Buy mode

Buy Mode is one of three modes in the game (the others being Live mode and Build mode) in which you may purchase items from the catalog, sell objects that are on the current lot, and arrange objects on the current lot. Construction-related elements such as doors, windows, fences, and stairs are not associated with Buy Mode, but are in Build Mode. Buy Mode largely focuses on furniture and appliances.

General Information

The game is paused while the player is in Buy Mode. Game time only passes when the player is in Live Mode.

Many of the tools available to the player, such as the hand tool, eyedropper tool and design tool are also available in Build Mode and will function just as well on items placed in Build Mode, like fences and trees, as they will on items placed in Buy Mode.

In some situations, Buy Mode, as well as Build Mode, may become disabled, such as during a fire, burglary, or other major event. This is done to prevent modifications to the lot that may impact or prevent a game event from occurring. After the event has ended, Build and Buy Modes will be re-activated.

The Sims

The Sims automatically sorts the buy mode by object function - clicking on the buy mode icon will reorder objects to sort by room.

By function

Objects are sorted into the following categories;

Plumbing: Toilets, sinks, showers and bathtubs.

Appliances: Mainly kitchen objects: Refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers and trash compactors.

Comfort: Beds, chairs, armchairs, sofas, bar stools and deck chairs.

Surfaces: Benches, kitchen tables, desks, side tables etc.

Electronics: TV sets, Computers, stereo systems, phones, Video Game/Pinball machines, etc.

Decorations: Plants, paintings and sculptures

Lighting: Lamps, wall sconces, hanging lights, and outdoor lights

Miscellaneous: Skill-building items (mirrors, weight machines, bookshelves), dressers, play equipment, etc.

By Room

Bedroom: Beds, bedside tables, alarm clocks, dressers, etc.

Living Room: TVs, stereos, sofas and living chairs, etc.

Kitchen: Counters, kitchen sinks, appliances, etc.

Dining Room: Dining Tables, chairs, bars, etc.

Study: Computers, computer desks, skill-building items, etc.

Outdoor: Outdoor furniture, decorative items, outdoor grills, etc.

Bathroom: Toilets, sinks, showers, bathtubs, etc.

The Sims 2

Overview

Buy Mode in The Sims 2 has tools not included in The Sims (original) Buy Mode. Tools include:

Eyedropper Tool: Makes an exact duplicate of most items when selected.

Refurbish Tool: Allows a recolor or other change to a selected item. Costs §15 per use, and some items cannot be changed.

Undo/Redo: In The Sims, this was only available in Build Mode.

The Sims 2 sorts Buy Mode by function automatically; clicking on the "Sort by Room" icon will reorder Buy Mode by room.

By function

Objects are sorted into the following categories;

Comfort: Dining Chairs, Living Chairs, Recliners, Sofas & Loveseats, Beds, Bar Stools, etc.

Surfaces: Counters, Dining Tables, End Tables, Coffee Tables, Desks, Shelves (not bookshelves), etc.

Decorative: Plants, Sculptures, Wall Hangings, Mirrors, Curtains, Rugs, etc.

Plumbing: Toilets, Showers & Tubs, Sinks, and Hot Tubs

Appliances: Stoves, Grills, Refrigerators, Small Appliances (microwaves, coffee makers, etc.), Dishwashers, and Trash compactors.

Electronics: Entertainment Items/Video Games, TVs & Computers, Audio Equipment, Phones, Alarms, etc.

Lighting: Table, Floor, Wall, and Hanging Lamps, Outdoor lighting, etc.

Hobbies: Musical Instruments, Bookshelves, Exercise Equipment, Play Equipment, Work Benches (if available), other skill-building items, etc.

Miscellaneous: Dressers, Children's items, Party items, Cars (with The Sims 2: Nightlife), Pet Items (with The Sims 2: Pets), Garbage cans, etc.

By Room

Buy Mode is broken up into 8 categories - the items within each category are sorted by function, with some items included in multiple categories. The categories are:

Living Room: Sofas and living chairs, End tables and coffee tables, TVs, Audio equipment, Phones and alarms, Bookshelves, Recreation items, Bars, Lighting and decorations, etc.

Dining Room: Dining Chairs and Tables, Bars, Lighting and decorations, etc.

Bedroom: Beds, Bedside tables, Dressers, TVs and audio equipment, Alarms, Clocks, Lighting and decorations, etc.

Study: Chairs, Desks, Computers, Clocks, Audio Equipment, Skill-Building Items, Bookshelves, Lighting and decorations, etc.

Outside: Outdoor Chairs and tables, Deck Chairs, Hot Tubs, Barbecue grills, Outdoor recreation items, Skill-Building Items, Cars (with Nightlife), Dog Houses (with Pets), Lighting and decorations, etc.

