Is there anything wrong with this spellbook pricing method?

[MerakSpielman]

This comes up every now and then, but I forgot how people have answered it. The question is, how much gold is a spellbook (with spells in it) worth if you try to sell it?

My solution was this: Add up the prices of the spells in the book as if you were crafting scrolls scrolls (i.e., creation price, not market price). Multiply this number by ten.

Sound good? A spellbook with 2 first level spells in it would be worth 500gp.

 

[Vaxalon]

Here's the essential question:

If you had the choice between buying a bunch of scrolls, and scribing them into your spellbook, and buying a spellbook, and scribing them into your book, which would you do?

By my reckoning, a wizard won't pay any more for a spellbook than he would pay for the scrolls for the spells that he wants.

 

[MerakSpielman]

So, you would just make a spellbook be worth the cost of scribing all those spells (100gp per page, 2 pages per spell level)?

lets do the math.

My method costs per spell of given level:
1st 250
2nd 1500
3rd 3750
4th 7000
5th 11250
6th 16500
7th 22750
8th 30000
9th 38250

Scribing-cost method per spell of given level (price to scribe + price of scroll):

1st 200+25=225
2nd 400+150=550
3rd 600+375=975
4th 800+700=1500
5th 1000+1125=2125
6th 1200+1650=2850
7th 1400+2275=3675
8th 1600+3000=4600
9th 1800+3825=5625


I think I see the problem with my method. Thanks.

 

[Geoff Watson]

IMC spellbooks are priced at 25gp per spell level, for common spells. Rare or exotic spells are valued a lot higher.

Since spellbooks are reuseable, and the wizards can sell them again after they copy out the spells they want, it seems silly for them to have a high cost.
What about all the spellbooks that belonged to dead wizards? There would be lots of them around. Any mages guild would have tons of spellbooks sitting around in the library waiting for a guild member to copy stuff from them.

Geoff.