Banu Auctions are different than what you may expect from a typical auction.

Standard human auctions, from the distant past, have had an auctioneer, someone to start the bidding and keep it going, and a starting price, given by the auctioneer.

The auctioneer gives a price that someone agrees to pay, and the auctioneer then raises that price. If no one agree to the new price, the item is sold to the one who agreed to the last price.

The positive and negative of this is that an item may be auctioned at a price far below its value. Positive for the buyer, negative for the seller, who only gets a fraction of the value.

The Banu, when they first heard of this method of auctioning, did that shaky thing that passes for a laugh for them. They couldn’t believe that any seasoned merchant would take a risk that a product might sell at a price that would return a loss.

The Banu auction allows for the buyer to pay a very low auction price, and still give the seller a profit. For the Banu, this is the best type of deal. The buyer pays far less than retail for an item, and the seller gets a nice profit. Both parties win, and that is good for business.

Just The Facts

The Banu can be honest to a fault. Every fact and condition is always in the contract. The Banu auction requires those wishing to participate, to buy bid tokens. By purchasing the bid tokens, you are signing a contract that you will abide by all the rules of the auction.

You purchase your tokens at a set price. Each token allows you to place a bid, which raises the eventual purchase price by one hundredth of a Credit (or whatever currency is being used). Unlike the traditional human auction, the starting price for every auction is always 0.00, and stays that way until someone bids on the item.

Each auction is timed, unlike a traditional auction. The countdown timer usually starts at three hours, and begins to count backward to zero. As bids are placed, a few seconds are added to the clock for each bid placed. This adds a sense of excitement and urgency to the bidding. It also adds time to the auction. A fiercely contested auction can go hours beyond the posted end time.

The heaviest bidding always occurs within a few seconds of the auction closing. The clock will drop to say, two seconds, a bid is placed, and the clock is reset to twelve seconds. It counts down to a few seconds, and another bid is placed, adding another few seconds.

Hotly contested auctions will draw crowds of onlookers, to see how close to zero, the bidders will get before placing a bid. There can be a lot of strategy, when more than two bidders are active, and it can be an incredibly exciting thing to watch.

Be sure to read Winning Banu Auctions, before you start bidding. That document will give you invaluable information for learning how the auctions work.

The Banu Auction Souli

Excerpted from the Encyclopedia Galactica

Not long after humanity encountered the Banu in 2438, treaties and trade agreements were officially signed, and humans began to learn about this new alien race.

One of the first things humans learned is that the Banu will work any angle to make a profit. In the early days of interspecies trade, this lead to many humans coming to the belief that the Banu were nothing more than charlatans, selling junk in exchange for hard-earned credits.

In actual point of fact, the Banu trade soulis are made up of expert entrepreneurs. They know exactly what they have, and what its value is, and expect the buyer to know as well. The Banu are honest to a fault, but as anyone who has ever read a Banu contract knows, read the fine print. The Banu who is selling you an item, will not offer information beyond what the item is, and price. It is expected that you, the buyer will read the information provided, containing all information on condition, wear, and other factors. Above all, it is expected that the buyer knows enough about the item, to know what it is worth.

On ancient Earth, a City State called Rome, had a phrase that suits buying from the Banu extremely well; Caveat Emptor. Loosely translated, this means “Buyer Beware“.

It’s not that the Banu won’t sell you junk, they most certainly will. They will also sell you pristine items that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. They just expect you to know if it’s junk, or treasure, and pay accordingly! If you know what you are doing, you can get very good deals from a Banu, but it is guaranteed that the Banu made a good profit in the deal.

The Auction Souli

The Banu have a unique way of running auctions. Humans are familiar with the idea of bidding on an item, but the Banu have a twist. Each item up for auction is bid for using bid tokens, not credits.

Bid tokens are purchased before the auction begins. The price per token varies, depending on the items up for auction, but usually the price is around a quarter credit each. The tokens are purchased in bundles of anywhere from 10 to 10,000 and then used for bidding.

All auction prices start at zero tokens. The auction is on a timer, and each time a bid is placed, a few seconds are added to the countdown timer. So for example, you may want an item that currently has a bid of 39.99 bids on it, with 2 seconds on the clock. You place your bid, bringing the bid total to 40.00 bids, and the countdown timer jumps to 12 seconds.

This gives others the chance to bid against your last bid. This can make for a very exciting auction, when several beings are bidding against each other for the same item, each allowing the countdown timer to almost expire, before placing their bid!

Bidding ends when the timer reaches zero. Whichever being placed the final bid wins, and pays the bid total to claim their prize. The bid total is calculated in hundredths of a credit, so a bid total of 25.31 would be 25.31 UEC, or whatever currency the auction is accepting.

The thing to remember is that while the winner of the auction usually ends up paying far less than current price for the item in bid total, they also paid for each bid token they placed. That may still be far less than the item is worth, but in a hotly contested auction, the true winner is the Souli, who sold the bid tokens, and gets the bid total as well.

It is suggested that humans new to the Banu auctions, read “Tactics For Winning Big: Banu Auctions Exposed“, by Sulomani Eradwyn, for ways to win at auction.

Auction Culture

In addition to the auction itself, the Souli will often times set up booths where smaller items can be purchased outright, without the need to bid. Such shops are found all across the Verse, but especially in Banu space.

As with the auctions, all items are available for sale, but you should know what it is you are purchasing. Again, bargains can be easily found, if you know what you’re looking at. Beings from all over the Verse look for such shops, knowing that they will find objects that can’t be obtained anywhere else!

Cautions

Just as with any extra-culture transactions, care should be taken to understand all the subtleties of Crazy Sully, as possible. As with any Banu transaction, all sales are final. Once you’ve won an auction, you may claim the items for the final auction price. If the item is not claimed within seven Standard Earth Days (SED), you lose claim to both the item won, and any credits for tokens spent on the item.

Items purchased outright, are expected to be taken with the customer when they leave the shop. Any items left behind, are considered found and will be resold to the next interested person, including the one who was careless enough to leave it behind.

The UEE warning on Crazy Sully, is there to protect Citizens. Read it carefully, and understand all parts of it before entering an auction. Very few Banu auctions take place outside the Protectorate, and therefore UEE law does not apply.

Most of all, Crazy Sully wants you to enjoy your time at the auctions. Whether you are bidding, watching or purchasing from one of the shops, you will be exposed to an exotic but friendly alien culture. Be aware of any taboos that may cause insult, and remember that you are a guest of the Banu, and that every human there, is a representative of the UEE. Have fun, and enjoy your stay.

Marketing material presented on this Spectrum channel is provided by the Nassau Trading Company, in partnership with the Hryleena Souli.

If you need to contact either NTC or the Hryleena Souli, please submit the following form.