As second-hand dealers from the Highlands, players travel from village to village to collect and sell goods because what is useless old junk for one person is very useful old junk for another — and therefore worth its weight in gold.

In Die Trödler aus den Highlands, the players use their carts to transport their junk over mountains and among villages. To set up, each player starts their cart in a different village with a route card, a goods request card, and a special feed card in hand. Goods are placed at random in other villages. A deck of route, goods request, extra good, and special feed cards is shuffled, and at the start of a round the dealer creates piles of four face-up cards, one more than the number of players, then players draft piles in order.

On a turn, you play as many cards from hand as desired. Play a route card to move your cart over the matching path (mountain, bridge, etc.), then optionally pick up a good from that village. If you play an extra good card, you can take a second good. If a village has no goods, you can play a goods request card and the matching goods from your supply — placing those goods in the village — then placing the card face down in a personal "value" pile. You can even do this in a village that you just emptied — that's a testament to your powers of persuasion!

Each time you play a special feed card, you can travel on the route of your choice, pick up an extra good, or fulfill a goods request card with a mismatched good. All of these played special feed cards go into your value pile.

When a player has completed a certain number of goods request cards, the game ends — then players compare how many special feed cards they used and how many goods they have left over. Whoever has the most has exhausted their horses and busted their cart and cannot win. Of the remaining players, whoever has the most points from completed goods cards and remaining goods wins!