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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 4225354" data-attributes="member: 30001">No, I'm assuming (based on labor and goods prices for 3E since I haven't seen those in 4E yet) that the costs of such transactions would be reasonable.  5,000 gp of bribes, security, etc. is not reasonable IMO.  I'm not aware of any DM that has ever charged a 50% luxury tax on all magic items that PCs brought with them into a city - though I'm sure there is some insane example of that somewhere.Exactly - thank you.  Now I'm starting to read your example on the spice trade and right way I'm suspecting I'm going to see something on long-distance shipping, and monopolies, etc.  No one is arguing that the adventurer is in India, and the market for the +1 sword is in England.  So the analogy seems to me to be based on the situation of the adventurer who is already sitting in the city in which he wishes to sell his sword - and now somehow the involvement of a single merchant turns it into a 1:5 transaction.  What your analogy would need to demonstrated was that someone calling himself an "adventurer" in Holland was forced to sell pepper for the price of dirt.Note too - the part about "is of such general use".  This is talking about supply and demand.  This means that an adventurer with a pound of pepper in a sack could sell the product for a good profit because of high demand.  But somehow this exact logic gets turned on it's head and is used to justify why the adventurer would have a *difficult* time selling his +1 sword.  If you're arguing that the demand for a +1 sword is comparable to what you're describing for pepper, then it's a whole new argument.Well the merchant better not call himself an "adventurer" or then he'd be forced by the DM to sell the pepper for 1/5 of it's market price.  Again, the market price difference between India and Holland/England whatever is not relevant to the core transaction we're talking about.  None of the demand forces that are driving up the cost of pepper does anything to keep the PC adventurer from being ripped off and finding himself in the world where one lone greedy merchant seems to be his only customer.As has been pointed out earlier in the thread, a +1 sword is probably not a luxury good and there is no indication that PCs are being taxed at 50% on magic items that they bring into a city. But again, a well timed purchase of grain during a time of plenty and a sale during a time of famine can reasonably get you 3:1 or whatever.  However, at what point is this analogy relevant to the sale of the +1 sword by an adventurer?  And if there was suddenly some extreme shortage of +1 swords, and a high demand for them, why in the world would the average (with decent Diplomacy skill) adventurer be completely incapable of getting a reasonable price for his goods?I really appreciate the facts that you've provided for me to consider.  However, I think the next step is to draw the appropriate correspondances, and the conditions that your facts describe IMO do not completely enlighten me on the nature of an adventurer selling a +1 sword in a city.</blockquote>

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