Winning

An auction in Big Cheese is a sealed bid auction, with multiple identical items for sale at once.

All contestants submit their bids privately, and no one knows what anyone else has bid. At the appointed hour, the auctioneer opens all the bids and determines which one is the highest. If that player can pay and has room in their warehouse, they win the auction.

However, since each auction consists of several identical items, more than one player can win, and each player can win more than once.

After the highest bid is resolved, the auctioneer moves to the next highest bid, and so on.

This continues until all items in the lot are sold.

Bidding

When you place a bid, you must specify the amount per item that you are willing to pay, and the number of items you would like to buy at that price. If you win, you must pay for each item you requested at your bid price. You may place as many bids as you like, but the auctioneer will handle the biggest bids first. If there are not enough items remaining in the lot to fill out your bid, you will end up buying as many items as are available. If you cannot afford to buy all the items you bid, you will buy as many as you can afford.

Let's say that the auctioneer is selling 3 artichokes.

If you bid $1000 for 3 artichokes, and no one bid higher, you would win 3 artichokes and you would pay a total of $3000.

If you bid $1000 for 72 artichokes, and no one bid higher, you would win 3 artichokes and you would pay a total of $3000. (There weren't enough artichokes to fill out your bid, but the auctioneer will fill your bid as best he can.)

If you bid $1000 for 3 artichokes, and someone else bid $1500 for 1 artichoke, they would win one artichoke for a total cost of $1500, and you would win 2 artichokes for a total cost of $2000.

If you bid $1000 for 3 artichokes, and you also bid $1500 for 1 artichoke, and no one else bid higher, you would win 3 artichokes for a total cost of $3500. ($1500 for the first artichoke, $1000 for the second, $1000 for the third.

Auction Blocks

Players are divided up into small auction blocks. When you bid in an auction, you are only bidding against other players in your Auction Block. This means that you don't have to beat everyone, just your neighbors.

The lots listed on the auction page are sold to each Auction Block independently. Your Auction Block will be vying to buy 3 artichokes, and someone else's Auction Block will be vying to buy 3 different artichokes.

Ties

If two players make the same bid, the auctioneer uses their Rank to break the tie. The lowest ranked player wins the tie.