Hello! Is it possible to have an option to withdraw our own bids from an auction? I keep bidding on stuff that I later find another auction for that same thing I already had bid on. I'm trying to not outbid people if there's more than one of the same offer so we can all get what we want!

Sorry for the late reply, I had to think about this one for a bit xD

I like the idea and I completely understand the frustration of bidding on something and then finding a much cheaper auction for the same item, or just wanting to avoid bid wars.

I think the first question that needs to be answered though is what happens when someone cancels a bid, but the most recent bidder before them can't afford their bid anymore? The way that our bidding system works is by taking PC from you temporarily until another player outbids you, so canceling bids can potentially cause a mess if previous bidders can't afford their bids. The way that this could be avoided is by coding it so that the system selects the most recent bidder who can afford their bid, but I'm not sure how complicated that would be for the coder.

I also think bidders should still have some accountability placed on them, i.e. rather than being able to withdraw a bid at any time, bidders would have a period of about 6 hours (or whatever) after bidding in which they could retract their bid. After that time is up, their bid would be locked in. This way sellers can still have some certainty that their item will be sold, and buyers have some time to change their mind.

I also don't feel right about someone being able to retract their bid if they're currently the only bidder. I can see this causing a lot of frustration for sellers. I think the way that Ebay handles this is by letting the bidder request a cancelation from the seller (and providing a reason), but I could see that causing resentment on pixpet, especially if the seller denies the request. So I'm not really sure how this could be rectified in a way that's satisfactory for both parties. I'm open to ideas.

In terms of notifications, I think the seller and the most recent bidder before the canceled bid deserve to be notified when there's a withdrawn bid, but that raises the issue of notification spam. Of course it would ideally be a toggleable notif, but then I'm imagining a scenario where players have it toggled off, and it causes confusion over who the most recent bidder is and how much PC the seller will actually make from their auction. I'm open to ideas here too.

This is less important to players, but on the moderation side, imo auctions should show a history of who's canceled their bid -- just in case of harassment.

All in all, I think withdrawing bids could work if coded correctly and with fairness in mind!

I read everyone's replies and here's what I think:



I like @TailedThief 's idea for this one. Everyone's bids gets taken until the auction ends. Seems the most fair solution!



I think a period of 24 or 48 hours would be better (1 day or 2 days) to adjust to everyone's schedules. Then again, that depends on the auction's time. Auctions that take 1 or 2 days would have a lower grace period to withdraw. I think the snipeguard is a good example of how this could be implemented.



If someone is the only bidder, they wouldn't get the option to cancel. This would help avoid stressful situations for both parties.



Toggleable notifications would be the best way to go about this! If the seller wants to know who's the most recent bid they can look at their auction on the Market Watch page.



Agreed!



Agreed as well!



I like the idea of a cooldown!

I think the best way to approach this would be to let the parties involved (sellers and bidders) know about how the withdrawing works.

For sellers, it'd be something like a text box saying the bidders can withdraw their bids and the time frame they can, and how the money would be handled during these movements.
For bidders, it'd tell them they can withdraw their bid within a certain time limit and about the cooldown they'll be facing if they choose to withdraw the bid.

Specifically for bidders, I think it'd be nice to show this possibility before they place a bid, rather than showing it when they're going to withdraw. They'll have more information to make better decisions that way.

All of this is open to discussion! Thanks for listening :)