Guides

@Ninola That wouldn't be in poor taste at all! Incentives for higher bids would be perfectly normal, some people do this by offering an accent, apparel set, or familiar that might match the dragon particularly well!

If you do decide to use art as an incentive, you might ask on the Dragons with Art ping list thread if it would be appropriate to ping people who are interested in buying dragons with art once the threshold for the art has been met!

@Infectionary Good to know thank you for the quick response!

And thank you for the link ;u; I didn't know that ping list existed

@infectionary should only old, gen1, or special code dragons be auctioned? because I have a dragon that I want to auction because 3 different people have expressed interest in him but he's not gen1, old, or anything special in that respect. I know i can technically start an auction for it anyway, but i'm worried that it wont get much interest, or that the bidding will die off very quickly. Is there any ping list for people interested in auctions of dragons with certain genes or near XXXs like there is for the other kinds? Thanks!

@Aevios You might ask the interested parties if any of them are interested in participating in an auction. I haven't seen many other types of auctions, not including dragons with art auctions, so I'm not sure how successful it would be. If all or two of the parties are interested in participating in an auction, I'd say go for it! If they are not, however, you could offer a compromise.

You could sell the dragon to the person who inquired about him first, or you could ask for offers privately from each person and sell to the person with the best offer. If you bred the dragon, you could also take this opportunity to see if the other two parties want to be put on a ping list for similar hatchlings!

@infectionary okay thank you!

@SapphireElegy

Pinging myself for near-future reference.

@CelenaWolf

Thank you, this is very useful!

@Infectionary

Thank you so much for this guide! It's a life saver, really! I'm about to host my very first auction, and I'm really unsure about how much my dragon is worth, so I am unable to confidently list a starting bid!

Is it appropriate to begin the bidding with an offer instead of an actual number for the starting bid?
(So I mean, instead of SB: 100g, could it be SB:Offer?)

Also, how long would you recommend an auction last? I worry that a long auction would have the potential of losing too much stream halfway though, but too short would not allow enough people to bid, or bid often enough to be fair! I was thinking maybe 2 weeks would be a good amount but I am really not certain how long these usually last.

@Shadeyrain - In case @Infectionary doesn't get to you in a timely manner, I can try to answer a couple of your questions.

Is it appropriate to begin the bidding with an offer?
-That is entirely up to you. Most FR members are respectful enough to give you a fair, if lower end, price for your dragon. You can always get lucky and have someone offer a very nice sum for your dragon right off the bat, too! Starting Bids are typically your way of making sure that you're happy with your sale if you get NO other offers. What's the LEAST you'd be willing to sell your dragon for?

How long should an auction last?
-You're absolutely right that long auctions can lose momentum, but most offer an LDP so that interested parties can be notified to come back when the auction is going to expire. A good in between, from personal experience, is 3 days to 7 days.