NPC merchants have a damn good union!

[Particle_Man]

PC buys magic item from NPC for full price (or even with a mark up of up to 40%).

PC sells the same magic item to the same NPC for one fifth of the full price.

I wonder what would happen if one NPC sold a magic item to a second NPC?

I also wonder how the NPC knows that the PC is a PC. Must be the word "sucker" stenciled on their helmets.

But these merchants are smart. Even if I hired an NPC to sell that magic item on my behalf, somehow the merchant would "Sniff out" that it ultimately was a PC selling the item and only pay one fifth of the price for it. Similarly, if I hired an NPC to buy a magic item on my behalf, that canny merchant would know it was really me pulling the strings here, and charge the full amount.

Forget the Demons, Evil Gods, Fey critters or Far Realms nightmares. The NPC Merchants guild OWN this game world.

 

[Dausuul]

I also wonder how the NPC knows that the PC is a PC. Must be the word "sucker" stenciled on their helmets.

But these merchants are smart. Even if I hired an NPC to sell that magic item on my behalf, somehow the merchant would "Sniff out" that it ultimately was a PC selling the item and only pay one fifth of the price for it.

Merchants buy low and sell high. In this case, because the overhead and the risk are considerable (travel between points of light is a dangerous business, and people with big bucks to spend on magic swords are few and far between), the merchant buys very low and sells very high. This is capitalism. For more information on how it works, visit your local pawnshop.

 

[Iceman75]

Merchants buy low and sell high. In this case, because the overhead and the risk are considerable (travel between points of light is a dangerous business, and people with big bucks to spend on magic swords are few and far between), the merchant buys very low and sells very high. This is capitalism. For more information on how it works, visit your local pawnshop.

True capitalism gives you options other than the pawnshop that gives you squat. Pawnshops are for the poor, desperate or the criminal elements of a society. Their are other methods of selling items that any wise PC would use. Carry them with and use small amounts of money to send out criers and let the buyer come to you. At 60-80% of market price the lower level NPC adventurers will come running. I know this is how it would work because it is what I would do as a PC if someone offered me a totally functional item at 20-40% off. 20% my arse...

 

[Zurai]

Do me a favor. Buy a brand spanking new console game at any EBGames/Gamestop/etc. Go to the other EBGames/Gamestop/etc in the mall. Sell them the game. See how much they buy it from you for.

Around here, $50 games trade in for $5 at the high end.

 

[small pumpkin man]

True capitalism gives you options other than the pawnshop that gives you squat. Pawnshops are for the poor, desperate or the criminal elements of a society. Their are other methods of selling items that any wise PC would use. Carry them with and use small amounts of money to send out criers and let the buyer come to you. At 60-80% of market price the lower level NPC adventurers will come running. I know this is how it would work because it is what I would do as a PC if someone offered me a totally functional item at 20-40% off. 20% my arse...

AS has been pointed out a thousand times before, 25% is what you would expect for, say, a 200 year old desk, or a MiG. Things with low supply AND low demand are hard to sell and hard to buy. Merchants have to stockpile and transport items are selling the fact that they can get you the actual item you want, where you want.

 

[Particle_Man]

This still doesn't address which price a NPC merchant would sell/buy a magic item from another NPC merchant at.

Merchant A buys all magic items at 20% of their value.

Merchant B sells all magic items at at least full value.

Do merchants A and B never, ever exchange money for magic items? If they do, at what price is the item exchanged? If they exchange the item for X (whether X is full price, 20%, or something in between), why can't a PC exchange the same item for X? Sounds less like healthy capitalism and more like a monopoly or cartel.

Hell, I would hang on to magic items I found on the off chance that another player's pc found it useful one day. Or I would make gifts of unwanted magic items to NPC movers and shakers for social fu. Screw the NPC merchants!

 

[Thasmodious]

True capitalism gives you options other than the pawnshop that gives you squat. Pawnshops are for the poor, desperate or the criminal elements of a society.

Don't know much about the pawn business, do you?

Their are other methods of selling items that any wise PC would use. Carry them with and use small amounts of money to send out criers and let the buyer come to you. At 60-80% of market price the lower level NPC adventurers will come running.

So will the thieves, bandits, murderers, local BBEGs and the local government. Good luck with all that.

 

[Zurai]

You're assuming that there are any merchant-to-merchant sales, as opposed to merchant-to-consumer sales. It's not the NPC-ness that matters, it's the consumer status.

 

[hong]

Think of it not so much as selling an item to Fred the merchant, and buying it back off Fred later. Think of it as selling an item into the amorphous object known as "the economy", and then buying it back. The person you buy stuff from does not, in general, need to be the same guy you sell stuff to.

If you want to take on Fred's job and be a merchant, go right ahead. The rules assume that players have other things to do, but being a merchant prince could be fun.

This still doesn't address which price a NPC merchant would sell/buy a magic item from another NPC merchant at.

Nothing in the rules ever addresses what happens when an NPC talks to another NPC, with no PCs involved. You have noticed this by now, yes?

 

[Dausuul]

This still doesn't address which price a NPC merchant would sell/buy a magic item from another NPC merchant at.

By and large, they wouldn't. If Merchant A personally needs a specific magic item for some reason, and Merchant B has that item, Merchant A buys it at full price just like everybody else. But the odds of you having the one specific magic item that Merchant A needs at that particular moment are slim to none.

Of course, the price will vary from one transaction to another. If a merchant has a specific buyer already lined up for Item #1, he might be persuaded to offer more for that item. On the other hand, if he already has three of Item #2 and hasn't been able to move one for two years, he might not be willing to buy a fourth one for more than 10% or even 5% of list price. The rules abstract it all out to 20%. If you want to make it more detailed, you could roll something like 1d8 x 5% for each item, but it hardly seems worth it.

Also note that you're dealing in extremely valuable and highly portable items, the primary market for which consists of people who make a living by killing other people and taking their stuff (whether as adventurers, mercenaries, or regular soldiers). You don't hawk real magic items in the bazaar--if you do, you're apt to be found floating face down in the river one morning. It's black market all the way for most of this stuff, and the black market is notorious for insanely high markups.

Hell, I would hang on to magic items I found on the off chance that another player's pc found it useful one day. Or I would make gifts of unwanted magic items to NPC movers and shakers for social fu. Screw the NPC merchants!

*shrug* That's up to you. There are certainly many things you can do with your loot other than sell it. But if you want gold for your magic items, 20% is what you can expect to get, unless you want to take up being a full-time merchant instead of an adventurer.