OP Wiki

Market & trade

The market is where you buy and sell items at a base. All market actions are docked-only (you trade at the base you're docked to).

UI locations follow the client UI overview (the Market category on the top bar). Mechanics below are confirmed against the server.

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> Listed: place sell order (items leave your container, 10 cr/day fee paid up front)
    Listed --> Locked: 10-minute order lock (no modify/cancel)
    Locked --> Listed
    Listed --> Sold: buyer buys out / highest-buy matching
    Listed --> Cancelled: cancel (items return)
    Cancelled --> [*]
    Sold --> [*]: item to buyer, credits to you (minus tax)

Market orders

You place two kinds of orders at your current base's market:

Sell orders

List items for sale.

  • Choose the item, quantity, price per piece, and duration in days (minimum 1).
  • The item is pulled from your container (unstacked if you're selling part of a stack).
  • Listing fee — you pay 10 credits × duration up front (reducible by the market transaction fee extension); the fee goes to the base's central bank (zone profit pool).
  • Price guard — when enabled, your price must fall within ±30% of the item's 14-day average price; prices outside the band are refused. (This guard is currently disabled on this server.)
  • Order lock — an order can't be modified or cancelled for 10 minutes after it's placed.
  • Order count — you can hold 1 + (market sellorder expert extension) open sell orders (buy orders have their own counter).
  • For my corporation — you can restrict a sell order to your own corp's members (only for non-default corporations).
  • Pay from your personal or corporation wallet as relevant.

Buy orders

Place a standing order to buy an item at a price.

  • The market fills it when a matching sell appears.

Managing orders

  • Modify an order — change price/quantity/duration.
  • Cancel an item / order — withdraw it (item returns to your container).
  • My items — see your open orders.
  • Highest-buy matching — a sell can be routed to an existing buy order.

Direct purchase

  • Buy an item — instantly buy an item that's on the market (no standing order).

Browsing the market

  • Item list / available items / items in range — browse what's for sale.
  • Market info — details about the base's market.
  • Average prices — market average, per-definition average, and global average. These are what the price guard is based on.

Market tax

  • Change market tax — set the tax rate on the market. Only PBS-base markets are player-controlled; everywhere else the fixed default applies.
  • Tax log — review tax changes.

Tax is deducted from what the seller receives on a market sale. The default rate is 12% (the seller gets 88% of the sale price); the rate can be lowered by the market transaction tax extension and, on player-controlled markets, by the PBS owner setting a custom rate.

Direct player trades

A trade is a peer-to-peer exchange between two docked characters:

  • Begin a trade — start a session with another player.
  • Set / retract my offer — put items/credits on your side.
  • Accept — both sides accept to complete the swap atomically.
  • Cancel — abort the trade.
  • Trade finished / state — completion and current state.

A character can block trades on themselves (see getting started).

The item shop

The item shop is a fixed-price vendor at a base (not player-driven). The full catalog (every item, quantity, price per currency, standing requirement) is generated in Item shop.

  • List — see what the shop sells.
  • Buy — purchase an item for credits.

Transferring credits

Practical notes

  • Everything is docked-only — you can't trade in a zone.
  • Factor the 12% tax into your pricing — sellers receive 88% of the listed price by default (less on high-tax PBS markets).
  • The listing fee is up front — a long-duration listing costs more even if it sells on day one.
  • Corp-only orders are a way to move goods inside your corp without public exposure.
  • Trades are atomic — both sides must accept, or nothing moves.
  • Tax changes effective cost — factor the market tax into your pricing.
 Developer notes: Markets/MarketCreateSellOrder.cs (docked, price guard vs average
 price, corp-only, unstack, corp wallet), MarketCreateBuyOrder.cs,
 MarketModifyOrder.cs, MarketCancelItem.cs, MarketBuyItem.cs, MarketItemList.cs,
 MarketAvailableItems.cs, MarketItemsInRange.cs, MarketGetMyItems.cs,
 MarketGetAveragePrices.cs / MarketGetDefinitionAveragePrice.cs /
 MarketGlobalAveragePrices.cs, MarketTaxChange.cs / MarketTaxLogList.cs;
 Trade*.cs (begin/offer/accept/cancel, atomic); ItemShopList.cs / ItemShopBuy.cs;
 CharacterTransferCredit.cs. -->