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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 1153079" data-attributes="member: 3051">Unlike a gold ring, the material components used to create a magic sword are assumed to be mostly destroyed in the process.  True, although I've never been comfortable with that; the materials had to go SOMEWHERE.  Okay, some of them were material components for the spells involved, but there's got to be something salvageable.  I know it's not really "official", but look at the descriptions of wands and staves; they've got gems built into them, and yet a broken wand is "worthless".IMC I've got an entire custom PRC based around the concept of salvaging magic items for parts.  Just because most people wouldn't be able to scavenge anything useful from a magic item doesn't mean it's not possible.Traditional goldsmiths will give a flat price based on the weight of gold in your jewelry.Flat price yes, but it'd be more than the flat price for raw gold.  Of course, in the modern era not too many people HAVE their own supply of gold bars, so this isn't an issue today, and jewelers can charge whatever the market will bear.  And, since EVERYONE needs a gold+diamond ring for their engagements, weddings, and the occasional anniversary, the market can bear quite a lot.Again, if you leave the piece with the merchant for some number of months he might be able to find you a buyer and get you a better price (minus his fee).Right.  D&D doesn't really model that very well.  In a previous campaign, after a particularly vicious foray into the Abyss, most of the party decided to retire from serious adventuring and a few of us opened a magic shop.  We still had to deal with a lot of stuff, and it allowed us to get cohorts and such to lead to the next campaign's characters, so the DM let us run with it.In the process, we had to develop some D&D-compatible rules for more advanced economics, and create a large magical commerce guild to manage it.  The biggest issue is demand.  What percentage of the population could actually USE a +5 keen adamantine battleaxe of wounding?  Of the ones who could use it, how many can afford it?  Of the ones who can afford it, how many would want those particular abilities in that particular weapon type?  At one point, the city watch captain came into our shop and asked for 20 +1 swords and 100 masterwork swords.  The city couldn't afford anything more, didn't trust the soldiers with anything more valuable (a +1 sword is worth more than everything else the soldier owns, combined), and didn't really need any extra capability.Then, there's the question of the item's history.  Will previous owners come looking for it?  Can you be sure it's not cursed or intelligent?  Even if it's cursed, some people will still want it anyway.  Did you Identify it fully?  We ended up creating a series of custom divinations just to deal with these sorts of things.So, from the merchant's side of things, most items just aren't worth their "blue book" value.  Sure, that battleaxe I mentioned may be worth 100k to a person who wants it, but what are the odds of finding the right buyer, given all the risks involved?  It's more likely to sit in a warehouse until it's stolen, unless the merchant is part of a large, intercontinental magical mercantile guild capable of instantaneous travel to move rare items from a central, magically-protected storehouse to distribution nodes in each city as needed, and scavenging unsellable items for magical ingredients... which is where we came in.  I suppose E-bay would work, too.</blockquote>

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