The Marketplace is a gathering spot for buying and selling Resources between players.
Requirements
| Level | Construction | Food | Wood | Stone | Ore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 2 | - | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| 3 | - | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| 4 | - | 8,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 |
| 5 | - | 16,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 |
| 6 | - | 32,000 | 32,000 | 32,000 | 32,000 |
| 7 | - | 64,000 | 64,000 | 64,000 | 64,000 |
| 8 | - | 128,000 | 128,000 | 128,000 | 128,000 |
| 9 | - | 256,000 | 256,000 | 256,000 | 256,000 |
| 10 | Divine Inspiration | 512,000 | 512,000 | 512,000 | 512,000 |
Benefits
| Level | Yield |
|---|---|
| 1 | Engage in one transaction at a time |
| 2 | Engage in two transactions at a time |
| 3 | Engage in three transactions at a time |
| 4 | Engage in four transactions at a time |
| 5 | Engage in five transactions at a time |
| 6 | Engage in six transactions at a time |
| 7 | Engage in seven transactions at a time |
| 8 | Engage in eight transactions at a time |
| 9 | Engage in nine transactions at a time |
| 10 | Engage in ten transactions at a time |
Using the Market
There are 24 different markets in each domain, one for each province. You will not be able to arrange market trades with players in global chat unless you both have cities in the same province.
Resources are always bought and sold in multiples of 1,000 units. There is a limit of 999,000 resources that can be bought or sold in a single transaction. To deal in larger quantities, you will have to make multiple transactions. Units may be priced down to the thousandth of a gold piece (3 places after the decimal).
The market will always charge you a Trading Fee of 0.5% of the gold value of the requested transaction. This fee must be paid to submit the transaction and it will be lost if you later cancel the transaction before it completes.
You may request a trade to match an existing bid on the market, or you can place your own bid out in hopes that someone else will match it later. Trades will not complete until both a buyer and a seller are found who agree on the quantity of resources and the price.
Resources or gold in bid are removed from your inventory and held in the market until the bid is accepted or the trade is canceled. If your city is attacked while your resources are held in bid, those bids will be canceled and the resources and gold will be available to be plundered by the attackers.
Incomplete bids may be canceled at any time. Your resources or gold will be returned to your inventory immediately, minus the Trading Fee. Completed transactions cannot be canceled.
Once a transaction is accepted, the gold is given to the seller immediately. The buyer must wait 30 minutes for the purchased resources to arrive in their city, or use a Caravan Portal item to have them delivered immediately.
The image on the rights shows an example of bids currently available for Ore in the market.
Buying Resources
The fastest way to buy resources on the market is to place a bid that matches the lowest "for sale" price currently on the market. In this example, you would enter the quantity you want to purchase, and 0.987 for the Unit Price. The market will match your purchase with the existing bid, transfer your gold to the seller, and start the delivery process to your city immediately.
You also have the option to place your own bid to buy the resources at a lower price. Enter the quantity that you want to purchase and the price that you want to pay. The market will take your gold into holding and place your bid under the "requested" section of the current market.
You do not have to match quantities to make bids. If you offer to buy 100,000 units in this example, those units would be sold to you immedately and the "for sale" bid would be reduced by that amount. If you offer to buy more than the number of units in the bid, you will complete the transation for the units that are currently available, and the remainder of your bid will remain in the "requested" section until another seller comes along.
In all cases, your purchased resources will not be delivered to your city until 30 minutes after the transaction (or each part of it) has been completed.
Selling Resources
The fastest way to sell resources (also the fastest way to get gold from the market) is to place a bid that matches the highest "requested" price on the market. In this example, you would enter the quantity you want to sell, and 0.1 for the Unit Price. The market will match your sale with the existing bid, start transferring the resources to the buyer, and send you the gold payment immediately.
You also have the options to place your own bid to sell your resources at a higher price. Enter the quantity that you want to sell and the price that you want to receive. The market will take your resources into holding and place your bid under the "for sale" section of the current market.
Partial bids work the same way for buyers and sellers, as described above.
Gold for sales is always delivered immediately after the transaction (or each part of it) is completed.
Market Strategies
Market prices will vary from domain to domain, and even between provinces on the same domain. There is no solid value for what makes a "good price" on any given market. In general, players will play unit prices of 1-6 gold for any resource, if there is a demand. Prices above 10g/unit are usually wishful thinking. Prices below 0.5g/unit and lower are possible in a market that has too many resources and not enough demand.
- Food - Is typically purchased by players who do not understand how much their troops are eating. It is also purchased by high-level players who have lots of gold to spare and who want to skip a few raids for their food. Food is typically sold by players who raid Barbarian Camps and find themselves with more food than they needed. Typical food prices on an old domain are around 1g/unit.
- Wood - Everyone needs wood. This resource is frequently requested and rarely sold. Typical wood prices are 3+ g/unit.
- Stone - New domains, where everyone is still building their cities, will have a reasonable demand for stone. As the domain gets older and the construction stops, the markets start to fill up with unwanted extra stone. Expect prices around 1-2g/unit on a new domain, and 0.25g/unit or lower on an older, glutted domain.
- Ore - Ore is used by people with armies. Newer cities don't need a lot of ore, and can sell their excess on the market for easy gold if there is a demand. Older cities that need ore to build troops will usually pay well for ore on the market. Typical ore prices are 2-4g/unit.
Using the market for storage space
When your inventory of a resource reaches your capacity, your fields will stop production. You can use the market to temporarily remove resources from your inventory to allow your production to continue. Do this by placing a Sell bid for your resources that is higher than the lowest "for sale" bid on the current market. The idea is that no one will buy your overpriced resources when there is a lower price available, so you can leave the resources there until you need them. When you need them back, cancel the transaction and the resources will be returned to your inventory.
Caveats:
- Unfilled bids use up transactions in your market. You are allowed 1 transaction for each level of your market. Make sure you have additional slots open for other sales while you hold your resources this way.
- This storage is not free. You must pay the Trading Fee when you place your resources in the market. That fee will be larger the higher you set the price.
- There is always a chance that the lower priced bid will be bought out, and your resources will be sold when someone matches your bid. Set your bid price carefully to balance this risk versus the Trading Fee cost.
- If your city is attacked while you have resources in storage on a bid, the bid will be canceled immediately. If your Storehouse cannot protect all the extra resources, they can be stolen.
This last caveat is why you can no longer protect your gold by placing it on a bid on the market; the Market will return your gold when you get attacked.
If an attack is incoming, and you have a lot of gold that you know you are going to lose, go ahead and spend it on the market. Match whatever "for sale" price you can get; whatever it takes to get rid of your gold and place some resources in transit to your city. At worst, you will still lose the gold that was going to be stolen from you anyway. You will probably end up with extra resources instead, and they cannot be stolen while they are in the 30 minute transit from the seller's city.
Playing two markets
Each market is tied to the province where your city is located. When you are preparing to build your Second City, consider conquering a plain that is located in a different province. Once you build a market in that Second City, you will have two different markets, with different prices available in their bids. You can buy resources from one market, send them between your cities with the speedup from your Relief Station, and sell them in the other city for a profit.
This may not be worth the effort, especially if your first city is not close to a province boundary.