How do you handle selling magic items in your campaign? (New question on page 4)

[haiiro]

In your campaign, how do you handle selling magic items?

Based solely on the core rules, loot always sells for 1/2 value. IMO, if you're going to assume people will sell magic items at all -- and based on my experiences, the PCs always do (which should mean, at a minimum, that other adventurers do as well) -- there should be a bit more to it than that.

That said, how much more? I'd like to have some guidelines in place so that we can resolve it out of game with more detail than just "you get 50% of its market value." Not so much detail that the idea of resolving it during downtime becomes impossible, but some nice middle ground.

What do you do?

 

[randomling]

Should it come up IMC (unlikely since my game is currently no-magic), I shall probably steal my DM's method - which is basically that a good Gather Information roll can get you a good price on most items, whether buying or selling. Actually, there's no reason that should just apply to magic items...

 

[Gilladian]

There is a shop in one city in my campaign where PC adventurers like to go. It isn't a "magic shop" per se; it's an alchemy and scrolls shop that is also part of a college for wizards. The PCs will make arrangements with the store owners to put out word that they are selling an item. They are then contacted by the store owner when a potential buyer is available. Frequently the PCs never meet the buyer, negotiations being handled entirely by the shopkeeper as middleman.

The shopkeeper charges a 2% fee for this task, and the PCs are usually able to get 60-90% of the item's value, depending on how generous I'm being.

Gilladian

 

[bill2825]

In my capaign, one of my players has just chosen to create a magic item and sell it. Interestingly, the party is an average of 10th level (9-11) and they have never sold magic items before now and only bought magic items one time.

Regarding the selling, which was the question, the PC who is creating and selling the item is attempting to broker the deal through the smith he will be working with to create the item. He has asked the smith to contact a major magical guild in the city and act as the middle man for the deal. His chances for negotiation with the smith in question were handled with diplomace checks.

In the instance where the party bought some magic items, they did so at a "Collectors Shop". Only specific areas in the campaign have "Magic Shops" and as such, the specific odds and ends shops and collectors tend to be the only people with magic to sell.

 

[Thanee]

We usually use Diplomacy for haggling, Gather Information is also a good idea to find someone willing to pay a good price. This is especially reasonable with magic items, which one should be able to sell for 75% easily, considering, that they usually have no real wear and thus 50% seems a bit harsh. For a professional trader, yes, since there are other factors, but not for a direct customer. For them it's still a 25% saving then.

About Diplomacy, I usually take the 50% rule as a starting point, then lower it somewhat and with Diplomacy it can be brought up to or even surpass the 50% line with a good roll (opposed, of course, going by how much the player rolls over the vendor, while the vendor cannot decrease the price further, this makes no sense to me, once a price has been stated ).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Ambrus]

In my campaign, I start with a sale price of 40% and let the player roll either a diplomacy check (to represent haggling for a better price) or a gather information check (to represent hunting down an interested buyer willing to pay more) and add the result of the check to the base 40% figure. The base 50% sale value listed in the core-books would represent an unskilled haggler taking 10 on his check. I find that this system helps to reward players who put all the extra effort into boosting their PC's social skills. It also helps to offset the fact that the PCs in my games usually have less funds available then standard PCs of their level are supposed to have. It also makes the players happy.

 

[Philip]

Buying or selling magic items is a question of contacts and time.

I allow diplomacy rolls for attempting to sell magic items to prospective buyers or convince crafters to create magic items for you.

I use gather information rolls for finding prosective buyers or sellers.

I allow one roll a week, and adjust the DC for the market price of the item, the gp. limit of the town, and an ad hoc modifier for rarity (ioun stones are rarer than +2 longswords, even though they have the same market price).

 

[Crothian]

I turn it into an espionage adventure. Magic is rare, powerful, and wanted. Finding a buyer is hard, finding a trustworthy buyer is harder. They will set up ambushes, rip you off, whatever it takes to get these items.

 

[maddman75]

In my campaign, magical items are not for sale, apart from some common disposable items such as potions, wands, and scrolls, in general. To have something made you will usually have to find someone to create it for you. Similarly, to sell an item you'll have to find a buyer. In large towns you can find brokers who can arrange such things, for a fee of course. Much like buying and selling fine art - you can't just go down to Wild Bill's Magic Sword Emporium.

Further, all magical items require a special gem, the amberlite, that is what makes permenant magic items possible. Even if you find someone who can create an item, you will have to supply them with the amberlite. However, you can remove set gems and extract the powdered gems from existing items. So its much more common to destroy items to extract the amberlite than it is to sell item A to buy item B. Mechanically, it works out to be the same thing but feels a little more magical.

Further, I get free plot hooks. Rumors of old amberlite mines that could bear gems if the monsters were cleared out, lost shipments of gems headed for the King, or gems offered as a reward. Or letting a group of 2nd level characters find a magical portal under a set of ruins with a setting for an amberlite to power it...but to access the portal they'll have to destroy their only magical weapon.

 

[heimdall]

DragonLance has the concept of magical shops and that's currently where my group is (though not for long.... muwahahahaha). I do something similar with the diplomacy roll helping to determine final price but I also factor in a "familiarity" factor. If these PCs have dealt favorably with the magic shop in the past, they'll get a better price than hitting someone up new. I do this with all of my merchants as long as they aren't too shady. There are some that will never give anyone a decent deal, no matter the "relationship." However, these merchants don't tend to stay in business long unless they are fronts for something else or deal in the very rare. Then again, if the PCs have tried to rip off a merchant and he/she knows it, the price isn't going to be very good. This encourages both increasing the social skills as well as developing in-game reasons to develop relationships.