Value of captured loot, esp. magic items

[The_lone_gunman]

Well here is how I do it:

No roleplay, 50% cost. You take the 50% hit in value to account for automatic purchasing ability. Just because an item is magical doesnt mean there will be a demand for it. Some items, like potions, scrolls, and low level "utility" items sell pretty well, and I usually up the selling value a bit, but it usually isnt an issue because most PC's are buying those instead. Thus you sell it for 50% but are guarenteed a buyer.

If the PC's have a particularly valuable item, then they may wish to roleplay it out. For good roleplaying and dice rolls, you can get 75-90% of value out of the item. In fact, some folks may pay more than 100% of the value if it is a particularly rare or usefull one. However, if they choose to roleplay, they then have to deal with:

1) finding a buyer
2) dealing with possible thieves and such
3) must have a decent cha/diplomacy (which a lot of PC's seem to neglect. Real hard to get a good deal with a 7 CHA ).
4) Supply/Demand (if the red wizard enclave down the street will make the same thing for a cheaper price, then it will be tough to sell

I think the 50% rule, while maybe not logical from a modern economics standpoint, makes sense within the context of D&D economics.

Of course all this can change if you give out very little magic. It all depends on availability. If you are following standard 3rd edition NPC and monster items/gold/treasure rules, you will find your PC's will be rich fast if you let them sell all their items at or near base cost.

TLG

 

[Uruk]

I think the 50% thing is fine for players, but I wouldn't feel bad dropping it to 25% if I wanted to simulate a real-world economy. If a shopkeeper is going to buy something from a player than they can't give full price unless they're going to turn around and charge more than that to the next customer. In the real world most consumer products have %30-%50 margin on them to cover business expenses and hopefully somehow make a profit.

If I went out and sold a couple books, cds or dvds I'd be lucky to even get 25% of what I paid. Eventhough the next person to purchase one of those items isn't getting anything less than I did. On a big ticket item I might even be expected to pay %15 of its worth to even return it as a restocking fee .

Anyways, I go with the 50% idea setup in the rules which allows the party to trade to one another and give each other breaks without having to give up their share of the treasure. Though they have mentioned starting up their own shop to try and make more money, but then I'd have to start getting serious and make them pay taxes and overhead and they'd be lucky to break even.

 

[Kaji]

I really think hong is right here. Attempting to simulate a real world economy gets insanely crazy. If you did, every time the party brought back a +1 short sword or a potion of reduce (which they seem to find in EVERY treasure roll I make) they would get less and less for it as the local market gets flooded with goodies. Soon, Grandma would be constantly drunk on Potions of Enlarge and yelling at the neighbors about their cows mooing all night long. The system should be workable in the game context, not in a truly viable economic context.

 

[Dreaddisease]

A destructable item like a CD or a DVD depreciates in value the minute you buy it, much like a car. If unopened you can get the exact value for it back. To run across the street and sell it to a buyer will still mean you get less. Its not the time limit but the uncertainty of the store owners of what they are getting and how and if it will sell. On the other hand I like the analogy of buying and selling a house or sports memoribilia or antiques, they constantly go up in value. The demand is there and even in medieval times the value of antiques and castles and lands constantly went up. I do not see how a magical item would not be worth more then its price when made. It is not destructable (well some aren't) and if there is no charges expended then why should it be less? It should be worth market value or slightly less (whatever that may be).

I agree that finding a buyer can be hard in some cultures, especially low magic cultures. Also I may decrease the value you get to have the item appraised (Identify spell costs 100 gp). But if you have a system of stores who specialize in buying and selling magic items then most likely they will buy as low as possible but not more than 10% less and sell at market or more but not more than 10%. Considering that most magic items range between 1000 and 8000 GP if they were to get a 50% margin they would pay off a store front and the have enough to retire in just one or 2 sales.

That is all.

 

[Corlon]

my way to determine

as my social studies teacher taught me, it's SUPPLY AND DEMAND
wait, I don't think that sunk in SUPPLY AND DEMAND!!!


A bottle of water is more useful for desert people then it is for merfolk

And those dirty bastards (currently the blacksmith that my character keeps buying from and yet he STILL complains ) that rip you off every chance they get.

The market price I say is the production price, or 50% or whatever, and then eveyrone wants to make a profit, soo

It really depends, and sometimes if the characters have been givin me a hard time on what they can and can't buy...

Basic point=determine it on the spur of the moment (usually somewhere around 25% to 600% of the market price)

 

[hong]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Value of captured loot, esp. magic items

True, D&D math can get pretyy funky. But both the sell at 50% and seven billion chickens example are absurd results.

Both the 50% and 7 billion chickens are perfectly reasonable results, in the context of what the rules attempt to achieve: a gaming environment where players can derive some utility from finding hoards of treasure. In 3E, the principle is that treasure and equipment should form an integrated part of the advancement system, and so you need rules for managing that treasure. This is opposed to the situation in 2E, where you might accumulate a dozen +1 swords and other minor magic items over the course of several months' gaming, but be unable to do anything with them.

 

[Geoff Watson]

I use 50%, as a general case.
That's fair, assuming you are going for a quick sale through a middleman. If the PCs set up a shop, or spend a lot of time searching for a buyer, they could get more. But that takes a lot of time and effort.

Geoff.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

We ARE the shop

Yea, I'm serious. But that's a recent development (we were 17th when it happened): After we disposed of an evil merchant (who killed a Tyrran cleric. Stupid wizard of ours to be in debt of the church of Tyr) we took over his shop (quite a posh one). The former shopkeep now works for us, handling the shop, buying supplies, selling wares, keeping 20% of the profits. We get a more or less regular income from general Items (from the shop's invontory, objects of art and other mundane items, and some minor magical items, which are restocked by the shopkeep), are able to sell our loot at full price (or rather 80%), albeit we cannot choose when to sell it, and can buy items below market price, although we have to wait for the stuff to be delivered, and it's not sure whether we can get the stuff at all. We can still buy or sell stuff at other shops, of course, paying around marked price for the stuff (with minor price fluctuations) and sell the stuff at around 1/2 value. In that case, we can usually sell at once, and buy almost all items we want (although we didn't request anything above 100.000 yet), since we can get to Silverymoon or Waterdeep within the day (via magic).