by Max Barry

Latest Forum Topics

Advertisement

45

DispatchMetaReference

by The Regional Nation of The Northern Light. . 3,478 reads.

NationStates Cards - The Auction System


How Does One Navigate Through Auctions?


.

What are auctions?

Auctions are the primary way to win a card for your collection, with each auction starting when: A) a nation places a bid that matches/goes over the minimum asking price or B) a nation lodges an ask that matches/goes below the highest bid at the time. Each auction lasts for a minimum 1 hour, and said auctions will extend by one minute each time a nation overbids the highest bidder or undercuts the lowest ask.

During auctions, the card (that got matched) will be displayed in an active list of auctions, and you may narrow down the list of auctions to find your desired auction by using the auction filter buttons. These filter buttons will eliminate auctions that do not meet your criteria for what card(s) you're wishing to track (such as the card that's being auctioned not being of a certain rarity or season), as seen from the following:

(As displayed above, you may only have one filter button active at a time; "multi-filtering" will be added in a later update.)

After an auction ends, the nation that bought/sold the card will receive a notification of that card being bought/sold, and the nation that sold the card will be prohibited from re-selling that card for 3 minutes, after which the card will be permitted to be re-sold by that nation.

[Side Note: The minimum bid/ask a nation may lodge is 0.01, while the maximum is 10000.]


What types of people participate in auctions?

When involving yourself in auctions, you'll notice that players have different methods as to how they win cards from others! These players are (roughly) classified into one of the 3 types:

1. Regular Bidders - Regular bidders are players (typically with a high quantity of bank) who decide to bid an amount that would be deemed significantly more profitable (for the person selling the card) than the previous lodged bid. These players primarily bid significant amounts to discourage other players from bidding in an auction (otherwise they may end up losing more bank than wanted).

2. Penny Bidders - Penny bidders are players (typically with a low quantity of bank) who decide to outbid the previously highest bidder by an extremely low amount (such as 0.01 bank). Penny bidding is typically done in order to save bank, and this strategy primarily works with cards of a lower value/rarity (such as a common).

3. Snipers - Snipers are sneaky players who decide to outbid the original player by any amount of bank at the very last second. This gives the original bidder only 1 minute to re-outbid the player (since outbidding will always increase the auction timer by 1 minute), giving the sniper a tactical advantage in earning cards without significant competition.


How can I ensure my card gets bought?

Since each auction takes a minimum 1+ hours to complete, you will very-likely be outbid on one of the things you're buying (especially if the card you're bidding on is desired by many players). If that occurs, re-lodge a bid of a significantly higher quantity in order to discourage them from continuing their outbidding spree any further.

It is also noteworthy that some sneaky players (i.e. snipers) might attempt to outbid you at the very last second (and win the card), leaving only a minute for you to counter their bid. Due to this, you are advised to: A) watch the auction for its entire duration or B) watch it during the last 5 minutes to ensure no last-minute bidders will make an attempt to snipe your card.


But what if I don't want to use auctions to buy cards?

At the moment, the are currently 2 ways for players to make use of the auctions system without the intention to purchase cards:

1. Bank Transfers - Bank transfers are the act of deliberately selling a card your main nation has to a puppet for an unusually high price. Nations typically conduct bank transfers in order to accumulate a large amount of bank that is representative from all of their nations (rather than just their main), allowing them to pay for additional or more expensive cards that would've been thought unthinkable for single-nation players.

2. Bank Heists - Of course, bank transfers have a downside. When you publicly sell a card to your puppet for a high price, at least one player will be tempted to underask your price, stealing said puppet's bank that was intended to go to your main. This defines a bank heist, and if an active player already possesses the card you were using as a transfer medium, said player will very-likely underask you in order to gain an unexpected increase in bank.


Special thanks to Destructive Government Economic System for writing the entire guide!


RawReport