DonutSMP WikiFlipping and Trading
How flipping works on DonutSMP - buying low on the auction house or through orders and reselling - and what the 2% tax changed.
What flipping is
Flipping means buying an item for less than other players will pay for it, then selling it again. Donutpedia, a fan-run wiki, describes two kinds [1]:
- Auction house flipping. You buy an item on the auction house at a low price, wait until its price goes up, then sell it for more. The wiki says this method "relies on understanding market prices and identifying undervalued listings" [1].
- Order flipping. You create an order for an item, collect a lot of it, then resell it on the auction house (
/ah) for a higher price [1].
A Minecraft Forum guide written after the June 2026 update sums flipping up as "Buy below the usual rate, relist near it" [2]. The guide ranks its money methods by what you start with. Flipping between the auction house and Orders comes last, because it needs both money and market knowledge [2]. For the commands, see Economy.
Why orders and the auction house have different prices
Donutpedia says "Items on the Orders page sell for significantly cheaper than auction house entries". Players who fill orders are paying for the convenience of handing in several shulker boxes of one item at once, instead of listing items one by one [1]. The wiki says order flipping "works best with items which aren't high in prices", because pricier items "barely go for any cheaper on orders than they do on the auction house" [1]. It names observers, repeaters, comparators, targets, chests and hoppers as items that are "high in demand" [1].
The Minecraft Forum guide gives an order flip as an example: you fill an order for an item that sells for more on the auction house [2].
One player's account (February 2026)
A blog post from February 2, 2026, "From $0 to $100 million in DonutSMP over the weekend", describes flipping from before the June 2026 update [3]. The author wrote that "Buying at a low price and selling at a higher price was a surprisingly effective strategy on the server" [3]. Some of the trades it describes:
- Redstone. They bought 14 stacks of redstone blocks through orders and resold them by the stack for more [3].
- Blue ice. They got blue ice through orders and resold it for more [3].
- Ominous bottles. They listed bottles at one price and bought every bottle other players listed below it [3].
- Dispensers. They bought whole shulker boxes of dispensers from another player and resold them by the stack [3].
On pricing, the author found "the lowest price of a bulk of items" and listed "just a bit less expensive". When there were cheaper listings, they bought those to raise the lowest price [3]. Trading meant they could carry their stock, keeping "a few shulker boxes of inventory" on them [3]. A dispenser farm they built took a few hours to get working. They then found "that all this time I wasn't flipping and making money", and bought finished dispensers instead [3].
How the June 9, 2026 update changed it
According to the fan-run donutsmp.wiki, the June 9, 2026 update connected Orders to both /sell and the auction house [4]:
- "A higher-paying compatible order can receive items submitted through /sell" [4].
- "An Auction House listing can sell directly into an order when that order pays more than the seller's total asking price" [4].
- "Creating an order can automatically purchase matching Auction House listings priced at or below the configured order price" [4].
An in-game test on November 13, 2026 showed the second point. Ender pearls and cooked porkchops listed on /ah below the top buy order sold for more than their listing price [5]. So a listing priced below the top buy order does not wait for a flipper to buy it. DonutOrders, a fan-run price tracker, also says "/sell and /orders are the same market": items sold with /sell go into the buy orders waiting for them, and the seller gets the order's price [6].
donutsmp.wiki says a flip calculation "must account for the actual quantity that can be supplied and any costs that apply". It adds that "The order may no longer be available when a player is ready to supply it", and tells players to "Avoid treating an observed price difference as a completed transaction" [4].
Risks
- Undercutting. In the February 2026 blog post, auction house sellers often lowered their prices to win buyers [3]. When the author's sales stopped, it usually meant someone had undercut them. They then either waited for that seller to sell out or relisted one notch lower. When prices got too low, they switched to other items [3]. No one started a real pricing war with them while they were active [3].
- Being outbid on orders. DonutOrders says "Sellers go for the best price, so an order below the others fills slowly or not at all", and "If someone outbids you, your order sits behind theirs" [6]. It also warns against leaving two orders for the same item open at once, "or you're competing with yourself" [6].
