Ban Mystery Auctions

I haven't seen a mystery auction "live," but the whole idea of it sounds stupid... In my opinion, at least.

Basically, it is scamming. Scamming is against the rules. It is too flexible and people can change their mind instantly. They can promise something then give something else, or give nothing.

If these auctions were games - like that word game - someone can at least make a complaint/report of a scammer if they didn't get any item based on what the "puzzle" was.

 

Yes. I want mystery auctions to be banned not only for the reasons Licorious listed above, but my reason, which is:
Think about a real auction. That is in the real world, where we have real economy, and real money. We play minecraft, but to other people, (like me ) minecraft means everything. And to certain people, EcoCity is what minecraft was meant to be. But, they see these people in a full-fledged economy server, SCAMMING people for their money, like people on commercials (lol) that ruins the game. These people may lose their money for a piece of dirt, as Licorious also said above.
So, to my point, "secret auctions" are scamming, and they might lead people away from the server.
So. Ban them. I don't want to see them anymore.

My sincere words.
~monkey

 

I honestly don't have a problem with them. When people bid on a mystery item, they must understand the risk of doing so.

If a Builder does it... What do you think it's going to be? lol, not very many builders would actually do something reasonable.

While yes, it leads people away from the server, if people are buying things from builders in the first place... There is a extremely high chance it's a scam, which also causes people to leave the server. Thus, the mystery items sold by builders are not much worse, it's essentially the same thing, builders who like scamming people of their money will do it, and maybe a few others here and there. But even if a few more people will have a way to "scam" users, you have to understand you could lose lots of money. If you fail to understand how much of a risk it is and bid insane high prices on a mystery item... Then how are you going to make it to resident in the first place?

I do not consider a mystery item a scam. A scam could be someone saying they are selling diamonds, but they do not sell anything and "scam" the user of their money. Or, instead of diamonds they give dirt, which is also scamming. As long as the item in question is sold to the user, it is not scamming. While yes, they can change the item they are selling at the last second, it doesn't matter, it's not scamming, because you knew that you could be buying dirt, or diamonds, or logs, etc... When it's an actual scam, you have no idea, you shouldn't have to have an idea, that he may not give the items. In a mystery auction, he did no lying/fraud (Unless he actually did scam you, like didn't give an item.). People cannot do that with the other auctions, they already stated the item they are selling. However, here, you need to understand that in a mystery auction, you could lose a lot of money, it could be ANYTHING... If it's a builder selling it, it's not really worth trying to bid. Too much scamming goes on with builders, and it's hard to find a builder to trust. If everyone would just understand that you can lose a lot of money, then nobody would bid on mystery auctions. Thus, people trying to sell items in a mystery auction would not have any luck, and they will die out. However, if people continue to bid on mystery auctions, and it turns out to be dirt, then they learned their lesson not to do so again. If they leave the server because of a single auction that was in no way a scam, and they should have known what could have happened, then so be it... In my opinion, I don't find it a problem, if they leave the server because of something small like that, then they would do the same if a user scammed them, which is even harder to find out when it's a scam rather than a mystery dirt auction.

A resident+ might one day do a mystery auction and "scam" a user with it being dirt, but that's the thing. You must understand that you could lose a LOT of money. Try and get information out of them, if they are being super secretive about it, it's probably dirt, if they say it's a "rare item", and it's just dirt, it's scamming, which can be reported and is against the rules.

But another thing, is that by banning mystery auctions, you are therefore banning one of the biggest weekly/monthy/however often they hold it events on the server... Minewars. Everybody has fun at Minewars from what I understand, even if they lost money. People also understand that they will lose tons of money at Minewars before it even starts. Yet people still have fun. If you ban mystery auctions all together, then this event everyone has been participating in time and time again will be banned, too.

The thing about Minewars, though, is that they DO actually give you a little peak at what you could get. You don't see all of it, but you see enough to make you want to bid high prices, even prices up to 20-30k. So I can agree, that it's a LOT better when it's possible to know what you could get, but I completely disagree with them being banned completely.

In fact, by bidding in these auctions, you are gambling your money, which there is no problem with that. It's dirt, you lose money. It's an enchanted diamond pick with fortune III, you get money. Just like enchanting, you get a pickaxe with unbreaking I? Useless, get one with fortune III? You make money. Same with lottery, it's a gamble, if you wish to gamble your money, then this is just another way to do it.

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Huge post, lots of points brought up like seven times, but I felt it needed to be repeated over and over >.>
This is one of those things I really do not want to see happen. It's in no way scamming, and in no way against any rules. It may cause people to leave the server, but only the people that would have anyway from all the other scamming that goes around. Like I said, I can agree that it's better if they at least give a little information, but if they refuse to, then why bid...?

