# The Black Market

North out of Glueburg's gate runs a strip of asphalt and stalls wedged between the town, [the Field](/gluebook/gluniverse-the-field), the Mire and the Ashfell. Nothing grows here, nothing bites, and nothing is gathered: the Black Market is pure commerce.

## Shops that players own

Thirty **shop lots** line the road, fifteen a side, and any soul can claim one.

- **Claiming** costs **500,000 gloo**, paid to the treasury and never refunded.
- **Building** the shop takes **400 bricks, 10 iron fittings, 12 metal rods and 12 metal sheets**, deposited like a stable's bricks. The rods and sheets are [kiln work](/gluebook/gluniverse-the-brick-economy): 4 scrap makes a rod, 3 rods make a sheet, so one shop quietly eats 192 scrap.
- A built shop has **8 sale slots**. Stock them, price them up to **10,000,000 gloo** each, and the shop sells while you sleep.
- Every sale pays a **5% protection fee** to the house treasury. The rest is yours.
- You name the shop once for free. Changing the sign later costs **100,000 gloo**, and a **50,000 gloo** promo shouts your shop to the whole world, once per two hours.

What a shop can sell is the whole point: **rolled gear**. A legendary lance, a rare frozen sword, a good charm roll: the [Exchange](/gluebook/gluniverse-economy) refuses them all because no two rolls are alike, and this strip is where they trade. Plain gear, [relics](/gluebook/gluniverse-relics), cosmetics and ordinary crafted goods list fine too. Raw materials never do: they belong to the Exchange's order book and the vendor floor.

## The land sale board

The strip also hosts the world's **land market**. A claimed [field plot](/gluebook/gluniverse-the-field) can be listed here at an asking price up to **10,000,000 gloo**, and buyers post **offers** that escrow their gloo on the spot.

- The seller's **stash must be empty** to list. The board moves ground, not warehouses.
- An offer waits up to **48 hours**, then refunds itself. Up to 12 offers can rest on one plot.
- The seller accepts one, the transfer is instant and whole, and the treasury takes **5%** of the price.
- A new listing is announced to the world once. Relisting inside an hour stays quiet.

Claim fees still never come back; the market price is the market's problem.

## The auctions

Not every listing on that board was put there by its owner. A plot whose owner has not been seen in the world for **fourteen days** is listed here **by the world**, marked as an auction, with the absent owner named as the seller. After 48 hours it takes the best funded offer.

They are the cheapest land in the world and the only lots that come with a stable already standing. They are also cancelled the moment the owner logs back in, so an offer on one is a bet on somebody staying away. See [The Stable Auction](/gluebook/gluniverse-stable-auction).

## The Noctavia counter

Holders of the **Noctavia Core** collection claim their **skimasks** here: eight colourways, one colour per claim, up to **3 claims per wallet, forever**. Each mint redeems once. The claim reads the chain, so it wants a connected wallet actually holding the piece. See [Cosmetics](/gluebook/gluniverse-cosmetics).

## Getting there

Four gates: the town's north edge, the Field's east side, the Mire's south end and the Ashfell's west wall. The strip is the shortcut between all four, and the safest road on the frontier.