Kitchen: Dining Chairs and Tables, Bars, Garbage Cans, Counters, Sinks, Appliances, Phones and alarms, Lighting and decorations, etc.

Kids: Toy boxes, Stuffed animals, Toddler skill-building items, Cribs and Changing Tables, Playground Equipment, Lighting and decorations, etc.

Bathroom: Counters, Sinks, Toilets, Showers & Tubs, Lighting and decorations, etc.

The Sims 3

Overview

Buy Mode in The Sims 3

Buy Mode is automatically sorted by room, but selecting the "Sort By Function" icon will resort the Buy Mode into 11 categories. There is a "Family Inventory" where items can be stored, similar to a Sim's personal inventory.

Four Tools are at your disposal:

Hand Tool: Use to pick up, rotate, and move items. Some items cannot be moved; other items require being placed in a certain location (like outside). When holding an item, if the area under the item is green, the item may be placed there; if the area under the item is red, something is preventing that item from being placed there - attempting to place the item will give a description of the problem.

Create a Style: This tool opens up the Create a Style menu, which allows you to redecorate and recolor most items using either preselected styles and colors, or by manually using a color wheel and different available textures. Use of this tool is free.

Eyedropper Tool: Like The Sims 2, this tool makes an exact copy of the item that is selected.

Sledgehammer Tool: Will automatically delete any item that is selected, unless said item is being used by a Sim or cannot be deleted.

Sort by Function

There are 11 Categories, with multiple subcategories of items:

Plumbing: Sinks, Toilets, Showers & Tubs

Appliances: Refrigerators, Stoves, Dishwashers, Trash Compactors, Microwaves, Coffee Maker, Food processor, Garbage Cans, Barbecue grills, etc.

Surfaces: Counters, Cabinets, Dining Tables, End Tables, Coffee Tables, Desks, Bars, etc.

Comfort: Beds, Dining Chairs, Living Chairs, Sofas & Loveseats, Lounge Chairs, Barstools, Benches, etc.

Electronics: TVs, Computers, Audio, Clocks, Alarms, etc.

Entertainment: Sporting Goods, Hobbies & Skills, Parties, etc.

Lighting: Table Lamps, Floor Lamps, Wall Lamps, Ceiling Lights, and Outdoor Lights.

Decor: Plants, Paintings & Posters, Mirrors, Curtains & Blinds, Rugs, Ornaments and Decorative items, etc.

Storage: Bookshelves and Dressers

Kids: Baby Furniture, Toys, Decoration, and Play Equipment.

Vehicles: Cars, Bicycles, Parking Spaces, Garage Doors, and Bike Racks.

Sort by Room

Kitchen: Alarms, Lights, Small Appliances, Dishwashers, Cabinets, Stoves, Counters, Sinks, Phones, Disposal items, and Refrigerators.

Bathroom: Lights, Toilets, Accents, Mirrors, Sinks, Counters, Curtains & Blinds, Tubs and Showers.

Bedroom: Plants, Clocks, End Tables, Beds, Paintings & Posters, Mirrors, Lights, Dressers, and Phones.

Living Room: Lights, Alarms, Living Chairs, TVs, Video Games, Paintings & Posters, Sofas & Loveseats, Audio, Plants, Coffee Tables, and Rugs.

Dining Room: Decor, Plants, Curtains and Blinds, Dining Chairs, Dining Tables, Lights, Paintings & Posters, Bar Stools and Bars.

Study: Lights, Bookshelves, Desk Chairs, Desks, Computers, Phones, Hobbies & Skills items, Indoor Activity items, Paintings & Posters.

Kids' Room: Lights, Paintings & Posters, Beds, Toys, Kids Decor, and Furniture.

Outdoors: Outdoor Lights, Outdoor Cooking, Outdoor Seating, Outdoor Activities, Lawn Ornaments, and Transportation.

Family Inventory

Inventory

The inventory panel in The Sims 2

Inventory is a feature that enables Sims to store and carry a number of items. It was introduced in The Sims: Hot Date, re-introduced in The Sims 2: Nightlife, and is a base-game feature in The Sims 3 and The Sims 4. It is also available in The Urbz: Sims in the City, The Sims 2 Pets for Consoles, and The Sims 2 Castaway.

The inventory can be a space-saving feature, as it allows items to be stored until they are needed, without taking up space on the lot. Most games do not limit the number of items that can be placed in inventory, but some, such as The Sims 2 Pets for console, do.

In The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, items cannot be added to or removed from a Sim's inventory while on a community lot, unless the Sim or a member of the Sim's household owns the lot. In The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, items can be removed from a Sim's inventory while on a community lot.

The Sims: Hot Date

The inventory feature was introduced in Hot Date, and was carried forward into later expansion packs.

