Auction Tax

[Wendigo]

I was thinking about the cost of items on the Auction House, and how maybe a maximum price for things (e.g., Karma) is unacceptable... but how you could also discourage exorbitant prices as well, and I think maybe the solution is an Auction Tax.

I've seen Auction Taxes in other games work fairly effectively. In order to put an item up for Auction, you have to pay some nominal percentage of the "Buy It Now" price (maybe 5%). Therefore, if you put up 10 karma for... say... 2 million, you have to kick in $100,000 of your own money. For $300K, you would kick in $15,000.

To encourage an aggressive Auction process, if you put the item up for Auction, you pay 5% of the STARTING BID. Therefore, if you put up 10 karma for $100,000, you kick in $5,000... but if it sells for $300,000, you've saved yourself $10,000!

This discourages people from setting absurd prices, and simultaneously encourages more bidding wars, which will make the Auction House a hell of a lot more interesting.