So you want to do some trading. Trading is how the right items get to the right people, and is a key part of the co-op nature of RotMG.
Trading can be daunting for newcomers and veterans alike. Good trading comes with experience, but great trading comes with care and consideration for your fellow players, your own trading goals, and your local market.
The following are a few things to consider. These are not hard and fast rules, but they can help you to become not just a better trader, but a more memorable and nice player.
Different items have different prices. To trade, it is important to know what you’re buying. If you don’t know the prices of the items you are selling and buying, you could get ripped off or blocked.
Trading tends to be limited to these higher tiers of equipment:
Note that there still is a place for items below these tiers. Feel free to give them away to beginners, or trade within tiers. The actual tier guide is an accurate method to trade between lower-level items.
Many players follow price guides posted by other players to judge the relative value of different items. These prices are in no way set in stone, as prices tend to fluctuate. Price guides may be found from time to time on the official Subreddit, and on the unofficial RealmEye forums.
If there is an accurate price guide, you can ask a question there, or see what other players are currently offering, here on RealmEye.
When negotiating a trade with another player, using,
“But that’s not what the price guide says…” as an argument is not only rude, but fundamentally flawed. Remember, people are free to value an item however they want, but they will have to compete with other buyers and sellers who may offer a better price for the same item.
The Nexus is preferred for buyers and sellers, as all players pass through it every time they play the game. Nexuses in some servers are better trading hubs than others. The trading server can be USWest, USWest2 or USWest3, depending on which one crashed less recently.
As of September 2022, the current trading server is USEast.
However, remember that the Nexus is a communal space. Don’t expect everyone there to want to trade, and offering random trade requests to strangers is annoying to most and angering to some. Spamming junk text will get you blocked faster than anything.
Trading can sometimes be time-consuming, so some players prefer to post offers on their RealmEye pages.
/trade <player name> offers a trade opportunity to <player name>. You can read more about it on the Trading page.
In order to complete a trade, both players must have enough room in their inventory to contain the received items.
Additionally, often enough you will click trade on a player name or type /trade “name” and you do not see a trade request message sent in chat. This may be because it was very quickly overtaken by other chat messages. Do not click trade over and over but just wait a few moments and try again. This is the same for accepting a trade request and no trade window popping up.
The loading bar in the “Trade” button is a good thing. Take that moment to check that what you are about to receive is really what you want.
In the morning to noon, the trading server is very populated. At this time, some items may be in higher demand then others. It is recommended to sell any popular items at this time.
Popular Items Page Placeholder, please do not remove this text
You can also get items quickly, but you may lag out more.
It helps to have a few stars when trading; most players filter 1-10 star players with the menu option because of the spambots in the Nexus. If they don’t accept your Trade Request, they most likely are filtering your star. Try another person, as that person can’t accept any type of request from you, or see your chat.
Respond to people when they talk to you. If they want to walk out to the lesser populated corners of the Nexus to negotiate, take a few seconds to do so. If they want to converse via whispering, you should do so. It takes a few more keystrokes, but it’s private, easy to see, and doesn’t spam up everyone else’s screen with your business. (A useful hotkey to set is “Begin Tell” under Options, and under Chat Options. This allows you to initiate and return /tells quickly, letting you avoid retyping the command over and over while negotiating a trade. The default key for the “Begin Tell” feature is the Tab Key.)
Signs can help advertise your items so more people will want to buy or sell your items. Being fancy with signs isn’t necessary though. When advertising your items, read the text you are going to send out loud to make sure it makes sense. If people can’t figure out what you’re buying or selling, you won’t get any trades. Here are some samples to copy for trading:
—==Selling==—
Your_Item_(Price)
Second_Item_(Price)
@Your_Name_Here
—==Buying==—
First_Item
Second_Item
@Your_Name_Here
Many people in the Nexus have a need for a certain item, and will place a priority on getting it. People have their own prices for items, so you may have to compromise. If you are looking for a certain item but can’t afford it, you may have to settle for less.
Asking people to make offers is not negotiation. Unless you’re indifferent as to what you get in return, know what you want. It helps to know what items are of equal value, so you can make exchanges later on. Negotiating with the word “offer” puts the trade firmly in their hands, and your only recourse becomes accepting or rejecting.
Everyone wants a good deal, and no one wants to be scammed. Put yourself in their shoes, and see if it’s a good deal for you and them. If you pay attention by putting youself in their shoes, you’ll get a lot less people blocking you. You also shouldn’t say that someone is a scammer if they aren’t.
Never say anything like “Selling for OP/overpay”. This demonstrates complete ignorance of how a market economy works, and is bound to deter and annoy people. If you want a relatively high price for something, don’t go over the top; have realistic expectations.
Though it often helps to be patient, understand opportunity cost. Time spent in the Nexus trading is time not spent killing enemies, who are sometimes easier to get items from than other traders. Remember, you earn no fame and no white bags sitting in the Nexus.
