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 (read: customers), 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 (read: returning customers!).
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 ignored.
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.
Thanks to the well known “Tinkerer”, a step through the Daily Quest portal will lead you too him. When you talk to him, he will ask for a t7 item whether it is a Staff of Destruction or Mithril Chainmail. Because some lack the drive to go out in the realm to retrieve the quest items themselves, they often overpay for these items. Thus, making them sellable.
Many players follow unofficial price guides to judge the relative value of different items and potions. These are by no means absolute, as prices tend to fluctuate. Price guides can be found in the trading discussion forums. In lieu of an accurate price guide, you can ask a question there, or see what other players are currently offering.
When negotiating a trade with another player, using “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–and this works for both buyers and sellers.
Price Guides: (out of date)
A more up to date price guide
- Guidescroll Price Guide (pot prices are good, items vary– posted 10/21/15)
The Nexus is usually 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 USWest and (after USWest was shut down for a bit for some reason) USWest 3 Nexus is usually the most populous area.
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 /ignored faster than anything, so don’t spam.
Trading can sometimes be time-consuming, so some players prefer to post offers on their RealmEye pages or on the trading forums.
/trade <player name> offers a trade opportunity to <player name>. You can read more about it on the Trade System 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.
Some people spend lifetimes getting this part right. Might as well start now.
It helps to have a few stars when trading; some filter 1-10 star players due to the spambots in Nexus. If they can’t hear you, you can’t trade.
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 /tell, do likewise. 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>Chat. This allows you to initiate and return /tells quickly, letting you avoid retyping the command over and over while negotiating a trade.)
Signs (see below) can help with communicating your intentions, but being fancy isn’t necessary. When looking for offers, just be sure to be clear. 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
You PM someone on USWest, but the spam blocks your sign.
If you are on a Windows computer, type your PM, then hit control-shift-J (Or, for Mac users, use Command-shift-J) a few times. The text will appear on top of a large blue box, allowing your sign to be seen. This works as of 25.0.0, but it might be fixed.
Please Note: This will not work in public chat. Only in Guild Chat and PM’s
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; no one wants to be scammed. Think about your offer from their side beforehand, and you’ll get a lot less people /ignoring you. Also, you shouldn’t say that someone is a scammer.
Never say anything like “selling to overpayers”. 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 “Trade,” that item is still yours. Don’t like the deal? Don’t take it. Renegotiate 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.
“Griff” does not refer to hippogriff hide armor. If you’re uncertain about the slang, you should consult the 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 your trade appeal in more than one way:
/tell or /trade with you, particularly in a crowded Nexus.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 Def pot to a UB Health Ring (this will take several hours). Unfortunately, ROTMG is full of merchers who don’t even learn to play the 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 profit. If trade is at a standstill, switch servers. USWEST, USMIDWEST, and BEST SERVER and usually packed with traders. If you still 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 /ignored by respectable players and will probably not get you ANY items. If someone does give you something for free, it is by definition, their castoffs–their junk. 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 they’re still living off the scraps of other players.
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. (You may have to place an item in your inventory to switch them out with.) High-leveled players still use these potions, and they will be much more inclined to give you items if you show some effort.
Be specific if you can: “8 HP Pots for Tier>X [your class] Gear” sounds much better than “ITEMS PLZZZZZZZ”. To obtain a health potion in your inventory drop one then switch an item back for it
There are several common scams employed by those pesky noobs to cheat you out of your hard earned goods, but with a little attention, spotting them is no problem.
Be especially aware of spambots, which are set loose on the markets to amass wealth by trying to make costly deals 24/7. If they don’t cheat you outright, they’re almost certainly going to offer you a bad deal. You can tell its a spambot if it messages you “you do not have the required items”
The ‘Quick Trade’ scammer
This is one of the most common scams, often used by spambots. It involves a player offering a ridiculously good deal for an item, and using a similar-looking cheaper item in its place. Watch out for Wisdom potions (which look similar to Life), Basilisk armors (which look like Griffon hides), Unbound Dexterity Rings (witch look similar to Unbound Health), Snake Oils (witch look like Potions of Defense) as well as Student robes (similar to Elder Warlock robes).
Deselector
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.
Youtuber
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.
*Drop Party is where somebody drops a bunch of items in a group of people.
False Promoter
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, as soon as you hand over your items, they close the window and disappear without giving you what you wanted.
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.
Impersonator
An extremely rare scam which involves a player pretending to be a moderator or a respected 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.
Hacker
Another rare scam that has the perpetrator tell 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 never outright TELL you that they are hacking you. Don’t fall for this if you see it.
This is the next level of trading. Signbuilding is the art of tailoring your text box to be more appealing, and to make you a more memorable vendor.
Consider the following:
It’s just that simple.
A few facts to get you started:
Some sample signs
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
llllll SELLING NOTHING lllllll
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Selling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WWWWWWWWWWWW
Para Xxx#x Para Xxx#x
Pots Xxx,Xxx,Xxx
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Selling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Exa Xxx-#x Exa Xxx-#x
Tier Xx,Xx,Xx,Xx
There is a difference when buying and selling items, and signs can help differentiate. When you’re selling, you should put a price next to the item in parentheses to show what you would like for it. You should also have your name at the bottom, so if someone sees your sign and they want to buy that item,
Instead of trying to get next to you, they can just type /trade "your_name"
Here is a forums post about it: http://www.realmeye.com/wiki/trading-help