Info Overpricing, Scamming And Display Of Items / Regulation Of Auctions

Overpricing, Scamming and Display of Items
Regulation of Auctions
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Hello people of the Trade Market,

The moderation team has noticed a sudden increase of disputes about the issue of displaying mythics and/or overpricing mythics as well as withdrawals of auctions on either seller's and buyer's side. The according rule for this is given below, we think everyone is aware of it:

7. Do not scam players.
(Selling something that is grossly overpriced, tricking someone into buying an item that was not promised. If an unidentified item that is advertised wrongly is sold the seller must give a full refund or receive a permanent ban.)
as stated in the Forum Rules by Salted.

The issue and its legality is explained further in the eyes of the team.

Buying and Selling​

1. Scamming
Scamming is considered selling/buying/offering an item to/from another player who does not know its actual market value.

Spoiler: Full explanation

This means, having the knowledge of the actual price whilst abusing the fact that the victim does not have this knowledge and thus selling/buying/offering an item for overpriced/ultra cheap is a bannable offense. This is NOT justified by the agreement of both sides, because the victim is not fully aware of the current price. Additionally, artificially raising a value by a deal with a friend is also considered scamming (regarding auctions).

2. Tricking
If someone sells a promised item and sells the wrong one (either wrong IDs or the wrong item) a refund must be given. If none is given, then this counts as a scam.

Spoiler: Full explanation

Selling unided items (Unique to Legendary) is allowed as long as the buyer of the item gets the item he desires.
Example: Intentionally selling an unidentified Pisces advertised as a Cancer is a bannable offense as the seller has knowledge of the outcome and thus tricks the buyer.

3. Displaying Mythics (and other items)
Displaying Mythics for the sake of a show-off in the Trade Market is not allowed as this place is for selling and buying items exclusively.

Spoiler: Full explanation

If you post it in here, we expect you make your post(s) in good faith, and offering something for sale, when you don't intend to sell it, at a reasonable price, is not in good faith. That is ruining someone else's enjoyment of the game. An exception is the Price Check Thread, where items are analyzed to be sold afterwards. The latter does NOT give you rights to display them in said thread for the sake of showing off.

4. Overpricing
A price can be done by the seller within the boundaries that is accepted by the majority of the community. This however does not allow players to overprice grossly, making it impossible to sell, which therefore goes under Displaying Mythics.

Spoiler: Full explanation

This form of overpricing is a lame excuse to get around our rules. If a buyer is willing to pay extra because they really want an item, they can say it however they want, but a seller demanding extra is scamming the buyer. If this occurs in the Trade Market, first please make the seller aware of the current price of the item before filing a report. The thread author HAS to change the price if he CANNOT give a reason why it is overpriced.

Auction​

1. Setting up an auction
A proper setup of an auction contains a starting bid, a buy-out and a date of when the auction ends (can be either a proper date with time-zone or a duration an auction will go). All conditions (starting bid, minimum increment, buyout and end date) cannot be changed once the first bid was posted unless better specified in the spoiler.

Spoiler: Full explanation

However a buy-out is not a necessity and can be left out entirely. However an end date must be given for an auction, otherwise the auctioneer could extend it for a very long period to potentially gain more money. The date, starting bid and buyout can only be changed if nobody has bid yet. If someone has bid already then a valid reason must be given to extend/decrease the period regarding the end date.

2. False bid raise
Raising the bid in an auction for the sake to raise its price is forbidden.

Spoiler: Full explanation

This includes buying out an item for a friend for him so he (the auctioneer) can resell it for another, better price. A failed artificial bid raise is discussed in the 4th rule.

3. Withdrawal of the auction (Seller)
The auctioneer is allowed to cancel the auction under certain circumstances.

Spoiler: Full explanation

It is allowed if the starting conditions (and buy-out) are either set too high or too low (to prevent a scam). However the current high bidder must be informed about this. If the item has no bids (actual bids that are in the range of the amount specified) the auctioneer is of course allowed to cancel the auction. If the the auction is cancelled for no reason whilst people were bidding (potentially someone paying more than the buy-out in-game) the auctioneer can be punished for it. The auctioneer is allowed to close the auction if someone in-game bought out the item if it is followed by proof (Who the guy is who bought it out and how he said buyout/bid the amount for a buyout in form of a screenshot/chat log). If he simply just bid more than the current highest then a proof must be provided in the auction thread and the auction goes on.

4. Withdrawal of the auction (Buyer)
A buyer is not permitted to withdraw their bid unless the circumstances of the auction or circumstances of the buyer have changed.

Spoiler: Full explanation

A withdrawal can be suspected for an attempt for an artificial bid raise which is very dishonest and can be punished for on the forums. However if another weapon has been found that is more appealing to the bidder then he can provide the evidence and withdraw his bid.

5. False bids/Joke bids
False bids and joke bids are not allowed as it goes under "Useless comment/post".

Spoiler: Full explanation

This is done to keep an auction clean and bids more traceable. If however the joke bid is accommodated by a normal comment (not considered spam or useless) the comment is allowed.

The general intention of the market is "selling items" and not "overpricing items so they will not be sold so I can show off what Mythics I got". For displaying items you can use the Class Builds section with an actual build idea. Also cancelling auctions or joke-bidding/withdrawing a bid can ruin the enjoyment of the auctioneer/buyer.

This thread is subject of change to clarify stuff if it is not clear.

 

The thread has been updated. It now specifies rules for auctions as there has been a good amount of people withdrawing sold-out auctions as well as people abusing the fact that the auctioneer sometimes did not know about the actual price. Punishments will be forgiving for a few days (regarding auctions), afterwards the full punishments will apply.