17.4.7 Auctions!

Get a shot at some of the most valuable and rare items in the history of
Achaea. How, you ask? In an auction!

First, look at the auctions currently available with AUCTIONS;
Second, decide on one that looks interesting;
Third, make sure you have the bound credits, or the gold in hand;
Fourth, find a place you can bid; and 
Fifth, make a bid!


How to Look at Auctions
-----------------------
AUCTIONS lists all auctions you can bid on.
AUCTION INFO auctionnumber (say, AUCTION INFO 3) will tell you more
about that one auction.


Places You Can Bid
------------------
You may place bids in the Delos Lottery offices, the Central Market of
Ashtan, Centre Crossing in Cyrene, Central Hall in the Great Oak in Eleusis,
The Crossroads in Hashan, Stygian Crossroads in Mhaldor, or Centre of
Silverbright Square in Targossas.


How You Can Bid
---------------
BID howmany ON auctionnumber. It's quite simple really. For example:
   BID 10000 ON 1

You'll be told what happened, such as:
- Your bid is rejected for being too low. You're not winning yet.
- Your bid pushed up the current maximum. You're not winning yet.
- Your bid was high enough. You're winning!


Your Bid Is a Limit, Which Ain't Exactly a Bid
-----------------------------------------------
Let's say the previous high bid was 1000, and you bid 10000. When
you bid 10000 you are saying "I'll bid the minimum needed to beat
whatever the other guy's bid is, and no more than 10000). Say that
the person who was winning had bid 5000 as the highest he'd go, but
nobody else pushed him up beyond 1000, so the 'high bid' that you
see is 1000, even though his limit is 5000. So now you bid 10000,
and you will definitely get the winning bid. Here's what happens:

- the 'high bid' on the item becomes the next bid beyond whatever
  the last person's limit was. His limit was 5000, and you have
  to beat that, so your bid to beat that is 5500. The visible
  'high bid' is now 5500. 

- 10000 disappears from your hands. It's safe. Don't worry!

- But you bid 10000! Right. That's your limit. You'll go up to
  10000 if you have to. But you don't have to, so you'll stay
  at 5500.

- What if someone else bids, say, 6000? Great, now the high
  bid is 6500, and you're still ahead, because your limit was
  higher still.

- What if someone else bids 11000? The 'high bid' that everybody
  sees will be 10500. The other person will be ahead. And your
  money will be placed in your bank (or your credits will be back
  to you, if the auction is in credits).


Increasing Your Bid
-------------------
If you have the winning bid at the moment, you can increase your limit this
way:
   
   BID INCREASE <amount> on <auction>

If your bid had been 10000, and you BID INCREASE 1000 on 1, then your bid is
now 11000. You can't decrease or withdraw your bid. Pay careful attention so
that you don't accidentally bid more than you wished to bid! We will not
change your bid for you if this happens. The amount you are increasing is
ADDED to your previous bid; it does not replace it. Thus, if you have a bid
of 100, and you BID INCREASE by 150, your new bid is 250, NOT 150. 


Escrow
------
The idea here is that in credit auctions (only), you may not want to buy the
credits just to be able to bid on something you aren't sure of winning. OK, we
can work with that. We will let you count the trade-in value of your current
artefacts as 'escrow credits' which you can also use to bid with. Just

   AUCTION ESCROW BUILD

and your escrow limit will be set up. To check credits for bidding:

   AUCTION CREDITS

which will report on bound credits, and escrow credits.

Note: Escrow credits aren't real credits! They just help you bid on things
without having all the bound credits on hand ahead of time. If you win the
auction, you will be expected to buy credits, or trade in artefacts, or do
something to raise your bound credits level to high enough to resolve the
auction. In fact, that's what you do:

   AUCTION auctionnumber RESOLVE

And if you have enough bound credits, then the auction ends, you pay your
credits, and you get the prize. Done!


What Happens at the End of the Auction
--------------------------------------
Somebody wins. Hopefully you! Either the credits or gold will be taken away,
and the item/artefact/special-prize will be awarded. If you need to get more
credits, then it'll all wait till you RESOLVE the auction (see above).

Then if there were any unused bid monies, you'll get 'em back then too. That's
for when, say, you bid 10000 gold, 10000 gold is removed from your possession,
and then when all is over, you won with a winning bid of 6000 gold. You'll win
all right, and you'll get back the leftover 4000 gold.

As an additional security measure if you are a citizen of any city and have a
bankaccount setup in your home city then the gold from lost auctions will
automatically be deposited to your account.
 
If you are not a citizen or do not have a bankaccount in your home city then
all refunded gold will go directly into your inventory.


General Notes
-------------
Bids CANNOT be retracted. You bid, you're stuck. If you're outbid, then and
only then do you get your gold/credits/whatever back. PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION
TO YOUR BID SYNTAX. If you enter the wrong amount, you are still responsible
for that.

When an auction appears, everyone in the realms is notified.

Items won in credit auctions are NOT transferrable to anyone else. Bound
credits are used for credit auctions, so whatever you win is bound to your
character forever. Artefacts won in gold auctions are similarly
non-transferrable. Any other items won in gold auctions where you would need
divine intervention to transfer it to someone else should be assumed as
non-transferrable unless otherwise noted in the auction description.

Items purchased via auction do not have a trade-in value.