Probably Stolen Beginner Guide: Appraisal and Shop Basics

Comfortable buying and selling, but still struggling with rent? Explore the businesses Joe Wild recommends and start selling beer, treating water, making wine or raising fish.

What should you do before your first trades?

Set aside the next rent payment before buying stock. For each offer, inspect the goods, judge the price and check that you have room to store them.

1. Check the landlord’s payment amount and due date. Work out how much cash is left for purchases.
2. Stock the display case with the kind of goods you want customers to buy.
3. Use the magnifying glass on inspectable items. Open containers and machines to preview them before buying.
4. Decide whether you have both storage space and a likely buyer before accepting the offer.

Keep contraband out of the display case. If an item is stolen or illegal, use the crime and hiding guide to check its heat and contraband tier.

Use the shop and permit guide for rent deferral, the Business Permit and buying the shop in 1.0. The permit costs 1,500 Credits on Normal difficulty; check the current dialogue on other difficulties.

How do you use the magnifying glass?

Magnifying glass: find the fault before confronting the seller

Use the magnifying glass on an item marked as inspectable to open its inspection tray. Select the problem at the bottom of the tray, then choose “Confront”.

One genuine fault is enough to challenge a counterfeit. A correct accusation makes the customer adjust the price. A wrong one costs reputation, and the customer may leave.

A seller can also mistake a genuine item for a counterfeit. If you tell them it is genuine through the inspection panel, they raise the asking price and grant you reputation. Weigh that reputation gain against the higher purchase price.

What does a visible counterfeit clue look like?

Start with a detail you can compare directly. The Hemingway cigarette handbook says genuine packs always have an intact security seal. These two in-game seal details show what to look for at the center of the pack.

A missing seal also identifies a counterfeit. Check spelling, font, alignment and missing lettering next. The cigarette handbook lists these as signs of fraud. Once you find a clear fault, return to the tray and select the matching reason.

Bargaining: choose profit or faction reputation

The following controls describe the full release, 1.0. Open the customer’s trading tablet and click the speech-bubble bargaining button. Choose Demand Discount when buying, or Add Markup when selling. Hover over a percentage to inspect its outcome and reputation preview before clicking: an offer uses that direction’s opportunity even if rejected.

For the unlock conditions, all four options, budget changes and faction-specific reputation calculations, read Bargaining, budgets and reputation.

How does the display case attract buyers?

The display case sits to the left of the shutter door. Stock it before opening. The kinds of items inside attract a customer looking to buy that type of goods. The initial case attracts one customer per day; upgrades increase that number.

For example, many food items and one low-value medical item bring a food buyer the following day. The total value in the case also affects the customer’s social class. Choose its stock to support the kind of inventory you want to sell.

Putting contraband in the display case leads to arrest. Arrange hidden storage separately from the goods you display.

For the Clientele forecast, competing signs and Black Lamp settings, use the display case and customer guide.

Is an offer worth buying?

Use the item and base-price reference to identify the item, then check its condition, contents and asking price. Base value is a comparison point, not a guaranteed sale price.

Subtract the next rent payment from your cash before planning purchases. The landlord’s message gives the amount and due date, including missed rent from the previous week where applicable. Equipment and consumables must fit within the money left over.

Think about how you will sell the purchase. Goods ready for resale, raw materials that need processing and equipment that occupies space tie up your cash differently. For a water business, read the water-quality guide. To turn BloomBerries into wine, follow the winemaking guide.

How do you tidy a crowded inventory?

Select the items you want to move together, then organize the remaining space. Update 049 added these controls:

Task	Control
Move several items	Drag a selection box, then move the selected group
Place items precisely in another inventory	Hold Shift while dragging
Sort an inventory	Right-click its grid to open the sorting menu
Check a container or machine for sale	Open its preview before buying
Rotate or flip a dragged item	Use mouse wheel up, mouse wheel down or middle click

See the official Update 049 announcement for these controls. Clear enough room before committing to a large machine.

When you want a different opening, compare the starting scenarios and traits. For older gameplay videos, Demo versus Playtest explains the version differences.

