This has been happening a few times and i can't find anything on it on the internets. Here's the story:

I want a String of Ears pretty badly. I'm a monk stuck on act2 inferno and it would help me immensely. So yesterday i booted up the auction house, and took a peek. Obviously the lowest buyout for the worst versions are 500-600k gold, and i never had more than 400k(don't like the idea of farming), so i looked at the bid prices and found a few very cheap ones that are actually pretty good in comparison, and i bid on them(4 pieces from 25k to 100k). A few bids i lost in a matter of hours to buyouts and people bidding over a million on them, until there is only one left. And then i start a bidding war against a guy(i assume).

So half an hour ago i boot up the game again to see how i'm doing. There's still a few hours left and i still can go about 70k over the price that i last put in. According to the interface i were overbid by 10k and got my money back. So obviously i jump back in, bid the amount that the computer offers. My money gets rejected automatically saying there's a higher bid. So i go back in, and put in my own number, a number rounded to the tousands. The computer refuses, saying there's another bid higher, and shows a very oddly rounded number compared to mine. And this goes on and on for 4 times. Right now i'm at the point where i can't bid no more i have no money left.

I don't know if this is a glitch or the auction house itself keeping the prices up artificially, but it's very strange. This has happened before too. if i enter the number 1274 as a bid the current bid goes up to say 1428 and there's nothing to that, it's just weird numbers, i mean it could be a desync issue. But if i put in 1000 it gives me 1250 as the current bid then i enter 1500 and it gives me 1750 as the current bid, not accepting my bid on it, it's a little strange.

The only way i could break out of this cycle is to bid way over the price that was listed as the current price in my interface, like it listed 1500 as the minimum buyin and i went 2500 suddenly.

Is this just weird desync, or is blizzard haing the prices kept up by bots?

Edit: tried it again, still trolling me. Put in 300k it came up with the price 315k. It just seems the winning bids are always whatever i bid+5%

@lobsterman said:

This has been happening a few times and i can't find anything on it on the internets. Here's the story:

I want a String of Ears pretty badly. I'm a monk stuck on act2 inferno and it would help me immensely. So yesterday i booted up the auction house, and took a peek. Obviously the lowest buyout for the worst versions are 500-600k gold, and i never had more than 400k(don't like the idea of farming), so i looked at the bid prices and found a few very cheap ones that are actually pretty good in comparison, and i bid on them(4 pieces from 25k to 100k). A few bids i lost in a matter of hours to buyouts and people bidding over a million on them, until there is only one left. And then i start a bidding war against a guy(i assume).

So half an hour ago i boot up the game again to see how i'm doing. There's still a few hours left and i still can go about 70k over the price that i last put in. According to the interface i were overbid by 10k and got my money back. So obviously i jump back in, bid the amount that the computer offers. My money gets rejected automatically saying there's a higher bid. So i go back in, and put in my own number, a number rounded to the tousands. The computer refuses, saying there's another bid higher, and shows a very oddly rounded number compared to mine. And this goes on and on for 4 times. Right now i'm at the point where i can't bid no more i have no money left.

I don't know if this is a glitch or the auction house itself keeping the prices up artificially, but it's very strange. This has happened before too. if i enter the number 1274 as a bid the current bid goes up to say 1428 and there's nothing to that, it's just weird numbers, i mean it could be a desync issue. But if i put in 1000 it gives me 1250 as the current bid then i enter 1500 and it gives me 1750 as the current bid, not accepting my bid on it, it's a little strange.

The only way i could break out of this cycle is to bid way over the price that was listed as the current price in my interface, like it listed 1500 as the minimum buyin and i went 2500 suddenly.

Is this just weird desync, or is blizzard haing the prices kept up by bots?

People put in the maximum they're willing to bid, but their registered bid is only a small increment higher than the second highest bidder so they don't bid more than they have to. What you're doing by typing in a bid too small is driving up the price for the highest bidder.

Say that you bid 10,000 and another guy bids 50,000. The auction will show the winning bid at around 11,000. If you were to change your bid to 30,000, you'd still be losing, but the winning bid would rise to around 31,000.

@SpunkyHePanda said:

@lobsterman said:

This has been happening a few times and i can't find anything on it on the internets. Here's the story:

I want a String of Ears pretty badly. I'm a monk stuck on act2 inferno and it would help me immensely. So yesterday i booted up the auction house, and took a peek. Obviously the lowest buyout for the worst versions are 500-600k gold, and i never had more than 400k(don't like the idea of farming), so i looked at the bid prices and found a few very cheap ones that are actually pretty good in comparison, and i bid on them(4 pieces from 25k to 100k). A few bids i lost in a matter of hours to buyouts and people bidding over a million on them, until there is only one left. And then i start a bidding war against a guy(i assume).

