ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/Auction and trading suggestions

Auction House/International Trading Station (Discussion)
Add an auction. It can work by handing in your item, setting the price and then people bid on it whether or not you're online. The Auction house could categorise all items for easy browsing, and be connected to the entire world to reach the maximum potential of buyers/sellers.

Possible areas for discussion:
 * Ways to organize the selling and browsing of items (melee, wands, consumables, etc.)
 * Should all transactions be made in gold? What if a player wants to trade or an item is worth more than the auction gold limit?
 * Are there weapons or items that should be excluded from the auction house? (i.e., auction house will not sell max weapons/shields, etc.)?


 * Why this is a good idea
 * The players can set their own prices and make their own economy.
 * Will get rid of trade spamming.
 * Stops people wasting their time trading (considerable time can be involved in listing items for sale on laggy gwguru, logging on at all hours of day to check if trading partner is online, especially when they're in a different timezone, waiting for people to finish missions...).
 * Makes transactions scam-proof, and cuts out last-minute attempts to renegoatiate trades.
 * Makes the items we want to buy more accessible (don't have to go find someone selling).
 * Would allow players to get a larger number of their items out on the market.


 * Why it may not work out
 * There could be an increase in bots showing up in town.
 * Lag may also be increased through out the outpost/town, especially around the auction house NPC

A non-outpost/town Auction House (Discussion)
The possibility that lag might be a side effect of the Auction House being placed in towns and outposts would make traveling through them slow and painful lag drag, especially for those who are running with minimal game requirements. An auction house that is a non-in outpost/town would solve this, but going to a trading site isn't as direct as possible. To make this Auction House with the great benefits, without creating lag, would to put the auction house in the character screen or a pricey NPC in guild hall.
 * Explanation-When added to the character screen, an auction house button would be placed under the "Enter Store" button in the top right corner of the screen, but labeled" Auction House"or something similar.  When this is pushed, a screen displaying the auction house would pop up.  This screen would list all the items players have put up for sale.  Of course the items would be organized in categories, and a search box would also help.  The owner of the account would pick a character name in a drop down box.  The auction house will screen would display the character name, money the character is carrying, and the amount of money in the accounts storage chest.  The account owner would pick a desired item, either bid on it or buy it immediately.
 * If the account owner bids, the character selected would have the bid amount automatically taken from his treasury. The character would automatically be given the bid amount back if the bid is lost.
 * If bought immediately, or an auction has been won through a bid, then the character selected would automatically have the item placed in the characters inventory.
 * If inventory is full, it will be placed in storage chest. If the storage chest is full, then the item will be put in waiting until the character has room in inventory or storage chest.  When bought immediately, the character would have the money taken from his treasury and/or storage chest.
 * To put items onto the auction house, a button would be provided that allows the account owner to choose an item from the accounts storage chest or a selected characters inventory. The account owner would choose and enter the buy now price, and first bid price (lower than the buy now price), then a post button would be included.  The item will automatically be placed into the category it belongs for easy finding. If the item is not bought or bid on within certain time requirement, the character will get the item back automatically, and possibly be charged (game money of course).  If the item is sold or won, the money would be added to the character's inventory the item came from, or into the accounts storage chest.
 * A trade chat screen linked to all of the towns and outposts would be very helpful. Players would be shown as "Shopping" in friends list, and would still be able to receive whispers and possibly guild and alliance chat.
 * This would be the same concept when placed in guild hall, but a costly NPC would be added to the available NPC's able to be added to guild hall. The NPC would provide the same screen as you would see in the character screen.  The guild hall auction houses would be linked to the main one.


 * Why this is a good idea
 * Reduces lag in towns and outposts due to the auction house.
 * Less inactive players just standing around trying to sell or buy items.
 * Less players shopping in game would result in a lower amount of districts.
 * Gives a the town or outpost a more lively and busy feeling with no inactive shopping/selling characters standing around.
 * Competition between players would make a distinct price range for an item.
 * A relatively distinguish price range would provide beginners if a found item is worth selling or not.
 * The players can set their own prices and make their own economy.
 * Will get rid of trade spamming and stops people wasting their time trading.
 * Makes the items players want to buy more accessible (don't have to go find someone selling).
 * Would allow players to get a larger number of their items out on the market.
 * Players could sell and do something else at the same time.
 * Players would not have to travel to certain towns or outposts to shop or post.
 * Would save time to buy and sell for those with slower computers.(logging in and loading crowded towns and outposts can take time with minimal game requirements and/or slow internet connection.)
 * An in game Auction House NPC in guild hall that would be linked to the main one.
 * Gives the guild hall another reason to be used.
 * Another costly NPC to expand a guild hall.
 * Would make it far easier to buy and sell low supply, low demand items such as unpopular greens and unpopular but uncommon upgrade components.


 * Why this may not work
 * Players would have to log into the character screen to buy and post things on the auction house, or travel to guild hall (if guild hall has auction house NPC).
 * If there is a small item variety in GW2 (doubtful, but possible), it would make many common useful items overly posted, and many may only be sold for very little due to competition, if sold at all.
 * This would discourage posts of common items.
 * Only rare items (greens, great skins, consumables ect.) may sell well if there is a low variety of items in GW2(doubtful, but possible).
 * Bugs may occur when items and money are being exchanged.(Buyer doesn't get the item, but seller gets money, ect.)

Trading Stalls (Discussion)
When a player wanted to sell a quantity of items they could open up a stand and be able to sell a mass of items at once, in which players could view or make offers on items as long as the seller's stand was open. It would be kind of neat if a similar idea were used in Guild Wars 2, it would make items much easier to sell, and there could even be an option in which it automatically accepts certain offers, so the seller doesn't have to wait around at his or her keyboard all day trying to make some extra gold.


 * Why this is a good idea
 * Would allow players to get a larger number of their items out on the market.
 * Would allow players to "shop" in a sense, going from one stand to another comparing prices and such.
 * Would allow players to go away from their computer to sell items rather than mindlessly tapping 'Enter -> 'up' -> Enter' and spamming trade chat making local chat impossible.


 * Why it may not work out;
 * It would take up a considerable amount of space in a map, it may become too heavy on graphics, removing the midrange gaming PC support idea.
 * It would abolish the idea of having the new market system, making it worthless.
 * If too many people play Guild Wars 2 it could take hours to search the stall area for good deals or to get an idea about decent prices for the item you are selling.
 * Unless the stalls are able to remain open while the player is offline, this requires people to leave their computes on and logged into their GW2 accounts. If this is a shared computer it means other people may be unable to use it and that anyone with physical access to the computer while the seller is AFK has access to that persons account.
 * There could be an increase in bots showing up in town.

Unified Traders (Discussion)
Hey there, I was thinking about this the other day, and I think this could be an improvement for GW2. How about, instead of having 5 or 6 different types of traders scattered around a city, not having some of them (think rune traders and stuff) on some other towns, etc, having one single trader for every item type, with items sorted by tabs or something? One of the things I currently find more tiresome is to have to map travel to some major city to sell some runes or materials (or to even just check the prices and find out I'd be better off selling the identified armor to a merchant), or having to go all the way through some towns just to go to a different type of merchant. Wouldn't it be great if we could have some 5 or 6 "omni-traders" scattered around a city, each providing every benefit all current traders currently do? I know it kind of takes away the immersiveness for some people (I'm one of them), but after 3 years of gameplay I just don't feel it's that important right now. So, to summarize: instead of a different trader for different stuff (generic merchand, material trader, rare material trader, etc) have a single type of merchant that does all of these roles.


 * Why this is a good idea


 * Why it may not work out