Hearthstone Accounts, Skins und Truhen

On a starter the price is the crafting budget, and the title states it in one line — dust, gold, packs, arena tickets. Dust is what a deck is made of: a competitive deck costs a known amount to craft, and a starter is bought as exactly that amount plus a margin. Gold and unopened packs are the same budget in another form; a listing that says «newbie deck to choose» is offering to spend part of it for you. Between two starters the dust decides, with the gold and the packs behind it.

On a played account the price is the collection: how many legendaries, how many golden cards, which hero skins, and — for the players who care — a Battlegrounds rating. Those accounts are worth what it would cost to rebuild them in dust, which for a large collection is more than any starter holds, and they are the dear end of this shelf. Wins and total level are the biography behind the collection; they say the account was played, and the cards say how well.

Region matters here in a way it does not in most games. A Battle.net account has a separate Hearthstone collection in each region — Europe, Americas, Asia — and the cards live where the account was played. The title names the region for that reason: an account with its collection in Europe is a European account whoever logs into it, and there is no moving the cards across.

Two markers on this shelf are about ownership rather than cards. «Shop open» or «in-app purchases available» means the account's region is one where Blizzard still sells packs — the reason many buyers come here at all. «Fake ID info» and «tag change» mean the Battle.net identity behind the account is placeholder, so the buyer can set their own and change the BattleTag. Both are worth more than they look.

Region first, because the cards live in it. Pick the region you play in — or, if you are buying because your own store is closed, the region where the shop is open — before you look at a single number. An account with its collection in Asia is an Asian account whatever the dust says.

Then decide which product you want. A starter, if you want to craft a deck today: filter by dust, read the gold and packs behind it, and take a «deck of your choice» offer if you already know the deck. A collection, if you want the cards rather than the budget to craft them: filter by legendaries and read the names in the screenshots, because two hundred legendaries from rotated-out sets and two hundred from Standard are different collections.

Third, the markers. «Shop open» is the reason to pay more if you intend to keep buying packs; «fake ID + tag change» is the reason to pay more on any account, because it is what lets you own it. A listing with neither is an account you can play and cannot easily keep.

Last, the cosmetics and the extras: golden cards, Diamond cards, hero skins, a Battlegrounds rating. They separate two otherwise equal listings, and not before.

A Battle.net account is recovered through its email and its identity details, and Blizzard's support returns it to whoever can prove them. That is why «fake ID info» is a selling point on this shelf and not a warning: an account whose identity is placeholder is one you can make your own, and one registered to a real person somewhere is one that person can reclaim. Read that line before you read the dust.

The second thing is the region, twice over. The collection cannot move between regions, so the wrong region is the wrong product; and a region where the shop is closed is an account you cannot add packs to. Both are in the title, and both go wrong only if you skip it.

Blizzard's terms, like every publisher's, do not provide for selling accounts. What protects you is the mailbox, the identity details you set, the authenticator you add — and escrow, which holds the payment until you confirm the account opens and the collection matches.

Change the password, move the email to your own, set the identity details and the BattleTag where the listing said they can be changed, then add the Battle.net authenticator. Do it before you confirm the order — the confirmation is what releases the seller's money.

Then open the collection in the region the listing named and compare it: the dust and gold balance, the unopened packs, the legendaries and skins on a played account, and whether the shop opens if the listing promised it. The region selector is at the login screen; the collection you see is the one you bought.

Listing is free and you receive exactly the price you set: the platform's fee is added on top for the buyer rather than taken out of your price. Lead with the region and the product — the dust, gold and packs on a starter, the legendaries and skins on a collection — because that is what this shelf is filtered by. Say whether the shop is open and whether the identity details and BattleTag can be changed; on this shelf those two lines are worth more than any card count. Screenshots of the collection close the sale on a played account.