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Pathfinder 1E Selling magical items
- Thread starter brunswick
- Start date
If you're playing by rules-as-written, don't forget the size of the marketplace. Small settlements have fewer resources at their disposal to purchase high-value items from adventurers. See the "Settlements" rules at:
Settlements
You can't receive more than the "Purchase limit" for any given item in a particular settlement.
The way I play it in my game:
Selling items at half-price is for when you need to sell things quickly. Shop owners are buying on speculation, figuring that they'll probably be able to sell at a profit later. I let the PCs just convert items into cash at half book price on their own whenever they're in a settlement of sufficient size. It takes 1 hour of game time.
If PCs want to get more for an item, they can try to find a specific buyer. This takes dedicated in-game time. The general rule of thumb is it takes 1 day per 500 gp of the item's value to find a buyer. A successful Diplomacy [gather information] check can lower this time. When found, the buyer will buy pay 75% of list price. Successful Profession (merchant) vs. Sense Motive can raise the price that the buyer is willing to pay.
My PCs are usually on a plot-related timetable, and don't have the luxury to spend two weeks scouring major cities to find a buyer for that +1 cold iron gnome hooked hammer (size small) that nobody in the party can use, so they're usually content to just take 5,000 gp for an item that lists for 10,000 gp.
Settlements
You can't receive more than the "Purchase limit" for any given item in a particular settlement.
The way I play it in my game:
Selling items at half-price is for when you need to sell things quickly. Shop owners are buying on speculation, figuring that they'll probably be able to sell at a profit later. I let the PCs just convert items into cash at half book price on their own whenever they're in a settlement of sufficient size. It takes 1 hour of game time.
If PCs want to get more for an item, they can try to find a specific buyer. This takes dedicated in-game time. The general rule of thumb is it takes 1 day per 500 gp of the item's value to find a buyer. A successful Diplomacy [gather information] check can lower this time. When found, the buyer will buy pay 75% of list price. Successful Profession (merchant) vs. Sense Motive can raise the price that the buyer is willing to pay.
My PCs are usually on a plot-related timetable, and don't have the luxury to spend two weeks scouring major cities to find a buyer for that +1 cold iron gnome hooked hammer (size small) that nobody in the party can use, so they're usually content to just take 5,000 gp for an item that lists for 10,000 gp.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
I heartily endorse the idea that just because Merlin McMagicMart over there makes a magic sword doesn't mean that he can automatically sell it.
Another rule to look at is the GP limit by community size in the DMG, which gives a rough measure of how much GP the community has in "liquid assets." Even if everyone in the village WANTS his potion of fire breath (and I don't know why a farmer or a tailor or a book-binder would?), they only make so much money. If he wants to sell it, he may have to move to a bigger town.
And even then, it's worth introducing complications. Guilds, monopolists, kings who technically own that metal he found in that cave and aren't going to let him start up a market without getting their cut. Supply chain complications. Dwarves.
I would say this: if he wants to do it the easy way and just make gold, he can only sell it for half.
If he wants to sidetrack the party into a series of adventures and plot points about starting up a magic shop, he might be able to make more, but it's not going to be simply transactional, at least not at first.
And then, if he opts for the latter, you can include his "profit" in how you award treasure for the level -- take it out of the GP the party earns. And you can have interesting adventures in economics.
Another rule to look at is the GP limit by community size in the DMG, which gives a rough measure of how much GP the community has in "liquid assets." Even if everyone in the village WANTS his potion of fire breath (and I don't know why a farmer or a tailor or a book-binder would?), they only make so much money. If he wants to sell it, he may have to move to a bigger town.
And even then, it's worth introducing complications. Guilds, monopolists, kings who technically own that metal he found in that cave and aren't going to let him start up a market without getting their cut. Supply chain complications. Dwarves.
I would say this: if he wants to do it the easy way and just make gold, he can only sell it for half.
If he wants to sidetrack the party into a series of adventures and plot points about starting up a magic shop, he might be able to make more, but it's not going to be simply transactional, at least not at first.
And then, if he opts for the latter, you can include his "profit" in how you award treasure for the level -- take it out of the GP the party earns. And you can have interesting adventures in economics.
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