What Do You Think of ESO’s Trading System?

Furyous

This poll is meant to capture how players actually feel about the guild trader system. Hopefully, ZoS can gain insight from the results too.

LunaFlora

Small guilds and casual players can’t realistically participate.

- Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.
- Small guilds and casual players can’t realistically participate.
- ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.
all 3

valenwood_vegan

The system is fine as is, I enjoy the hunt and guild dynamics.

Poll options are too specific and don't match how I feel. Overall I'm fine with the trading system and enjoy the decentralized nature of it and shopping around for deals; but there's room for improvement (such as for example trading options for people who adamantly don't want to join guilds, and in-game access to the information currently being supplied by addons).

I used to really enjoy trading in ESO and it was one of my main activities, but I've played for a while now and either have everything I need or have the ability to get everything I need. And since the great market collapse (on PC/NA at least) selling 99% of stuff isn't worth the effort, so tbh I vendor most items and barely engage with the system now anyway and am not about to take the time to offer a spirited defense of it.

KalevaLaine

ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.

LunaFlora wrote: »

- Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.
- Small guilds and casual players can’t realistically participate.
- ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.
all 3

Exactly this.

Rohamad_Ali

Small guilds and casual players can’t realistically participate.

LunaFlora wrote: »

- Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.
- Small guilds and casual players can’t realistically participate.
- ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.
all 3

I agree. These issues get more complicated as populations dwindle.

SolarRune

The system is fine as is, I enjoy the hunt and guild dynamics.

As a GM of a relatively small guild, I have regularly been able to secure traders this year, not every week but generally more often than not. I dont see the issue with the current one.

whitecrow

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

Mostly it's okay but I wish I didn't have to use an addon to get prices.

SolarRune

The system is fine as is, I enjoy the hunt and guild dynamics.

Yeah, that's probably the one thing I would change, the information provided by TTC or similar addons that track listing and selling prices should be in the base game.

xbluerosesx

It’s clunky, but I’ve learned to live with it.

we need a Grand Exchange

Radiate77

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

Add-ons have destroyed the uniqueness of our trading system.

Why stop at every trader when you can shortcut to the best prices and ignore the rest?

Soarora

It’s clunky, but I’ve learned to live with it.

I wouldn’t care if we keep this system or get a centralized system, though a centralized system would suck for trade guilds… but also would drive people to join more non-trade guilds. Main thing is I wish we had a sanctioned crown:gold conversion marketplace like other MMOs.

Furyous

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

Radiate77 wrote: »

Add-ons have destroyed the uniqueness of our trading system.

Why stop at every trader when you can shortcut to the best prices and ignore the rest?

Exactly, let’s make it “immersive.”
If you need a chair for your house, you should be forced to learn where all 288 traders are and stop at each one to see if the chair is being sold there. And of course, you would need to visit all 288 just to be sure you are not getting ripped off by the first one you find.

Then comes the best part: once you finally track down the cheapest price, you go back to that vendor only to discover the item has already been sold. So you get to start the entire process all over again.

For perspective, even if you could port and check each trader in just 2 minutes, that is nearly 10 hours of real time to cover all 288 kiosks. That is 10 hours you will not spend questing, running trials, or actually decorating your house, because you are too busy playing “Around Tamriel in 80 minutes” on repeat.

Rufusstan

ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.

I was astounded to see there was no auction house when I started playing as the last game I played without one was Asheron's Call over 25 years ago. Even then the lack of an Auction house was minimised by in game mods and player websites.

To work without one is nonsensical. All the 3rd party applications that are needed to make the system workable should be built into the client. If you can travel anywhere in the world in seconds then a central prices register should be easy. In fact there is no reasonable reason not to have one.

I Think anyone who has voted to keep the current system is more about having got accustomed to the status quo than any practical reason. (Just ask yourself. What about the game is improved by not having an auction house).

Furyous

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

SolarRune wrote: »

As a GM of a relatively small guild, I have regularly been able to secure traders this year, not every week but generally more often than not. I dont see the issue with the current one.

How? I am completely lost. There is no FAQ or in‑game guide that explains how to bid or even how to find traders in a realistic price range.

