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### Topic

#### Limit on Simultaneous Auction Listings

Some of you may have noticed that after sending hundreds of your items to the Auctions, hoping to have them snapped up by a hoard of Glitchen primed to spend, there ended up being no takers for a large number of them. And sometimes, those expired auctions had a hard time finding their way back to your inventory.
The reason for this is pretty straightforward: they were floating around as little bits of data (or Ur dust, if you will) waiting for space to open up in your pack so they could be delivered. If you were usually stuffed to the gills with items, or had hundreds of expired auctions floating around waiting for a slot of their own, this process was made a lot more complicated. And all that extra dust associated with your Glitch made a few other, totally unrelated things trickier than usual as well.
We tried put in some safeguards around the whole process to make sure your items wouldn't be doomed to eternal dust-dom (as you can see via updates here), but the main issue we repeatedly ran up against was that this was mostly a problem where people were simultaneously posting several hundred auctions that would all expire around same time. So, we've now capped the number of Auctions you can list at once at 100. We'll continue to work with those affected by the bug in previous auctions, but this fix should mean you can sleep soundly knowing future Auctions listings are in safe hands.

Posted 13 months ago by Blanky | Permalink

### Replies

- Until I read this, I used to think I sold a lot of stuff via auctions.
  But then, I never posted a lot at one time anyway, in case I was instantly undercut.
  Posted 13 months ago by Red Sauce | Permalink
- Thanks for this fix :) both the problem and the solution makes sense
  Posted 13 months ago by Lara | Permalink
- I agree. Hopefully this will also help foster competition in a friendly Glitchy sort of way. ^-^
  Posted 13 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ | Permalink
- Why not merely have them 'mailed' back to the auctioneer when the auction expires, saving you guys from having to make it instantly reappear in one's pack
  Posted 13 months ago by ✦ SHI∇IΔΠ ✦ | Permalink
- i could be wrong about this but don't we have a mailbox limit of 50 mails?
  Posted 13 months ago by Lara | Permalink
- Lara: I hope not! I often place more than 50 auction ORDERS at a time when I'm not in-game, does that mean I'm losing auctions I've purchased / won?
  Posted 13 months ago by ✦ SHI∇IΔΠ ✦ | Permalink
- Dunno. Got a message yesterday that I thought said something like 'limit 50, you have 6 more messages waiting', but I clicked through it too fast. And when I'd deleted some messages, I didn't get any new ones coming in.
  But maybe I misread it :D
  Posted 13 months ago by Lara | Permalink
- I currently can not respond with a full reply right now. I did want to voice that my opinion that unless this is only a temporary solution, I do not agree with this at all.
  Once again, temporary solution... no problem at all... heck temporary for 2 weeks, 1 month even possibly 2 months, as long as the problem gets fixed.
  But if this is the answer to the problem indefinetly, I disagree. I will respond in more detail later. Thanks!
  Posted 13 months ago by Hoodjack Saken | Permalink
- Blanky - Does this mean 100 stacks of items or 100 total items? If it's 100 stacks, then it's livable but if it's 100 total then that's a pretty rough cap.
  Posted 13 months ago by binkywawa | Permalink
- binkywawa, it means separate auctions, whether they're stacked or individual, so it depends on how you listed them!
  Posted 13 months ago by Blanky | Permalink
- I suppose I could have better formatted my comment:
  Blanky - Is this a permanent or temporary solution to the AH problem?
  Posted 13 months ago by Hoodjack Saken | Permalink
- Hoodjack Saken: nothing is necessarily "forever", but this limit will probably be around for quite some time.
  Maintaining and handling enormous lists of auction items causes fundamental problems for our gameservers. Problems which you in particular have seen manifest themselves recently.
  The game's economy is still pretty rudimentary (at least compared to some of the things we have in the works), and it's pretty likely that at some point over the next year or so we'll revisit how auctions function both from a technical and a "mechanics" point of view. Until then, however, this limit is likely to remain.
  Posted 13 months ago by hitherto | Permalink
- OOooooo now there's something I'm excited to see... a complete overhaul of the Glitch economy? Wow! ^-^
