Selling loot for half price - why?

[Mark Hope]

According to the PHB, when characters sell their loot, they only get half the market price for it. Yet when they buy new gear, they pay full price. Why does this discrepancy exist?

I've been mulling it over, and I can't find a solid reason why this should be the case (well, not one that I agree with at any rate).

A few thoughts:

It has been said that NPCs won't buy used gear at full price. I agree that some discount on the price of used gear makes sense. I just have trouble swallowing the idea that it must be a full 50% every time. Conversely, why are PCs expected to pay full price every time? Are we to believe that each and every item that a PC buys is brand, spanking new?

If characters in my game want to sell items that they have found, and only get half price for them, that is going to mess with the wealth levels in the group. I'm not a huge stickler for such things, but it helps to keep a handle on PC power. If I give out appropriately-valued treasure that (for whatever reason) the PCs don't want and then sell, their wealth levels have now suddenly dropped for no good reason.

I agree that the rule helps to prevent adventuring from becoming a business of buying and selling. But there are better ways to reach the same result without artificially crippling the PCs' selling power.

In many cases, I want to be able to give the PCs loot specifically with the intention that they sell it for its proper value. Suppose a PC wants to make a particular type of customised magic item. Rather than have just that precise kind of item coincidentally fall into their lap next adventure, I'd prefer to allow them to accumulate loot, sell it, and use the funds to make it on their own (keeping in mind, of course, that they don't need to pay full price when crafting items and balancing the loot value accordingly) or get a friendly NPC to make it for them (and so have them pay something more like the full market value).

Of course, as DM I can have the NPCs pay whatever I want them to pay for items, which is exactly what I do. So there isn't really any problem as far as my games are concerned. I'm just wondering what other DMs (and players) make of this half-price rule.

Thoughts, anyone?

 

[Bagpuss]

Well assuming your selling to someone who can craft an item, for them to make an item it would only cost them 50% of the market price, price so why pay more?

Now you could go into calculating market forces, supply and demand, but it's Dungeons and Dragons, not Appraisal and Accounting. It's just much easier to use 50%.

 

[Treebore]

Because in the real world your doing good to sell a used item for a 1/3 of retail, even when you never even used it.

So giving players half of retail for banged up armor and weapons, etc... is actually overly generous.

Now I handle magic items very differently, since they are a great commodity irregardless of most factors. I will allow players to sell such things for 60 to 80% of full market value. Except for charged items. Remaining charges play heavily into current market value.

 

[Geoff Watson]

I treat it as an abstraction; the PCs would get more for some things, and less for others, and take into account dealing with brokers and middlemen, and it all averages out to 50%.

Geoff.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, it's because people who run stores can wait around to get full price for an item. Whereas PCs tend to want to unload their stuff right away.

Obvious it's not the most realistic rule, but it's a simple way.

I guess in D&D terms, you could have one of the PCs take the skill Profession (Salesman) and them simulate going around door to door selling stuff for full price.

 

[Ranger REG]

Thoughts, anyone?

Have you ever sold books to a seller in a secondhand bookstore? While you're trying to unload your loot, the seller is going to take your loot and resell them at a markup price to make a profit.

 

[robberbaron]

I don't always use 50% as the markdown - it depends on the circumstances.

Non-magical items - generally 50-75%, less if old or particularly common.
Magical items - 75-90%, depending upon demand and quantity.
Unusual items - 50-150%, depending upon how unusual.

Also, PCs will get better deals for Trade-Ins and taking credit rather than cash

 

[S'mon]

I certainly think it's fine to modify the sale & buy prices. If your PC meets an NPC adventurer in a tavern, you can maybe buy that Portable Hole off him for half market price. If you are a wizard PC offering to craft items on commission for the local nobles & adventurers, you'll get paid full market price for whatever you craft to order.

Edit: With use of a skilled broker, the PCs IMC are generally selling for 75% of book value, but buying for 125% of book value (as opposed to the 150-200% they'd be paying without a broker). Some items like cure light wounds potions can be bought at standard book value.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Several reasons:

- The merchant needs to make a profit, so he can't give the full price if he wants to make a profit.
- There might not be an immediate market for the item - thus the merchant binds significant monetary resources into an item which he isn't sure he can sell. He will only do so if he gets a significant price cut - if not, he will probably prefer to invest something with more immediate return.
- Loot sold by adventurers might come with angry former owners attached. That's much more risky than buying it from magic item creators themselves - and thus, another price cut is warranted.

To get in the right frame of mind for the sale and purchase of magic items of dubious origin, replace "magic item merchant" with "black market arms dealer". The level of paranoia is probably not too different...

 

[Mark Hope]

Because in the real world your doing good to sell a used item for a 1/3 of retail, even when you never even used it.

Have you ever sold books to a seller in a secondhand bookstore? While you're trying to unload your loot, the seller is going to take your loot and resell them at a markup price to make a profit.

Yes, but given that D&D makes no distinction between used and new items as far as usability goes (charged items like wands notwithstanding), it's a meaningless qualification. Plus this doesn't answer the issue of whether those items that the PC buys are actually new. In the real world, I can buy second hand items for a reduced cost. Surely PCs can do the same. And if they can't, why should NPCs always be able to?

I certainly think it's fine to modify the sale & buy prices. If your PC meets an NPC adventurer in a tavern, you can maybe buy that Portable Hole off him for half market price. If you are a wizard PC offering to craft items on commission for the local nobles & adventurers, you'll get paid full market price for whatever you craft to order.

This is close to my own approach to things. The price of an item should be determined by in-game factors rather than some arbitrary rule that may or may not reflect how things would reasonably work.

It seems to me that the main reason for the rule in the PHB is to prevent the game from becoming Appraisal and Accounting, or to prevent players from abusing the market as a way to get quick wealth and power without the risks of adventuring. However, there are other and better ways to handle those issues and it seems to me to be one of the more arbitrary rules that I've come across.