Today we are exploring the new Splinterlands auction website, Ahonex.com, for the first time. First I want to say that I have used the Aqualis 3rd-party market to buy cards for Splinterlands for some time, before it unfortunately shut down. I am open to browsing a 3rd-party market for good deals, even though sometimes the sites can be clumsly and difficult to navigate. Therefore, this site interests me, if it offers anything good. But does it? Let's dive in together.
We first reach the main page, after ignoring Brave's warning that the site may be dangerous. This might turn some people off, so maybe find a way to fix that. Then we see that we can login with the hive keychain, which will be necessary for any transactions. For buyers, we have the Browse Auctions tab, and for sellers, Create Auction. As a potential buyer, let us take a look at what is already there.
There is a filter on the left that lets you navigate the auctions, but currently only 27 items are on display, not all of them active. Some are max level cards, some are not, there are gold foils and many alpha cards. As a veteran buyer, I can already see some good deals here. A max level Malric Inferno, which is a rare alpha summoner worth 11000 PP on land, sitting currently at 80,000 DEC with 9 hours left to go. That is a roaring good deal for anyone shopping for strong land cards. The cheapest equivalent on the Splinterlands market right now is 125$ for a rare alpha card, but not a summoner.
What do we make of this? If I was shopping for these cards, I wouldn't hesitate to buy at that price, but what about those that put these cards on auction? Without more eyeballs on this site, they are just gonna get robbed. I would never list a card here myself, much rather wait to sell it on the main market where people will see it and buy it for more. That is, until this site goes mainstream and gets the attention of the majority of prospective buyers.
This is definitely a site to keep your eyes on, if you're looking for deals. Can this be integrated into the main Splinterlands website some day? Let us hope so, because right now I wouldn't touch this site with a ten foot pole if I was a seller, and cared about the value of my cards. If you're a buyer, different story... Cool new site, I hope this takes off.