Escape From Tarkov Flea Market Guide

The Escape From Tarkov flea market is the game’s open market system, allowing players to trade items with each other for self-determined prices. It allows Escape From Tarkov players to dramatically increase their earnings if they play the market right, but can also lead to some overspends in the wrong circumstances. So, if you’re wanting to become a master of the Escape From Tarkov market, read on below.

What Is The Escape From Tarkov Flea Market?

The Escape From Tarkov flea market is - as the name suggests - a proverbial car boot sale of all the items that you can find in the wasteland that is Tarkov. It is run exclusively by the game’s player base, but you can also find listings from the traders there too just in case they’re cheaper or unavailable. 

To access the Escape From Tarkov flea market, you will have to reach level 15 in-game. For a long time it was only level 10, then they bumped it up to level 20 before settling on what it currently is now. It can take a while to get to that coveted number, but your opportunities in-game really do open up at that point so it is worth the wait.

Unfortunately, with the latest patch 12.12, Battlestate Games have made it so that some items are banned for sale on the Escape From Tarkov flea market. A lot of these items are high class armour and ammo, alongside some guns and the LABS keycard - presumably in an attempt to curb the availability and oppressiveness of the top-tier meta. Instead, you will either have to find them as loot drops in-game, or level up the traders enough to buy them there.

Despite this, there are still thousands of items there for you to buy, ranging from weapon attachments to barter items and keys, the market really is your oyster. You might be wondering how to actually buy and sell on the Escape From Tarkov flea market however, so read on below to find out all the details.

How To Buy On The Escape From Tarkov Flea Market

Once you reach the fabled level entry point for the flea market you will be dying to spend like mad - after all, who wouldn’t when your previous options were limited low level traders? Selling it great once you get the hang of it all, but first let’s learn how to spend.

When you first head onto the flea market it can be a bit overwhelming at first, but to start buying we’re going to want to take a look at the browse tab on the left hand side. That tab houses every single item in the game, so thankfully it is organised into neat tabs for you to browse through. If you have a specific item in mind though you can search for it using the bar at the top. You can also use the cog icon in the corner to narrow down your search, filtering things like the price, currency, number of items, and condition.

Once you’ve narrowed down your search and found the item of your dreams, all you need to do is click purchase and select the number of items you want to buy. If the offer seems a bit too good of a deal it will probably come up with an error stating it has already been purchased, but you might be lucky and end up snagging a deal. If it does go through, your shiny new items will be stored in your stash ready for you to view.

Another good function for buying on the flea market is the linked search function. If you right click on any weapon or piece of equipment then select the linked search option, it will take you to a filtered search of everything that you can apply to the original item. If you’re looking to quickly see what sights can be fixed to your new RFB for example, just used linked search and click on the sights tab to avoid wasting money on incompatible gear. 

Using the find parts option on the workbench can be an extension of this too, giving you the option to bulk-buy all of the parts for your fancy new gun preset in just a few clicks. Make sure to untick the items you already have though as it prices you for every single part.

How To Sell On The Escape From Tarkov Flea Market

Unfortunately, after you’ve frivolously spent all your money buying everything and anything on the Escape From Tarkov flea market, you’ll want to sell some things to make that money back. You are only limited to selling a max of three items at any one time, but it can be an unlimited amount of each item so you won’t be stuck for days trying to offload 60 hard drives.

The first thing you’ll want to do before you start selling is to check out the price of the thing you want to part with. The best way to do this is to right click and then filter by item, which will show you every listing on the flea market at that very moment. This will give you a good guess as to what price to set, and can give you the option to undercut the lowest offer if you want to sell quickly. Be warned though as a small percentage of the listing price will be taken from your Roubles as a fee, so don’t set stupid prices that will never bite otherwise you’ll be burning your money.

Once you've chosen your item and your price, all you need to do is hit add offer, select the item you want to sell, and then you're good to go. You can choose which currency you want to sell your item for, and you can also opt for a barter trade if there is a specific item out there that you need more than cold hard cash. As soon as your item has been sold you’ll get a message through which holds your money or barter items - don’t forget though as these messages have an expiry date and you don’t want to lose your earnings.

Escape From Tarkov Flea Market Tips

Now that you’ve got your head around the basics of the flea market, there are two tips that are essential if you want to become a flea market pro, and it just so happens that they are two sides of the same coin.

The first Escape From Tarkov flea market tip is to not get scammed. While the flea market is a great resource for accessing anything at pretty much any time for minimal effort, it can also be a way to easily burn away your Roubles. There might be a key you need for a quest you’re doing for example, and as tempting as it is to buy it on the flea market, it is often at a price that is far beyond its value. Sometimes it is just easier to actively search for the item instead of caving, but it is a good practice to know when not to get ripped off.

Conversely, the second tip is to learn how to rip others off. As alluded to in the previous tip, depending on the time in wipe, there are specific items that can fetch an extortionate price on the flea because they are both essential to a quest, and also difficult to find. The Tarcone director’s key for the Escape From Tarkov Delivery from the Past quest for example will always fetch a high price early wipe due to its tricky to find status. There is even an armour set that values at over 4.5 million Roubles if it has less than 50 percent durability, precisely because it is for a quest that is a nightmare to complete.

That just about sums it up for everything you need to know about the Escape From Tarkov flea market. You’ll be drowning in Roubles in no time if you play your cards right - but in the meantime why not check out some information on when the next Escape From Tarkov wipe will be.