be
deducted. Should you be outbid, your offer will be refunded."
>

The next bid must be at least 110% of the current high bid (or one coin higher when that percentage would not raise the price) — Auction.PRICE_INCREASE_PERCENT. Raising your own high bid whispers S.raiseOffer: “Your account is updated and your offer has been raised.”

Address items by list number (#1) or hex id (#01A513CB). Mid-auction items refuse buy with S.auctItemNoSale: “That item is for auction, not for sale.”

From Auction.poll, AuctionEvent, help auction, Mailer, and Bank:

List — auction stores the item under the keeper; auction clock starts (Auction.TIME_TO_AUCTION = 2 real weeks).
Bid — offer while time remains. List lines show remaining time and offers: N.
Sale window — if the auction clock ends with no offers, the listing enters a sale period (Auction.TIME_TO_SELL = 1 real month). List lines show remaining sale time as … sale). Asking price drops each real day to 70% of the prior price (PRICE_DECREASE_PERCENT / PRICE_DECREASE_PERIOD), never below your minimum. Players may buy at the current sale price (see Shop Law — Buy).
Cancel — no player cancel command was found in in-game help or the shopkeeper command set; omitted.

Auction resolution is polled about every 30 real minutes per keeper (AuctionEvent.PULSE = nextPrime(30 × Time.MILLIS_PER_MINUTE)).

When the auction clock expires with at least one offer (Auction.poll: timeLeft ⇐ 0 and _offers > 0):

The high bidder is mailed the item: Mailer.send(bidder, shopkeeper.proper(), item). The from name is the shopkeeper's proper name.
If the bidder is online (linked), MaildeliverEvent runs with the player's mail daemon (default S.immMailDaemon = “a snowy white owl”): swoop in carrying the item, deliver it, tell Mailer.message(), give the item, then fly away. Mailer.message() is built as: “You have a package here sent <time phrase> from <shopkeeper>.”
If the bidder is offline, the parcel stays in the mailer queue; collect it at a Postal Guild postmaster with mail — same Mailer.message() whisper and hand-over (see Postal Guild; sender is the shopkeeper).
The seller's bank account is credited the final bid via Bank.creditAuction — a ledger TextEntry of the form: Account #<id> credited <n>gc for auction item #<hex> '<name>'. If the account holder is online, TextEntry.add also echoes that line to them immediately; otherwise it appears later on bank balance. The owner also gets an internal Player.log auction-sold line (not player-echoed).

No in-game help sample transcript was found for the win mail or seller credit line. In-game help / S.java have no “you won the auction” string. Verified player-visible win signals are only the mailed package (from the shopkeeper) and the seller's bank credit entry above — so no fabricated win mud demo is shown here.

Outbid (during the auction window). On a new successful offer, Auction.offer calls Bank.outbid for the previous high bidder: the prior bid is credited back with a TextEntry of the form Account #<id> credited <n>gc for auction #<hex> by <new bidder>. If that player is online, TextEntry.add echoes the credit line immediately (same string). In-game help / S.newOffer only promises the refund at bid time (“Should you be outbid, your offer will be refunded.”); there is no separate outbid-keeper whisper in help or S.java.

Auction ends without your win. If you were outbid earlier, you already have the credit back; losing bidders are not mailed anything when the high bidder wins.

Expire with no bids — return (minimum set). After the sale period also runs out (timeLeft ⇐ -TIME_TO_SELL) and _minimum != 0, Auction.poll mails the item back to the owner with Mailer.send(owner, shopkeeper.proper(), item) — same package path and Mailer.message() as a win, from the shopkeeper. In-game help states the postage deposit exists so unsold goods can be returned.

Expire with no bids — dump (no minimum / price reaches 0). From help auction: without a minimum, unsold goods may be dumped free of charge. Code also purges a listing when the discounted sale price reaches 0 (item.purge()); that path writes a Player.log “worthless … dumped” line for the owner but does not mail the item back.

Player-visible lose outcomes that in-game help does not sample (outbid ledger line, return package, dump) are described from Java only — not invented as mud transcripts.

From help auction, Constant, and Auction:

Auction window — TIME_TO_AUCTION = 2 real weeks.
Sale window — TIME_TO_SELL = 1 real month after auction ends with no bids.
Daily markdown — each real day in sale: price × 0.7 (PRICE_DECREASE_PERCENT = 70), floored at your minimum.
Next bid — ≥ 110% of current high bid (PRICE_INCREASE_PERCENT).
Poll — about every 30 real minutes per keeper (AuctionEvent.PULSE).
Base listing — free / covered by taxes when the listing debit is 0 (COST_AUCTION_LISTING = 0; whisper Taxes cover the cost of your listing. / S.taxPaidListing). Older value / sell demos may still show a non-zero listing line — trust live value.
Minimum / return postage — when minimum > 0, debit adds COST_MAIL_MULTIPLIER (2) × item weight. value quotes shopMailCost = 1 + that product as the refundable shipping figure.
Bids — full offer debited; outbid amounts credited back (Bank.outbid).
Identify — COST_IDENTIFY = 2 gold (shop path; see Shop Law).