Some people may not be patient. Deal with them. Negotiate a good deal or walk away or ignore them. Trading obscenities could attract the notice of bystanders.
Finally, be sure to be firm. You owe nothing to anyone. Until you click the “Trade” button, the item(s) are still yours. Don’t like the deal? Don’t take it. Try to work something other with the other person or move on.
A player without a backpack can hold 8 items at a time in their inventory. Someone may have something you want, but not on their character, or even on their account; they may have that item on a mule.
If you make an offer and no one responds, give it time. Hopefully, if someone does have access to the item, they’ll let you know that it’s in the vault, but they may not. Be courteous and be patient.
For example, “Sky” does not usually refer to the T6 katana. If you’re uncertain about the “slang”, (also known as abbreviations) you should consult the “slang” guide to avoid mistakes.
It also helps to have a reasonable idea of items’ value, and a realistic understanding of what they mean to a player. Remember that the difference between tiers is usually low, and the highest-tier items are often valued less for functionality than for aesthetics. Going cheap is sometimes the smartest thing a player can do.
It helps to stand still when selling (or buying if you may). Shouting your trade list while running around in circles will hurt what you are trying to buy/sell in more than one way:
If someone can’t see your name to /tell or /trade with you, particularly in a crowded Nexus.
If your name moves on and off a potiential buyer/seller’s proximity list, they can’t lock you unless you’re on it.
If a potiential buyer/seller wants to make to a trip to the vault, the potiential buyer/seller wants to know that you will be easy to find when they return.
It’s annoying to other buyers/sellers and you could be blocked.
Merching is where you buy items for a low price and sell them for a high price, and repeating to make profit. People have gone from a Defense Potion to a Unbound Health Ring (this could take hours, days, weeks, and even months.).
Unfortunately, RotMG is full of merchers who don’t play the actual game, and therefore, merchers are usually frowned upon.
Be patient when merching. People will not always take your deals because in reality, you have to make crappy deals if you want to make a profit. If you don’t get any deals, then your price is probably too high and you should change your offer.
There are many different tutorials and walkthroughs on merching on Youtube. I recommend watching a few to get the gist of it.
Starting from nothing:
1. Learn how to PLAY THE GAME.
2. Go to the The Forest Maze and get a couple of Speed Sprouts.
3. Call “Selling Speed Sprouts” in the Realm. Sell a couple of sprouts for a cheap pot (such as dex, vit, or wis).
4. Now go to the Nexus and merch!
Begging WILL get you blocked by most players and will probably not get you ANY items. If someone does give you something for free, they are most likely just giving you junk so you’ll be quiet. Think long and hard about the image you want to project.
Try this: Lock a few players that you see begging. Leave them locked, then look for them a month later. Not playing anymore, are they? In the unlikely event that they are, you can bet that most players have blocked them, and they are sitting on the beach, dying, and thinking players like you are still seeing their messages asking for items.
Instead of simply asking for stuff, go play for a few minutes. If you don’t find anything of value, fill your inventory with Health/Magic Potions and offer those for equipment.
High-leveled players still use these potions, and they will be much more inclined to give you items if you show some effort.
“8 HP/MP Pots for Decent Gear! ” sounds much better than “Free items pls”, or “does anyone have any [your current class] gear?”.
There are several common scams employed by people to cheat you out of your hard earned items, but with a little attention, spotting them is no problem.
Be especially aware of spambots, which advertise items for real-life money or gift cards. The websites these spambots advertise are most likely trying to scam you, and even if they aren’t, using these websites is breaking a rule in the game’s “TOS” (which are the rules set by the owners) called “RWT”, which stands for “Real World Trading”.
This is one of the most common scams. It involves a player offering a ridiculously good deal for an item and using a similar-looking junk item in its place. Watch out for:
Wisdom Potions (which look similar to Life Potions),
Basilisk Hide Armors (which look like Griffon Hide Armors)
Unbound Dexterity Rings (which look similar to Unbound Health Rings),
Snake Oils (which look similar to Potions of Defense),
and Robes of the Student (which look similar to Robes of Elder Warlock).
The best way to avoid this scam is to hover over the traded item before clicking “Accept.” In addition, tiered items have their tier clearly labeled on its icon.
This scammer tries to make a legitimate trade, and then quickly deselects his item in an attempt to make you accept a trade for nothing. Watch for people asking you to change your side of the deal; scammers do this to distract you. This scam is extremely common.
Dungeon Opener
A scam that has been rising in popularity lately: somebody asks for donations, and in return they open a high-quality dungeon. After receiving their donation(s), they nexus and go somewhere else without actually opening the dungeon.
If you want to pay goods for someone to actually open a dungeon (which is still risky), check out the current offers on Realmeye for more trustworthy people who will open dungeons for stuff.
