Auction System Proposal

I've brainstormed the requirements for an auction house system for the website. I've included my notes below for those who are interested. I'm pretty sure I can pull it off with a bit of work. However, I'm interested in seeing some story behind it rather than having an auction house simply pop up in Jastrey.

Here is my proposition, then: I will build the feature described below after 20 boon worth of stories are created and run to explain its addition to town. This must include at least three pieces of scheduled content (adventures or field battles). Multiple storytellers are fine, and you'll receive the normal reward for your stories; this is purely a bonus.

You guys want it? Show me how badly. Here are the specs:

• Auction Characteristics: Players shall be able to create auctions for other players to view and bid upon. Auctions shall include the following characteristics:
  • Treasure: A piece of treasure owned by the auction's creator. Ownership of the treasure shall transfer to the auction until the auction is canceled or concluded.
  • Minimum Starting Bid: A minimum starting bid amount. This shall default to the market value of the treasure.
  • Buy-Out Bid: An optional buy-out bid amount. This must be equal to or greater than the starting bid. A bid of this amount shall prematurely conclude the auction.
  • Duration: The number of days the auction shall last. This defaults to one week, but cannot be less than one day or greater than 12 weeks.
  • Winning Bid: The current winning bid amount. This shall default to zero and be a hidden field used by the system for tracking purposes.
  • Winning Bidder: The current winning bidder. This shall default to null and be a hidden field used by the system for tracking purposes.
• Interface: Auctions shall be shown in a filterable, sortable view for players to browse. If a player has an active character with enough gold to bid or buy out an auction, its listing shall include buttons and forms to do so.
• Bidding: Players shall have the ability to bid on active auctions. If no bids have been placed, this must be an amount equal to or greater than the minimum starting bid. If a bid has been placed, it must be an amount at least 5% greater than the current winning bid. The bid amount shall be deducted from the bidder's gold total and refunded if another bid is placed.
• Buy-Out: No bid shall be accepted in excess of the auction's buy-out bid amount. If a higher bid is placed, it shall be reduced to the buy-out amount. A buy-out bid shall immediately conclude an auction even if it has time remaining in its duration.
• Conclusion: An auction shall conclude once its duration has expired. If at least one bid has been placed, ownership of the treasure shall transfer to the winning bidder. Otherwise, ownership shall transfer back to the auction's creator.
• Cancellation: Players shall be able to prematurely cancel an auction until it receives its first bid. Once a bid has been placed, the auction cannot be canceled until it concludes normally.
• Notifications: Bidders shall receive private messages notifying them if they are outbid or if an auction for which they're the highest bidder concludes. Auction creators shall receive private messages notifying them whenever a bid is placed and the results of their auction when it concludes.
• Fee: The creator of an auction shall pay a fee equal to one copper piece per day of the auction's duration when it is first created (e.g., an auction lasting 30 days costs 3 silver pieces to create). This fee shall not be refunded even if the auction is canceled prematurely.
• Payout: The creator of an auction shall receive 95% of the winning bid when the auction concludes. If no bids were received, the creator shall receive the auction's treasure instead.
• Auctioneers: There may be an Auctioneer merit that allows auctions to be created free of charge and return 100% of their winning bids.
• Hoard Auctions: The website may periodically choose a random piece of treasure from the hoard builder and set it up as an automated auction. In this way, players could use gold to bid on randomly-generated-but-hand-picked equipment.