Auction Pointers

[Mystified]

So I find myself scratching my head at some of these high level (Tier 5) auctions. If they open the door and the place is loaded, I expect I'm going to pay 3-4k for this stuff. But I've had them open the door and it looks half empty and still pay 3K+. I'm curious if anyone has been able to suss out how the auction npcs work as far as how high they will bid. Is it random, or do you suppose the game takes into account the potential value (assuming you have maxed tools) of the contents and then the NPCs have a minimum % the bid has to get to... I wonder sometimes because I've seen some lower tier auctions go for pretty damn cheap occasionally. I've never lost money on an auction, I at least make a couple hundred, but on higher tiers (4-5) I usually make 40% ish above what I paid (just as an average).

[galadon3]

Not really any idea how the NPCs work, but often it doesnt really matter how "filled" a place is, sometimes you have behind one big thing a bunch of small rare items that are worth a fortune while a stuffed place may have a lot of unwieldy common stuff that doesn't make you much money.

[Growler Guy]

This is mostly RNG. However, high-level auctions should produce more valuable items in better condition than lower-level auctions, and level 3 should fall in the middle.

[Mystified]

Thanks. I've had some decent III auctions. Is and IIs seem to have a lot more quick sale junk in them, lower quality. I was just curious because I've seen some auctions go super high with just one NPC opposing me and I wondered if there was a rhyme or reason or just RNG. Thanks!

[[LCND] Mantalow]

it doesn't matter how it is filled, some very small gems or rings (legendary) are valuated to $1500++ and sometimes, there are 4 in one sale.

[Artemis]

It's just a randomised reserve price that NPC's have to hit before they stop bidding, and each tier of auction probably has it's set range of prices and it can be as high or as low as that tier range can go. e.g. Tier 1 auction has a range between (*base cost - $800) it rolls it when the auction starts and the game adjusts which NPC is the principal bidder until they hit the set reserve, then either you or the npc wins.

As for advice on bidding, once you start playing the game alot you kind of get an onsite-feel for the values in the containers based on items you have sold in the past. I would personally recommend not doing tier 3 until purple/good quality tools, then 4/5 after max tools. Set yourself an acceptable price and walk away, Once you get your purple/good quality tools, you should really be hitting the blind auctions and for those there is really only 3 choices (fashion - Art/Culture - Electronics). Electronics has always been a big winner because the pool of electronics items in game is quite small, same with fashion, lots of blues and purples. Everything else is a crap shoot.

[pseudoswede]

It used to be a reserved price, but now it appears to have changed to just an RNG on the number of bids each NPC is assigned.

One NPC is assigned 1-5 bids
Another NPC is assigned 1-10 bids
Another NPC is assigned 5-20 bids
Final NPC is assigned 10-50 bids

Numbers above are simple guesstimates based on my not-so-accurate observations. If I had a few hours to play consecutively, I would do a more scientific approach. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's based on name as well as their position number (relative to you) during the auction.

I have run into situations in Tier 4/5 auctions where I bid once, and I win. Other times, it's me and one NPC bidding from $3400 all the way up past $10k, $80 at a time.

[[LCND] Mantalow]

Originally posted by pseudoswede:

It used to be a reserved price, but now it appears to have changed to just an RNG on the number of bids each NPC is assigned.

One NPC is assigned 1-5 bids
Another NPC is assigned 1-10 bids
Another NPC is assigned 5-20 bids
Final NPC is assigned 10-50 bids

Numbers above are simple guesstimates based on my not-so-accurate observations. If I had a few hours to play consecutively, I would do a more scientific approach. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's based on name as well as their position number (relative to you) during the auction.

I have run into situations in Tier 4/5 auctions where I bid once, and I win. Other times, it's me and one NPC bidding from $3400 all the way up past $10k, $80 at a time.

After 40 hours of play, I noticed some npcs are more persistant to not let the auction go, some are intimidated more easily if you make a bigger bid, some are almost always over estimating and so on. You will know what to do and how to bid depending on the npcs with you at the auction after a while, obervatiung their behaviour and the result of the auction.

They also act differently at blind auctions.