History Main / FriendInTheBlackMarket

%% (Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotGeneral) * This arises as a gameplay mechanic in an awful lot of video games (especially {{RPG}}s) where the shopkeepers expect the heroes to cough up the dough even when the world is about to end. After all, AdamSmithHatesYourGuts. It fits this trope more than Honest John, as at least they sell you legitimate items.

* ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'' FanGame ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpaAnother2'' has the Ultimate Broker/Trafficker Syobai Hashimoto, a smuggler and ProfessionalKiller. He's the second-smartest member of the group and was indispensable in the later [[DeadlyGame Class Trials]], but his [[TheSociopath sociopathic tendencies and loner nature]] resulted in him being TheFriendNobodyLikes. Regardless, [[PlayerCharacter Sora]] can befriend him and in exchange he'll sell her power-ups for the trials.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Played with in Roger who will always claim to "know a guy" when a member of the family comes to him for help. Inevitably the "guy" will end up being Roger himself in one of his various disguises.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce,'' Carl has a friend named Terry. Terry can get things... but you don't want to know where he got them.
* Hustler Kid in ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}''. In [[StatusQuoIsGod one episode]] Gus became the "Gusler Kid" and did even better than him. TJ also went a bit [[CorruptCorporateExecutive mad]] when an {{expy}} of ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}'' cards was adopted as a currency of sorts.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', Muscle Man has a seemingly endless list of contacts who provide various goods and services ranging from the mundane to the utterly ridiculous. More often than not, they also tend to owe Muscle Man a favor, which is usually how he gets their help.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' episode "Winter's Gift," Clover calls on his old friend Whiskers (a fox) to get Sofia some ice lilies, since he has connections all over the wood, and literally gets his information from little birdies.

This character is obviously part of ''the'' BlackMarket. Compare and contrast HonestJohnsDealership, who also sells products at a premium... except theirs are of lesser quality. TheScrounger is likely to either be this trope or to have dealings with him. Also compare and contrast FriendOnTheForce, for a helping hand on the less dubious side of the law.

* This arises as a gameplay mechanic in an awful lot of video games (especially {{RPG}}s) where the shopkeepers expect the heroes to cough up the dough even when the world is about to end. After all, AdamSmithHatesYourGuts. It fits this trope more than Honest John, as at least they sell you legitimate items. [[VideoGame/{{Diablo}} Except that little snotrag Wirt.]]

* "VideoGame/GenshinImpact": Played with regarding Dori. Dori is the closest thing to a black-market saleswoman in Sumeru, selling goods that are considered illegal by the Akademiya (such as Canned Knowledge), and she's willing to help out the Traveler on their search for Kusanali by happily providing her goods. That said, she still has to put her customers through a lot of verifications to make sure they don't align with the Akademiya, and she'll straight-up blacklist anyone with even the faintest hint of association with them, such as Alhaitham. At the same time, she has already provided Cyno, the head of the Akademiya's law enforcement, "the full range of Genius Invocation TCG merch" for him, and wasn't afraid of approaching him with the bill for some desert survival kits in Cyno's Story Quest.