I just watched a video on the upcoming mmo Ashes of Creation and they were discussing the potential looting systems for their game. They will probably go with the tried and true master loot and need/greed system, but they said they are looking at something new, a bidding system.
How it would work is if you want an item dropped form a boss you would make a bid in gold, and anyone else in the group who wanted it could also bid. The bid winner gets the item and the gold gets evenly distributed to everyone else in the party. Obviously this would only be relevant to pugs but i thought it was an inspired idea. If you miss out on loot you could get compensated with potentially thousands in gold.
Has this loot system been tried in other mmos? What are the downsides and how could it be exploited? Would it work and would you like to see it in wow?