# TT value and markup > Every item has a fixed value the game itself will pay, and a separate price players will pay. The gap between them is where nearly all player profit lives. Source: https://www.entropiacentral.com/guides/economy/tt-value-and-markup Last updated: 2026-07-30 --- Every item in Entropia Universe has two prices. Understanding the difference between them is the single most useful piece of economic knowledge in the game. ## TT value The **trade terminal value**, universally shortened to **TT**, is what the game itself will pay you for an item, right now, with no negotiation and no waiting. It is a floor. Nothing is worth less than its TT value, because the terminal will always buy it. That guarantee is what makes the currency stable and what makes every other price in the game measurable against something. Ammunition, basic tools and raw materials can all be bought from and sold to the terminal at TT. For a lot of items, TT is the only price that exists. ## Markup **Markup**, shortened to **MU**, is the amount players will pay above TT value. It exists whenever an item is worth more to a player than the terminal's price, which is usually because the item is scarce, or because getting it costs more than the terminal pays, or because it is needed as an input to something more valuable. Markup is quoted two ways, and both are common: - **As a percentage**: "115%" means the price is 1.15 times TT value. A 100 PED TT item at 115% costs 115 PED. - **As a flat addition**: "+5 PED" means five PED above TT, regardless of the item's TT value. This is normal for items whose TT value is small but whose scarcity is not. Percentage markup is the usual form for stackable materials. Flat markup is the usual form for unique or rare items where the TT value is close to irrelevant. ## Why this decides whether you make money Here is the part that catches people out. Activities in Entropia Universe return, on average, less TT value than they cost in TT terms. That is structural: the game takes a cut, and that cut is how it makes money. If you sold every single thing you looted straight to the trade terminal, you would lose, consistently, no matter how well you played. Markup is what closes the gap. Players who do well are the ones whose loot includes materials that other players want, and who sell those materials at markup instead of at TT. So the real question about any activity is not "what did it return" but "what did it return, and how much of that can I sell above TT". ## Markup on what you buy, too The same logic runs in reverse on the cost side. If you buy a weapon at 130% markup, you have paid 30% above what the terminal would give you back for it, and that difference is spent, not stored. If you buy ammunition at markup, every shot costs more than the same shot would cost someone buying at TT. Markup on your inputs is a real cost. Markup on your outputs is your real income. A player who watches both is playing a different game from one who watches neither. ## How to find out what something is worth - **The in-game auction** is the primary reference. What things are actually listed and sold at is the market price, and it moves. - **The [market section](https://www.entropiacentral.com/ads) on Entropia Central** carries player buy and sell listings. - **Trade chat** is where a lot of bulk material changes hands, particularly for things too voluminous for the auction. Prices move with game updates, with new content, and with how many people are currently running the activity that produces a given material. A price you learned six months ago is a starting point, not a fact. ## The habits worth building 1. **Never sell to the trade terminal without checking.** For anything you have not sold before, check whether players pay more. This takes seconds and is free money surprisingly often. 2. **Know the markup on your consumables.** If your ammunition or your probes carry markup, that is part of your cost per kill or per drop, and leaving it out of your arithmetic makes every activity look better than it is. 3. **Think in TT plus markup, always.** "I looted 100 PED" is not a number. "I looted 100 PED TT of which 60 sells at 140%" is a number. [Reading a return figure](https://www.entropiacentral.com/guides/economy/understanding-returns) puts this together into how to judge whether an activity is actually working.