Auction House

Auction houses are the hubs of commerce. There are Regional Auction Houses (RAH) and local ones (AH). The term Auction House is also often synonymous with the Shop, the physical location where the Auction House can be accessed.

Entering the Auction House

Go into the Shop of the town and find the Auctioneer. Click on him to get his dialog options and choose Enter auction house and the auction house window pops up.

Also in the Auction House, you'll find the Junk Merchant or for Pirates a Fence.

Buy, Sell and Retrieve

There are five tabs for each action you might want to do in the auction house.

Buy

The most standard operation. First you have to find the goods. To do so you choose which region (only as Freetrader with the necessary skill), which town (default is all towns in the region you are in, which category of goods you are looking for and even by key word. Then click the <Search> button to get all available items listed. If no goods are found then the search will display "0 items found" in the lower half of the window. Otherwise all goods matching your criteria are listed.

Click on any line (and best check the town where it is offered) and the right hand side window will activate listing the most current offered prices and the <Make an offer> button. To purchase click on <Make an offer> and a new window pops up in which you enter how much you offer for what number of goods and an option to accept partial offers. If your money is good enough then the goods are purchased. If purchase in a different town you will have to go and Retrieve them. Your purchase is confirmed (or denied) in your chat window. If you are unsure what happened, check your chat window.

Buying tips

• Make sure you list only goods where you can pick them up easily or are sure you can retrieve them in time.
• Remember: You offer MONEY for UNITS, not the other way round.
• If you accept partial offers then check how many have been purchased in the chat window
• There's nothing wrong offering 1 doubloon at start. You might find a bargain but don't accept it.
• There's nothing wrong with offering good money for goods. A happy trader is someone who helps you. Help him too if you are flush with money.

Sell

There comes the point where you might have goods you don't need or produce to make a profit. This option is for you. First decide whether you want to sell locally or regional. Most players will accept to sail to ports to pick items up. Some pay handsomely for not doing so. You drag your goods from your warehouse window or from your inventory (ship hold or personal) onto the icon spot, then enter a unit price. You have to pay a 1% tax to get your offer listed for 7 days. So if you want to sell 10 items at 100 doubloons each then the tax is 10 doubloons. Confirm by clicking <Make a Listing> and your offer is now visible to anyone. You can also at any time <Retrieve> a listed line from an auction house where you locally are. So if you have items listed in Rosignol and Bartica and you are in Bartica you can't retrieve items from Rosignol. If your items don't sell within 7 days they are placed back in the

Selling tips

• Be sure to offer at fair prices. Monthar's spreadsheet is a good start to calculate production costs. After a certain ammortisation players expect prices to come down as they calculate only what they know and see in their own production chains. Be aware of this.
• Make sure you really want to offer this. The tax is non-refundable.
• If you price too high and your offer is not taken up it costs just money to pay the auction house tax.
• If you are a national with special goods (normally deeds or books) usable by pirates only or a pirate with special goods usable by nationals only then price them high and let them pay "through the nose" for the pleasure. You might never know whether your opponent uses just the ship/outfitting/refit that you sold.

Order

You may place a Buy Order for any item available in the game.
Enter the price you desire to pay and the quantity of the item you are looking for.

Pickups

If your items haven't sold within 7 days or you bought goods in a different town then this option is what you use to pick your items up. If you are in the right town then the <Pick up items> button is active. Simply click on it to put the goods into your hold (or warehouse).

My Listings

A recap of your offers and their expiration, which you may pay to extend the time on.

See also

• "Auction House Crash Course! (NEW PLAYERS READ THIS!)" Forum Topic