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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eamon" data-source="post: 5293244" data-attributes="member: 51942">If items are rare and thus hard to find, then the act of finding is valuable - the salesman can make a far, far greater markup because there's little competition.  Also, the risk to the salesman is fairly high since the market is less fluid.Items that everyone has and sells (particularly non-degradable goods which have a high value-density) are extremely fluid (a small risk) and there's heavy competition in the market and finally the salesman is providing little added value (since finding the item is easy) - hence the markup must be minimal.  Sometimes these things end up being called trade goods.If this doesn't make sense, look around in any supermarket; the basics are often sold at-cost or even below cost to attract customers and provide sufficient scale.  Luxury goods have a higher markup.</blockquote>