Concerning Land Auctions

[2018SL]

 

1. Understanding the basics, like the minimum bid must be L$10 above the current highest bid, how does biding in excess of the minimum needed has any advantage?
2. How much time does it take the system to process a bid before it's recognized, given lag, and number of bids made at the same time?

[Alwin Alcott]

i mostly put in my max bid i want to pay, using auto bid. The system will only use it when there are other bids ( in steps of 10) And if others bid more... good luck, i'll try another one the next time.
ALWAYS go look at the land, check the building in the sky and neighbours, so you won't regret a possible win the moment you win it.

Normally there is no lag in the auctions, and the server behind it can work with a legion of bids the same time. But dont worry... most lands don't get a huge amount of bids.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Alwin Alcott

[2018SL]

1 hour ago, Alwin Alcott said:

i mostly put in my max bid i want to pay, using auto bid. The system will only use it when there are other bids ( in steps of 10) And if others bid more... good luck, i'll try another one the next time.
ALWAYS go look at the land, check the building in the sky and neighbours, so you won't regret a possible win the moment you win it.

Normally there is no lag in the auctions, and the server behind it can work with a legion of bids the same time. But dont worry... most lands don't get a huge amount of bids.

Thanks for your response Alwin. Is the 'auto bid just the normal bid entry under the 'Submit Your Maximum Bid' ?

[Alwin Alcott]

8 hours ago, 2018SL said:

Is the 'auto bid just the normal bid entry under the 'Submit Your Maximum Bid' ?

yes that's the max amount they will use for you to bid. After being overbid you can of course add a new one, but i mostly let it go and hope to get a good deal next parcel.

[2018SL]

1 hour ago, Alwin Alcott said:

yes that's the max amount they will use for you to bid. After being overbid you can of course add a new one, but i mostly let it go and hope to get a good deal next parcel.

But that shows the competition what they must beat well ahead of the end. With proper timing, seconds before the end, I could give them no time to think out whether or not they want to match it

[Alwin Alcott]

50 minutes ago, 2018SL said:

But that shows the competition what they must beat well ahead of the end. With proper timing, seconds before the end, I could give them no time to think out whether or not they want to match it

problem is... they cán, and often will,  have put in a lot higher max bid, and in the last second overbid you automaticly, while you don't have time to adjust again. And not win.
Thats why i put my max bid at the max i wánt to spend at the parcel, and walk away when it's overpriced or simply to much for my liking.
If you look around at the map, or just travel at regions you like, find abandoned land, and put in a request at support to buy it. ( doesn't have to be the size of the land you see on the region, it can be smaller too) This is often a more money saving option than auctions... good situated land always gets better prices... for LL reselling abandoned land is always 1 L$ sqm.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Alwin Alcott

[Qie Niangao]

1 hour ago, 2018SL said:

But that shows the competition what they must beat well ahead of the end. With proper timing, seconds before the end, I could give them no time to think out whether or not they want to match it

But it only shows them what they must beat to the extent they're willing to bid that much to find out. They don't get to see your maximum bid up-front; rather, they only see the amount of your bid that was necessary to beat the previous winning bidder. The rest of your bid is only revealed, a bit at a time, as they try to outbid you and fail.

That makes the final moments of the auction pretty stress-free for those who know what they're willing to pay for a parcel: they've already placed their maximum bid in that amount and, like Alwin, can just sit back and let it play out. Certainly there are those who reserve their max bid until some automated bidding process at the very end of the auction, but that "strategy" is worthless against bidders such as Alwin.

The last-second-bidding "strategy" seems like it's trying to capture the "thrill" of a completely different kind of event: the old synchronous, auctioneer-gaveled auction as at Christie's, Sotheby's, estate sales, etc. An inexperienced bidder can play right into the hands of that "strategy" by only bidding L$10 more than the previous winning maximum bid and hoping to respond to counter bids before the auction closes. That naive approach pretty much always loses to a bidder with better automation, playing the whole auction list to snatch bargains from such naive bidders.

[2018SL]

On 4/12/2021 at 3:31 AM, Alwin Alcott said:

If you look around at the map, or just travel at regions you like, find abandoned land, and put in a request at support to buy it. ( doesn't have to be the size of the land you see on the region, it can be smaller too) This is often a more money saving option than auctions... good situated land always gets better prices... for LL reselling abandoned land is always 1 L$ sqm.

I've never been able to efficiently find abandoned lands. Is there any way of targeting them?

[Alwin Alcott]

6 hours ago, 2018SL said:

I've never been able to efficiently find abandoned lands. Is there any way of targeting them?

go around at mainland... nearly half of it is abandoned ... some regions totally. If you see empty land, look at the "about land".

[2018SL]

5 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

go around at mainland... nearly half of it is abandoned ... some regions totally. If you see empty land, look at the "about land".

You've heard the old saying, "It's all about LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION". I like the big 3, Water, Protected Road Connected, and Snowy. And then you have lands like in Zindra, where there are vast communities allowing no terraforming, making for a most homogeneous atmosphere. Do any of these types of lands I just mentioned have enough abandoned lands to make sifting through them worth the time and energy?

[Alwin Alcott]

1 hour ago, 2018SL said:

 Do any of these types of lands I just mentioned have enough abandoned lands to make sifting through them worth the time and energy?

