Character Bazaar

The Character Bazaar is a CCP sanctioned forum-based marketplace where EVE Online players can buy and sell their characters for ISK.

General Notes

• Down-payment plans are not supported by CCP Customer Support. As a seller, you are agreeing to a certain amount of ISK only, which is to be paid in one payment. Once again, any forms of scams regarding character sales is prohibited.
• All skill training must be paused before transferring the character.
• Accounts can only be involved in one character transfer at a time. If either the sending or the receiving account have an ongoing character transfer, other transfer attempts will fail.
• The character bazaar forum is for buying and selling of characters, you may reply to the threads with bids or questions regarding the character/s. All other posts are off topic and will be removed. Answering posts of this nature will be counted as your daily bump.
• Due to technical issues, players with accounts through Steam cannot currently have characters transferred to their accounts. They are able to transfer characters off of them as long as all other requirements are met.
• Accounts that have been previously banned for macro use are not eligible for character sales.
• Agreements on the forums or in game, or winning an auction does not guarantee a character will be transferred to you. The seller may choose to renege on a deal at any time, prior to the transaction being completed.
• Further information about character transfers can be found in this knowledge base article.
• There is a mandatory 10-hour waiting period between initiating a character transfer and the transfer being completed.

Character bazaar rules

The following rules are set in place by CCP in an effort to reduce the amount of character scams, GM workload and player frustration. Character bazaar scams are strictly forbidden by CCP. These rules are updated on a regular basis so it's always a good idea to verify them on the official forum post before buying/selling a character. The following rules have been updated as of January 7th, 2014:

1. The 'For Sale/Auction' post must be made by the character being offered. This is being added to prevent scams for characters that have been misrepresented, banned, non-existent, etc. An exception to this rule is if multiple characters are being offered by the same person. You are allowed to include the selling information for all characters in a single thread provided that you prove your ownership of the characters by having them confirm the sales in the thread. All other rules apply normally to the character sale.
2. You must disclose whether or not the character being sold has a negative balance in its wallet and the amount.
3. You must disclose if there are kill rights on the character for sale. Kill rights you possess on other characters are to be treated as assets and not included in the character listing.
4. The character being sold must receive the ISK for the purchase and only ISK. Characters may not be sold in exchange for items. Please note that if a character has a negative ISK balance that character cannot be transferred until it has a positive amount of ISK.
5. The sell post must reflect the character correctly, posting that the character you're selling has more skillpoints or ISK than it actually has is a bannable offence. Similarly, a seller must disclose whether jump clones are located in 0.0, lowsec or highsec space.
6. Items cannot be listed among the character's valuable assets, only skills, implants and reputation. You are buying/selling the character ONLY and nothing else. Ships and items can be readily bought on the market for ISK.
7. You may only bump threads ONCE Per day. Date is determined by the date on the forum, not the date where you live.
8. The new owner of the character may NOT pass himself off as any previous owner.
9. The character for sale must be from an active account, you cannot trade characters from inactive accounts.
10. The character being sold must be in an NPC corporation at the time of posting, and for the entire duration of the sale/auction thread being active.
11. The character being sold must be older than 14 days old to avoid accidental transfers.
12. The selling of accounts is prohibited, characters may only be sold individually.
13. The owner of the character being sold is responsible for the character transfer fee paid to CCP.
14. Prior to leaving a corporation, the character to be sold MUST send a corp-wide EVE mail stating that they are going to be sold and will be leaving for an NPC corporation.
15. When a character is sold, please modify the topic title to reflect this to help other forum patrons know what characters are still available.
16. Lottery style sales are not permitted. Auctions and buyouts are the appropriate method for selling a character.
17. All scams involving character transfers are prohibited.
18. The ISK that a buyer sends when attempting to purchase a character is considered to belong to him until such a time as the character being purchased has been delivered to the account of his choosing. If the character sale is not completed, the ISK must be returned in full to the potential buyer.
19. Whenever a character is transferred before the seller has moved the ISK received from the sale to another one of their characters, the Customer Support team will return that ISK to the rightful owner. The buyer cannot expect to receive both the character and the ISK that they paid to purchase it.
20. The location of the character must be disclosed and whether it is in high security, low security, null sec or wormhole space. You must also state if the character is in space or in a station.

How to buy/sell a character

Below are the general processes by which most character sales follow, you're milage may vary. While character sale scams are strictly prohibited by CCP, that doesn't mean they don't happen or aren't attempted. If someone deviates significantly from steps below, consider that a red flag and proceed with caution.

Buying a character

STEP 1: Define exactly what kind of character you want/need.

• This step cannot be stressed enough. To avoid over-paying for a character that may or may not suit your needs, you need to have a very clear sense of what you need.
• Once you have that, make a list of the specific skills your interested in.
  • For example, let's say you want an alt that can light a cyno for you effectively. Therefore, you're looking for a character with CPU Management V and Cynosural Field Theory to at least IV.