I spent about an hour trying to locate a trader that was not already bid on, and all I found was frustration. I eventually gave up altogether.

All I want is to sell my excess items to players who want to buy them. I do not want to have to learn an entirely new career path just to figure out how to participate in the trading system.

SolarRune

The system is fine as is, I enjoy the hunt and guild dynamics.

You go to a trader - click on bid on trader and enter your bid - it's not rocket science. The learning point is the price point that will vary for various locations and will range from 10Ks through to 10m gold (if not more).

I would advise bidding on the trader before the changeover (maybe weekend before) rather than running around at change over time - whilst it is possible having secured one that way it is much less reliable than bidding in advance. (you do need the relevant perms to be able to bid for your guild if you are not a GM)

I've never spent longer than 10-15m bidding on traders.

PeacefulAnarchy

It’s clunky, but I’ve learned to live with it.

Furyous wrote: »

SolarRune wrote: »

As a GM of a relatively small guild, I have regularly been able to secure traders this year, not every week but generally more often than not. I dont see the issue with the current one.

How? I am completely lost. There is no FAQ or in‑game guide that explains how to bid or even how to find traders in a realistic price range.

I spent about an hour trying to locate a trader that was not already bid on, and all I found was frustration. I eventually gave up altogether.

All I want is to sell my excess items to players who want to buy them. I do not want to have to learn an entirely new career path just to figure out how to participate in the trading system.

If you just want to personally sell a few items then join a trading guild, getting a trader is not worth it unless you're supporting a whole guild of people. Traders run from hundreds of thousands to 10s of millions. You will not make that back on your own.

As for how:
You bid on a trader for next week, it is incredibly rare to find an unbid on trader and even then would only happen near trader reset on Tuesdays before someone takes it.
Bids are blind. You bid what makes sense to you on several traders, if you don't win you know you didn't bid enough.
If you win multiple bids only the highest winning bid is claimed. The way the game does it is it has all the bids in one giant list, top bid gets its trader, all other bids on that trader are cancelled, next highest bid get its trader, etc down the list. You get refunded all non won bids.

General cost scales down the following:
Big pledge/crafting cities (alliance capitals and dlc capitals)
Other major cities base game.
Outpost traders and small DLC cities.
Thieves dens.

This is not exact, distance from wayshrine can knock some things up or down the list, so can event locations temporarily. Also some thieves dens are actually pretty good like Vvardenfel, while some are especially bad like Murkmire.

SeaGtGruff

Small guilds and casual players can’t realistically participate.

Alternate answers:

- It's clunky, but I've learned to live with it.
- I don't trade enough for it to matter.

I've dipped my toe into selling items through guild stores, but I never know what prices I should ask for them without looking them up with Tamriel Trade Centre.

Likewise, I occasionally purchase items through guild traders, but I never know where to look for them, or what prices they are going for, without using Tamriel Trade Centre.

I don't use any addons, so I have to go to the Tamriel Trade Centre website on my iPad while playing ESO, which is awkward.

On rare occasions, I might browse through my guilds' stores, or check nearby guild traders, without having anything specific in mind, looking for a bargain or two on any recipes, blueprints, motif pages, etc. that I haven't learned yet, but these days (since I've started spending my gold and Alliance Points at The Golden on a more regular basis) I don't have enough gold in the bank to do that sort of bargain hunting.

And since I've mostly given up on trying to sell items-- other than to the NPC merchants-- I'm unable to generate any gold that way. Besides, I detest item flipping and market manipulation, so I don't want to generate gold by flipping items.

In conclusion, I think I would more actively participate in trading if it weren't so reliant on using addons or external websites. I've learned to deal with the existing system, but for the most part that means by not participating in it much at all.

Ph1p

The system is fine as is, I enjoy the hunt and guild dynamics.

Despite my vote, I think there are great arguments for a central trading system, but it makes no sense to switch at this point. That decision should have been made early on. Not 11 years in, when you literally have hundreds of guilds who have built and maintained so many player communities around traders.