So half an hour ago i boot up the game again to see how i'm doing. There's still a few hours left and i still can go about 70k over the price that i last put in. According to the interface i were overbid by 10k and got my money back. So obviously i jump back in, bid the amount that the computer offers. My money gets rejected automatically saying there's a higher bid. So i go back in, and put in my own number, a number rounded to the tousands. The computer refuses, saying there's another bid higher, and shows a very oddly rounded number compared to mine. And this goes on and on for 4 times. Right now i'm at the point where i can't bid no more i have no money left.

I don't know if this is a glitch or the auction house itself keeping the prices up artificially, but it's very strange. This has happened before too. if i enter the number 1274 as a bid the current bid goes up to say 1428 and there's nothing to that, it's just weird numbers, i mean it could be a desync issue. But if i put in 1000 it gives me 1250 as the current bid then i enter 1500 and it gives me 1750 as the current bid, not accepting my bid on it, it's a little strange.

The only way i could break out of this cycle is to bid way over the price that was listed as the current price in my interface, like it listed 1500 as the minimum buyin and i went 2500 suddenly.

Is this just weird desync, or is blizzard haing the prices kept up by bots?

People put in the maximum they're willing to bid, but their registered bid is only a small increment higher than the second highest bidder so they don't bid more than they have to. What you're doing by typing in a bid too small is driving up the price for the highest bidder.

Say that you bid 10,000 and another guy bids 50,000. The auction will show the winning bid at around 11,000. If you were to change your bid to 30,000, you'd still be losing, but the winning bid would rise to around 31,000.

Why the hell would it show me an amount i'm unable to win with? Biddings don't work like that in real life they say a number, you say a bigger number, the one who is willing to go further than anyone else is the winner. What's the point of showing me 2000 if the bidding is already at 3000000?

@lobsterman said:

@SpunkyHePanda said:

@lobsterman said:

This has been happening a few times and i can't find anything on it on the internets. Here's the story:

I want a String of Ears pretty badly. I'm a monk stuck on act2 inferno and it would help me immensely. So yesterday i booted up the auction house, and took a peek. Obviously the lowest buyout for the worst versions are 500-600k gold, and i never had more than 400k(don't like the idea of farming), so i looked at the bid prices and found a few very cheap ones that are actually pretty good in comparison, and i bid on them(4 pieces from 25k to 100k). A few bids i lost in a matter of hours to buyouts and people bidding over a million on them, until there is only one left. And then i start a bidding war against a guy(i assume).

So half an hour ago i boot up the game again to see how i'm doing. There's still a few hours left and i still can go about 70k over the price that i last put in. According to the interface i were overbid by 10k and got my money back. So obviously i jump back in, bid the amount that the computer offers. My money gets rejected automatically saying there's a higher bid. So i go back in, and put in my own number, a number rounded to the tousands. The computer refuses, saying there's another bid higher, and shows a very oddly rounded number compared to mine. And this goes on and on for 4 times. Right now i'm at the point where i can't bid no more i have no money left.

I don't know if this is a glitch or the auction house itself keeping the prices up artificially, but it's very strange. This has happened before too. if i enter the number 1274 as a bid the current bid goes up to say 1428 and there's nothing to that, it's just weird numbers, i mean it could be a desync issue. But if i put in 1000 it gives me 1250 as the current bid then i enter 1500 and it gives me 1750 as the current bid, not accepting my bid on it, it's a little strange.

The only way i could break out of this cycle is to bid way over the price that was listed as the current price in my interface, like it listed 1500 as the minimum buyin and i went 2500 suddenly.

Is this just weird desync, or is blizzard haing the prices kept up by bots?

People put in the maximum they're willing to bid, but their registered bid is only a small increment higher than the second highest bidder so they don't bid more than they have to. What you're doing by typing in a bid too small is driving up the price for the highest bidder.

Say that you bid 10,000 and another guy bids 50,000. The auction will show the winning bid at around 11,000. If you were to change your bid to 30,000, you'd still be losing, but the winning bid would rise to around 31,000.

Why the hell would it show me an amount i'm unable to win with? Biddings don't work like that in real life they say a number, you say a bigger number, the one who is willing to go further than anyone else is the winner. What's the point of showing me 2000 if the bidding is already at 3000000?

Because this isn't a real life auction. Those work the way they do because everyone's in the same room and bidding only lasts a few minutes. Online auctions last for days and these people have lives. Having to obsessively check on an auction for days on end would be terrible. Again, the idea is that you type in the maximum you're willing to bid and then the computer will bid for you. This system is pretty much perfect. It's exactly how eBay has done it for years.

Honestly, you could probably save a ton of money and buy a rare belt that's just as good or better than a String of Ears. Specify a maximum buyout price when you're searching and just buy one outright instead of waiting for an auction to finish.

