Thanks much!
Ooooooh. The second “rare and apparently valuable” ‘V’ is going on the block.
I think it’s pretty clear based on the demand for the ‘V’ that you can’t just hack up the portfolio and be fair. Although, you might want to toss a letter to the players who only got one in the last giveaway.
Silient Auction or Public Auction?
Silient is probably more fair and less game breaking; but public would be more fun to watch.
Yeah, I thought about public auction first, but then I realized that there would be no way to make sure that everyone could be around to participate.
I’m more inclined to go with a public auction myself, (possibly because it’s easier than getting skads of PMs, though requesting that each player only submit one PM of bids would make that easier.)
Also, billyb0b has msged me (and USCDiver apparently) indicating his intention to continue, but has not actually said anything in thread, so the time limit for him to show up will have run out by tomorrow morning at the latest. Perhaps I’ll run a single joint auction for billyb0b and MadTheSwine
Oh - you mean that not everyone will be around for ‘the final bell’ and thus that their final bids could get topped by those who are around later?
Hmm… maybe a hybrid auction style, with players able to submit as many public bids as they want and only one private bid (for as many items as they wish)?
I say private, one bid on each item.
That’s the most fair (for everyone) and also the most difficult for (one person) to win multiple items. Also, it puts the kibash on us needing to keep tabs on the auction bids and makes it easier on the person running the show too.
Plus, you get the suspense of not knowing which or how many items you end up winning. In that regard it’s similar to a give-away but the players have some control over the results - best of both worlds!
How bout ‘first chance at’? Just kidding, I was going to put a smiley after ‘dibs’ but I was trying to play it cool just in case ‘dibs’ were allowed… 
I’d prefer private. You send one PM with all the items you wish to bid on, and what you’re willing to pay for them.
And I would suggest that each bid stand on its own. For example, no “I’ll bid 10 points on the R. I’ll bid 15 points on the Q, unless I don’t win the R, in which case I’ll bid 20 points on the Q”.
Hell with that…besides, do you really want chrisk to hate you? 
I’m still following along to see how the defunct portfolios are probated. An auction is appealing in theory, however I don’t think what ya’ll are talking about is a true auction.
If chrisk is up for it, I say we do it this way:
[ul]
[/ul] [ol]
[li]chrisk makes a post for all the letters and rules up for bids[/li][li]Players make their bids individually on each item via PM (must be a deadline, say 24hrs)[/li][li]chrisk makes another post listing current high bids on each item[/li][li]Repeat steps 2-3 a limited number of times (two or three I’d say)[/li][/ol]
This allows for a true auction, similar to the V auction sachertorte had. The more valuable letters get more bidding.
What, is the only ‘true’ auction one where the winning bids are announced before bidding is over? That’s one kind of auction, but ‘silent auctions’ of various types have a long history, and I think that they’d be a good fit here.
I like Hal Briston’s plan pretty well myself, with a few minor alterations. If there are more than one identical item up for bids, then people bid for them at the same time, with the highest X bids winning, and players can submit a string of alternate bids to be used in case they win one of the first items. IE, if there are three D’s up for bidding:
‘Bid 7, 5, 4 for D’ means that I bid 7 until I’ve won one, then five, then four.
‘Bid 5, 9, 9 for D’ means that I bid 5 for the first D, and if I’ve already won one, I’ll bid 9 for any following ones. (Of course, this is pretty foolish, since if you won the first with 5, you won’t likely have to spend 9 on the later ones.)
‘Bid 7 for D’ means that I’ll stop bidding entirely once I’ve got one. And so on.
Also, if there’s a tie, precedence goes to whoever submitted their bidding PM first.
I think you missed my point. The point of an auction is to get the highest price for an object through competition. The proposed method won’t have any competition because I’m not going to know what the other players have bid so I can’t increase my bid for a card that’s particularly valuable to me.
Say I really want a particular card. I might be willing to pay 23 points for it, but I’m going to try to minimize the number of points I lose through the auction so I might bid 10 for it. If someone else bids 12 then shouldn’t I be allowed to counter-bid?