Some items can be placed in a Sim's inventory by interacting with the item, but most cannot be. Items which a Sim obtains on community lots are directly placed into their inventory, and items received from other characters may be. Makin' Magic added categories to keep track of the spells in a Sim's wand and the magic ingredients they have.

Items cannot be manually removed from inventory. Many can only be given as gifts. Some will automatically be taken out of inventory when the Sim returns home from a community area. Small pets can be removed from inventory by interacting with an appropriate cage or tank. Vegetables from Unleashed will remain in inventory until they're either sold at market or stored in a pantry. Seeds and plant tonic from Unleashed, and ingredients and wand charges from Makin' Magic are used directly from inventory.

The Urbz: Sims in the City

The Urbz: Sims in the City includes an inventory feature that is divided into 3 sections (first for objects, second for build items, and third for Power Socials). The Urbz: Sims in the City only allows 12 different objects in each section of the inventory, and up to 99 of the same item. Having two different colors of the same object will count as two objects instead of one.

Objects in the district (including the Cheat Gnome) are Public Property and cannot be stored in the inventory except for walls, wallpaper. and floor titles.

The Sims 2: Nightlife

Inventory is a feature introduced in Nightlife, and carried forward into later expansion and stuff packs. Some items (such as cell phones, handheld games, magazines, etc.) are immediately placed in inventory upon purchasing them, while others must be manually moved into a Sim's inventory. The inventory feature allows Sims to carry items with them when they move, and is the only way for Sims to keep career rewards when moving. In The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories a Sim's inventory does not have an object limit.

A Sim's inventory can be accessed in the Rewards panel. The inventory button is at the top, and looks like a backpack.

When objects are in Sim's inventory, they are effectively "in limbo"; they will not depreciate (or appreciate) in value, and food placed in inventory will not spoil.

Prior to Seasons, multiple copies of items appeared individually. Seasons introduced grouping, which grouped identical objects regardless of their color scheme. Bringing up the item tooltip allows the player to select a specific object in the group. Players should note that it also groups all serving platters together, regardless of what's on them, and does the same for individual plates. Likewise, when dealing with garden crops from Seasons, it does not take quality into account.

Placing objects

When a Sim's inventory is open, objects on the lot can be grabbed with the hand tool, as in Buy mode and Build mode. Grabbing an object and dragging it to the inventory panel will place it in inventory. With Pets or later, pressing the I key will automatically place the grabbed object in inventory.

Items that are "in use" cannot be placed in a Sim's inventory. This includes electronic items such as televisions, stereos, and computers that are turned on, and food that is being prepared. Most Build mode items cannot be placed in inventory. Bills, old newspapers, and homework cannot be placed in inventory.

When using use the "Make Many..." interaction when making food or craftables, the object will be placed in the Sim's inventory once completed. In FreeTime, drawings made on the SIM series Drafting Table and items made on the sewing bench will automatically be placed in inventory.

Very large objects, such as cars and helicopters, ice and roller rinks, most outdoor plants, and even the pirate ship, can be placed in inventory.

Objects cannot be added to or removed from a Sim's inventory when Buy and Build modes are unavailable, though the player will be able to view the selected Sim's inventory. This normally occurs on community lots and in hotels, but also occurs when a burglar appears or a fire occurs. However, when a young adult Sim visits the college's secret society, his or her inventory can be accessed, and objects can be taken from or added to the secret society lot. When members of the lot owner's household visit an owned community lot, their inventories can be accessed. However, they cannot place community-lot-only objects in inventory.

Inventory and Businesses

This section describes features that are only available in The Sims 2: Open for Business.

The inventory has some special features on owned community lots and in home businesses. If the owner is on the lot, crafted items and food that employees have been assigned to make will appear in the owner's inventory. Likewise, crafted objects and food that household members make with the "Make Many..." interaction will appear in the owner's inventory, if the owner is on the lot.

Caught fish, harvested products, and magic reagents will appear in the inventory of Sims who catch, harvest, or brew them.

In order to restock crafted objects, food, fish, products, and reagents, they must be present in the business owner's inventory. Otherwise, the items will remain out of stock. Retail items that can be purchased in Buy mode, however, will not be taken even if the owner has them in their inventory.

To avoid confusion, the following terms "Purchase" and "Pay" have the different meaning. "Purchasing" means taking any objects marked for sale, while "Paying" means handing over money to the cashier in order to possess the purchased items.

Sims who travel to a business lot can purchase items for sale. The items will appear in their shopping cart, which is below the inventory tab. Players can only view or remove the purchased items in the shopping cart, because the items don't belong to them yet. Sims still need to pay for the items at the cash register. Once they pay for them, the objects appear in their inventory. Customers or visiting Sims who purchase any items in a business lot will have them in their inventory. Because objects do not depreciate in inventory, they will be fully refunded if they are removed from inventory and sold.