By all means, improve on the current system, add more quality of life features, better search tools, and so forth. By the way, trading guilds themselves have been begging for those, too, so there's much room for agreement here. But advocating for trading guilds to go away or categorically maligning them as extortion, racketeering, and organized crime doesn't get us anywhere.

EDIT: Typo

Northwold

ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.

I don't think it necessarily needs a fully centralised auction house and a lot of people enjoy the possibility to find random bargains out of the way.

But it does at a minimum need a more sensible search system than trader by trader. At the moment it's "look at a website or go insane" -- so get around the game's own broken mechanic through the work of third parties.

The other fundamental problem is the selling gate. In effect, to be able to sell goods in any sensible way you must join a trading guild. A lot of people plain won't -- nor should they have to: this is an Elder Scrolls game, not "Tamriel: The Merchant Simulator" -- and so don't sell stuff at all.

There are a number of compromise solutions that have been explored on the forums that do not force a fully centralised auction house but could make things better on both these fronts.

scrappy1342

ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.

LunaFlora wrote: »

- Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.
- Small guilds and casual players can’t realistically participate.
- ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.
all 3

bump. although i'm sure we'll never see one. and if we did that would be a heck of an adjustment period while ppl sell off their millions of mats that have been collecting dust in their crafting bags

MincMincMinc

ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

Poll options are too specific and don't match how I feel. Overall I'm fine with the trading system and enjoy the decentralized nature of it and shopping around for deals; but there's room for improvement (such as for example trading options for people who adamantly don't want to join guilds, and in-game access to the information currently being supplied by addons).

I used to really enjoy trading in ESO and it was one of my main activities, but I've played for a while now and either have everything I need or have the ability to get everything I need. And since the great market collapse (on PC/NA at least) selling 99% of stuff isn't worth the effort, so tbh I vendor most items and barely engage with the system now anyway and am not about to take the time to offer a spirited defense of it.

It's not decentralized though lol. It hasn't been decentralized since they allowed addons to track store inventories. Now it is just exceedingly poorly centralized on a half assed addon & third party website abused by bots and scammers. Subjecting the casual player base into leaving the integrity of the game and to use potentially risky 3rd party software/websites.

It was fine at launch, but now its pointless and a tedious waste of time. It only serves a nostalgia purpose for some of us older players, but to newer/younger players with shorter attention spans and other game options it is not doing ESO any favors.

Furyous

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

SolarRune wrote: »

You go to a trader - click on bid on trader and enter your bid - it's not rocket science. The learning point is the price point that will vary for various locations and will range from 10Ks through to 10m gold (if not more).

I would advise bidding on the trader before the changeover (maybe weekend before) rather than running around at change over time - whilst it is possible having secured one that way it is much less reliable than bidding in advance. (you do need the relevant perms to be able to bid for your guild if you are not a GM)

I've never spent longer than 10-15m bidding on traders.

I mentioned I am new to this. There are 288 traders that must be clicked on individually to bid, and the game provides no system, FAQ, or guide to walk you through this labyrinth of a morass of a maze of a system. As someone new to the trading game, I have no clue where 99 percent of those traders even are, so I end up spending hours just trying to find a list of budget traders that might be in my price range.

The only information I have found after hours of searching are vague references to “wilderness traders” (what even are those?) and “Thieves Hall traders.” But which ones? I would assume the Thieves Hall traders in Dasehen would bid much higher than the ones in small towns, but which towns are considered small?

I cannot even find out what a reasonable bid is. Is it 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? There is no way I can make enough profit to cover the costs of a blind bid with the small number of items I want to sell.

And I only get ten chances at this. If I bid too low on the wrong traders, I have to wait a full week to try again and do even more research because I obviously did it wrong last time.

Oversimplifying the process to make it sound easy does not actually help anyone. It comes across as dismissive of the real challenges involved and ignores how confusing the system is for most players. I would guess the majority of people have no clear idea how this process works. I have a degree in computer science and have worked as a network engineer for more than 30 years, and if I am having this much trouble with it, the fair conclusion is that the system is not simple.

robwolf666

I don’t trade enough for it to matter.

Overpriced every time I look.