Related faction and character entries: People, Identities and Organizations

For nighttime losses, see theft, insurance and alarms.

Day 3: the mentor’s cigarette-inspection lesson

Day 3: the mentor’s cigarette-inspection lesson · Already bought counterfeit cigarettes: choose a sale route

• Mentor’s Notes: Complete Collection

The full introduction and what follows

The interface hints and the mentor’s graduation are separate. Early bubbles teach opening, ringing, moving notes, the recorder, buying, selling, sleeping and after-hours travel. After two sleeps and the day 6 showcase prompt has been marked shown, the bubble system can switch off. That does not cancel later introductions. On day 14, finish the mentor’s farewell to earn the tutorial achievement. Merely skipping the introduction does not complete that farewell achievement.

The route below is the normal opening, not a guarantee of every random visitor’s order. Specializations and traits can change gifts or force a skipped opening. The mentor can still give later material after graduation: day 25 Immunivax guidance and the separate Underground Exchange introduction continue under their own conditions. From day 14, ordinary random visitors begin filling spare customer slots after showcase predictions; skipping allows this from day 2. Showcases can already work before day 14.

Day	What unlocks or happens	Operating guide
1	Basic trade and food notes; first purchases and sales.	Controls and shop interface: keyboard and mouse reference Mentor’s Notes: Complete Collection
2	After-hours introduction, pouch and topical bandage.	After-hours: destinations, unlocks and travel rules
3	Magnifier, cigarette guide, color card and visual inspection.	Apprentice Magnifying Glass and Aug Scanner
4	Red labeler and insurance introduction.	Labeler guide: Blue Labeler names and red product labels Probably Stolen theft and insurance guide: protect your shop overnight
5	Showcase and a specialization-dependent sign.	Probably Stolen display case guide: buyers, signs and Black Lamp
6	Wholesale/barter, Jackson, upgrade and showcase notes.	Dr. Jackson Probably Stolen machine modules, extraction and expansion
7	Rent, Wild network and tomorrow’s material surplus.	Shop guide: rent, Business Permit and buying the shop Joe Wild’s complete network: upgrades, prerequisites and costs News and world events: the complete market and event catalogue
8	Bargaining and Appraisal Board invitation.	Appraiser Board
9	Contraband/inspection notes; first appraisal if joined.	Probably Stolen crime guide: contraband, heat and hidden storage Reporting customers: rewards, reputation and false accusations
10	Cleaning introduction and Odin contact.	Probably Stolen cleaning guide: trash, fees and shop attractiveness Odin Haraldsson
11	Food-stamp tools and Commissary, unless banned.	Commissary: Food Stamp redemption, all stock and prices Food stamps: authenticity, redemption and counterfeit disposal
12	Lun needs medicine; further suppliers.	Officer Lun: medicine, addiction and all six encounters
13	Stolen-goods note, thief and later buyers.	Security dossier: crimes, investigation and sentences
14	Mentor farewell, achievement and Information Broker.	Information Broker: all seven tips, prices and uses Mentor’s Notes: Complete Collection
25	Later Immunivax guidance; ordinary exchange introduction.	Immunivax Injector User Handbook Underground Exchange Directive

Choose the next business

Keep the next rent in cash, read the newspaper and choose one production line you can supply and power. Ordinary reselling uses showcase demand; appraisal uses a displayed certificate; production needs inputs, container/output space and a complete night of power. Unlocking a Wild introduction does not pay each later service automatically. Expand after the first repeatable profitable cycle, then plan the business permit, property price and mortgage. The linked manuals and mentor collection remain available after graduation.

• Probably Stolen water guide: grades, filters and purification
• Probably Stolen smelting guide: scrap, ore and metal ingots
• Probably Stolen wine guide: BloomBerries, water and yeast
• Probably Stolen hydroponics guide: seeds, water and first harvest
• Probably Stolen fish farming guide: tanks, feeding and harvesting
• Probably Stolen chemistry Wiki: equipment, caffeine and purity
• Probably Stolen gunsmith guide: dismantling, repairs and permits
• Appraiser Board

For the complete Steam checklist and the exact unlock actions, see the 21-achievement guide.