In our bid system for loot we have a rule where the high bidder is charged the least amount it would take to win the item. So if you over bid the 2nd person by a landslide, you are only charged 1 point more than the 2nd highest bid.

When I picked up my Trophy of the Crusades I had a good deal of data to work with. This drops 5 times a raid and its easy to get a feel for the trend of an item when it drops that often and so many people need it. In a bid system, the cost reflects supply and demand. The same people that need the first 2-3 trophies will need the last 4-5 of the night. Except for the people that won already. Many people will not bid on the 1st to see what it goes for.

Here is how the night played out that I picked up 2 in the same run.

I bid 50 on the first drop and it was won for 51 points. This tells everyone that someone bid 50 for it. That first person could have dropped over 9 thousand on it and still would have got it for 51 points. I think about things like this. When the 2nd one dropped, I know someone else knew someone bid 50 for it. People hate to see things go cheap to someone else. They can either bid to win it and give the other person a chance to get it much cheaper later. Leaving them with points they can spend over you on something else.

Or they can under bid you to make you spend the most possible. If someone were to bid 49, then that other person would have to spend the full 50 points to get it. He would get no discount like he would if it was uncontested. Can anyone guess what I bid the 2nd time? Knowing that someone was likely to bid 49 to hold that bid of 50 up, I bid 48 instead.

That item was won for 49 points. They easily could have bid 51 or 50, I have no way to know that. But if he was trying to play a game with my points I was able to dodge it. On the 3rd and 4th drop, I bid 47 points and won it for 41.

By watching and playing with the bids on the first 2 drops, I was able to save 16 or more points. I never bid more than I am willing to spend on an item. So its not the same as bidding 1 under someone else on an item that I don’t want. If we catch people doing that we will take action. But dipping my bid a little bit to make someone else pay for it first is fair game. I will get it or someone else will get it. How soon and for how much is still up to me.

I saw some interesting things with Trophy of the Crusade in our bid system. This item was highly under valued to most people in my opinion. We had one person blow everything on the first one we had drop. He second guessed the purchase over vent. Lets say he spent 100 points to keep the math in here simple. That’s about 5 weeks worth of saved points after decay.

He had no emblems and spent everything on this token he could not use for a while. The next one went for 20 points, that’s 20% of the value of the first trophy. The other people that won the next few were people that didn’t have many points. Some of those purchases were questionable. “Are you really going to let him take that” and my response was that they should have spent more points if it was worth that much. But that’s issue for another time.

I sat down and did the math. For the people that only did 25 man raids, they would get 15 emblems per week. In 4 weeks, everyone would have enough to turn in a trophy. Before that point nobody needed a trophy because they could not turn it in. At the prices they saw, they could pick them up when needed and save points for serious items.

Only 5 trophies drop per week. So after 5 weeks, the guild would see 25 trophies. Just a moment ago I said everyone would need a trophy in 4 weeks. So we get badges at a rate faster than trophies. Close to that 4-5 week mark, everyone will be looking to get a trophy. Demand will increase.

I picked up as many of those as fast as I could. I was able to get the 3rd and 4th trophy before I had the emblems to turn in the 3rd. I end up saving a lot of points that way. I was telling people that the price was about to go up but they held off waiting for them to go down more. I picked up my last 2 in the same raid back to back for 41 points each.

Last night I turned in my 4th trophy and the value of them was +80 points each. And everyone is talking about how much they want one.

Access to more emblems in 10 man normal and heroic was also a factor. I think some people spent them for the T9 and other items. The T9.25 pieces are all they have left to spent them on now. I was able to pick the price I wanted to pay. I bid just low enough to conserve points and pick them up when the price was right. When they were going for 1 point over my bid, I knew I was in that target price. Now the people that want one almost have to max bid to get it.