brionac
Alolan Fox
I think this is a useful guide even for players that have been at it before. To give the new players some insight on how to conduct an auction and how to participate in another player's auction, this guide is for you.
Asking In An Auction
I have a template that I created for an auction where I immediately sold a Virus Armor: Lafuteria before the auction ended on schedule. I set up a buyout, or immediate sell, option because I wanted to create a sense of urgency among the serious bidders, and it worked. Feel free to take that tip the next time a good item that is not really really rare drops while copying and pasting the template from there. In other words, a buyout feature in the template is optional, so it's not necessary to include this feature that is included in the template. Another reason to include a buyout option is to shorten the duration of an auction even though all auctions that begin with a valid bid will end, especially competitive auctions.
Here are the rules to conduct an auction; another rule to use is to only accept an increase in bid by a minimal increment such as increasing the next valid bid by 3 or more PD's from the previous one. I recommend asking around on the Ephinea Discord for prices to stipulate what is allowed to be entered as a valid bid. Here is an example of someone putting prices on items. Beware of the possibility that an auction may be interrupted by either hacking, incivility, or volatility; and please don't exchange an S-Parts ver2.01 for a Cross Scar.
The last tip to maintain accountability is to set up email notifications in order to keep track of bidding replies in the auction thread. Before pressing "Create Thread", click both check boxes for "Watch this thread..." and "and receive email notifications" so that a sneaky bidder's feeling of buyer's remorse hurts even harder before a moderator is involved to dish out justice. If you forgot to do that and the auction thread is already posted; press "Watch Thread" on the top right corner of the auction thread, click the dot that says "and receive email notifications", and click the "Watch Thread" button.
If all goes according to plan, congratulations! You now have sold a rare item for a lot of stuff! So what are Photon Hoards (PH's), and how do you use them? A Photon Hoard is a unique item that represents 99 Photon Drops (PD's), and it is obtained after exchanging 99 PD's with a mysterious NPC in the Gallon's Shop quest in Episode 2 in the Shop category of quests. He's the NPC that is in a black-vested officer's uniform with a stick, so it's hard to miss him. Please begin a dialogue with this NPC again to confirm your decision to make the exchange; this NPC will not exchange the items with you if he is pinged once. This unnamed NPC can revert the exchange if one wants to convert a PH back into 99 PD's too.
Unlike Paganini who does a different exchange in his secret shop with PD's, a Photon Sphere (PS) cannot be converted back into 99 PD's; so consider this to be a warning when deciding whether or not to exchange 99 PD's for either a PH or a PS. A PS is designed to be used on weapons to add photon attributes or %'s on them, and a PH is designed to store PD's more conveniently without having to put stacks of PD's in other character's banks.
Bonus tip: If you like to have countdowns set up on separate link, use this tool to set up a deadline for the auction in your auction thread. The countdown will assume a UTC time standard when the location is left blank, and don't forget to check "Stop countdown at zero" in order to prevent the timer from beginning to add seconds after the deadline has occurred. If the bid increases, update the countdown tool with a new countdown timer.
Bidding In An Auction
All right, so this is the easy part, but keep the seller's intent in mind by reading the previous section above, and please remember that bidding has rules besides the typical trading rules too. As an example of what not to do that hasn't been mentioned yet, altering a bid is not allowed as this post in this auction shows. Also, please don't bid more than you are willing to lose. Another small tip is to bid in a reasonable manner where it's not a long list of +1 PD bid replies especially if there is a minimal incremental bid requirement as mentioned above for sellers in auctions since it's an additional rule that they may stipulate along with the actual rules.
On a more positive note, be prepared to have a price ceiling, a price that you're willing to pay at most, for whatever item is on auction, and if someone outbids you, prepare for the next auction that is similar to the current auction. You may get a better deal in the next auction anyways.
Addendum: Bangalanga's Auctioning Service
If you're unsure what a really rare item is worth from looking around the auctions sub-forum, and you're a new player that doesn't mind pay a small fee for this service from @Jbangalanga, then he's enthusiastically ready to take care of you with his expertise.