Orbital78

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

It is getting harder for guild masters to cover costs with so low of income in general. Unless you have super high end farmers or crown sellers, many struggle. Thankfully most of my guilds do fine most of the time, but I could see guilds that don't have a gm that almost put in a full time job with money income auctions and events struggling.

I am not a fan of the addons needed to realistically keep up, they take up a ton of resources and it is not convenient using 3rd party websites to find where items are for the right price and even then the data is old so they are not even there.

I adapt, but I am not a big fan.

Furyous

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

Ph1p wrote: »

Despite my vote, I think there are great arguments for a central trading system, but it makes no sense to switch at this point. That decision should have been made early on. Not 11 years in, when you literally have hundreds of guilds who have built and maintained so many player communities around traders.

By all means, improve on the current system, add more quality of life features, better search tools, and so forth. By the way, trading guilds themselves have been begging for those, too, so there's much room for agreement here. But advocating for trading guilds to go away or categorically maligning them as extortion, racketeering, and organized crime doesn't get us anywhere.

EDIT: Typo

I am not sure where you read that I accused trading guilds of extortion. My point was about the blind bid system itself. The way it forces escalating bids makes it feel as though the NPCs are the ones extorting you just to be able to sell your items. That is very different from saying guilds themselves are engaged in extortion.

tomofhyrule

Furyous wrote: »

SolarRune wrote: »

You go to a trader - click on bid on trader and enter your bid - it's not rocket science. The learning point is the price point that will vary for various locations and will range from 10Ks through to 10m gold (if not more).

I would advise bidding on the trader before the changeover (maybe weekend before) rather than running around at change over time - whilst it is possible having secured one that way it is much less reliable than bidding in advance. (you do need the relevant perms to be able to bid for your guild if you are not a GM)

I've never spent longer than 10-15m bidding on traders.

I mentioned I am new to this. There are 288 traders that must be clicked on individually to bid, and the game provides no system, FAQ, or guide to walk you through this labyrinth of a morass of a maze of a system. As someone new to the trading game, I have no clue where 99 percent of those traders even are, so I end up spending hours just trying to find a list of budget traders that might be in my price range.

Out of curiosity, if you’re brand new to this (to the extent that you don’t know common terminology), why do you need to get a trader for your own guild?

Of course someone who saw a gymnast’s routine on Tik Tok isn’t going to be able to apply for the Olympic team the next day. You would need to build up to that, the same as anything else. We can also say that you aren’t going to get into a Mindmender prog from your performance in nFGI. Similarly, getting into the trading realm is a process.

You want to start by joining a guild, not by making your own. If you don’t like that they charge fees, then find a smaller one that doesn’t (and they do exist). See how the guild runs. Contribute to that guild. Apply to be an officer. That’s where you’ll learn how the system works and where you get your questions answered. And then you can make your own guild once you know how it all works from there.

Radiate77

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

Furyous wrote: »

Radiate77 wrote: »

Add-ons have destroyed the uniqueness of our trading system.

Why stop at every trader when you can shortcut to the best prices and ignore the rest?

Exactly, let’s make it “immersive.”
If you need a chair for your house, you should be forced to learn where all 288 traders are and stop at each one to see if the chair is being sold there. And of course, you would need to visit all 288 just to be sure you are not getting ripped off by the first one you find.

Then comes the best part: once you finally track down the cheapest price, you go back to that vendor only to discover the item has already been sold. So you get to start the entire process all over again.

For perspective, even if you could port and check each trader in just 2 minutes, that is nearly 10 hours of real time to cover all 288 kiosks. That is 10 hours you will not spend questing, running trials, or actually decorating your house, because you are too busy playing “Around Tamriel in 80 minutes” on repeat.

Nobody expects a player to go to every trader, but when you have an Add-On telling you to go to XYZ for the best deal, you’re not going to look around nearby at other stalls and potentially window shop a good deal.

That vision has been trampled over.

Furyous

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Furyous wrote: »

SolarRune wrote: »

You go to a trader - click on bid on trader and enter your bid - it's not rocket science. The learning point is the price point that will vary for various locations and will range from 10Ks through to 10m gold (if not more).

