Series of Questions

[LordXavier]

Well after coming back to Diablo II after a few years break I'm still a little lost, so here's hoping someone can help me out a bit:

1) While browsing the trading forums, people sometimes want you to 'Send a mule' which I assume they need for larger trades due to lack of space. Does this involve creating a new account and telling them the password, and then them doing the same (both with the respective items they were trading for)?
Ex: Player 1 has a fresh account with one mule full of jewels
Player 2 has a fresh account as well with one mule full of pgems, would they exchange account names/passwords?

2) Crafting materials in general, what sort of items do these risk-takers want? So far I've come across Ral Runes, pgems, P Amethysts and also 'junk' jewels. Is there any more items they would trade mid-runes for?

Also, for someone with not a lot of wealth, would it smart to try out crafting? Or would I just end up broke.

3) Socketed Items, I'm not sure which kind of items people really want. I aware of such Rune-words like Enigma that can require a 3-socket Archon plate/Dusk Shroud/Breast plate, others may want 5 socketed phase-blades (assuming for filling up with ist runes) and others to create other rune words, can anyone give me a general idea of which items to keep; and what to sell them for?

4) 'Upping Items' Can anything be upped? I've read an article on it by Arreat Summit but still have a few questions. If for example I get a normal Crystal Sword, could I use a cube formula to add sockets to it, and then possibly 'up' it to become a phase blade?

5) Grand charms, is +40 life the maximum they can have? I have one with +40 life and another mod that gives attack rating or something (I forgot..) could I get anything for that? Also, how about a 175 poison damage large charm (over 6 seconds)? Are these worth anything?

6) FINALLY, the 'Character expires in X days' when your at your character log in screen, I created a character just so I could see normal games, but will need him to be a mule. Is it safe to transfer over items to him, or will he get deleted? His expiry went down to 0 I believe, but I logged into him and it went back to 10. Help?

Phew, that was a lot, and I'm sure I've still missed at least one thing. But any and all help is MUCH appreciated.

Thanks for reading and hopefully contributing!: wave:

[NASE]

1) mule trades don't function the way you're describing, it's more like this. Player A has an account with only one character - often a lvl 1 mule. He fills that character with whatever item he wants to trade - not only many items, in occasions people can't find each other on bnet making mule trades that are time irrelevant the only option. Then he send the password and account to the other trader. He logs in to the account and exchanges the item from player A with the other item they agreed upon. Then player A open the account and takes the item from player B away. So player A has the item from player B and vice versa.
Note that you shouldn't do this with people you don thrust. It is possible that player B takes of with the item from player A without leave the agreed items in exchange.

2) crafting material are in many form, I'm sure there is thread somewhere in this forum that lists all of them. Lets go by them in short.
ral, tal, ort, sol.
Rubies, saphires and amethists.
junk jewel.

3) there is a perfect guide in the trade value forum, I'll link to it in a minute.
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=516296

4) only rare and unique items can be upped, check out the summit for recipes and more information.
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/cube.shtml

5) Grand charms with more then 40 life are interesting - that's from 41 to 45 and only those. They are called baal grand charms and can be sold for quite a nice value - people use a cube recipe to reroll them in the hope of finding a 45 life paladin combat skiller.
Poison charms are close to always useless, I can't see how that one would be different. Certainly if you note that you can get 451 over 12 second in a small charm.

6) those characters will expire in X days, thus don't transfer items to them. However, you can simply 'perm' them by staying in a game for over 2 hours. So if you leave to do something else, just make a game with that character. Eventually, it will be permed.

P.S. 5 socket phase blades aren't for filling with ist - if that were the idea, people would use 6 sockets phase blades. 5 socket phase blades are for making grief.

[edit]
about low level runes.
Don't forget that some runes are interesting for other purposes then crafting. Amns are interesting as they are used in socketing cube recipes, thuls for the same reason.
Same goes for perfect gems. All gems, including skulls, can be used to reroll magic items eventhough some benetters don't know this- like those baal grand charms.

[flubbucket]

Thanks for the info. One question on the mule trading. Everything on the mule is available for the taking correct? I realize this is probably obvious, but I have made some silly mistakes before by overlooking the obvious...

[DjSlayer]

Just additional information, regarding that charm of yours with ar/life. Depending on how much attack rating it has it can be worth a lot (100 ar+, or if it's a 10max/ar/life charm), not only skill charms has value.

- D.J.

[Mursilis]

Thanks for the info. One question on the mule trading. Everything on the mule is available for the taking correct?

Yes. So you don't want to put anything extra on the mule beyond the agreed upon items.

[NASE]

On the other hand, if you already are thrusting the other guy to mule trade, you might just aswell thrust him for not taking other equipment - certainly if they aren't that valuable items.