Are we bid on reall things or not?
Define ‘real.’
To stay away from philosophy and answer your question, the auction board is a barter system for in-game items for in-game coins. So the only reality the items have (aside from in our minds) is 0s and 1s on a computer somewhere in Kansas. (At least I think it is still in Kansas.)
Qa
My guess would be somewhere near St Louis, MO:
traceroute to game.slothmud.org (69.64.36.225), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
…
14 so-1-1-0.edge1.chicago1.level3.net (209.0.227.77) 30.146 ms 31.073 ms 34.695 ms
15 so-2-1-0.bbr2.chicago1.level3.net (209.244.8.13) 44.635 ms 30.692 ms 28.692 ms
16 so-0-0-0.mp2.stlouis1.level3.net (64.159.0.57) 47.097 ms so-3-0-0.mp1.stlouis1.level3.net (64.159.0.49) 40.523 ms so-0-0-0.mp2.stlouis1.level3.net (64.159.0.57) 36.393 ms
17 ge-9-0.hsa1.stlouis1.level3.net (64.159.0.62) 44.193 ms 36.339 ms ge-7-2.hsa1.stlouis1.level3.net (64.159.4.142) 34.166 ms
18 server4you-gw.stl1.us.inetbone.net (63.208.32.162) 48.127 ms 34.854 ms 34.51 ms
19 game.slothmud.org (69.64.36.225) 100.722 ms 35.241 ms 34.582 ms