Market bidding

Market bidding is the process of purchasing commodities from a colonized island's commodities market. Market bidding can be done from a ship, from a stall or shoppe, or from a market.

Bidding on Commodities

Commodities spawn on colonized islands in accordance with demand. Players can "bid" for these commodities through the market bidding interface.

Click for larger view.

From the hold on a ship, the "View marketplace" menu in a market, or the Manage the Shoppe radial menu in a stall or shoppe, selecting "Market Bidding" brings the market bidding interface.

The market bidding interface can be confusing at first glance, but it is fairly straightforward. In the upper-left-hand area, you can view all the commodities that spawn on the island where you are currently located, as well as the current high bid and volume on each. In the center-right, you can actually place your bids. In the upper right, you can view the coffers and deposit or withdraw from them. In the lower right, you can view bid tickets currently held on the ship or in the stall/shoppe. In the lower left, you can view the status of your current bids and the bids held on the ship or stall/shoppe.

How Market Bids Fill

Commodities go to the highest bidder first. They spawn somewhat randomly but automatically over time. Thus, the higher your bid volume or the lower your price, the longer it will take for your bid to fill. If you are in a hurry to get commodities, it is a good idea to either bid a high price or bid for a low volume (or both).

The Bidding Process

Bidding takes place via the form boxes on the right side of the screen. "Bid" corresponds to "High bid" in the left-side table. What you put in the "Bid" form box is what you are willing to pay per unit of whatever commodity you choose to bid on. "Units" corresponds to "Volume"; whatever you place in the "Units" form box is how many units you want to purchase. As you place numbers, the "Cost" and "Fee" areas are automatically adjusted. The cost is equal to the "Bid" value multiplied by the "Units" value. The Fee is equal to 5% of the cost plus 10 PoE If you bid 20 PoE per unit for 20 units of Wood:

20 PoE per unit * 20 units = 400 PoE
Fee = .05(400 PoE) + 10    =  30 PoE
                           ---------
                             430 PoE

The Bid Ticket

Bid tickets can be either filled or unfilled.

Once you place a bid, a bid ticket is placed in your inventory (if done from a market) or inside a stall, shoppe, or ship. These can be found under the collapsible section "Bid Tickets" in a player's inventory and under the Market Bidding screen in a stall, shoppe, or ship. The bid ticket is a handy reference to see if a bid is filled yet.

Delivering a Bid

In order to deliver a filled bid ticket, you must be at the original island and at a receiving location (a stall or shoppe you own or manage, or a ship). Clicking "Deliver" will deliver as much of the bid as can fit; if not all the commodities fit, the bid ticket is amended and can be delivered in entirety at another location or time.

Cancelling Bid Tickets

For whatever reason, you might decide you would rather not have the commodities you bid on. You can cancel an unfilled or partially-filled bid ticket by clicking "cancel" on the Market Bidding screen. If the bid ticket is unfilled, you get the entirety of the "Cost" back, but lose the fee. If the bid ticket is partially-filled, the filled commodities are delivered and the remainder is converted into the original cost and goes to the coffers. If the partially-filled ticket will not fit into the deliving location, the bid ticket is split into three things:

• The portion that can fit goes into the hold.
• A new bid ticket is created for the number of commodities that couldn't fit but were filled. It is created as "filled" also.
• The unfilled portion is returned as PoE.

Note that in order to cancel a bid, you must have a ship in the port or a stall on the island where the bid has been placed. If you went there by ferry and placed the bid at the market, you will not be able to cancel the bid.

External/Other Links

• Commonly discussed ideas from Game Design
• Faulkston's Market bidding links
• Market bidding calculator (Lower down on the page) Calculates fees into cost per unit on both full and partial bid tickets.