> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://tradepost.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Trades

> Completing a trade.

Accepting an offer starts a trade and holds both sides' items until it resolves.

Each side marks its own steps: add tracking, mark sent, confirm received. When
both sides confirm, the trade completes. Depending on your subreddit's settings,
your trade count in flair goes up or the confirmation comment its bot reads gets
posted.

The tab splits into **Open** and **Resolved** and opens on the live half.

**A trade is the one record with no Reddit artefact of its own.** Your listing is
a post and your negotiation is a comment thread, but a trade is only announced by
a reply. What outlives it is that comment and your flair.

## The steps

| Step           | Button               | Whose parcel |
| -------------- | -------------------- | ------------ |
| Tracking added | **Add tracking**     | Yours        |
| Sent           | **Mark sent**        | Yours        |
| Received       | **Confirm received** | Theirs       |

Each side marks its own half. **Confirm received is the only step that is a
claim about the other side**, and it is what replaces the "+1 confirmed trade"
comment convention these subreddits run on.

Where your side stakes no items the send button reads **Mark payment sent**.

Adding tracking is optional and does not have to come first. It stays available
for the whole open trade, so a number that arrives late can still go on and a
typo can be fixed.

You see the other side's confirmation as soon as they make it. Nothing is
hidden until you have moved.

## Tracking

Pick a carrier and type the number. USPS, FedEx, UPS and Other, up to 64
characters.

The number is a label, not a link. Trade Post never looks it up, and there is a
copy button beside it for pasting into the carrier's own site.

Letters, digits, spaces and hyphens only, which covers every carrier's format.
The field is not a message box: it is the one thing you type here that the other
side sees without it being posted to Reddit, so it is kept to the shape of a
tracking number. **Message** on the same card opens Reddit's own composer if you
have something to say.

## The deadline

**A trade nobody finishes closes itself.** Your subreddit sets the deadline, and
the clock restarts whenever either side does something. If it runs out, the trade
closes, both sides' goods are freed, and a notice goes in the thread.

Each card says who owes what and when it is due, and turns red once it is
overdue.

The deadline is copied onto the trade when the offer is accepted, so a moderator
changing the subreddit's window does not move a trade already running.

Going silent is inferred from that deadline, and your subreddit decides whether
it counts against you.

## Backing out

**Back out** is available while nothing has been sent. Once either side marks
their half sent, the trade has to run to its deadline instead.

A reason is required, up to 500 characters, and the reply quotes it. It ends the
trade and frees both sides' items.

It counts against you where your subreddit records back-outs.

## Feedback

Where your subreddit runs its own confirmation bot, a completed trade offers a
button to post the line that bot reads, with your feedback underneath. Up to 500
characters, required.

Whoever posts first gets the top-level comment and the other replies to it. The
button is available for 14 days after the trade resolves.

**Trade Post keeps the id of the comment, not your words.** Reddit owns those the
moment they land.

## Messaging the other trader

**Message** sits next to **Thread** on every trade card, open or resolved. It opens
Reddit's own message composer with the listing title and a link to the thread
already filled in, and you write the rest. Send it from your own account, the way
you would any Reddit message.

This is where addresses and payment handles are exchanged. Trade Post does not
store them and never sees the message. [What is kept](/traders/what-we-keep).

## What happens to your items

| Stage                                 | Your items                                     |
| ------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Offer made                            | Untouched. An offer holds nothing              |
| Offer accepted                        | Held, and shown as pending. Not listable       |
| Trade completed                       | Marked traded                                  |
| Backed out, or closed at the deadline | Released, unless you had marked your half sent |

An item marked sent stays traded when a trade closes at its deadline, because it
left. Everything else goes back to available.

## Notes

* **A trade record lasts 45 days**, fixed from when it started. Your subreddit's
  deadline can never land outside that. See [what is
  kept](/traders/what-we-keep).
* **Nobody arbitrates.** Both of you say what happened and the app keeps the
  record.