If you bid 10, then you will know AHEAD of time that you may lose value through someone else bidding more than 10 and less than 23.
The point of this auction, also, is not to get the highest price for any object - I don’t have anything to gain by encouraging the winner’s curse. (IE, in an open auction, people will get so excited and competitive that they may exceed what they would rationally decide as a fair price, and then regret it once the price is paid.) I want to get every item assigned to a particular player through a relatively fair proceeding. The silent auction seems to satisfy that to me - each item will tend to go to whoever is willing to spend most for it, and they’ll pay a reasonable and fair price.
You do have to adjust your mental strategy for a sealed-bid auction. Don’t bid low in an attempt to ‘get a deal’ - that is, not unless you’re willing to live with losing out.
ETA: Does anybody else have some problem with a sealed bid auction??
And still no official word from billyb0b
Okey Dokey.
Let’s see the bid list! I’m ready to get trading again!
A sealed bid auction sounds best to me. I do worry about submitting a high bid and winning when the next highest bid was much lower. How about if a small amount is added to the next-highest bid and that’s what the winning bidder pays? Kinda like ebay’s auto-bid? You would probably need to set a minimum value to things to allow for someone being the only bidder, though.
BTW, chrisk, please use this as my official indication of my continued interest. I’ve been holding back because I think everyone has been in a bit of a holding pattern.
Official word from billyb0b is now here. I haven’t had time to review the thread this week, work is CRAZY.
USCDiverI will give you everything I have (all rules, letters, everything) for let’s see… nothing.
Now billyb0b, that just seems a little unfair. If you’re done with the game let your assets go into probate and be auctioned off.
I’m a free-market capitalist at heart, so if chrisk says it’s ok, more power to you and USCDirver. They are your assets to give. I do think it pretty much kills any chances of me even coming close to the top, though, and I think others would feel the same way.
Free market capatalism is great, huh?
Retract offer to USCDiver
nestaOffer stands for you if completed in five minutes
I was ready to accept this, being all greedy and such, but I can’t do it in good conscience. Thanks for the offer though.
Edit: Of course, I was too late anyway. 
I will still be watching, but really can’t see having time to devote to playing. Sorry! Please auction my stuff (meager amount that there is) off as you see fit.
Okay, Hagglers, it’s auction day!
GUIDELINES:
Every participant will submit only 1 PM listing their bids on the items up for auction. If there are more than 1 identical item, they should mark if they want to ‘keep bidding’ on further items after having won one, and if they want to change their bid after winning.
At the end of the silent bidding, I will determine the winner for each item - whoever has bid most, with ties broken in favor of the earliest bidder. That player will be charged via an IOU to the bank, either the amount that they bid, or 5 more than the next lowest bid, whichever is less.
Any items not bid on may be discarded or given out as door prizes, at my discretion
Bidding ends tomorrow morning at 7am EST.
AUCTION PROPERTIES:
[ul]
[li]3 A cards[/li][li]a B card[/li][li]a C card[/li][li]a D card[/li][li]2 E cards[/li][li]2 F cards[/li][li]2 H cards[/li][li]a K card[/li][li]a P card[/li][li]a Q card[/li][li]an R card[/li][li]a U card[/li][li]a V card[/li][li]a rule slip 1[/li][li]a rule slip 3[/li][li]a rule slip 8[/li][li]a rule slip 9[/li][li]a rule slip 12[/li][li]a rule slip 13[/li][li]a rule slip 17[/li][li]a rule slip 18[/li][li]a rule slip 19[/li][/ul]
I’ll be in a day-long offsite meeting today - there’ll be internet, so I will probably get a break to check on the dope, but there probably won’t be too much I have to rule on during the day, right? Actually, there’s a chance I’ll be showing my department head the game, since I was telling him about it on Friday and he seemed interested - on whether something like this could be marketed as a team building session for companies with branch locations in different cities.
And a question - once the auction is over, should I announce who paid what price for each individual lot, or just ‘so-and-so won this, that, and the other thing, and will be playing 19 points for them’? (Or give each player their detailed invoice privately but only announce grand totals publicly?)