Secured Trading
Diablo II provides a secure method to trade with other player characters while in town. To trade with another character, left-click on that character to bring up the Trade Screen.

The Trade Screen consists of your Inventory on the right, and two areas on the left that contain the offers that the players are making to each other. To offer an item for trade, left-click on the item in your inventory, move it over to your offer area, and left-click again to drop it. The other player's offer appears in that player's offer area. You may also offer gold by incrementing or decrementing the gold slot of your offer area.

Once you have agreed on a fair trade, click on the "Accept" button. The trade is completed when both parties have accepted. Either party may cancel the trade at any time by clicking the "Cancel" button prior to trade completion.

Note: You cannot move your Belt into the Trading Screen if you are wearing it. To trade a belt first remove it and place it in your backpack, then trade. This is to prevent your inventory from filling up which would cause you to drop items.

Warning: Make sure the person does not switch the item with another item of the same type (but lesser quality) that looks the same before clicking the check box.

Unsecured Trading
If you trust the person you are trading with you can simply drop an item for them to pick up off the ground. This is much easier and faster than the secure trading option if the other player is trustworthy.

Be sure the other player picks up the item so it's not left behind.

Watch out for other party members or people in the game so that they don't pick the item up. If this is a worry, use the secure trading method.

Secured Trading can only be done in town, so dropping an item on the ground for another player saves a trip back to town.

Trading is a great way to find those hard to find items you're looking for. Some items cannot be easily found or Gambled on your own. You can try to do without them but why not use other players to find these items for you? Many people have the goal of finding the best possible equipment for their character. While playing the game a lot can help you do this, trading is often much easier and faster. Realm Trading is very popular.

How to Trade

There are many ways to trade:

Trade in your current game
You can simply ask players in your current game if they have anything to trade or if they have items you're looking for. Be warned, however, that many players wish to keep their game playing and trading experiences separate and may not wish to trade while they can be playing the game instead. It doesn't hurt to try, but don't be surprised if people suggest joining the trading channels or a trading game.

Use Trading games
Create or join a game with Trade in the title, or if you're looking for something specifically, create or join a game with specific trades as the game title. When creating a game you can type in more information in the game's description but many people do not read these before joining. It doesn't hurt.
Game Name Examples: Silks4TwoJordan, Trading, AmazonTrade, Trade Game, Looking4WormSkull

Use the Realm Trading Channels
In the Battle.net Chat room, click on the Channel button on the right. Several trading channels will be listed. Pick the channel which best addresses the items you're looking to sell or buy. When in doubt, join the general Trading channel "Trading RealmName", such as "Trading USWest-1".

Once inside you'll probably see people advertising what they have for sale and possibly what they are looking for. You can message people in the hopes of setting up a trade or advertise what you have for trade or sale.

When advertising items, be sure to list the items and their stats, especially in the case of Rare and Magic Items. Also be sure to leave your account name at the end of your message such as "I have the following items for sale... /msg GFraizer"

Trading channels are often crowded and the messages scroll by very fast. Use the scroll bar to scroll up so you can read through the messages at your own pace. Chances are the people will still be in the channel or on Battle.net when you get done reading through your chat log.

If people do not respond to your message, often they did not like your offer. Try offering something else.

Remember by typing "/r message" you can reply to the last person that has messaged you. But if you are receiving multiple messages at the same time, it becomes difficult to use. This does not work in-game.

One method people use is to ignore everyone who spams, or advertises something you are not interested in. When you next connect to Battle.net they will be automatically unignored so it is not permanent. This can cut down on the channel spam and bring the channel down to a more manageable level. But be warned that if you're selling something, the people you have ignored will not be able to message you their offers

Use Message Boards
You can post your items on message boards such as our Trading Forums.

Make your own Web Page
Make a web page listing the items you have for trade. Advertise your items on your web page or in Trading Forums.

Use Auction Sites
There are several fan sites that host Diablo II Auctions. You can put an item up for auction or buy items.

The goal of a seller is to get the best item or the most money for their item. The goal of a buyer is to try to get deals on items, and to get them as cheaply as possible. Prices are not fixed, so haggle. If the person won't go for the deal, chances are someone else will. If the person has a very valuable and rare item, you might have to cave if you really want to get the item. If you're having trouble selling your item, lower the price.

Find out what an item is worth
Figure out how rare it is and what people will pay for them. Good item traders know what classes want which items so they know what to offer a player of that class. Look around and see what people are offering and are paying for items then come up with a price or offer a similar price.

How bad do you want the item?
That is a good question. Be sure you don't let the other person know how bad you want the item; otherwise they will have second thoughts about trading it. They will think "if this person wants it this bad, how much will someone else pay?" If you really want an item bad, you might want to cave and pay whatever it takes to get them. But if you really don't need the item, pass up on an overcharged item. "I'll trade you everything I have" generally is not a good thing to say.

20 "bad" items don't make a good item
A common trading mistake is to assume people are willing to trade everything you have or a lot of lower class items for a high class items. This goes against the common selling strategy of getting the most you can for an item. Many people are looking to unload their items for valuable items or items they can use. When space is limited they are often not looking for more items they have to unload. You can however trade a few good items for a better item especially if the people want each of the few good items you have such as say Frostburns and Ume's for a good Sword.