Gameplay guide

Your first sale

1. Open Find deals and choose a modest single-item cash deal. Leave money for fees, preparation, and daily costs.
2. Compare the asking price with the estimated value range. Check buyer fees, transport, cleanup costs, and required storage.
3. Inspect what could change your decision, then negotiate and make a cash offer. Walking away is a valid outcome.
4. Open the acquired item in Inventory. Research it, clean or repair it if worthwhile, and wipe any stored personal data.
5. Publish a listing with a realistic price and an honest description.
6. Sleep to process the next market day. Review buyer offers, sales, costs, and returns in Market.

Time and saving

Each game day runs from 8:00 AM to midnight, with 960 minutes for actions. Actions show their time and cash costs. End day and sleep advances to 8:00 AM on the next game day, forfeiting any unused action time. The confirmation previews unused time and approximate operating costs. There is no reward for wasting time before ending a day. The game does not advance while you are away.

Actions persist immediately. Saves also lets you create a checkpoint and restore that earlier state. Sleep creates an automatic checkpoint; the five most recent automatic saves are retained. Restoring replaces your current operation with the saved state.

Finding and buying

Local sellers, storage auctions, liquidation, estate sales, garage sales, flea markets, online listings, and wholesale provide different source settings. The base game uses cash negotiation and auctions. Lots contain three to six tracked pieces, with the exact contents and storage requirement shown before purchase. Their combined value is generated as one budget, not a main item plus free bonus goods. All purchase and inspection costs are allocated across the contents. Storage clearance is an immediate, non-refundable service fee; there is no deposit or timed clear-out task.

Seller mood, urgency, trust, and inspection findings affect negotiation. Use evidence to support a lower offer, make a promise only if you intend to keep it, and watch the expiry day. Contacts remembers seller interactions and offers callbacks or referrals as relationships develop.

Storage auctions allow three distinct preview actions. Named bidders respond over bidding rounds. Decide a maximum you can afford after fees, transport, and cleanup charges.

Inspection and authenticity

Visual examination, labels, market research, function testing, and expert appraisal increase your knowledge. Estimates remain uncertain; research narrows the gap. An expert appraisal checks authenticity. Known counterfeits cannot be listed and can be discarded to free space. The base game does not have competing identity hypotheses, certification chains, or legal-review tasks.

Each inspection is recorded once per item, including inspections done before purchase. Visual examination reveals appearance and completeness; labels reveal identity markings; a function test reveals operation when applicable; research narrows the value estimate; expert appraisal checks authenticity. Purchased items retain those exact facts. Pre-purchase research is included in cost basis and shared across lot contents. Category notes explain what makes different types of finds worth examining.

Preparing inventory

The base preparation actions are cleaning, repair, secure data wiping, and protective packaging. Each can be performed once per item. Preparation is restricted by item capabilities: a graded card cannot receive a mechanical repair, and an analog radio does not require a data wipe. Repair and packaging prices scale to the item; the preview compares cost with estimated benefit. Repairs can fail and reduce value; a repair bench reduces that chance. Cleaning and repair offer limited improvements, and near-pristine items do not justify more work.

Data-bearing electronics require a wipe before listing. Packaging prepares an item for shipping. Preparation spends cash and time; expensive work may erase a promising margin. Discarding unwanted stock frees storage without payment.

Selling and market days

Choose a local sale, online marketplace, auction house, specialty consignment, or dealer exit. These have different fees. Set price, duration, minimum offer, shipping, and return terms. Complete disclosure and standard photos are included in listing work. The net preview shows fees, shipping and trading profit at the asking price. Local sales charge 8%; online 13%; auctions 16%; specialist consignment 22%; dealers 3%. Dealer buyers pay wholesale prices, about 28% below ordinary market budgets, with fast settlement. Online, auction and consignment audiences have higher budgets, but fees, shipping and slower specialist demand can absorb the premium. Category trends and sales skill also affect budgets. Auctions can finish without a sale if bids do not meet the reserve.

Sleep processes buyer activity. Accept, reject, or counter pending offers before they expire. Relisting invalidates previous offers. Withdraw a listing to prepare or discard the item immediately. If an appraisal identifies a listed counterfeit, its listing is automatically withdrawn and its pending offers expire. Category demand changes over time and affects trading conditions; the Market page shows the current trend and reason. Inventory displays a market-adjusted estimate, and the listing form starts from that estimate; old asking prices do not automatically change. Reassess expired listings when demand shifts.

Sale proceeds are reduced by channel fees and shipping. Item profit also accounts for investment and promotion. Trading profit includes losing sales, disposal write-offs, refunds and all allocated item costs. Daily overhead and research on abandoned deals are separate cash expenses. The opening-capital entry is funding, not earned profit. Free shipping still costs money on online and auction sales. A returned item regains its inventory cost basis while unrecovered selling fees remain a loss. The selected 7-, 14- or 30-day return window is enforced in game days. Final sales have a three-day dispute window. Refunds include buyer-paid shipping; selling fees and fulfillment costs are not refunded. Keep a cash buffer. Fixed listings expire on their stated end day; expired listings release the item for relisting.

One business, useful upgrades

Your business operates from a home garage. Storage shelving and a larger storage room increase capacity. The inspection kit improves pre-purchase inspections; the repair bench lowers repair risk. Business shows each purchase price and recurring cost.

The garage costs $18 per day, plus owned equipment costs and $1.20 per occupied storage unit, before the economy cost multiplier. Costs and refunds can make cash negative. Sell existing stock to recover; paid actions need enough available cash. There are no loan accounts or interest charges.

Progress and collection history

Completed trading develops business experience and four active skills: appraisal, negotiation, restoration and sales. Skill levels use cumulative thresholds of 80, 240, 480, 800 XP and continue with gradually widening gaps up to level 20. Business shows your next threshold and each skill’s exact benefit. No points need spending; inactive skill counters have been removed. Repeating the same negotiation approach or inspection does not farm experience. Contacts retain relationship history. Collection preserves acquisitions, memorable finds, sales stories, and simple trading milestones. It has no separate points currency, identity selection, or empire rank.

Account and future expansions

Account provides password changes, operation reset, and account deletion. These recovery actions have separate confirmations. Forgotten passwords can be recovered from Login. Use Feedback to report a problem with the page, action, and result; never include your password.

Employees, pawn lending, store credit, branches, transfers, advanced restoration, strategic contracts, rival influence, advanced authentication, and empire progression are future expansion work. They are not required or active in this base game. See the roadmap for their intended depth.