Excerpted from, “Tactics For Winning Big: Banu Auctions Exposed“, by Sulomani Eradwyn
It is best to always remember that no matter how low the price you pay for an item, the Banu Souli is going to make a profit. This is due to the rules of the auction, and the fact that everyone who bids, is paying for the privilege.
Even so, extremely good deals can be found by the being who knows the value of an item, and follows a few simple rules.
Always know the value of the item you are bidding on: Retail prices are posted for the items up for auction, but that price may not be the lowest price to be found. Often, the listed retail price, while absolutely valid, may be well above what you might find it for, with a little searching.
Create a Bid Budget: First figure out which item, or items you want to bid on, and then determine how many bids you can afford to place. All auctions, no matter where they are, or who is running them, come down to money management. The price per bid token will be prominently displayed. Use that to figure out how many bid tokens you are willing to place on each item. This will keep you from over spending without realizing. This leads directly into the next rule…
Always buy all the bid tokens you will need, well before the auction starts: No one ever lost an auction by having too many bid tokens. If you plan to win at auction, register and buy bid tokens as early as possible. The biggest winners tend to buy their bid tokens as soon as they hear about the auction. They also buy their entire Bid Budget, plus 10% so that they have everything they need to win. It takes time to buy bid tokens. You don’t want to be trying to buy them in the middle of a hot action, with seconds on the clock!
Never bid on an item until the last few seconds of an auction: Each bid placed, adds a few seconds to the countdown timer. The smart auction goer knows there is no point in placing a bid until the last few seconds. The last few seconds of an auction is when all the real bidders will jump in. You can tell the green bidders by how early they put down a bid. The really savvy bidders will wait until the last couple of seconds to place each bid. This makes for an exciting auction, even if you are just watching.
Be on the lookout for “Duulers”: This term was coined about a century ago, and has a double meaning in the UEE. A Dueler was a person who fought single combat, to the death, on ancient Earth. The current spelling refers to the fact that the best Vanduul fighters, wear the least armor. A Duuler is a being that will purposely run up the bid price on a lower value item, sometimes way beyond the retail value, in order to establish a reputation for bidding whatever it takes to win the auction. This way, when they enter an auction for a higher valued item, their reputation will cause the other bidders to drop out, and they get the item extremely cheap. Because you have no way to know how many bids they bought, only you can decide if it is worth calling their bluff. It’s quite possible that they spent the vast majority of their bids on the lower valued item.
High Risk = High Reward: The higher valued items up for auction are always bound to draw the most bidders. Everyone wants to get an RSI Constellation for next to nothing. If you’ve never bid at the Banu Auctions before, you should start with the lower valued items first, in order to get a feel for how the auctions run. Every auction is different, but once you understand how they work, you will have the confidence to bid thoughtfully on the higher valued items. Remember, it is not over until the clock hits zero!
Never enter more than one auction at a time: While it is tempting to bid on several items at a time, the most likely outcome is that you end up spending all your bid tokens, and lose all the auctions. Auctions have staggered start times for the purpose of giving everyone the chance to enter more than one auction. You can see who is bidding in which auctions, and you will see beings bidding in several auctions at once. These are either beings familiar with how the auctions work, with a lot of practice, or green bidders, who are most likely going to use up their bid tokens before the auctions end.
Set realistic expectations: While many items end up auctioning for far less than retail value, the actual ending price will be determined by how much you (and the other bidders) want the item, and how much you (and the other bidders) are willing to pay for the item. Only you can determine the value of these two factors for yourself. This relates to creating a Bid Budget above. The one fact that can be stated unequivocally is, the closer to full retail value that you are willing to pay, the better your chances of winning will be.
The auction isn’t over until the timer hits zero: Be prepared for any auction to go well beyond its posted end time. Because a few seconds is added to the countdown timer with every bid, this means that an auction will not end until all but one bidder have used up their bid tokens, or decided that the auction price has gone too high. Any auction could go a few minutes beyond its posted end time, or a few hours. Auction posted start and end times are SET (with conversions to major planetary time zones). You should free up as much time as possible, in case an auction you are bidding in runs extremely long.