I would advise bidding on the trader before the changeover (maybe weekend before) rather than running around at change over time - whilst it is possible having secured one that way it is much less reliable than bidding in advance. (you do need the relevant perms to be able to bid for your guild if you are not a GM)

I've never spent longer than 10-15m bidding on traders.

I mentioned I am new to this. There are 288 traders that must be clicked on individually to bid, and the game provides no system, FAQ, or guide to walk you through this labyrinth of a morass of a maze of a system. As someone new to the trading game, I have no clue where 99 percent of those traders even are, so I end up spending hours just trying to find a list of budget traders that might be in my price range.

Out of curiosity, if you’re brand new to this (to the extent that you don’t know common terminology), why do you need to get a trader for your own guild?

Of course someone who saw a gymnast’s routine on Tik Tok isn’t going to be able to apply for the Olympic team the next day. You would need to build up to that, the same as anything else. We can also say that you aren’t going to get into a Mindmender prog from your performance in nFGI. Similarly, getting into the trading realm is a process.

You want to start by joining a guild, not by making your own. If you don’t like that they charge fees, then find a smaller one that doesn’t (and they do exist). See how the guild runs. Contribute to that guild. Apply to be an officer. That’s where you’ll learn how the system works and where you get your questions answered. And then you can make your own guild once you know how it all works from there.

Because I pay for the game and have played MMOs for over 25 years, and in every one of them except ESO I have been able to sell my items without issue.

What I do not understand is why this game requires players to deal with the constant fundraising efforts trading guilds have to run just to cover the costs of their traders, auctions, donations, raffles, and so on. I am not looking to manage that kind of overhead. I simply want a straightforward way to sell my excess items to other players who need them.

And with respect, comparing the act of selling items in an MMO to Olympic‑level sports routines only highlights how unnecessarily complicated the system has become. Trading should not require the same kind of training, practice, and progression as qualifying for the Olympics. It should be a basic feature of the game, not a competitive event in its own right.

Furyous

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

Radiate77 wrote: »

Nobody expects a player to go to every trader, but when you have an Add-On telling you to go to XYZ for the best deal, you’re not going to look around nearby at other stalls and potentially window shop a good deal.

That vision has been trampled over.

I am not sure why you would not still "window shop." The term itself inherently means to look without actively searching.

If you are the type of player who enjoys browsing after finding what you came for, a universal search would not prevent that. It would simply make it easier to locate the items you need while still leaving room for casual exploration.

Think of it like Amazon: the platform offers powerful search tools that let you find exactly what you want, yet it also generates countless impulse buys through recommendations, related items, and casual browsing. A universal search in ESO would work the same way, improving efficiency without eliminating the option to browse or stumble across something unexpected.

Sarannah

Too much running around, blind bidding, and reliance on add‑ons.

Without add-ons I think the trader system fits the game, trying to find bargains, getting lucky buys, and such. But with add-ons that tell players all the prices and where exactly to find items, this system is only annoying and serves no purpose.

As they have recently gone all in with add-ons(including on console), they may as well switch to a universal auction house.

PS: Non-guild players should also be able to sell their wares!

scrappy1342

ESO needs a universal auction house like other MMOs.

Furyous wrote: »

I am not looking to manage that kind of overhead. I simply want a straightforward way to sell my excess items to other players who need them.

look for trading guilds that don't have any requirements. there are plenty out there ^.^ once you join, you can simply sell your things (after figuring out how to price them <opens a whole new can of worms>)

Furyous wrote: »

And with respect, comparing the act of selling items in an MMO to Olympic‑level sports routines only highlights how unnecessarily complicated the system has become. Trading should not require the same kind of training, practice, and progression as qualifying for the Olympics. It should be a basic feature of the game, not a competitive event in its own right.

hit the nail on the head here... it really is overcomplicated and it's a horrible system at this point in time. at one point, sales tax would have paid for a trader. but then you have too many ppl bidding on traders and the bids are too high now. it really is not worth it. in regards to bid prices... the two main factors you want to look at are "how many traders are in this spot?" and "how far is it from the wayshrine?" those are the things that drive a bid up. places like vivec, mournhold, wayrest, etc. that have large groups of traders right on top of the wayshrine go for the most.