- Slow items. A SoulFire guide published in February 2026 and refreshed in April 2026 says "The main bottleneck is order fill speed". Popular items fill quickly, but niche items can sit for hours [7].
- Money up front and a changing market. Donutpedia says auction house flipping can make "multiple millions of dollars from a single flip". It also says you need the money to buy the items first, and that the market "can be volatile" [1].
- Bad unit prices. The Minecraft Forum author calls this their biggest mistake: "buying a stack at asking price without converting to unit price" [2].
- Others filling first. When you flip into an existing order, "Someone else can fill that order first" [2].
- Listing limits. The February 2026 blog post says "There's a limit of 25 items you can put on the auction house at once". This pushed the author toward items that sell for more per stack [3]. The Minecraft Forum article calls the 25-listing cap a pre-update figure and says listing capacity depends on rank, so check the current limit in-game [2].
- Base raids. Stock has to be kept somewhere. The blog author's base was found during their weekend and they were killed, but the other players left their farm alone [3]. See PvP, bases and raiding.
The 2% tax (November 11, 2026)
On November 11, 2026, DrDonut announced a 2% tax on the DonutSMP Discord. An in-game test on November 13, 2026 showed who pays it [5]:
| Step in a flip | Taxed? |
|---|---|
Buying a listing on /ah | Yes. The buyer pays 2%, which is already included in the price shown [5] |
Placing a buy order on /orders | Yes. The person placing the order pays 2% on top when placing it. Cancelling the order refunds the tax too [5] |
Listing and selling on /ah | No. Listing cost the seller nothing, and the seller got the full listing price [5] |
Selling into orders with /sell | No. The seller got the full order price [5] |
DonutOrders sums it up: "the tax is always paid by the side that spends money, never by the side that receives it" [5]. For a flip, this means you pay 2% when you buy, whether you buy a listing on /ah or place a buy order. Selling the item again, on /ah or with /sell, is not taxed [5]. DonutOrders warns that "a trade with only a couple of percent of margin can stop being worth it once 2% goes out on the way" [5].
Checking prices
donutsmp.wiki advises players to compare offers, auction house listings and server sell values before supplying an order [4]. The Minecraft Forum guide says to compare the price per item and the quantity needed before you commit [2]. In-game, /orders opens the Orders menu and /order {search} searches it [4]. For live order prices, DonutOrders has a page for each item showing its top order, its 10th best order and its full order book, for example ender pearls and totems of undying [6]. Its money guides page uses live /orders prices to work out which crafts, smelting and stonecutter recipes, and item conversions pay the most [8]. See also Making money FAQ and Items and prices FAQ.
Rules
Under economy-related macros, the official rules ban macros used to "Automatically sell items" or "Manage auctions or markets" [9]. They also say "All trading must stay within this server only", and that "Exchanging in-game items or services for real-world money, goods, services, or rewards is forbidden" [9]. See Rules.
Related pages
Sources
- Guide:Making money - Donutpedia (fan-run wiki) - donutsmp-wiki.pages.dev
- DonutSMP Economy After the June Update - Minecraft Forum - minecraftforum.net
- From $0 to $100 million in DonutSMP over the weekend (blog post, 2026-02-02) - blog.vjeux.com
- Orders - donutsmp.wiki (fan-run, last updated Sep 7, 2026) - donutsmp.wiki
- DonutSMP 2% tax: in-game test of /pay, /orders and /ah (DonutOrders, Nov 12, 2026, updated Nov 13, 2026) - donutorders.com
- How /orders works on DonutSMP: buy orders and /sell (DonutOrders, Nov 12, 2026) - donutorders.com
- DonutSMP and the Real-Money Economy (SoulFire blog, Feb 24 2026, refreshed Apr 2026) - 15867255-soulfire-website.alexprogrammerde.workers.dev
- DonutSMP money guides (live) - DonutOrders - donutorders.com
- DonutSMP Rules (official, last updated November 11, 2026) - rules.donutsmp.net