The later in the game you get the land, the less time you have to recoup your investment on it (though you'll get a high production bonus on it if you're a smithore whore), it's a tricky decision. Still, it isn't right that if I'm in the lead cash-wise (even by a relatively small amount), I can stop anyone else from buying land just by raising the price as high as I can and then backing out. Even if you think paying any price for land is a good decision, it doesn't mean that someone who has no intention of buying the land should be able to irreversibly jack up the price for everybody. I believe you could do the same thing with goods, too, if you were quick to back off. Honestly, if this version is to have any kind of longevity, exploits like this need to be fixed, regardless of whether or not they were in the original game.

I noticed a problem with land auctions: If one player scrolls the price up as high as he can, it won't go back down, even if he stops bidding. This basically leads to players bidding as high as they can every land auction to drive the price up a stupendous amount, then backing off, to prevent others from buying land.

So, every land auction, half the players will run to the top and drive the price up to $3000, and then back off to the bottom, leaving the price high and making it impossible for the people who actually want the land to buy it. This has to be an exploit, right?