Yes. Another way to dispose of those residuals.
What’s being auctioned: games (keys).
What do we bid with: games (keys).
Some suggestions/guidelines…
There are many auctioning systems, but for our purpose the following should work best:
System A: English auction
Open, ascending price auction.
Participants bid publicly (via posts), each subsequent bid needs to be higher than the previous one. Each bidder can bid multiple times during the course of the auction (by outbidding the previous offer).
The highest bid wins.
System B: English auction, auctioneer's choice
Open, ascending price auction.
Participants bid publicly (via posts), each subsequent bid needs to either match or be higher than the previous one. Each bidder can bid multiple times during the course of the auction (by outbidding the previous offer).
The auctioneer can select any of the bids as the winning one.
System C: English auction, auctioneer's choice - highest tier
Open, ascending price auction.
Participants bid publicly (via posts), each subsequent bid needs to either match or be higher than the previous one. Each bidder can bid multiple times during the course of the auction (by outbidding the previous offer).
The auctioneer can select any of the bids from the highest tier as the winning one.
System D: Blind auction
Sealed, first-price auction.
All participants submit their bids to the auctioneer via PMs (one bid each). The auctioneer knows all the bids, participants don’t know each other’s bids.
The highest bid wins and gets published at the end of the auction.
System E: Blind auction, auctioneer's choice
Sealed, first-price auction.
All participants submit their bids to the auctioneer via PMs (one bid each). The auctioneer knows all the bids, participants don’t know each other’s bids.
The auctioneer can select any of the bids as the winning one.
Highest and winning bids get published at the end of the auction.
System F: Blind auction, auctioneer's choice - highest tier
Sealed, first-price auction.
All participants submit their bids to the auctioneer via PMs (one bid each). The auctioneer knows all the bids, participants don’t know each other’s bids.
The auctioneer can select any of the bids from the highest tier as the winning one.
Highest and winning bids get published at the end of the auction.
The value of a bid equals the game’s current price on Steam’s US storefront (excluding any discounts, i.e. Valve’s suggested price).
How to check the US prices
- Find the game on SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/app/386940/
- Go to Packages (on the left): https://steamdb.info/app/386940/subs/
- From the Packages that include this app section select the one that has a store page (globe icon): https://steamdb.info/sub/73106/
- Voila: $14.99
Each system has its pros and cons, so feel free to modify them or use different ones.
When in doubt go with System C, it allows for the highest number of bids to be placed while being mostly deterministic.
Regardless of the system, the starting price is always $0 and there are no minimum (“reserve”) prices. As long as there’s at least one bid, there will be a winner.
Each auction begins and ends with the auctioneer’s announcement.
Auctions should last at least 24h, preferably 48h, no longer than 72h.
Auction should be closed if there were no new bids in the last 24h.
When the floor is cleared, anyone can start a new auction.
There should be no more than one action running at a time. I’ll open extra rooms if need be.
The parameters of each auction are up to the auctioneer and should be stated in the starting announcement. Follow the formatting examples from the first auction.
No bundles (multi-key offers) - on both ends.
Avoid altering/deleting bids.
Regarding games which are/were massively free (via universally accessible GAs).
Those which still are, are off limits. Those which were, are allowed - save for some commonsense guides:
Auctioning games which were free a long time (~6 months +) ago is fine. Auctioning games which were free recently is a waste of time (you can, but don’t).
Bidding with games which were free a long time (~6 months +) ago is only allowed in “auctioneer’s choice” auctions. Bidding with games which were recently free is forbidden.
Extra guidelines might be added if things go awry.
Keep it fun and nobody dies.