Asking In An Auction
I have a template that I created for an auction where I immediately sold a Virus Armor: Lafuteria before the auction ended on schedule. I set up a buyout, or immediate sell, option because I wanted to create a sense of urgency among the serious bidders, and it worked. Feel free to take that tip the next time a good item that is not really really rare drops while copying and pasting the template from there. In other words, a buyout feature in the template is optional, so it's not necessary to include this feature that is included in the template. Another reason to include a buyout option is to shorten the duration of an auction even though all auctions that begin with a valid bid will end, especially competitive auctions.
Here are the rules to conduct an auction; another rule to use is to only accept an increase in bid by a minimal increment such as increasing the next valid bid by 3 or more PD's from the previous one. I recommend asking around on the Ephinea Discord for prices to stipulate what is allowed to be entered as a valid bid. Here is an example of someone putting prices on items. Beware of the possibility that an auction may be interrupted by either hacking, incivility, or volatility; and please don't exchange an S-Parts ver2.01 for a Cross Scar.
The last tip to maintain accountability is to set up email notifications in order to keep track of bidding replies in the auction thread. Before pressing "Create Thread", click both check boxes for "Watch this thread..." and "and receive email notifications" so that a sneaky bidder's feeling of buyer's remorse hurts even harder before a moderator is involved to dish out justice. If you forgot to do that and the auction thread is already posted; press "Watch Thread" on the top right corner of the auction thread, click the dot that says "and receive email notifications", and click the "Watch Thread" button.
If all goes according to plan, congratulations! You now have sold a rare item for a lot of stuff! So what are Photon Hoards (PH's), and how do you use them? A Photon Hoard is a unique item that represents 99 Photon Drops (PD's), and it is obtained after exchanging 99 PD's with a mysterious NPC in the Gallon's Shop quest in Episode 2 in the Shop category of quests. He's the NPC that is in a black-vested officer's uniform with a stick, so it's hard to miss him. Please begin a dialogue with this NPC again to confirm your decision to make the exchange; this NPC will not exchange the items with you if he is pinged once. This unnamed NPC can revert the exchange if one wants to convert a PH back into 99 PD's too.
Unlike Paganini who does a different exchange in his secret shop with PD's, a Photon Sphere (PS) cannot be converted back into 99 PD's; so consider this to be a warning when deciding whether or not to exchange 99 PD's for either a PH or a PS. A PS is designed to be used on weapons to add photon attributes or %'s on them, and a PH is designed to store PD's more conveniently without having to put stacks of PD's in other character's banks.
Bonus tip: If you like to have countdowns set up on separate link, use this tool to set up a deadline for the auction in your auction thread. The countdown will assume a UTC time standard when the location is left blank, and don't forget to check "Stop countdown at zero" in order to prevent the timer from beginning to add seconds after the deadline has occurred. If the bid increases, update the countdown tool with a new countdown timer.
Bidding In An Auction
All right, so this is the easy part, but keep the seller's intent in mind by reading the previous section above, and please remember that bidding has rules besides the typical trading rules too. As an example of what not to do that hasn't been mentioned yet, altering a bid is not allowed as this post in this auction shows. Also, please don't bid more than you are willing to lose. Another small tip is to bid in a reasonable manner where it's not a long list of +1 PD bid replies especially if there is a minimal incremental bid requirement as mentioned above for sellers in auctions since it's an additional rule that they may stipulate along with the actual rules.
On a more positive note, be prepared to have a price ceiling, a price that you're willing to pay at most, for whatever item is on auction, and if someone outbids you, prepare for the next auction that is similar to the current auction. You may get a better deal in the next auction anyways.
Addendum: Bangalanga's Auctioning Service
If you're unsure what a really rare item is worth from looking around the auctions sub-forum, and you're a new player that doesn't mind pay a small fee for this service from @Jbangalanga, then he's enthusiastically ready to take care of you with his expertise.
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