This kind of scammer pretends to be a Youtuber in order to gain donations. They will walk around the nexus saying things like “If you donate I will give you a shoutout in one of my videos”. They could also say “I am doing a youtube video give donations and I will do a *drop party”. Avoid these people no matter how hard they beg. Better somebody else than you. Block them right away.
*Drop Party is where somebody drops a bunch of items in a group of people.
This type of scam decreased in usage a while ago, but it is slowly making a return. It involves someone allegedly ‘running a lottery’, offering to open dungeons for items, or holding an auction. Of course, sometime after as you hand over your items, they close the window and disappear without giving what they claim you won.
Be aware that it is very difficult to “Sell” or “Buy” Dungeon keys from people. This implies that if you were to sell for example, a tomb, most will not pay you what you want until you open it for them. Obviously it is very easy for them to scam you by entering the dungeon and not paying you. It is recommended that you trade with someone you can trust to ensure a good deal.
An extremely rare scam which involves a player pretending to be a moderator or a popular player in order to get free items from you. True developers and moderators would never ask for items. Report anyone you see doing this immediately via a support ticket.
Another rare scam when the perptrator tells you he is hacking your account and that the only way he will stop is if you give him some potions. A real hacker would not accept items from you to stop hacking, as he could just take the items himself.
Reference this page when adding offers and searching for them on Realmeye.
Once you have found a deal on Realmeye that you want to accept, follow these steps:
/tell the seller a greeting, like “Hi” or “Hello”. If it says that they are not found, they are are probably offline. If they do not respond, wait a few moments for them to respond; they may be playing the game. If they still do not respond after a couple of minutes, you can presume that they are playing, don’t have the item(s) you want to buy anymore, or they are away from the game.If you still want that offer, you can send them a private message via RealmEye.
Tips: If a player has not made their last seen time private, you can look at it to see if they are online. A player last seen <1 minute ago is more likely to be online than a player last seen ~5 or 20 minutes ago. A player last seen several hours ago can be easily presumed to be offline.
Once the buyer responds to you, repeat their offer, so they know what they are selling to you.
If they confirm their offer, ask the seller where they would like to meet.
Note 1: to switch servers, open the options menu (hotkey o) and then press “return to home.” Then, press “back”, “Servers”, and select the server the seller has requested you to arrive to.
Note 2: It is generally polite for the buyer to go to where the seller demands them to go, but this rule is not firmly set in stone. If the seller asks where you want to meet, type the /server command to determine your location, and tell them the server you want to meet at.
Note 3: Tell the seller that you are coming to that location, and once you arrive, tell them that you are there.
Note 4: Meet up with the seller, and make the transaction. Afterwards, don’t forget to say “Thank you” and “You’re welcome”.
After you have added your offers, wait for people to come to you and accept your offers. They will usually send you a whisper, asking if you are still “Selling X for X”. Make sure you actually have the item, or the buyer will be extremely irritated when they finally realize you have already sold that item.
If you would like to pay with another currency (e.g. pay with DEF potion instead of ATT potion; DEX potion instead of WIS potion), notify and ask the seller if he would accept it first.
Once you have confirmed your deal, tell them where you would like to meet. Reference the two notes above for where to meet for deals.
If the item that they are buying is being held by a vault, make sure to tell them that your alt will come meet you. Don’t forget to also tell them your alt’s IGN. If you don’t, there will be a lot of confusion with the buyer.
Make the deal. Again, don’t forget to see “Thank you” and “You’re welcome”.
A message sent via realmeye is a great way to buy/sell something to someone when they’re not online. When sending a message to someone on realmeye, use the same format when you are PMing someone for an offer, except all on the same line. Put “Trade Offer” for the subject line, and make sure to “sign” your name at the end.
Don’t make silly offers, like a Tier 13 Acropolis armor for eight Tier 9 armors. Everyone can see your trade offers, and one silly offer can ruin your reputation.
Avoid making “set offers”. For example, don’t sell four defense potions for a T11 dagger, T10 hide, T5 cloak, and a T4 ring. Doing so will decrease the chance you have for potential buyers. Who is going to have precisely all of those items in their inventory or vault at once?
Be respectful of both side’s time. If you’re selling that T11 sword, and someone’s already waiting for you in your server’s nexus, don’t run through another abyss. Respect the buyer’s time and try and be prompt instead of making them wait for you for 10 minutes because you haven’t finished that abyss run.
(if you don’t want people to keep coming up to you while you’re off in dungeons and such, you can hit the ‘suspend all’ button. This will make your offers invisible to others while you’re off fighting monsters, and after you’re done doing so, you can press ‘reactivate all’ once you’re ready to deal with your customers again.)
Don’t scam people; If they use Realmeye as well, they can easily report you for being a scammer and ruin your reputation. It’s also a waste of their time as well.
Always make sure you are at the right server. Avoid that awkward situation where you tell them that you’ve arrived and they don’t see you.
Update your offers frequently. It’s annoying to buyers when they go and buy something from you, only to realize that you’ve already sold it.