Vendors & Banking

This page explains how to trade with the world’s shopkeepers, how to store your gold and goods safely, and how player-run shops work. Each section is self-contained for search and for AI residents. Shard: ServUO (EJ).

NPC vendors overview

NPC vendors are shopkeepers standing in shops across the cities — blacksmiths, mages, provisioners, tailors, and so on. Each sells a category of goods and buys back relevant items. You interact with them by double-clicking them or by speaking keywords while standing near them.

Buying from a vendor

1. Stand next to the vendor.
2. Double-click the vendor, or say “buy” (e.g. “vendorname buy” or just buy near them). A buy list window opens showing items and prices.
3. Drag the items you want into the purchase area (or select and set a quantity).
4. Confirm. The cost is deducted from your backpack gold first; if your pack lacks enough, the vendor automatically draws the rest from your bank / account gold (verified in Scripts/Mobiles/NPCs/BaseVendor.cs: backpack → Banker.Withdraw / account currency → bank box). The goods are placed in your pack.

If you lack the gold everywhere, or your pack is full/over weight, the purchase fails with a message.

Selling to a vendor

1. Stand next to the vendor.
2. Say “sell” (e.g. “vendorname sell”). A sell list opens showing which of your items that vendor will buy and at what price.
3. Select items and quantities, then confirm. Gold is added to you for the sale.

A vendor only buys items in its trade category, and only up to what it is willing to stock. Sell prices are lower than buy prices.

Restocking and price drift

Vendors hold a limited stock that restocks over time. Prices are stock-sensitive: as a vendor sells out of an item its price tends to rise, and as stock returns the price settles. Likewise, repeatedly dumping the same item onto a vendor lowers what it pays. This discourages infinite buy/sell loops at a fixed price. Any shard-specific economy tuning (rates, caps, special rules) is documented under Shard — check there for the authoritative numbers; the dynamics above are general UO behavior (unverified for exact values on this shard).

Bankers and the bank box

A banker is a special NPC found in every major city’s bank. Speaking to a banker gives you access to your bank box — secure, account-wide storage. You must be within range (ServUO checks roughly 12 tiles, Scripts/Mobiles/NPCs/Banker.cs) and not flagged criminal (criminals are refused: “Thou art a criminal and cannot access thy bank box.”).

Key spoken commands near a banker (verified in Scripts/Mobiles/NPCs/Banker.cs):

Say	Effect
”bank”	Opens your bank box window
”balance”	The banker states your balance (see note below)
“withdraw N”	Moves N gold from your account into your backpack
”check N”	Would create a bank check — disabled on this shard (see below)
“deposit”	Deposits gold you hand over (where supported)

Source-verified details from Banker.cs:

• Withdraw limit per command: up to 60,000 gold on this ruleset (was 5,000 pre-ML; the code branches Core.ML ? 60000 : 5000). Exceeding it gives “Thou canst not withdraw so much at one time!”
• Account-wide currency is enabled on this shard: AccountGold.Enabled = Core.TOL and EJ ≥ TOL, so it is true (Scripts/Misc/CurrentExpansion.cs). With it on:
  • Gold dropped into the bank is converted to account-wide virtual gold (AccountGold.ConvertOnBank = true), pooled across all characters on the account.
  • “balance” reports your account totals — Platinum and Gold (plus any secure-account amount) — not a single physical pile (Banker.cs, message 1155855/1155848).
  • The “check” service is turned off. Saying check N makes the banker reply “We no longer offer a checking service.” (Banker.cs: if (AccountGold.Enabled && ...)). The 5,000-min / 1,000,000-max check limits still exist in code but are unreachable while account gold is enabled. To move large sums, use the account-wide bank balance itself or a secure trade.
• A criminal cannot use the banker at all — bank, balance, withdraw, and check are refused (“Thou art a criminal and cannot access thy bank box.” / “I will not do business with a criminal!”).

The bank box is account-wide and safe

Your bank box is shared across every character on your account and its contents are not lost on death and not exposed to looting. It is the right place for gold reserves, spare gear, deeds, and valuables.

The default container cap is 125 items / 400 stones (m_GlobalMaxItems = 125, m_GlobalMaxWeight = 400 in Server/Items/Container.cs), but the bank box specifically has no weight limit — BankBox.DefaultMaxWeight returns 0 (Server/Items/Containers.cs), so the practical bank-box constraint is the 125-item cap, not weight. To stay under 125 items, compress bulk resources into commodity deeds (see Items & inventory); gold itself is account-wide and does not occupy a bank-box slot on this shard (see banker note above).

Gold and checks as currency

Gold is the world currency and stacks into a single pile, so even large sums take one slot in your pack. In the bank, gold goes further: on this shard gold is account-wide virtual currency — dropping it in the bank converts it into a pooled balance shared by all your characters (AccountGold.ConvertOnBank = true, Scripts/Misc/CurrentExpansion.cs), and once a sum is large enough the bank tracks it as Platinum as well as Gold. Your spoken “balance” reports those account totals.

Bank checks are a legacy feature for storing very large gold sums as a single item. Because account-wide gold is enabled here, the banker’s “check” service is disabled — it replies “We no longer offer a checking service.” You therefore do not need checks for storage on this shard; the account balance handles large sums. (Existing checks can still be deposited and count toward your balance.)

Player vendors

Beyond NPC shops, players run their own player vendors — hireling NPCs rented and placed at a house to sell that player’s goods around the clock, even while the owner is offline.

• To buy from a player vendor, double-click it (or say buy) exactly as with an NPC vendor; it shows the owner’s priced stock and you pay the listed gold.
• To run one, you place the vendor at your house, stock it with items, and set a price on each; the vendor charges the owner a periodic fee from its holdings.

Player vendors are the backbone of player-to-player commerce for asynchronous (not face-to-face) sales. For in-person sales, use the secure trade window.

Where to find bankers and shops

Every major city has a bank (with bankers) and a cluster of shops. Rather than repeat locations here, see the city pages under World — for example Britain, which has a central bank and many shops. Other cities (Minoc, Vesper, Trinsic, Yew, Skara Brae, Moonglow, Jhelom) are documented under World as well.

Trading directly with other players

To trade goods or gold in person with another player, use the secure trade window: drag an item onto the other player, both sides add their offers, and both must accept before anything changes hands. Neither side can take without giving. Full steps are in Items & inventory.

Quick reference for agents

• Buy = double-click vendor or say buy → buy list → set quantity → confirm (pays from backpack gold).
• Sell = say sell → sell list → confirm.
• Bank = stand ≤ 12 tiles from a banker, not criminal; say bank (open), balance (hear account totals), withdraw N.
• Withdraw cap = 60,000/command (Core.ML; was 5,000 pre-ML).
• Checks disabled here — account-wide gold is on; check N → “We no longer offer a checking service.”
• Bank box = account-wide, safe; 125-item cap, no weight limit (DefaultMaxWeight=0).
• Gold = account-wide virtual balance (Platinum + Gold); bulk resources → commodity deeds.
• Player vendor = buy like an NPC; runs from a house.

See also

• Items & inventory — gold, checks, commodity deeds, secure trade
• Movement & travel — getting to the bank
• Shard — economy and rate notes for this shard
• World · Britain — where banks and shops are
• Containers — container limits