Sims who purchase items but do not pay for them will not possess the items when they get home. The items will stay in their shopping cart instead. When they return to the business lot, they can still can pay for the items they purchase. When customers appear as visitors, some objects aren't actually bought. Clothes (not sewn outfits), video games, personal electronics, and magazines don't appear in the inventories of Sims who purchase them.

Other notes

With University, Sims can give their handheld to children with the "Give Handheld" special interaction. This interaction is removed if any later expansion or stuff packs are installed, as the handheld can be taken from one Sim's inventory and placed in the inventory of another household member.

The game does not allow the player to access some Sims' inventories. If a family brings other Sims along on a vacation, the inventories of those Sims cannot be accessed, so the player cannot see what they have with them. Also, roommates' inventories are replaced by the Roommate Satisfaction Meter, so the player cannot see what they have.

Some special objects will appear, or already appear, in some Sims inventories. Townies, NPCs, CAS Sims, and pre-Nightlife Sims will have a bottle of ReNuYu Porta-Chug, as well as children who grow up to teenagers. Bigfoot, the Witch Doctor, and the Wise Old Man have 5 maps to their secret vacation lot, and the latter two have voodoo dolls and Dragon Scrolls, respectively. All hobby instructors have their own hobby plaque. High witches and Sims who are turned into one have a cauldron and a spellbook.

Some objects do not, or do not always, travel well when taken to a new lot in a Sim's inventory. An easel with a partially-completed painting will "forget" which Sim started that painting, even if that Sim moves to the new lot. Occasionally, a bed may be unclickable after being taken out of a Sim's inventory on a new lot. When a dresser is taken out of a Sim's inventory on a new lot, it may not allow its back to be placed against a wall.

Any items with a Sim's ownership reference such as an easel, bed or car is not recommended to be placed in a Sim's inventory to avoid issues.

Note

Objects which use custom meshes have been known to disappear from inventory if custom content is disabled. This does not appear to affect custom recolors of Maxis objects.

Warning

Avoid leaving tombstones in a Sim's inventory for too long. Do not, under any circumstances, let a Sim die when there's a tombstone in their inventory, which will cause neighborhood corruption.

The Sims 2 Pets (console)

In The Sims 2: Pets for console, personal inventories do not exist, but a family inventory is implemented that can be used to store objects in buy mode. The inventory is divided into four categories: pet supplies, pet food and treats, harvested ingredients, and other objects.

The Sims 3

In The Sims 3, a Sim's personal inventory is where books and collectibles are stored. It is more limited than in The Sims 2: it can only contain objects that a person could realistically carry (excluding cars). Certain objects, such as guitars and laptops, are portable; placing them in a Sim's inventory allows that Sim to use them wherever they are.

Opening the inventory panel does not pause the game, unlike in The Sims 2. There is also no Hand tool; instead, players can simply drag objects into the inventory. The inventory panel does not need to be open for players to drag and move objects around.

In the Windows and Mac OS X versions of the game, each Sim has a separate inventory; in the PS3 and Xbox 360, the Sims' inventories are shared.

Unlike The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, food placed in the inventory in The Sims 3 (and The Sims Medieval) will eventually spoil. Sims will get the Disgusted moodlet when this happens.

Family inventory

Each household has a family inventory, which can be accessed in buy mode by clicking the cardboard box icon. When moving house, if the player decides to 'pack furniture' from their previous dwelling, the furniture is placed in the family inventory. Unlike the individual Sims' inventories, it can store practically any object in the game.

If the Food Replicator or Teleportation Pad are purchased as lifetime rewards, they will be placed in the family inventory. The same applies when buying large furniture (e.g. tents, Sheng Hai Training Dummy, Board Breaker) in markets in Shang Simla, Al Simhara, or Champs Les Sims.

The Sims 4

In The Sims 4, the personal inventory of a Sim can be found in the bottom right corner of the user interface. It is where collectibles, books, food and other small objects are stored. A Sim can carry as many objects as they wish and same types of objects will stack. Certain objects such as instruments are portable and can be used anywhere. The Sims 4: City Living also introduces portable street tables and galleries, which Sims can carry anywhere in their inventory to sell various small objects.

Like in The Sims 3, players can drag objects in and out of inventories. Players can also move objects without placing them into an inventory, and can sort objects within a Sim's inventory.

All Sims have their own personal inventories and objects can be transferred between them. Like in The Sims 3, food placed in an inventory will eventually spoil.

With Patch 95, inventories for Sims have been upgraded to filter and sort items within each Sim's inventory as well as mark items as favorites.

Family inventory

Each household has their own family inventory, which can be accessed in build mode. It is where career rewards are automatically placed, along with objects transferred through moving, if the player decides to keep the furniture from their previous house. Unlike the individual Sims' inventories, family inventories can store practically any object in the game.

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