Player marker (and even trade) can't be made without us traveling and goods to be in some real physical location (in game physical)

So it's actually more complicated than it looks, because we can't travel yet...

I think your original question and the answers you are getting are different because:

Yes, I imagine from a code perspective you could take something from player A and put it into the inventory of player B... it's a simple SQL query (or whatever their backend is)..

but from a lore and strategic market perspective, it wouldn't make sense, and since CCP want to implement it correctly the first time, I think they want to have it mirror EVE (because it will also integrate into the EVE marketplace) so you'd have to have some way of getting the goods from your station (wherever that may be) to the other player's station (wherever he may be). Even if you have different players on the same account, they may be in difference races, so in different regions of space.

A local trade might be nice, but right now our mercs have no way to move around....

Personally I'd love if they just charged us a "courrier" fee, and we can just pretend some invisible courrier transfers our stuff around... of course this would later disappear and EVE courrier contracts might pick up the slack. Either way, I think the game desperately needs some way to trade.. even if it doesn't immediately make sense from a lore/practical perspective.

We are all in the same locale (merc quarters) right? Or are we actually stationed in different parts of a vast universe? Since I can't leave that 10x10 cell block..err...i mean merc quarters, I figured we were all crammed in to one huge ****** merc hotel.

Thanks for a great response, but since when has CCP ever TRIED to do something right the first time? They should at least allow players to trade between alts on the same account; if it is simply a matter of lore and hesitation of 'wanting to mimic eve' holding them back.

Merc quarters are actually on space stations scattered across half a dozen star systems in New Eden. That's why your Local chat does not contain all DUSTies, and does contain some EVE players.

Thats is why your local has mercenaries of only your race and it contains all players that are in local system passing by. I want quarters in Jita! I would pay rent for it.

The Eve Online Secondary Market. That's what they got right the first time. And how did they get it right? Baby steps. The New Eden economy (Dust and Eve share New Eden) began very small. Prices often fluctuated but that was part of normal everyday life in the market due to the laws of Supply and Demand. At the same time, CCP does have an in-house economist or economic adviser who now has close to 10 years experience handling the New Eden economy. Yeah, it's gotten that complex now to require an economic adviser.

Back then, it was thought to be a joke to be an economist for an MMO. But ever since Eve Online became so heavily competitive and dynamic in so many ways, it has now become common practice other MMO companies to hire their own economists. If I recall correctly, I think the developers for Guild Wars did the same thing for their game. They even copied Eve Online's PLEX market onto Guild Wars 2. But because the Devs for GW2 didn't have the level of prudence and experience that CCP has, they kind of screwed up badly at launch causing GW2 to be rated as having the worst MMO economy back in 2012 while Eve Online ranked #1 in best MMO economy in the same year. I think they improved later on.

Anyways, to answer your question on locale, I will say that "no" we are not all located in the same region or system. Your default station will vary according to the Race, and Bloodline of your character. For example, a Gallentean will be located in a region within the Gallente Federation while a Matari will be located in the Minmatar Republic. Even if both characters are the same race, they can still be in a different station.

If we want to have effective trade from the start, we will need some way of either moving ourselves to different systems and regions, or some way of moving the assets the same way. NPC services will likely be implemented first with Eve-player couriers taking over later on.

PS: Industry will always play a role in this.

Let me attempt to explain why "temporary" measures are generally a bad idea for features that are this large.

Let's use something a bit more concrete as an example. Let's say you are building a giant castle (or skyscraper) and this will take countless hours and hours of work, and all of your manpower (for the castle building team).

Temporary measures are basically having half the team build a wooden shack on top of your construction site, taking a good amount of effort, and materials to make. Now, once you are further into your construction, you'll have to spend extra time tearing down that wooden shack, and finishing the castle.

In short, you have to spend builders and resource to build the shack, and then even more to tear it down later. This is not a good method to construct things in.