@Ravenlight said:

Honestly, you could probably save a ton of money and buy a rare belt that's just as good or better than a String of Ears. Specify a maximum buyout price when you're searching and just buy one outright instead of waiting for an auction to finish.

True but i haven't found a rare belt with -melee damage.

And it's not about the belt itself, it was just the latest example

Also, last time I used ebay their auctions worked the same way.

Never used eBay, or any online auction thing really, so i had no idea... the whole thing is weird.

@lobsterman: I just started using the Auction House (For other than selling) to gear myself for the final battle and each time I put a bid it refused it. It confused me as hell, because I actually thought people were raising the price at the same time, but then I figured it's probably just calculating my bid in the chart. So once you overbid the highest bidder (And it says that you're winning) then I think you set the highest bid. Or something like that. I'm still not entirely sure.

Also, people still don't put buyouts that are not ridiculously high.

Edit:

@SpunkyHePanda: Wait, so what you're saying is, if I over bid the item extremely, and no one surpasses my bid, I... Can get some of my money back? What do you mean the computer bids for me?

@SpunkyHePanda said:

Say that you bid 10,000 and another guy bids 50,000. The auction will show the winning bid at around 11,000. If you were to change your bid to 30,000, you'd still be losing, but the winning bid would rise to around 31,000.

Wait a sec.

So you can basically troll the **** out of an auction as long as you find the "sweet spot" they bid for, by incremental additions to the highest price you're willing to pay, and then turn your system clock back 2 days, cancel the auction, and then with this new information, pull 5% of your bid, effectively forcing him to pay close to his maximum for the item, and you won't pay anything? That's perfect if a friend is selling something and you wanna help out, keeping the price at the absolute max. Even without sploiting the system clock.

Why does the system care if another person is willing to pay a lower price?

I guess, if I were to withdraw, the winning bid would be his. As in, if I didn't have the highest, his would be the highest, so I have to pay 5% more than that bid, up to my maxium... Makes sense I guess.

@valrog said:

@SpunkyHePanda: Wait, so what you're saying is, if I over bid the item extremely, and no one surpasses my bid, I... Can get some of my money back? What do you mean the computer bids for me?

Yes, you'd get the difference back. The computer will automatically bid one increment above the second highest bidder, up to the limit that you set.

@Xymox said:

@SpunkyHePanda said:

Say that you bid 10,000 and another guy bids 50,000. The auction will show the winning bid at around 11,000. If you were to change your bid to 30,000, you'd still be losing, but the winning bid would rise to around 31,000.

Wait a sec.

So you can basically troll the **** out of an auction as long as you find the "sweet spot" they bid for, by incremental additions to the highest price you're willing to pay, and then turn your system clock back 2 days, cancel the auction, and then with this new information, pull 5% of your bid, effectively forcing him to pay close to his maximum for the item, and you won't pay anything? That's perfect if a friend is selling something and you wanna help out, keeping the price at the absolute max. Even without sploiting the system clock.

Why does the system care if another person is willing to pay a lower price?

I guess, if I were to withdraw, the winning bid would be his. As in, if I didn't have the highest, his would be the highest, so I have to pay 5% more than that bid, up to my maxium... Makes sense I guess.

I haven't tried it, but I highly doubt turning your system clock back would work.

And I'm not sure the system cares, but the seller and other bidders certainly do. Let's say someone puts in a maximum bid of 100,000 for an item currently going for 5,000. If a dozen other people are willing to pay around 50,000 gold for it, should the first guy really be able to get it for 5,000 because he bid more than it was worth? And should the seller be screwed out of 45,000 gold for the same reason? The system as it is keeps things fair.

@SpunkyHePanda: Ohhh. Thank you for the explanation. It's a pretty clever system.

what would your system clock matter? that is the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

blizz isnt going to ask your computer what time it is. EVER.

@stinky said:

what would your system clock matter? that is the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

blizz isnt going to ask your computer what time it is. EVER.

Apparently this is a thing. Haven't confirmed though.

http://www.diablo3farming.com/2012/06/10/cancel-your-d3-auctions-at-any-time/

@Xymox said:

@stinky said:

what would your system clock matter? that is the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

blizz isnt going to ask your computer what time it is. EVER.

Apparently this is a thing. Haven't confirmed though.

http://www.diablo3farming.com/2012/06/10/cancel-your-d3-auctions-at-any-time/

That doesn't work in D3 (as explained further down the page)

@Nonapod said:

@Xymox said:

@stinky said:

what would your system clock matter? that is the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

blizz isnt going to ask your computer what time it is. EVER.

