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<blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 67612" data-attributes="member: 545">I do not actually disagree with any of your points, but I think that 3e takes this into account by imposing a 50% liquidity penalty on the sale of all items.If you want the real world, really big tickets items would be sold through a guilded merchant.&nbsp; He would arrange a sale by carefully spreading word through his more trusted colleagues, perhaps to far away cities.&nbsp; Negotiations would be handled by letter or word of mouth.&nbsp; The various middlemen would end up taking a 10-20% cut off the final purchase price as commission.&nbsp; You would not necessarily know what the negotiated purchase price was.&nbsp; &quot;I think I have found a buyer for your suit of armor.&nbsp; You would get X gold.&nbsp; Interested?&quot;For the reasons that you stated, the merchants are not going to have thousands of coin handy.&nbsp; So they can't usually purchase an expensive item without a buyer already lined up.The transaction takes weeks or months to complete.OTOH, if you care about realism, the PCs should be sitting around the taverns bored for 5 months of the year.&nbsp; Nobody fights wars or goes adventuring much when the weather is iffy for travelling.&nbsp; So the time factor is not such a big deal after all.&nbsp; If you care about realism you need to capture the big picture.I believe it is just easier on the DM hit the PCs for 50% of the value of the stuff they sell up front, and not sweat the details of the mercantile system.&nbsp; That is adequate for most 3e campaigns.A reasonable compromise for expensive items is to have each PC put the word out through a merchant contact for 2-3 things they are looking for.&nbsp; Of course these are general descriptions.&nbsp; The DM can design 3-4 items, and come back with a price.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ridley's Cohort, post: 67612, member: 545"] I do not actually disagree with any of your points, but I think that 3e takes this into account by imposing a 50% liquidity penalty on the sale of all items. If you want the real world, really big tickets items would be sold through a guilded merchant. He would arrange a sale by carefully spreading word through his more trusted colleagues, perhaps to far away cities. Negotiations would be handled by letter or word of mouth. The various middlemen would end up taking a 10-20% cut off the final purchase price as commission. You would not necessarily know what the negotiated purchase price was. "I think I have found a buyer for your suit of armor. You would get X gold. Interested?" For the reasons that you stated, the merchants are not going to have thousands of coin handy. So they can't usually purchase an expensive item without a buyer already lined up. The transaction takes weeks or months to complete. OTOH, if you care about realism, the PCs should be sitting around the taverns bored for 5 months of the year. Nobody fights wars or goes adventuring much when the weather is iffy for travelling. So the time factor is not such a big deal after all. If you care about realism you need to capture the big picture. I believe it is just easier on the DM hit the PCs for 50% of the value of the stuff they sell up front, and not sweat the details of the mercantile system. That is adequate for most 3e campaigns. A reasonable compromise for expensive items is to have each PC put the word out through a merchant contact for 2-3 things they are looking for. Of course these are general descriptions. The DM can design 3-4 items, and come back with a price. [/QUOTE]

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