Trading Post

Auction-based item trading with no economy plugins

Moving into testing phase - contact if interested in helping.

Ever wanted to easily offer items for trade, and get the best value? This plugin allows item-based auctions to occur. Players may post items up for auction, at which time the items are taken from them and held by the trading post.

Other players can view the list of auctions and bid on them with their own items. Again, items bid are removed from the bidding player and held by the trading post.

Auctions and bids may not be altered once posted, but may be withdrawn by their posters. If a bid is withdrawn, the items held are returned to the bidder. If an auction is withdrawn, the items on auction are returned to the owner, and all bids are returned to their respective bidders.

Since there is no way to automatically determine whose bid has the most value to the auction's owner, an auction is "won" only when the owner of the auction selects the bid that is most valuable to them.

Further ideas:

• Players could optionally be required to be within a certain distance of a user-defined coordinate (which could be the location of a physical "trading post" built in-game) in order to use this plugin's commands. As an extension of this, multiple "Trading Post" locations could be defined, operating as a single trading network, perhaps with the ability for a trading post to operate independently. Making this a possibility for use on RP servers.

• Auctions could optionally be given a maximum time limit. If the auction's owner has not selected a winning bid by this time (e.g. isn't satisfied with current bids, or if nobody bids), then the auction will automatically withdraw, returning all items as usual. As noted before, there is no way for auctions to automatically select a winner, making withdrawal the only option when the time limit is reached.

• Some sort of "reverse auction" system with a command /tr buy, that allows players to place an auction that requests a quantity of an item that they wish to acquire. Other players could then bid on the request, their bids consisting of a request for a quantity of an item that they want in return. This "reverse auction" would allow a player to get what they wanted, while choosing the most favorable item to give in return.

This plugin will require Spout on the serverside for /tr sellmore and /tr bidmore functionality. No client mods required.

Commands

/tr browse [page]
- Lists posted auctions that you may bid on.

/tr check [page]
- Checks the status of your currently pending auctions and bids.

/tr show <auction or bid ID>
- Lists the details of an auction. Shows who has replied and what they are offering.
- Use this to decide on a counter-bid, or to decide which offer to accept.

/tr comment <auction ID> [comment]
- Sets a brief comment on your auction that's visible with /tr show
- If the comment is omitted in the command, any existing comment will be removed from the auction
- Example usage: Letting bidders know what item type you would prefer

/tr sell
- Removes the item(s) from your hand and offers them up for auction.

/tr sellmore
- Opens a virtual chest for you to drop items into.
- When it is closed, its contents will be offered up for auction.

/tr buy <quantity> <item>
- Posts a "reverse auction" requesting for someone to sell you a quantity of an item.
- For example, if you need 32 coal, you'd type /tr buy 32 Coal

New command!
/tr add <auction or bid ID>
- Adds the contents of your hand to the items you are already selling / bidding.
- Items can only be added, they cannot be removed from a sale as this would make it possible to cheat someone out of their items (e.g. Fred posts 5 diamond blocks and a lump of coal for sale, George bids 32 eyes of ender, Fred removes the diamond blocks and then accepts Fred's bid, Fred gets only coal). Instead, the entire sale must be withdrawn (thereby rejecting all bids) and a new one posted instead.
- Similarly, to remove items from a bid, the entire bid must be withdrawn and a new one posted.

/tr bid <auction ID>
- Bids the contents of your hand on a regular auction.
- The items will be taken from your hand and stored until accepted/rejected.

/tr bid <auction ID> <quantity> <item>
- Bids on a "reverse auction". Your bid requests a quantity of an item from the auction's owner in return for your items.
- Your bid will fail unless you have enough of the auction's desired item in your inventory.
- For example, if you're bidding on a reverse auction that asks for 32 coal, then that amount of coal will be removed from your inventory.

/tr bidmore <auction ID>
- Opens a virtual chest for you to drop items into.
- When it is closed, its contents will be bid against an existing auction.

/tr accept <bid ID>
- Accepts a bid. At this point both parties will receive the items offered to them.
- If this is a "reverse auction", you cannot accept a bid unless you have enough of the item that the bidder requests.
- The items you posted will then be delivered to the one whose offer you accepted.
- If they are offline, they'll receive the items you posted when they log in.
- All other offers will be returned to their owners, immediately or on next login.

/tr withdraw <auction or bid ID>
- Returns the items you posted or offered to you, cancelling the potential trade.
- In case of a post, any offers made will be returned to their owners.

/tr help, or just /tr
- Gives a brief summary of how the system works.

/tr commands [page]
- Gives a brief command summary.