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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 6423189" data-attributes="member: 2">That's not exactly how pawn shops work, right? Pawn shops work by people getting loans in exchange for collateral, perhaps 25% to 60% of the item's value. (The average amount of a pawn shop loan in the US is apparently $150.) Then the person pays back that loan with about a 20% interest rate for a month, although that's regulated by law. And if they default, the pawn shop sells the item. They make money either way. That's different from "let me buy an item for tens of thousands of gold pieces that we may or may not be able to find a buyer for any time soon."  If you love magic item shops, I say include them (especially for Uncommon frequency items) and use item amounts that make sense for the amount of treasure your heroes have. Heck, my campaign always has one or two mysterious shops run by creepy old men that appear in alleys and move around, too. I just don't think the economics for wide-spread selling of magic makes sense in my campaign -- unless the shops are sponsored and controlled and regulated by the wizards' or artificers' guilds, in which case things get more interesting and more expensive. For me, it comes down to "what's most interesting"? I want heroes who gain their magical weapons from ancient vaults or dead enemies, not from a shelf in a curio shop. It's a personal preference. If you think it's more interesting, convenient or mysterious to have items appear in shops, the only downside for your campaign is that you'll have to make up the price yourself. This will probably be easier in 5e, where almost all swords are +1 instead of +2 through +5.So, back on topic, a cool thing to do with lots of gold: start a magic item shop, or hire someone to do so for you. Then cherry-pick whatever they get in, while leaving your employees to deal with theft, politics, guilds and taxes. Plot hooks aplenty!</blockquote>

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