The Trade System in POE2 is Exhausting

I don’t know if anyone else feels the same, but the trade system in POE2 has become a major source of frustration for me. Every time I try to buy an item, I send messages to about 50 people, and almost no one responds. Something about this just doesn’t seem right.

This isn’t a one-time thing—it’s every single day. It feels like people list items and then intentionally ignore trade requests. And these aren’t even super cheap items! I’ve tried messaging sellers with more expensive items just to see if anyone responds, and the result is the same.

After spending about an hour spamming messages, I usually manage to get the item I need, but by then, I’m completely drained. Honestly, I’m getting tired of dealing with this.

Is anyone else experiencing the same issue? I feel like the trade system needs some serious improvements, because this just isn’t working.

Yeah but have you no appreciation for the friction? Do you not feel a sense of success when after hours of being ignores a seller actually responds and shockingly does not try to scam you?

What about all the great community interactions you have while trading?

I'm confused why you're not focused on all the positive aspects of the current trade system?!


Are you not feeling engaged by the beeps and bonks from your live search results that are promptly ignored by the sellers?

Do you not like being online 18 hours a day just to sell your junk gear?

Anyway, as I read on this forum, what is really needed is the removal of the trade window. We need to go back to drop trading outside of act1. That way we can get scammed every other trade so there'd be even more friction....

Have you considered playing Solo Self-Found? No trading , no economies , no problem.

Just you and the game. Farm your items , craft your items , beat the game as intended....

Its pretty fun actually..

As far as I can tell the trade system is designed to make you upset. GGG wants you to be irritated by their trading and then you go to a pay to gear site that Tencent owns and spend your money there. Pretty simple concept I'm surprised people don't understand. The game is set up to severely limit your progress and waste your time.

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Xion96#1046 wrote:

Have you considered playing Solo Self-Found? No trading , no economies , no problem.

Just you and the game. Farm your items , craft your items , beat the game as intended....

Its pretty fun actually..

Great suggestion!

Don't like the current trade system?!

Well - how about no trade system at ALL!? HUH? How do you like that?!

Edit: Also - trade IS how it was intended. SSF came much later - don't start flat out making things up about how the game was 'intended' to be played.

The issue's I have personally with trade is that the economy soon gets out of hand and items become exponentially more expensive as time goes on.

If GGG's plan for PoE2 is to encourage more crafting, then crafting should be accessible to everyone, not just a select few.

If I could make any build and craft every item I will ever need to take that build from level 1 to 90+ and actually kill T4 pinnacle bosses, I'd be happy if I could achieve that in a reasonable time (let's say ~50-100 hours gameplay).

If all crafting options were more available, so people didn't need to trade, unless they were just not interested in crafting at all, the game would be better I think.

Trading for currency/fragments etc on the currency exchange would be all that is needed then.

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MadMossy#1934 wrote:

The issue's I have personally with trade is that the economy soon gets out of hand and items become exponentially more expensive as time goes on.

That's only true for certain chase items and for no dead roll top tier rares.

Anything that isn't perfect becomes worth 10ex barely worth the hassle of selling, a +4 wand? Trash because not +5.

This has been a problem in PoE1 as well and has little to do with the trade system itself. The game saturates the economy with 'good' gear that tanks in price while 'great' gear remains rare and skyrockets as the remaining players are mostly rich juicers who are sitting on 50d+ and already have very good gear with little upgrade potential - and willing to pay for it.

I also think your stance on the idea of killing T4 bosses with self crafted gear in 100h is not in line with the goals of GGG for PoE 2.

Don't try to whisper the cheapest prices on trade site, they most likely:
1. Already sold the item.
2. Are getting spammed with whispers.
3. Are trying to price fix.

Scroll a bit down, pay a little bit more but people usually respond right away.

If you are trying to buy very cheap items, like < 10 exalts don't expect people to respond this late in the league, you can whisper 10 people at once before even tabbing back into the game.

The biggest problem with trade is that Divine orbs are not valuable. They do NOTHING for your character. They don't produce gear. They cant socket into your gear. All Divs do is give you a random chance at bettering an already existing high value item.

The entire trading system is build off an item that is rare but has no inherent value. That is the single reason trading is tanking.

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Mordgier#6997 wrote:

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Xion96#1046 wrote:

Have you considered playing Solo Self-Found? No trading , no economies , no problem.

Just you and the game. Farm your items , craft your items , beat the game as intended....

Its pretty fun actually..

Great suggestion!

Don't like the current trade system?!

Well - how about no trade system at ALL!? HUH? How do you like that?!

I can confirm. Just started SFF and it's almost relaxing experience.