Merchants in Baldur's Gate 3 are people who are willing and able to barter a deal with the player's party. For a sum of cash and some valuables, a vendor is willing to fork over that +3 Flaming Sword their family has been hoarding for the past hundred years.
Gold is not the only currency a merchant is willing to accept. No, the residents of Faerun are a sensible sort, ready to see what you have for barter in terms of valuables. Everything has a price, and the vendor knows what the wares you're carrying are worth. You just need to know how to present them.
What Are Wares?
Wares are items you've marked in your inventory as stuff that you want to sell to vendors. When marked, these items gain a silver mark on top that denotes them as being added to wares.
Equipment or gear you have actively equipped on one of your characters will automatically be removed from "Wares" if it was tagged as such before.
How To Add Items To Wares
Whenever you loot a dead body or open a locked chest to find the loot inside, you'll get the option to "Add to Wares" an item if you right-click on it. Clicking this button makes it so that the item you picked up gains a behind-the-scenes tag, and the next time you visit the vendor, you can sell these items in one click.
For items you already have in your inventory, there are two main ways to mark them as wares.
- To add items one by one, open your inventory, right-click on the item, and select "Add to Wares."
- To add items by bulk, open your inventory and left-click an item. Then Shift + left-click another item to select everything present between the two items. Then, right-click and select "Add to Wares."
How To Sell Wares
When you visit a vendor, you'll see a toggle at the top with Trade on the left and Barter on the right. Flip the switch to enter the Trade Menu. At the bottom, you'll see the "Sell Wares" button. Clicking this will automatically sell all items you had marked as wares in your inventory.
Make sure not to mark any important equipment or something you don't want to sell. However, if you do end up making a mistake, the item you sold will be in the merchant's inventory, and you can buy it back. Just be ready to pay four times as much to get it back.