How to buy items from other players in Path Of Exile
Path Of Exile has no in-game auction house. There is a Trade chat channel, but it’s mostly an unusable mess. The vast majority of trade is managed via the official trade website. Here, you’ll find tons of ways to filter down searches for specific items. For example, say it is day two of Sentinel league and I need new boots for my Seismic Trap character. I’m looking for something with movement speed, fire resistance, and life. I can select these options in the filters, like in the image above, and find every matching item currently listed for sale by other players.
How to sell items to other players in Path Of Exile
If you own a premium stash tab, selling items in Path Of Exile is pretty easy. First, right-click your premium tab’s name tag and select the “public” and “each item individually priced” options. Then, place the item you wish to sell in the tab, right-click the item, and select a price. See the image above for an example of this. Unfortunately, if you don’t own a premium stash tab, selling items is a bit of a pain. You’ll need to create a thread in the trading forums, get links to your items from your character page on the website, and then link them in your thread with the “~price x chaos” tag. If this sounds annoying and overly complicated, well… it is. Selling items is much, much simpler if you buy a premium stash tab from the in-game store. This is the closest thing to a pay-to-win mechanic in Path Of Exile, and an understandable frustration point.
Which currencies should you trade with in Path Of Exile?
Path Of Exile has dozens of currency items, with values tied to their in-game crafting uses. However, there are only really two you need to worry about for trade. Chaos Orbs are the dollar of Path Of Exile. Most trades are priced in Chaos, especially early in a league. You should list most of your low-to-mid value items in Chaos Orbs 99% of the time. Due to a shakeup in patch 3.19, Divine Orbs are now the go-to currency for high-value trades. Previously, items worth more than around 150 Chaos were most commonly priced in Exalted Orbs. Most of the Exalted Orb’s value came from metamods, which are high-end crafts that used to cost Exalted Orbs to perform. Now, these crafts cost Divine Orbs. It will take some time for the dust to settle, but it would be a shock if Divine Orbs don’t replace Exalts as the new high-value trade standard. You can check the Bulk Trade tab to see the relative value of each currency. There are fewer sources of Divine Orbs than Exalted Orbs in Path Of Exile, so expect Divines to cost far more than Exalts ever did.
Trade etiquette in Path Of Exile
A quick note on trade etiquette in Path Of Exile. Just remember; the buyer travels, the seller initiates the trade. If you message another player to buy their item and they are available to sell it, they will send you a party invitation. Accept the invitation, right-click on their character portrait, then select “visit hideout” to fast travel to their hideout. Then, wait for the seller to send you a trade request once they are ready. This order of operations keeps traders from getting blown up with a screen full of invites and trade requests. Stick to that process, and you will have a smooth trade experience.
Common trade scams to avoid
Unfortunately, you’re going to run into the occasional bad actor while trading in Path Of Exile. Like with any game, there are people looking to cheat the system and get ahead. If you know what to look out for, you can avoid trade scams and enjoy the game properly. Don’t let this section worry you too much. Anecdotally, I’ve played the game for three years and only encountered one scammer.
Trade cancel bait and switch
When executing a trade in Path Of Exile, both players will have to hover their cursor over each item they’re receiving, forcing you to check that you’re getting what you asked for. Some scammers will wait for you to check their items, cancel the trade, initiate a new trade, and swap in a replacement. This could be a smaller stack of currency or an item that looks identical but has worse stats. Now, there are plenty of valid reasons to cancel and re-initiate a trade. A player may need to split a currency stack or grab an extra one from their stash. But if a player does cancel and re-initiate, be sure to double-check that you’re getting what you want.
Fake six-links
Body armors and weapons with six linked sockets are a massively important part of every Path Of Exile character, and trade in extremely high volumes throughout a league. Another common scam is listing a six-linked item, then throwing a three, four, or five-link in the trade window and hoping you don’t notice. This is particularly common with high-demand unique body armors that have gold or brown colorations that can look like a link at a glance, like Shavronne’s Wrappings or Carcass Jack.
Low-ball messages for exact-price listings
Perhaps the lowest effort scam of all is the simple low-ball message. A player will message you asking to buy an item with the standard, auto-generated message from the trade site, but replace the price with a lower one. Their hope is that you simply don’t notice that their offer is different from your listing and that you will accept the amount in their message. Check your listed price before pulling an item from your stash and you can avoid this easily.
“I don’t have enough currency, but I have this item that’s worth just as much”
No. Don’t do it. If someone offers an old-fashioned, item-for-item barter, it’s a scam. Only accept currency for your items. That’s everything you need to start trading in Path Of Exile! The process can seem intimidating, but once you dip your toes into trade things quickly get easier. If you haven’t yet hammered out your league start plans, check out our guides to picking a Kalandra league starter and setting up your Atlas passive tree. New players in need of some leveling help should visit our guides to skill point locations and Trials of Ascendancy in the campaign.