There are for sure such places abandoned, go look for it
But... if LL thinks it's bringing them more profit to auction... they will.

[2018SL]

1 hour ago, Alwin Alcott said:

There are for sure such places abandoned, go look for it
But... if LL thinks it's bringing them more profit to auction... they will.

That makes perfect sense, and thank you for helping me with these questions so liberally.

[2018SL]

On 4/12/2021 at 4:47 AM, Qie Niangao said:

#1 "But it only shows them what they must beat to the extent they're willing to bid that much to find out. They don't get to see your maximum bid up-front; rather, they only see the amount of your bid that was necessary to beat the previous winning bidder. The rest of your bid is only revealed, a bit at a time, as they try to outbid you and fail."

#2 "The last-second-bidding "strategy" seems like it's trying to capture the "thrill" of a completely different kind of event: the old synchronous, auctioneer-gaveled auction as at Christie's, Sotheby's, estate sales, etc. An inexperienced bidder can play right into the hands of that "strategy" by only bidding L$10 more than the previous winning maximum bid and hoping to respond to counter bids before the auction closes. That naive approach pretty much always loses to a bidder with better automation, playing the whole auction list to snatch bargains from such naive bidders."

The #1 portion of your remarks, was just what I needed to here, and for that thank you so much.

The #2 portion of your remarks, seem to be not the case from my vantage point, in that showing no interest in the auction may lull others in thinking it's not so competitive. Also, and more to the point, there's simply no reason to tip your hand with any premature bidding. I'd much prefer taking my competition by surprise, allowing them precious little time to adjust.

[Qie Niangao]

1 hour ago, 2018SL said:

The #2 portion of your remarks, seem to be not the case from my vantage point, in that showing no interest in the auction may lull others in thinking it's not so competitive. Also, and more to the point, there's simply no reason to tip your hand with any premature bidding. I'd much prefer taking my competition by surprise, allowing them precious little time to adjust.

Now that you mention it, I've done something like that too, especially delaying when there's not even an opening bid. That said, most stuff I'll end up bidding on is already over L$1/m by the time I see it, so it's kinda academic at that point: anybody looking at auctions knows there must be some reason to check out this one. Anyway, I don't time it all that closely: my last bid is almost always my first, and almost never later than an hour before the auction closes. ( I don't buy to resell, so a bargain isn't all that important to me; I might cut it closer if I were trying to make margin, which might interest a lot of auction bidders.)

[2018SL]

11 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

Now that you mention it, I've done something like that too, especially delaying when there's not even an opening bid. That said, most stuff I'll end up bidding on is already over L$1/m by the time I see it, so it's kinda academic at that point: anybody looking at auctions knows there must be some reason to check out this one. Anyway, I don't time it all that closely: my last bid is almost always my first, and almost never later than an hour before the auction closes. ( I don't buy to resell, so a bargain isn't all that important to me; I might cut it closer if I were trying to make margin, which might interest a lot of auction bidders.)

All very practical. I'd further forget the maximum price I'd pay, so if the current high bid is low enough, I could place my first and last bid worth 2 bids, a split second before bidding closed. I myself have spent ridiculous prices for parcels I really wanted, but in an auction, I'm not there for a deal, but a steal.

[2018SL]

Is 5,120 sqm a full tier, and if so, how many prims would it have?

If a 5,120 sqm parcel isn't a full tier, I'd like to know what would be the closest full tier on either side. Like maybe 4,096 sqm on the lower end, and 8,192 sqm on the higher end

Edited April 17, 2021 by 2018SL

[Alwin Alcott]

26 minutes ago, 2018SL said:

Is 5,120 sqm a full tier, and if so, how many prims would it have?

If a 5,120 sqm parcel isn't a full tier, I'd like to know what would be the closest full tier on either side. Like maybe 4,096 sqm on the lower end, and 8,192 sqm on the higher end

you can see the tier levels at your accountpage under the landmanager, the mentioned tier levels are exclusive the 1024 from the premium subscription.

[2018SL]

5 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

you can see the tier levels at your accountpage under the landmanager, the mentioned tier levels are exclusive the 1024 from the premium subscription.

So the closest would be 4,096 sqm, but with my 1,024 sqm premium credit, it would be [1,024 + 4,096] = 5,120 sqm and would be charged only USD$22.00 p/m for the additional 4,096 sqm ?

[Alwin Alcott]

15 minutes ago, 2018SL said:

So the closest would be 4,096 sqm, but with my 1,024 sqm premium credit, it would be [1,024 + 4,096] = 5,120 sqm and would be charged only USD$22.00 p/m for the additional 4,096 sqm ?

you can make it better without extra costs...BUT can't buy at auctions with that system    /// create a group(make sure you have a ALT as second member, and donate all your tier to the group.. you'll get a additional (free) 10%  sqm to own

[2018SL]

1 minute ago, Alwin Alcott said:

you can make it better without extra costs...BUT can't buy at auctions with that system    /// create a group(make sure you have a ALT as second member, and donate all your tier to the group.. you'll get a additional (free) 10%  sqm to own

Yes, I've heard that, and I have a group. Thanks for reminding me Alwin, and for being willing to be so helpful.