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Message: <blockquote data-quote="reanjr" data-source="post: 2129116" data-attributes="member: 20740">I usually play it by ear.  In a metropolis, any reasonable amount of mundane equipment is generally available (if you want to buy 1,000 longswords, you can, but you would have to find several different merchants).  But for unusual items (spiked chains for instance) they are usually in limited quantity, though almost always available for list price and there are several people who can craft such an item.  Putting 1,000 spiked chains on order probably wouldn't take an awfully long time, but you would be spending a bit more than normal to expedite the process (they've got other - regular - customers to deal with).Once you start dealing with larger numbers than about 1/100th the population, you start seeing a huge amount of inflation.  Even if the craftsmen can easily keep up with demand, they are likely to take advantage of the situation and charge accordingly.  Perhaps as a rule of thumb do cost multiplier = (#Items * 100 / Pop.) ^ (1.5) for numbers greater than 1/100th the population.  To purchase 10,000 swords from a population of the same number could then be done at an astronomical cost.  Basically, you have to pay for the entire economy of the city as everyone temporarily drops their normal jobs to learn to help make swords and do so.  The cost would be 475 gp per sword in a city of 100,000, which seems reasonable to me.  Part of this cost can be assumed to be paying off officials to allow such a great undertaking.Generally, I would allow the selling of items at normal 50% cost to an average of 10 per buyer.  But traders in similar goods are often members of guilds and word will spread if the PCs start selling to multiple merchants.  Once you start selling beyond about 10% of 1/100th buy limit, you will start to see deflation on that product as the economy becomes saturated with it.  Rule of thumb sell price multipler = (#Items * 1,500 / Pop.) ^ (-1.5).  Selling 1,000 longswords to a city of 100,000 (the natural buy limit if you follow my previous advice and ten times the sell limit), you'd be selling for about 4 to the gp.  A bit low, but the numbers for the formula are pretty, and it's reasonable enough.  I mean, what are all these merchant's going to do with all this excess stock anyway?  (The 1,500 in the equation should more accurately be about 1575, but 1500 is a prettier number).If you want better accuracy, you can, of course, use the limit of an infinite sum, but I think that method would be a bit too complicated for the average DM.  It would better represent the fact that the cost is constantly changing as you buy or sell more and more.As far as an influx of gold affecting the overall economy, I prefer to deal primarily with particular industries.  The smithing industry (including those who mine iron ore, and also maybe coopers or masons, for instance) would be affected by the purchase and sale of swords, while the tanning industry (including those who raise cows and/or hunt) might be affected by the purchase and sale of leather armor.So to summarizeBuying:Natural buy limit (the number the PCs can buy before inflation kicks in): Population / 100Inflation past buy limit = (#Items * 100 / Pop.) ^ (1.5)Selling:Natural sell limit (the number the PCs can sell before deflation kicks in): Population / 1,000Deflation past sell limit = (#Items * 1,500 / Pop.) ^ (-1.5)</blockquote>

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