The Safe Trading System

You can buy items from other players using the Safe Trading System. The system ensures that you don't pay for an item until you receive it from the seller.

Contents

Safe Trading

Shops only give you about 1000 or so gold coins for items, even if the items are very expensive. If you have a nice item to sell, you can usually get a better price for it from another player.

Similarly, if you need to buy an expensive item, you can usually get it for cheaper by buying it from another player. Safe trading works well for both buyers and sellers.

Before Wyvern added a Safe Trading System, players could swindle each other too easily. Bob would offer to sell a sword to Sue, but when Sue handed over the money, Bob could run away with the money and the item. Sue would be displeased, to say the least.

Restrictions

When we first launched the Safe Trading System, people went crazy and auctioned off every rock and chair they could find, leaving a stream of litter across the game. We now charge a fixed fee for offering something for auction.

The fee is currently fairly low, but we may change it at any time. You do not get your gold coins back for rescinding an offer, and if you re-offer an item under different terms, you have to pay the fee again.

Auctions are restricted to the Auction Houses in New Verden, Almien and Minath Elion.

There are currently minimum and maximum prices you are allowed to sell items for. The minimum is 1/5th the shop value, and the maximum is 3 times the shop value, though these are subject to change. Also note that any item offered for auction must be in excellent shape, with no damage. You can repair weapons and armor at any blacksmith, and you can repair magical items such as wands, scrolls, etc. using a special orb in the New Verden auction house.

The Dance

Here's a summary of an example transaction between two players, demonstrating the Safe Trading System:

  1. Bob decides to offer his Spear of Life Draining for sale, at a price of 15,000 gold coins.

    • He types offer spear for 15k

  2. Bob uses the auction channel to announce: "selling spear of life draining! 15k!"

  3. Sue hears the auction and tells Bob she'll buy it. They agree to meet somewhere.

  4. Bob drops the spear on the ground and steps away from it. Sue cannot pick it up, but she can examine it on the ground.

  5. Sue types buy spear from bob. 15,000 gold coins are deducted from Sue's inventory and added to Bob's inventory, and at the same time, the spear is added to Sue's inventory. The spear is marked as "kept" by Sue, so nobody else can steal it.

It's that simple!

Note:   Bob can drop the item even if it's marked as (kept). Even if it's not marked as (kept), nobody else can pick up the item unless they buy it. That's what makes the system "safe".

A Variation

If Bob and Sue are good friends, and Sue knows she can trust Bob in his description of the spear, she can stand next to him and type:

buy spear from bob

The spear will be transferred to Sue, and the money will be transferred to Bob.

Sue can double-check that Bob is actually carrying the right item by right-clicking on him. This will show all of the items Bob is wearing or wielding, as well as any items he has offered for sale.

Offerings

The system works by letting players offer items for sale. Anyone can do it, with any item in their inventory.

For example, if Airick wants to sell a Mithril Axe for 7200 gold coins, he would type:

offer axe for 7200

If he has more than one axe, he could type in the full name as well:

offer mithril axe for 7200

The item has to be in his inventory in order to offer it for sale. After offering it, the description will change to read:

Mithril Axe (offered by airick for 7200)

If Airick decides that he's not asking enough for it, he can change the terms of the offer:

offer mithril axe for 8300

Now the item is available for other players to buy it.

Revoking Offers

If you decide you no longer want to offer an item for sale, you can rescind the offer. ("Rescind" is more or less synonymous with "revoke", or "take back").

Airick could rescind the offer for his mithril axe, from the example above, by typing:

rescind axe

After you rescind an item, its description will change to show that it's no longer being offered for sale.

Note that to offer an item, it must be in your inventory, but to rescind an offer, it can be anywhere near you.

Be careful: you can't rescind an offer after the item is sold!

Purchasing Items

You can currently only buy an offered item if the seller is online. There are two scenarios:

  1. The item is on the ground. You type buy <item> to purchase it.

  2. The item is in the seller's inventory. You stand next to the seller and type buy <item> from <seller>.

If, after you purchase an item, it's too heavy for you to carry, it will be placed at your feet.

Offering To a Single Player

Normally, when you offer an item for sale, anyone can buy it from you. In some situations you may want to offer an item to a specific player. To do this, you add "to <player>" to the command. For example:

offer mithril axe for 7100 to stoneboy

Then only Stoneboy will be able to buy the item from you, even if you drop it on the ground and move away from it.

If you decide to offer it to everyone instead, you can type:

offer mithril axe for 7100

and then anyone will be able to buy it.

Cautionary Notes

The Safe Trading System is intended to protect you as a buyer or a seller. However, there are a few things you should be aware of before using the system.

All Sales Are Final

Once you've bought something from someone, you own it. If you decide you don't like it, you can ask the seller to refund your money, but the seller is under no obligation to do so.

You should make every effort to figure out whether the other player is honest before conducting business with him or her. If you're in doubt, and you can't afford to part with the money, you should just skip buying the item.

If you and the seller both agree to undo the sale, you should do it safely. Don't just hand the item back to the seller! Offer it to the seller for the original sale price, and let the seller buy it back from you.

Game Crashes

If the game crashes after you've dropped an item, but before it's sold, you'll lose it. You should try to minimize the amount of time that an item spends out of your inventory. Crashes are rare, but when they happen, your lost items cannot be recovered.

Future Directions

We will eventually add support player-run shops, where you can list your items for sale and sell them even if you're not on the game.

We'll also add support for auctions, where you can offer an item, and it sells to the highest bidder. Both of these features are complicated to implement, but we hope to have them both in place sometime soon.

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