 

i know what they are talking about plz ban them becase it is just another way to scam people out of hard eanerd money

 

If mystery auctions were banned, Minewars would not be banned. lol

Minewars is a game, with clear set plan, goal, rules, etc. Many people get behind it, there is a good history for it, and people can get a preview. It's an entirely different boat than mystery auctions, even if it shares similarities.

With mystery auctions, they tend to only be a problem - never a good thing. The votes are agreeing that they are a pain in the butt, too. Why keep allowing something that only makes us lose users and cause people to get upset? And it ties into scamming, well enough, that it's clear to be causing the same kind of upset emotions. :/

 

Adding onto this, in Minewars, you SEE what is inside. You don't bid on letters of text in blue coloring.

 

It's still the same in the way that makes these auctions bad. You have no clue what's on the other side of that wall. It could be anything. It's essentially the same thing. If "mystery auctions" were banned, then Minewars would, because the idea behind mystery auctions is that nobody knows what it is.

Letting Minewars stay just because it already has well set rules/goal/has a good history is not a good reason. What if someone wants to start their own? Will they get banned just because they didn't do a good job? Will it not be allowed for having a previous good history for it? You won't be able to start your own, because it wouldn't really be allowed, because the entire point to wanting mystery auctions banned is because of the mystery, nobody knows what it is. Doesn't matter if there is a goal/rules, what's behind that wall is behind that wall. If somebody had the same rules as Minewars, same goal, same anything, it can still be a block of dirt.

If we were to ban mystery auctions, Minewars would be banned by default, otherwise issues would arise because Minewars staff can, but nobody else. If everyone is doing mystery auctions these days, people will complain.

@Rezon, you can not see everything on the other side, just a small portion of it. Trust me, one time, a locker full of bookshelves went for 27k, and that's partly because nobody knew what was on the other side. What you could see was worth about $200, if that. What's on the other side is what counts. And it could have easily been a dirt block, however, there wasn't. (I was never told about everything back there, but it was more than a dirt block )

Just because it's text, doesn't mean it's nothing. If someone says "It's a rare item", it's essentially the same as seeing a diamond in the lockers in Minewars. If it turns out to be a dirt block, it's scamming.

Like I stated before, it's making us lose users we already would have lost (Unless in a rare case.) If somebody will leave from a single mystery auction, they will leave when they get scammed, too... Anybody participating in mystery auctions is somebody who will, at least once on the server, have to deal with being scammed. It's a common thing with builders.

I understand it's making people upset, but like I also, already said, once they go through their first mystery auction, then they won't do another if it was bad... Scamming makes people upset, too, right? Unless they are more upset about the people who are being scammed/paying $300 for a dirt block.
Infact, lottery makes even MORE people upset, we get complaints about that all the time, on the forum, but not as frequently with mystery auctions. It's essentially the same thing, a mystery auction is gambling your money, you have to understand you will lose some money if you keep doing it.

 

The difference between a builders' mystery auction and minewars is that in a mystery auction, the person holding the auction could easily change their mind and give the winner different things. In minewars, the lockers are prebuilt and do not change once the auction has started. The winner of a minewars auction is guaranteed to get what was originally put into the locker, nothing more nothing less. In a mystery auction in the auction channel, there is absolutely nothing to stop someone from changing what is in the auction.

For now I won't vote, because I want mystery auctions gone, but not if it means losing fun games and events such as minewars.

 

Agreed, if we vote yes this would also have to go. Still a mystery game.

 

I wouldn't ban them. It’s a player’s responsibility to know what there getting into with auctions.

 

The main reason I want this to go is that it spams chat. the other thing I think that should go is any auction that has a starting bid below something like 100-250.

 

I do not think one is like the other.

My issue is that mystery auctions ruin auction chat. Minewars, although I am not a fan of it, do not interfere with anything and is perfectly fine.

Ban mystery auctions in auction chat, or general or trade. It really gets annoying. Do nothing to mine wars, it is fine and people do like it.

 

The reason minewars would go aswell is that it is incredibly simmiliar to Mystery Auctions
You bid on a mystery item (In this case, locker) And you dont know what it is (Or in this case, whats inside)

The differences as mentioned above are that during Minewars, players get a "sneek peak" at whats inside, so they will make smarter choices, and the results of the auction are set in stone (You cant change whats inside the locker, but in mystery auctions, the user can change what they are auctioning without letting the bidders know)

 

Mhm, they are the same in the same sense that there is mystery items. If mystery auctions are banned, and Minewars isn't, I can see issues arising from those claiming "I can't do a mystery auction but they can?!?"

Doesn't matter how organized it is, it's still a mystery auction. The only thing it actually solves compared to the ones in chat is not being able to change it last second, and you getting to see enough of it to make "good" choices. If anything changes with mystery auctions, then what needs changed is requiring various information, so that you cannot change it, and cannot get "ripped off".

 

How about banning mystery auctions from being held in the auction channel? That would solve the minewars problem and eliminate mystery auctions.