Updated Trade rules

Once two players agree to a trade, the agreement is ironclad and the trade must take place as agreed upon, unless both players agree to modify or cancel the trade. Failure to complete a trade agreement is a reportable offence. Note: Many trade failures are the result of poor or no communication. Please attempt to (politely) reach out to your trading partner before reporting the trade failure.

Never offer the same item, Pokémon, or currency in more than one place, or to more than one player. Never offer something you do not currently have, including unhatched Pokémon and unpurchased ZC. This also means that you may not use third parties to sell goods that are in your Fields or Inventory, as the third party would be offering something they don't have. If you have made an offer to another player, it is your responsibility to keep the payment for that offer safe until the trade has been completed and to not spend it elsewhere. Players who find this difficult may benefit from purchasing a Money Safe. The selling of "grab bags" is not permitted, both as a form of gambling, and because this would result in players paying for unknown and unguaranteed goods.

Prepaying is the act of paying for something that does not yet exist, or does not have a guarantee of existing. For example, a player may offer slots on their Shiny hunt, but may not accept payment for those slots; payment may only change hands when the Shiny Pokémon itself is traded. Note: The only exception to this rule is regarding purchasing art from another player. When purchasing art, the artist may request half of the payment up front, and the other half on delivery of the art.

The lending/borrowing of Pokémon or items (as part of a trade) is not supported by the Moderator Team. You may do so, but we cannot guarantee that Pokémon or items will be returned to you in their original condition. We do recommend that all players use common sense in such things as obtaining collateral for anything lent to another player. Note: This does not extend to clear Pokémon Dex trade agreements. Moderators can and will intervene in the event theft occurs during a Dex trade.

You may not breed for other players, click other players, level Pokémon belonging to other players, or perform any similar service for any form of payment. This includes breeding for another player in exchange for a breeding pair of Pokémon. Paid services of these types have a history of generating scams/trade failures. Note: You may perform any of the above services for free. It's payment that causes issues.

Trading PokéFarm digital goods for legal tender is not allowed. This refers to trading for PokéFarm items, currency, or Pokémon with other players by using real-life currency (including PayPal, other online currency transfer systems, or gift cards). Purchasing ZC from the site and using the ZC to trade is unaffected. You may only exchange PokéFarm digital goods for digital goods from other sites if the trade complies with the Terms of Service of the other site. You also perform such trades at your own risk. The ability of the Moderator Team to resolve issues with such trades is extremely limited. Notable Examples:

• PayPal: Per Paypal's Terms of Service, you are not allowed to ask your customers to pay the fees of a transaction, nor are you allowed to ask them to "send money to a friend" in exchange for a service or purchase. You may not use PayPal to trade with other players for PokéFarm digital goods.
• DeviantArt: "deviantPOINTS cannot be used, Transferred, sold or otherwise traded outside of the Site [DeviantArt] and any such activity is strictly prohibited."
• Flight Rising: Flight Rising does not allow cross-site trading with Pokémon fansites, as shown here. This includes PokéFarm.

See here for a list of sites/games with known trading restrictions.

We do not allow trading to or from the official Pokémon games for PokéFarm currency, items, or Pokémon. You may use the appropriate PokéFarm forum or chat to arrange trades between Pokémon games, but we do not condone the trading of hacked Pokémon. If you are found to be using PokéFarm to trade hacked Pokémon, you will be required to cease and desist, and may be penalised.

You may make one post in the meantime in order to inform players about important updates made to your trade thread or shop. Once you make an "announcement" post, you must wait for 48 hours after the announcement post before you may "bump" your thread. Think carefully about whether your post is important enough to use up your allotted announcement post.

In the interests of a cleaner trade forum, please delete your trade threads once your trades are finished. SYSTEM will automatically delete threads in the Trades forum after 14 days, but you can help keep things tidy faster.

Clearly lay out in your thread what you are offering, looking for, accepting as payment, not accepting as payment, etc. Reflect at least some of this information in your trade thread's title. To improve clarity, please don't use special characters in your thread titles.

Trade threads are intended for simple, short-term use by a single thread owner to buy or sell on their own behalf, such as buying one Pokémon, or selling a limited number of items. Please do not add more to a trade thread after it has been created, such as updating the thread with additional stock. Please avoid excessively-complicated trade threads, such as listing Pokémon, items, and currency for sale in the same thread; likewise, trade "hubs" with multiple players buying and selling to each other are not allowed.

Again, trade threads are intended for short-term use. If you require longer than 14 days to complete your trade(s), such as selling multiple of the same Pokémon, create a Trade Shop instead, as these are intended for long-term use. Repeatedly making, deleting, and remaking the same trade thread will be taken by the Moderator Team as an attempt to get around the Bump Rules.

You may make as many (unique) trade threads at one time as you can actively handle and control. Don't make more trade threads than you can handle.

You may not be the creator of more than one thread in the Trade Shop subforum. There is a brief period of overlap (one week) allowed when creating a new Trade Shop while intending to delete the old one, in order to inform the old shop's customers. Lock the old Trade Shop thread while creating the new thread. Note: You may co-own as many Trade Shops as you can handle. If you have already created a Trade Shop, these co-owned Trade Shops must be created by your partner, not by yourself.

Trade shops co-owned by more than three players are not allowed due to, among other reasons, crashing web browsers, unnecessary thread bumping, interpersonal drama, and disorganisation. Note: The bump rule for Trade Shops applies to all co-owners as if they were a single person. Co-owners may not post back-to-back to bump a thread unless 48 hours have passed.

See Rule 7. Trade Shops are often caught breaking this rule due to the popularity of templates, and the tendency to list shop stock in formats difficult to read while using a mobile device.

Once a player has placed a bid on your auction, you may not alter any of the conditions of your auction. This includes:

• The Pokémon/item(s)/currency being auctioned off.
• The auction's End Date; see Trade Rule 18.
• Payments you will accept as bids.
• The Minimum Bid; if you choose not to set a minimum bid, you must accept the highest bid at the end of the auction, even if it's lower than you wanted.
• The Auto-Buy price; if you choose not to set an auto-buy price, the auction must continue until the end date selected.
• Once the first bid has been accepted, the auction may not be canceled or deleted. Be very sure you want to sell before creating your auction.

Any alterations you wish to make after the thread has been posted must be approved by a moderator before the change is made.

When you create an auction, you must select an end date. End dates may not travel or be changed, except as noted below. Always keep in mind that SYSTEM will automatically delete your auction 14 days after the thread is created. Note: Anti-snipe rules are allowed within reason. Under no circumstances should an auction be allowed to extend more than 6 hours past the set end date, and each anti-snipe time period should not add more than 30 minutes to the auction. Anti-snipe rules must be clearly laid out from the start of the auction.

Bids may not be made in secret. Bids are not allowed to be anonymous; each bid must have a username attached. If a bid is sent by PM, a new post in the auction thread must be made with this information so all bidders are made aware. This includes auto-buy bids sent through PMs. Auction update posts done in this matter are considered special-case announcement posts, and are not subject to double posting or early bumping rules.

Treat all bidders on your auction with respect. Do not show favouritism towards particular bidders. Information provided to one bidder must be provided to all bidders. For example, if you tell one bidder that you value a certain item or currency more than another, that information must be placed in the auction thread so that all bidders have the same information.

Once a bid has been accepted as the highest bid, there is a pending trade agreement in place between that bidder and the auctioneer. This is binding until a higher bid is accepted in its place.