I do think that RavenWolf is on the right track.
I also think that each city (maybe not every city) should have its own seperate auction sight. We don't want an offline auction option where goods magically teleport across the map from buyer to seller.
Having seperate auction sites in each city may also allow those who enjoy trading to take advantage of mispricing of goods between cities., for example brahmin hides for sale in ncr may be cheaper than in san fran.
However, one issue I do have with an auction site through a npc is that people would crowd the npc, and boom, a suicide bomber (or less dramatic, someone staying by the npc and not allowing anyone else talk to them).
Anyway, back to the initial discussion on gathering/mining, would there be difficulties in implementing a gathering/mining scenario based on the ad hoc features, such as the dogs of la quest.
For example, you speak to an npc in a city, who says he saw a mine nearby, and you are then given the location on your pip-boy of somewhere to collect a specific resource. The location could maybe only be accessed the one time, and to collect more resources, you must speak to the npc again for a new location.
The npc could charge people for the location, or it could be implemented into a quest (for example the npc asks for specific item before releasing the whereabouts of the mine).
The location could have animals or npc's that need to be eradicated before mining?
You could also make it a team scenario, in which a group of players entering as a party have the possibility of finding more resources (but more animals/npcs to kill first).
Also, just as a side note.
Well you hate it and you wouldn't mind it, kinda contradiction.
Wouldn't minding, and wouldn't objecting are quite different statements, thus there was no contradiction in what I said.