Live auction system (currency + premium tab unlocked feature)

Feature suggestion:

A live auction system that would be triggered whenever excess interest is expressed as an item goes live on the trade site.

<Optional: When putting an item up, check a box, and pay a small fee in gold for auction support. This would act as an additional gold sink.>

When an item receives strong interest, the user is prompted for it to be auctioned. If they agree, their participation ends. A separate channel or custom interface would open for everyone that expressed interest in the item. A short countdown would occur before closing the auction to additional participants and users can drop out any time before placing a bid or losing a round.

[Agreeing to an auction places the item into an escrow, removing it from the seller's inventory.]

Once the auction starts, participants will have 30 seconds to place the initial bid for the item, then the auction will begin, allowing users to increase the bid by a fixed value that increases with each round. After losing a round, participants can exit the auction.

[Bids are temporarily pulled out of the bidding player's currency tab, or set aside. Losing a round returns the currency to the tab.]

Participants have 10-15 seconds to place a bid each round, which start at 1 of whatever currency the item went up for sale as. 1ex > 2 ex > 5ex > 10ex... the progression to be determined by GGG.

<Optional: Show participating buyer's their currency tab, and optionally allow them to perform currency exchanges in the auction interface.>

Once bidding stops, a finalization countdown of an additional 10-15 seconds would occur before closing the auction. This would be skipped if everyone else leaves the auction. Once the auction closes, the item would be automatically awarded to the player without requiring the seller's participation. The final bid would be deposited directly into the sellers currency tab.

Not only would this feature be popular for both the buyer and seller, it would promote the sales of both currency and premium tabs, both of which are required to participate. The automatic progression per round would result in quick auctions that finalize rapidly.