Apparently this is a thing. Haven't confirmed though.

http://www.diablo3farming.com/2012/06/10/cancel-your-d3-auctions-at-any-time/

That doesn't work in D3 (as explained further down the page)

Just tried it, didn't work for me. People are writing about it in the main forums as well, but it seems to be a hoax unless someone can prove it... Won't do much anyway since at most you'll be able to cancel your own auctions.

Edit: This got official ~10 hrs ago actually.

"Yes, changing the system clock can change auction times"

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5760137425?page=3#51

So apparently it's working for some people. It makes sense to go of client system clock instead of having billions of players hammer your own server for a time posted / time remaining request per item.

Is there a way to cancel your bid? I started buyouting items because being outbid at last possible moment didn't really work for me, but now I'm still "winning" on an item that I don't really need anymore.

As others have mentioned, sites like eBay work like this where they are high volume systems they aren't "up to the minute markets". While a purchase or a very high bid is made the system works to transfer items or update top bids but the auction appears to everyone else like it is still active where any perspective buyer can never reach a winning bid.

@lobsterman said:

@SpunkyHePanda said:

@lobsterman said:

This has been happening a few times and i can't find anything on it on the internets. Here's the story:

I want a String of Ears pretty badly. I'm a monk stuck on act2 inferno and it would help me immensely. So yesterday i booted up the auction house, and took a peek. Obviously the lowest buyout for the worst versions are 500-600k gold, and i never had more than 400k(don't like the idea of farming), so i looked at the bid prices and found a few very cheap ones that are actually pretty good in comparison, and i bid on them(4 pieces from 25k to 100k). A few bids i lost in a matter of hours to buyouts and people bidding over a million on them, until there is only one left. And then i start a bidding war against a guy(i assume).

So half an hour ago i boot up the game again to see how i'm doing. There's still a few hours left and i still can go about 70k over the price that i last put in. According to the interface i were overbid by 10k and got my money back. So obviously i jump back in, bid the amount that the computer offers. My money gets rejected automatically saying there's a higher bid. So i go back in, and put in my own number, a number rounded to the tousands. The computer refuses, saying there's another bid higher, and shows a very oddly rounded number compared to mine. And this goes on and on for 4 times. Right now i'm at the point where i can't bid no more i have no money left.

I don't know if this is a glitch or the auction house itself keeping the prices up artificially, but it's very strange. This has happened before too. if i enter the number 1274 as a bid the current bid goes up to say 1428 and there's nothing to that, it's just weird numbers, i mean it could be a desync issue. But if i put in 1000 it gives me 1250 as the current bid then i enter 1500 and it gives me 1750 as the current bid, not accepting my bid on it, it's a little strange.

The only way i could break out of this cycle is to bid way over the price that was listed as the current price in my interface, like it listed 1500 as the minimum buyin and i went 2500 suddenly.

Is this just weird desync, or is blizzard haing the prices kept up by bots?

People put in the maximum they're willing to bid, but their registered bid is only a small increment higher than the second highest bidder so they don't bid more than they have to. What you're doing by typing in a bid too small is driving up the price for the highest bidder.

Say that you bid 10,000 and another guy bids 50,000. The auction will show the winning bid at around 11,000. If you were to change your bid to 30,000, you'd still be losing, but the winning bid would rise to around 31,000.

Why the hell would it show me an amount i'm unable to win with? Biddings don't work like that in real life they say a number, you say a bigger number, the one who is willing to go further than anyone else is the winner. What's the point of showing me 2000 if the bidding is already at 3000000?

Actually I'm pretty sure this happens in real life auctions. Sometimes people put in a maximum bid before the auction starts and then on the day the auctioneer bids for them bidding above the bidders in the room till he reaches the max.

I will say that I hate people who don't put buyouts on non "end game" items. If it's some badass level 63 item then no buyout makes sense. But for some bizarre reason (lazyness I'm guessing) I see all sorts of crap with no buyouts.

@Nonapod: Or if the buyouts are absurdly high. Who's going to pay 150k for a level 30 item? Come on.

This is referred to as proxy bidding. eBay handles it the same way.

@theguy said:

Actually I'm pretty sure this happens in real life auctions. Sometimes people put in a maximum bid before the auction starts and then on the day the auctioneer bids for them bidding above the bidders in the room till he reaches the max.

This guy is right. In real life auctions sometimes people can't attend for whatever reason so they submit a maximum bid and the auctioneer gets to upbid everyone until that max is reached. People at the auction don't know what that max is. Online auctions use the exact same concept since no one is going to sit at their computer staring at an auction for hours.

@valrog said:

@Nonapod: Or if the buyouts are absurdly high. Who's going to pay 150k for a level 30 item? Come on.

I have sold 2 separate level 40 amulets for 400k each. However, I guess they were decent enough to be used at almost any level though.

I'm guessing you've never used eBay.