Market Discussions

What happens if you have a Buy Order up on margin but you don't have enough isk to cover the purchase?


I'm sure I was scammed but it is the way it was pulled off that has me puzzled...

There's a buy order for a rare item in Amarr and a sell order for quite a bit less in Jita. Smells fishy but it passed the "time left" test and the orders are several hours apart.

I decide to take the risk and buy the item in Jita. On my way to Amarr, I look in to the seller and see he's a 5 day old character. So yeah, I know I'm pretty much screwed.

I'm keeping a close eye on the buy order, just waiting for it to get cancelled... But it never did.

I managed to dock in Amarr, hit the "sell this item" button and the buy order came up. The instant I clicked "sell", I get the "Broker found no match for your order".

There is no way a human could have timed it this perfectly so I'm left wondering how this happened.

I would assume your wallet would go negetive if you didn't have enough isk to cover it but I don't have the Margin Trading skill yet so I have no experience.

I swear I searched it before posting. I got 3 hits and nothing close to what I was looking for.

Thanks for sharing the link.

Normally you don't have to travel, the buy and sell exist at the same station.

You were scammed. If the person doesn't have enough isk to cover the buy order, the order gets cancelled and is never filled. People do this intentionally. they try to trick you into thinking an item is going to sell at an extreme price, and when you go to sell they intentionally make it so they can't cover the item cost and the order is closed. There are a few variations of the scam to try and trick you into thinking something is going to sell for huge profit.

There is an old saying, "if it looks to good to be true it probably is." The best way to tell if it is a scam is to look at the buy/sell order history. You will often notice a HUGE jump in the buy/sell of the item. This is to trick you into thinking the order will sell at that price, or someone else has been scammed at that level. It is best to look at the past year and see how it sells.

Another trick is having an item limit where you have to sell 3 or 4 of an items such as junk officer gear, they then put them up for sale at an absurd price, but only 1 or 2. You can never fill the order because the order minimum is too big and are stuck with the garbage gear. There are many price fixing variation on all kinds of items using this technique.

If you know what to look for, scams are easy to spot. I suggest reading up on it or hooking up with some experienced traders who can show you the ropes.