Sell price minus buy price is the number everyone sees first, and it is always too high. A trade is profitable only after every fee, tax and trip is counted. Outpost's calculators ask for each cost on its own line so none slips through. This is what goes on each line.
Four inputs for any trade
- What you pay per item, and whether you buy instantly from a sell order or post a buy order.
- What you sell for per item, and whether you sell instantly into a buy order or list a sell order.
- How many, and whether the market can absorb that many at that price.
- What it costs to move them, if the buy and sell cities differ.
Fees and tax
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Instant buy from a sell order | The price only |
| Posting a buy order | 2.5% setup fee on top |
| Posting a sell order | 2.5% setup fee when you list |
| Any completed sale | 4% tax with Premium, 8% without |
| Instant sale to the Black Market | Tax only, no setup fee |
Selling instantly into a buy order skips the sell setup fee but still pays tax. The game keeps setup fees when you cancel, so each relist pays again. Outpost does not assume your rates: the trade check, transport and production tools start tax and setup at 0, so type 4 and 2.5 (or 8 and 2.5 without Premium) yourself. The route scanner on the flipping page is the exception and starts at 4 and 2.5.
A worked trade
You buy 10 items with a buy order at 10,000 each and sell them with sell orders at 12,000, with Premium.
- Purchase: 100,000 + 2,500 buy order fee = 102,500
- Sales: 120,000
- Sell order fees: 3,000
- Tax at 4%: 4,800
- Profit: 120,000 − 102,500 − 3,000 − 4,800 = 9,700
The raw gap was 20,000 and the fees took more than half. Without Premium the tax is 9,600 and the profit falls to 4,900. In Market flipping, choose Place a buy order, type the two prices and the quantity, set the purchase order fee, sales tax and sell order setup fee, and you get the same 9,700 along with the break-even sale per item and the lowest sale price that profits.
Margin and return on investment
Outpost shows both, and they divide by different numbers:
- Margin = profit ÷ what you sold for. Here 9,700 ÷ 120,000 = 8.1%.
- Return on investment = profit ÷ what you spent. Here 9,700 ÷ 102,500 = 9.5%.
Return tells you where to put limited silver: a 9.5% flip that turns over in a day beats a 20% flip that sits for a week. Margin tells you how much room you have if the price drops before you sell. A thin margin on a volatile item is the trade most likely to turn into a loss.
Transport
Buying in one city and selling in another adds the trip: mount upkeep, repairs, any travel cost and a risk allowance for what you might lose. The risk allowance is the chance of losing a load times its value. A 2,000,000 silver load on a red-zone road you lose one time in ten carries 200,000 of expected loss per run, and that belongs in the sum. The Transport calculator splits a load into trips by weight and adds the cost per trip and the risk you choose. Transporting between cities explains how to pick that number.
Crafting and refining: returns and two kinds of profit
Crafting and refining hand back part of your materials. That return has real value, but you only see it as silver when you use or sell the returned materials. The Crafting and Refining calculators split the result in two:
- Net cash profit: silver in minus silver out for this run, before returned materials.
- Retained return value: what the returned materials are worth at your prices. Total profit adds the two.
Outpost's reference case: a craft sells for 3,000, its materials cost 2,000, they return at 20%, the station charges 100 and tax plus setup come to 10% of the sale.
- Upfront silver: 2,000 + 100 = 2,100
- Fees: 10% of 3,000 = 300
- Net cash profit: 3,000 − 300 − 2,100 = 600
- Retained return value: 20% of 2,000 = 400
- Total profit: 600 + 400 = 1,000
Use upfront silver to check you can afford the run and cash profit to judge it if you will sell the returns cheaply or not at all. Total profit is right only if you reuse or sell the returned materials at the prices you entered.
You choose which materials count toward returns. Artifacts, faction tokens, enchanting runes, souls and relics and Dragon Blood never return, so the tools leave them out whatever you tick. Player-run stations charge a fee per craft, which goes in Station fee / craft; fixed silver costs written into a recipe are added on their own line as Recipe silver / craft. Focus and resource return rate explained covers how the rate is set.
Your typed prices stay marked as yours
The production and transport tools load market prices where they exist, each with the city and time it was seen. When you type your own price, the tool marks it as yours and keeps it apart from loaded prices; refreshing the market does not overwrite it. If an ingredient or output has no price at all, the result stays unavailable instead of treating the gap as zero.
Checklist before you commit silver
- Prices for the right server, city, tier, enchantment and quality, recent enough to trust.
- The buy and sell methods chosen, so the right fees apply.
- Tax at 4% or 8%, and setup at 2.5% where you place orders.
- Transport and a risk allowance for cross-city trades.
- Returns counted only on materials that can return, and a station fee if you use a player station.
- Enough volume at your sell price for the whole quantity.
Game balance changes between patches. Check requirements, yields and costs in game.
