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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 6332922" data-attributes="member: 19675">Condensed reply; no particular order:1) the laws of economics are about as fundamental as the social sciences get- they're a description of how thinking beings distribute resources of finite availability.2) unique items follow all the same rules.  Structures every bit as unique as the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln a Memorial have been sold, sometimes legitimately, sometimes by con men.  The Eiffel Tower, for instance, was famously sold multiple times by one particularly good con.3) the only ways in which supply is affected by psychology is by passing laws interfering with the market OR by simply by would-be suppliers being unwilling to sell at any price.  Even then, this can be described using the normal tools of basic economics.  IOW, it is a corner case, not an exception. Essentially, this is a definition of terms thing: in economics, only demand has a true psychological component.You mentioned slavery.  For one, it is covered by my oft-mentioned exception about laws interfering with the market (see above).Even despite those laws, it is a practice that is still going on, even in places like the USA.  By current best estimates, @30M people live in slavery today- moreso than in any prior point in human history.  The market exists, it is just not out in the open.  A black market is still a market; it behaves according to the rules of S&D curves.And the raw material of slavery- the supply of living beings- is simply unaffected by the psychology of the slavery market.  The supply exists independent of that market.  The only way in which psychology is affecting the slavery market is the demand curve- kill the demand for slaves, there will be nobody to supply them to.  Would-be slaves then could enter the job market.Back to relics.  When relics hit Europe, they were- in some areas- no longer for sale or were only bought by royalty or the Church, true.  But that is because of artificial rules placed on the market: it was illegal to sell them to anyone else.  And even then, the market was quite substantial in areas not governed by those laws, and the black market in relics was extant within those regions.Really, the one and only way in which magic items could behave in a non-economic fashion is if there was something inherent in them that actively prevented their resale...as I already mentioned.  Mere blasphemy won't do it- there will always someone who doesn't give a damn about damnation.  Many reasons exist for this- being a different faith, being of the same faith but in financial extremis, etc.  If, OTOH, the doom promised by blasphemy was backed up by bolts from the blue sky, that pretty much kills the market.  But that's typically only going to cover the more powerful items of divine magic (IOW, not CLW potions) or those that some arcane crafter makes specifically for a single person or subset of people.  And those would be far and away the exception and not the rule- certainly not bog standard D&D magic items.  The closest things I've personally seen to this in game were the swords of the elemental champions in the RttTOEE adventure path (and similar intelligent or aligned magic items) and the pre-3Ed drowish magic items which lost power outside of the Underdark.4) you mentioned beings that don't see things as commodities.  Nice thought, but that doesn't void the laws of economics.  Even the most collectivist, non-monetized, non-commoditized beings must distribute resources, and will find some functional basis for doing so.  In such a society, the exchange could be in any one or all of time, energy, food, grooming, sexual favors, protection or what have you.</blockquote>

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