How to trade in PoE, step by step
Trading, in many games, is a convenient way to get items from other players. In theory, it’s a simple process. You go up to another player, click to request a trade, then do the exchange. Of course, you should ask for permission first before initiating it. Other forms of trading include an Auction House. However, PoE trade is something else entirely.
Path of Exile does not have an Auction House. To find what you want to buy, you’ll have to crawl through the forums for it or use the PoE trade website.
How to Buy From the Website
The website opens with several options. First, you can search by importing an item. It’s handy for looking for upgrades or finding a reasonable price.
Otherwise, you can use all the options to find the PoE item you want. You’ll want to set the proper league for the object first. Then you can select the general type and base or search up its actual name. When looking up a name, make sure it’s a complete word. As an example (the site has a separate page for currency), you can type in “scouring” but not “scour” for Orbs of Scouring.
Next up are the min/max options. These take the average of the values you set as the basis for the search. If you’re looking for an item with 130 damage, you have to put a number less than or equal to 130 in “min.” The “max” option has to be greater than or equal to 130. That goes for any value that has that option, whether for defensive stats or offensive ones.
For sockets, you can choose how many sockets with that color you want on the item. Another option lets you set how many links there are in the sockets. After that, you can filter out the mods you want. The choices allow you to choose from explicit mods or affixes. You can’t search by the mod over the horizontal line (implicit mods). You can also set a “mod filter group” to place conditions such as the item has to match all the set values.
Then you can set other filters. You can choose item characteristics such as Corrupted or from which boss it came. In the last section, you can search for a specific seller. There are also options for seeing only online sellers (which can be wrong) and normalizing quality.
Once you’ve set all your parameters, it’s time to look through the results. When you see a reasonable offer, the first step to getting your item is to whisper to the seller. If you’ve set to only see online sellers, this shouldn’t take too long. Otherwise, you would have to message more than one seller and wait for their replies.
Talk to the seller and set a meeting place (either your hideout or theirs). Then you can meet up in-game and trade the item and currency.
How to Sell Using the Website
Selling is a whole different beast from buying. Before selling, you first have to purchase a Premium Stash Tab. This can be set to public so the site can index the items stored in it.
First, you’ll need to create a forum thread. Poe trade works by gathering data from the trading subforums to create an index of items players are selling. So go to the game’s site and log into the forums. Create a thread in the appropriate subforum (what league you’re playing in – Shops). The title doesn’t matter, but you should link the items you want to sell on the message body.
You can access your inventory by clicking the picture of your character on the top left of the site. Click once on the item/s you want to sell, and a code will appear. You have to copy that code onto the thread message. You should see the item’s picture and a proper link when you preview the post.
After that, you should set a price. The proper syntax is ~b/o # type of currency to place a buyout price. If you’re selling the item for 4 Chaos Orbs, it should go ~b/o 4 chaos. Put it after the item link code you want to set a price on. Here’s a complete list of the tags.
Publish the thread, and you should be good to go. The site can take a while before it can index your offer. It also keeps a set number of indexed threads, so you’ll have to regularly bump your thread to save your listing. If you have a Premium Stash Tab, you’ll automatically appear online if it’s set as public.
Otherwise, you’ll have to send a PM to poexyzis to ask for an “online link.” Paste that link into an inventory management tool. The tool you chose will keep track of your online status as long as it is open on your PC.
Conclusions
If you think this is a lot of work, other players think so too. You might find a suitable offer, but the seller isn’t answering. There will also be times when the seller responds after you’ve already bought the item from another. The whole process can be tiring and time-consuming.
The thing is, Auction Houses can be convenient avenues for real-money-trading, which GGG wants to avoid. Players would like to enjoy a better trading process because this current one is too cumbersome. Every trade hinges on whether the seller is online and responsive. With the game being as fast-paced as it is, sellers might not have a moment to reply to queries while mapping. At any rate, that’s how to use the PoE trade website. Happy trading!