STEP 2: Do your research.

• Patience is the name of the game here. Watch the character bazaar forum to get a sense of what the kind of character your looking for generally sells for (NOTE: sells for, not what the minimum or starting bid is).
• Check the eve board links to make sure the character your interested in is represented accurately.

EXAMPLE: Eveboard link

STEP 3: Win the auction.

• Place your bid by responding to the forum thread of the character your attempting to buy with your offer.

EXAMPLE: Bidding on an auction.

STEP 4: Seller confirms the winning bid.

• VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure the seller explicitly posts in the forum thread that you have won the auction.
• Usually the seller will also state that s/he is expecting ISK and account information from you.

EXAMPLE: Seller confirmation of winning bid.

STEP 5: Send your ISK and account information.

• VERY IMPORTANT: Always, always, always verify the character's stats and skills via an up-to-date eve board link before sending any ISK.
• Send your ISK and account name only to the character you are buying, and no one else.
• While many sellers will ask for your account name via private convo, it is best if the account name is sent via EVE Mail so there is a paper trail of sorts. It is also helpful to put the account name in the 'reason' box when sending the ISK.

STEP 6: Confirm that you have sent the ISK and account information.

• Post in the forum thread that you have sent the ISK and account information and that you are awaiting transfer of the character.

EXAMPLE: Confirm ISK and account has been sent.

STEP 7: Confirm character transfer.

• The seller will usually post in the forum thread that s/he has initiated transfer of the character.
• Verify that the character transfer has been initiated by checking the email address associated with the account you are having the character transferred to.
• When the transfer has been completed, post in the forum thread that you have received the character.
• This step is, unfortunately, sometimes ignored by either the seller and/or the buyer.

EXAMPLE: Confirm character transfer has been initiated.

Selling a character

STEP 1: Define exactly what kind of character you have.

• This step cannot be stressed enough. To avoid under-selling your character you need to have a very clear sense of what you have.
• Take note of any notable or level V skills you have.
• Is your character primarily PvP or PvE based?

STEP 2: Do your research.

• Patience is the name of the game here. Watch the character bazaar forum to get a sense of what characters like yours are selling for (NOTE: sells for, not what the minimum or starting bid is).

STEP 3: Create an eve board link.

• To create an eve board link you'll need to have access to your API key.

EXAMPLE: Eveboard profile.

STEP 4: Post an advert in the official character bazaar forum

• Create a forum post that advertises the character you're selling.
• In that post, list out the CCP required information:
  • Skill points
  • Security stauts
  • Positive/segative wallet
  • Location
  • Kill rights
  • Remaps
• Put your eve board link (and any password required) in the post as well.
• Make sure to list out key selling points.
• Also, make sure explicitly state that you're folling CCP's rules.
  • Many sellers abbreviate this process with a blanket statement (e.g., "All CCP rules apply").

EXAMPLE: Advertising your character.

STEP 5: Bump your post.

• Bump your post every 24 hours until your character sells.
• Make sure you answer any questions that have come up since the last bump.
  • NOTE: You may not bump your post AND respond to questions within the same 24hr period. This will get your thread locked by CCP for bumping too often.

STEP 6: Accepting an offer/bid.

• Steps 6, 7, and 8 work best if done in real time, in private conversation, though it is not a necessity.
• Once you have an offer that's acceptable to you, reply to your thread stating such and that you are awaiting the ISK and account name.
  • Suggest the buyer send you the account name via EVEMail as well.
  • PRO-TIP: Write down the account name and double check the spelling.
• Per the character bazaar rules, the ISK must be given to the character being sold.

EXAMPLE: Accepting an offer.

STEP 7: Transfer your ISK.

• Ensure that the agreed upon ISK amount has been transferred to the wallet of the character you're selling.
• Ensure that all the ISK & assets you want to keep have been transferred to other characters you own.
• DO NOT forget to transfer all the ISK you were just paid to another character.

STEP 8: Ensure your PLEX is in the redeeming system.

• Currently, it costs two PLEX to initiate a character transfer. The seller is always responsible for paying the transfer fee.
• If you have not already done so, purchase two PLEX off the market and reverse redeem them so that they are in the redeeming system (see example below).
• Alternatively, you can use CCP's online payment system to use a RL payment method instead of PLEX. Currently, the cost is $20.00 USD to initiate a character transfer.

EXAMPLE: Reverse redeeming PLEX.

STEP 9: Initiate the transfer.

• Log into your account management page.
• Under "Services," click on "Transfer Character."

EXAMPLE: Initiating the character transfer.

• Select the character portrait of the character you're selling and type in the name of the account you're transferring too.
• Click the "Next" button.

EXAMPLE: Selecting the to-be-transferred character.

• Follow the prompt to pay for the transfer via PLEX or other payment method.

STEP 10: Confirm the transfer.

TBD