Escape From Tarkov Flea Market Guide: Rep, Prices, and More Explained

Escape from Tarkov's Flea Market is a wonderful tool used by all players consistently. Essentially, the Flea market acts as the "eBay" of Escape from Tarkov, enabling players to sell their in-game items to each other. However, it's slightly more realistic than that and there are limitations and rules you must respect selling on the Flea market that many don't understand. 

Since releasing in June 2021, the Flea market has gradually declined within its use, having players being limited on what they can or cannot sell. Back in 2021, players could sell anything on the Flea market, generating millions of roubles regularly, it was essentially a money-making machine. It's no longer 2021, with the next year gradually creeping up on us, the Flea market has shifted its regulations and rules substantially over the last two years causing shifts in player usage. 

What is the Escape from Tarkov Flea Market?

As previously mentioned, the Escape from Tarkov Flea market is the game's online market, allowing players to sell items to each other and make or spend money. The market supports the game's financial ecosystem and each item is worth a separate amount each wipe, essentially, the players decide how expensive the item is worth due to its rarity. These items are anything from the following:

• Weapons - modified or stock
• Weapon attachments 
• Chest rigs - armored and non-armored - excluding level six
• Grenades 
• Misc items - keys, fuel, PC parts, essentially everything lootable
• Streamer Items 
• Protective body armor - excluding level six
• Backpacks
• Valuables - Graphics cards, BTCs, GP Coins, Golden Chains, Lion statues, etc
• Ammunition (except high value/power ammunition such as M995)

There are very minimal items that aren't allowed to be sold on the Flea market. Typically, items that aren't allowed to be sold are incredibly high-power/value items such as 7.62x39 BP ammunition, level-six armor, and weapon over-power weapon attachments.

How to Unlock the Flea Market in Escape from Tarkov

You unlock the Flea Market once reaching level 15, once you've been playing Escape from Tarkov for a few wipes, level 15 is lightwork, here's how to find XP easily. Players can sell almost anything found in-raid on the Flea market, often providing players with better returns than the merchants would pay you. It's seriously recommended you begin selling items on the Flea market instead of to traders once you unlock it.

Players now always receive the money they deserve for their in-game items through the Flea market. For example, players who spend all day looting and find several rare keys will be able to redeem their efforts by selling the keys for an expensive price on the Flea market. Each wipe resets the Flea markets ecosystem, meaning the players decide the value of each item once the game has reset, therefore depending on task updates and requirements, the Flea market product pricing will fluctuate in price. 

How to Buy Items from the Flea Market 

It's quite a simple task. Firstly, ensure you have the right amount of money (probably roubles) in your account for the item you desire, go into the search bar in the top left of the Flea market and search the name of the item you want. For example "AK-74M," click the weapon, then watch all the separate AK-74M listings flood through. Each listing will be unique at a different price, perhaps a stock AK-74M is 30,000 roubles and one with scope and silencer is 50,000. However, each item will be in a different condition, to check the weapon condition, double-click the weapon and check the durability, anything over 80 durability will be acceptable for a weapon. 

If you desire something more simple like a tac-rig or key, simply search for the name of the item on the Flea market and purchase the one you desire. Each piece of armor will display its hitpoints to purchasers so nobody is ripped off. Keys you'll need to be slightly more cautious with, double-click the key you desire to check how many more uses it obtains. 

Buying items is the easy part, but not all items can be sold on the Flea market as mentioned. Additionally, items bought from the Flea market cannot be handed in as "found in-raid" quest items, they aren't found in-raid if you purchased them from the Flea Marker, are they? If you desire to easily obtain "found in-raid" items, build them within the Hideout or find them in-raid.

Once an item has been purchased from the Flea market, you no longer have the ability to sell it back on the market, you'll have to sell it to merchants. Items can only be sold/purchased from the Flea market in their "Found in-raid" status, once they've been purchased they lost their "Found in-raid" disabling you from selling them back on the platform. 

How to Sell Items on the Flea Market 

There are a few catches players typically miss when selling on the Flea market, such as the taxing system. On every item sold within the Flea market, players are charged a tax for using the Flea market platform. The tax varies from item to item and the overall cost of the product, for example, if you list a stock M4A1 for 50k roubles, expect to pay 5000 roubles at 10% tax. If you decide to sell a singular bolt for 5 Million roubles, expect to pay 2.5 Million roubles tax. Many relatives go into selling on the Flea market, but the tax will display clearly when you're pricing the item, the tax is removed as soon as the item is listed, not sold, so don't list at an unsellable price otherwise you'll lose money. 

To sell an item on the Flea market, go into your stash and right-click on the item you want to sell, and click "Filter by item," it will take you to the Flea market product page for the item you're trying to sell so you can see competitor prices. Then, click "+add offer" in the top right of the Flea market and select the item from the stash you're trying to sell and list it appropriately. Again, make sure you have enough to cover the tax otherwise you won't be able to list it. 

When selling weapons, it's highly recommended that you don't sell weapons with attachments connected to them. For example, if you loot a fully modded SR-25 on The Lab, dismantle all attachments like suppressor, scope, and foregrip, and sell them as separate items to ensure larger profits. Most players will not purchase fully modded weapons and instead buy the stock variant of a weapon and purchase the attachments separately.

Flea Market Reputation, Explained

As your merchants have a reputation, like Prapor, you as a player also obtain a selling reputation seen on the Flea market by other players. This reputation as it grows allows you to list more items on the Flea market, allowing you to sell items quicker and to more people. Essentially, someone with a "5" reputation may only be able to sell two items on the Flea market, however, someone with an "80" reputation may be allowed to sell seven items at a time. Every item sold raises your reputation by a minuscule amount and it typically takes a while before gaining another listing space. 

The way you grow a reputation is simply by selling and buying at the Flea market. You can lose your reputation by revoking your offers, such as listing something and then taking the listing down, which will decrease your reputation. 

Flea Market Price Changes & Monitoring Tools

Prices will change on the demand for the item, therefore quest items will fluctuate in price significantly throughout the duration of the wipe. For example, Gunsmith attachments might cost an abundance of money to buy due to players understanding the demand for them. 

To monitor the Flea market, you're going to have to be proactive and check manually, or use the website tarkov-market, allowing players to monitor the activity of the flea market without being in the game. Personally, I would recommend selling items regardless of the price due to the increase in cash flow, players who typically horde items waiting for the "right price" have usually already missed their chances! 

For more Escape From Tarkov news, be sure to check out our dedicated section or take a look at some of our Guides & Tutorials just below: