Basil Market: A useful tool for Maple Story players

A wallpaper from Maple Story.

Disclaimer: This article is for Maple Story players. If you play Maple Story, read on.

If you don't play Maple Story, download the game here:

http://www.mapleglobal.com

...and then read on.

Maple Story, and many other free MMORPGs, rely on the money they get from players spending real money on in-game items. So, to ensure that people will buy things, some games make some essential items inaccessible unless the player forks over some real cash. In Maple Story, for example, one of these items is a vending license - in order to be able to set up a shop in Maple Story, you need to use real money. Unfortunately, one of the best ways to make money on MS is to sell items to other people. This is because many items are worth a lot more to other players, especially if these items have been upgraded.

At the same time, the only way to get most of your higher level equipment in this game is either from other players, or through monster drops (for which you generally have to be very very lucky). Finding one item in the sea of shops in Maple Story - especially one item at a decent price - can be frustrating and sometimes downright impossible.

So how can you buy or sell anything in Maple Story without spending some real money?

Introducing Basil Market. Visit it here:

http://www.basilmarket.com

Basil Market is a website that allows Maple Story players to submit auctions, bid on items, and even submit buying auctions where people compete over who gets to sell to you, for the lowest price. Best of all, Basil Market has a full searchable database of items, which lists information about the item, what drops it, how much you can sell it for to an NPC, and current auctions for it. Price checking is simple on Basil Market - when you are submitting an auction, BM displays a list of the 5 most recent auctions for that item.

Basil Market works like Ebay. Players have the option to submit a 'Buy Now' price. They can also opt to have "sniper protection," which prevents last second bids by extending the duration of an auction if anyone bids within the last 5 minutes. Basil Market users are required to leave feedback after every transaction, whether you are buying or selling. Again, this is very similar to Ebay - every player has a number next to their name, which states how much positive feedback they have gotten, and by going to their profile, you can check how much positive, negative, and neutral feedback they have received, as well as read the most recent comments. The amount of positive feedback you receive also gives you certain privileges on the website (like how many auctions you can have going at one time).

If you are looking for a community, Basil Market also has a forum, and enables players to post screenshots and drawings they have made relating to Maple Story. However, as this is not moderated very heavily, I have already seen some cases of art theft... so tread carefully in this territory.

Basil Market has many other useful options, and I can't describe them all. In a nutshell, this is the number one way to sell and buy Maple Story items. If you play Maple Story, a Basil Market account is a must!