  Thanks for all your hard work guys.
  Posted 13 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ | Permalink
- Oui.... well thanks for being upfront about what to expect and your quick response. That is appreciated.
  Posted 13 months ago by Hoodjack Saken | Permalink
- I think this is actually wonderful and very fair! It is hard for the younger Glitchen if there are those out there putting up hundreds of auctions and undercutting in a huge way this actually gives those little Glichlings a fighting chance now!
  Posted 13 months ago by Casombra Amberrose | Permalink
- Miso George: to be clear, I doubt there will ever be "a complete overhaul of the Glitch economy" in the sense that we one day pop up and say "ta-da! everything has been overhauled!" ...
  ...but, there are various things which will be added over time to hopefully make the economy more nuanced, varied and interesting to participate in.
  Posted 13 months ago by hitherto | Permalink
- Blanky - Awesome!! TY!!
  Posted 13 months ago by binkywawa | Permalink
- OMGiant I used to list about 2k auctions each time... with this auction house nerf should I start to panic?
  Posted 13 months ago by Utopia | Permalink
- Awesome, still! Thanks!
  And... if you need suggestions, the economy over at PonyIsland is *awesome* and works great, always smooth and no hitches. So... you should check that out. ^-^
  Posted 13 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ | Permalink
- @Lara--I've bought more than 50 auctions, during Zilleoween, and they were delivered to my mailbox no problem. Though after the mail box change I did have issues in trying to retrieve 69 mailed items. Simply refreshing didn't work but after submitting a bug report all the mail was delivered at the same time.
  As for mass auctioneers being unhappy about not being able to do 2k auctions at the same time...try not think of it as an AH nerf and more of a guard against scripts.
  Since the problem was all of the unsold auctions returning at the same time...there's no way you'd be posting 2K auctions quickly enough manually to reproduce this problem.
  Also, it just means you have to re-write your program to count how many live auctions you have or have it ping the server and try to post a new one.
  Posted 13 months ago by M<3tra, obviously | Permalink
- Metra <3
  Wish I hadn't clicked through that error message so quickly so I'd know for sure what it said! Anyway thanks for clarifying :)
  Posted 13 months ago by Lara | Permalink
- This is a smart solution! It will have the added benefit of driving prices down, too - no one will want their auctions to relist over and over.
  Posted 13 months ago by Jewel Stoned | Permalink
- Out of curiosity only, how long does it take to post '2k auctions each time'? I have seen this in other mmos where people play the AH as the game vs playing the game and it always fascinates me. I just simply dont have the patience I guess.
  Posted 13 months ago by Dagnabbit Rabbit | Permalink
- There are services that can do that for you
  Posted 13 months ago by shhexy corin | Permalink
- I'm sure this solution impacts only a tiny percentage of players, but I'm equally certain that those affected will be furious. I can only hope that they see the wisdom of a simple solution to a complicated problem, and respect the fact that the devs have much more interesting things to spend their time on that will be of greater benefit to everyone.
  Posted 13 months ago by Black Francis | Permalink
- Oh my, I thought I posted a lot at auction at once!! I can't ever see myself popping 100 items on auctions :P
  Nevertheless, excellent solution for players and our auction economy!
  Posted 13 months ago by Autumnsdark | Permalink
- Thank you for my random refund. I didn't even know I'd lost something!
  Posted 13 months ago by Addi Bee~♥ | Permalink
- Great I just got my 10.8k currants back :D
  Posted 13 months ago by Utopia | Permalink
- 2k auctions at a time?? When would I have time to "play"? I already seem to make more than I can spend. Unless... LOL.. my pie in the sky (pumpkin pie?) truly customizeable 300k house should happen to suddenly become available for purchase.
  Blanky/Glitch, Thank you for sending back my 280c. For sure I never missed whatever it was that got lost. :)
  Posted 13 months ago by Joni Mitchell | Permalink
- I agree with Black Francis and think the auction limit is a good solution. Just my two cents. :-)
  Posted 13 months ago by Azzaria | Permalink
- Nerfing the ability to have 700+ auctions strikes me as having an edge-case impact at most.
  100 auction limit is fine for most, IMO. Happy with the change.
  Posted 13 months ago by CrashTestPilot | Permalink