Fees
The market pitches itself on fees, "lowest market fees" being the line it leads with, and it posts the full schedule in plain sight inside the market, in the information section. That page is the number to trust, and it can change with a forum post and a warning. What below is the shape of the model, which is stable.
Mirror addresses · 3
same market · no rankingblackops27m32abqvbhnyswgazqawxqbznbzkkkv5sjo7gve2ndpsdad.onionblackops5l63qnwnmlnsfvtlu66md3x3vp3fdtpna42eq7ozujr67hid.onionblackops6kignp3eddmvqcfkjzf6qr6haxbmkypc2xtqlnhuu4ak4dqd.onionCopy one address, paste it into the Tor Browser, and compare the last six characters against what landed in the address bar. If one will not connect, build a new circuit and take the next. Why an onion refuses to load.
Deposit
Money in is free. You send Monero from your own wallet to the deposit address your account shows, and nothing is deducted on the way. The only cost is what your wallet or exchange charges you, which no market controls.
Withdrawal
Money out is where darknet markets take their cut, and Black Ops is no exception. The current figure is on the information page, and it has a flat part and a percentage part. Two consequences worth knowing before your first withdrawal:
- The flat part makes small withdrawals proportionally expensive. A withdrawal of a few XMR pays the same fixed slice as one of fifty, so the percentage that actually bites is the small one. Batch withdrawals if you can.
- The fee comes out of the withdrawal, not on top of it. The amount that arrives at your wallet is less than the amount you requested, by exactly the fee. Budget for that and it never feels like a trick.
The per order cut
Each completed order carries a small percentage of the order total, taken by the market. Vendors price on top of it, which is why the same good can cost differently on different markets even before withdrawal fees enter the picture. The percentage is the number to compare when you are choosing where to buy, and it is visible in the order summary before you confirm, so the comparison takes one screen.
Fees that are not fees
Three things that arrive labeled like fees and are worth questioning:
- A vendor asking for "a little extra for PGP" or "handling." PGP is a requirement of the market, not a service the vendor resells.
- A rush shipping premium that does not appear in the order summary. Escrow covers what the market sees, and the summary is what the market sees.
- A "fee" quoted in a chat message that differs from the listing. The listing is the contract. The chat is a conversation.
Fee pages on darknet markets are living documents. When the number you remember and the number on the page disagree, the page is right, and the changelog or the announcement that changed it is usually one search away on the market's forum.