You approach a funny looking man behind a large cart. The man sees you, smiles broadly, and says "Unvy gb lbh, cbgragvny phfgbzre! Qb V unir n qrny sbe lbh! V unir geniryrq sne, nyy gur jnl sebz Qvfgnag Ynaqf, gb genqr jvgu lbh naq lbhe fvzcyr crbcyr! V unir n terng arrq sbe gjvaxyl jnqf jurer V yvir, naq V jbhyq or jvyyvat gb genqr lbh gurfr jbaqreshy vgrzf sbe nal gung lbh unir."
He looks at you expectantly, then sighs, and explains what he wants from you using interpretive dance. The dance is surprisingly expressive, and after he is finished, you understand the following:
You approach a funny looking man behind a large cart. The man sees you, smiles broadly, and says "Unvy gb lbh, cbgragvny phfgbzre! Qb V unir n qrny sbe lbh! V unir geniryrq sne, nyy gur jnl sebz Qvfgnag Ynaqf, gb genqr jvgu lbh naq lbhe fvzcyr crbcyr! V unir n terng arrq sbe fgenatr fuval qvfpf jurer V yvir, naq V jbhyq or jvyyvat gb genqr lbh gurfr jbaqreshy vgrzf sbe nal gung lbh unir."
He looks at you expectantly, then sighs, and explains what he wants from you using interpretive dance. The dance is surprisingly expressive, and after he is finished, you understand the following:
The trader's foreign language is ROT13. The translation is:
Hail to you, potential customer! Do I have a deal for you! I have traveled far, all the way from Distant Lands, to trade with you and your simple people! I have a great need for twinkly wads where I live, and I would be willing to trade you these wonderful items for any that you have.
On July 16, 2008, he said instead that he had "great need for strange shiny discs".
The January 16, 2007 Jick and Skullhead radio show suggested that the trader's initial disappearance was because the Trader was meant to sinktwinkly wads, when in fact the number of twinkly wads in the economy surged due to people pulverizing equipment quickly to either trade in or sell the wads. On April 1, 2007, the Deactivated O. A. F. succeeded in sinking 2.5 million twinkly wads (according to the April 2, 2007 radioshow.)
If you view the source of the page you can see that the hidden field called "action" has the value of "For Gnomeregan!"
Failure to select an item for trade will result in the message, "The trader is not trading for that item."
On January 7, 2010, the Trader accepted wads directly from Hagnk's, allowing players to trade while in hardcore or Bad Moon. Items purchased with wads from Hagnk's will arrive in a foreign box.