Re: 3E - Economics of Long Downtimes - Long

Mark <ringofw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 1 Sep, 11:36, mcv <mcv...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mark <ring...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 29 Aug, 23:51, David Alex Lamb <dal...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mark wrote:
On 29 Aug, 08:11, ques...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Harold Groot) wrote:

The most simplistic way of looking at it might be the EVERBURNING
(i.e. CONTINUAL FLAME) TORCHES sold for the standard 50%, i.e. 55 gp.

You can't make a profit selling magic items (except to other player
characters who are not good at maths). Continual flame costs 50 GP to
cast.

I don't understand how this is true for items in general, where you pay
1/2 cost for materials and sell for full cost. ?May be true for the
specific case of an everburning torch.

Generally, you pay a half for materials and some XP, then sell for
half, always making a loss.

If you go to the trouble of creating a magic item, you'd better make
something that someone actually *needs*, so you can sell it for full
price or almost full price. IMO there should be a huge difference
between selling a magical doodah that you found in a dungeon somewhere,
and the ability to make rare, valuable items on demand.

If you *are* making unique items, fair enough: Harold's Continual
Light generating character is either effectively Watchmen's Doctor
Manhattan character, a unique individual whose abilities change the
power supply of the entire world, or other characters in the fame
world can take the same feats, in which case the world is already
illuminated and the price of Everburning Torches should be reduced to
take account of that.

Ofcourse. If an adventurer's day job is making Everburning Torches and
he's good at it, then he should be able to make the same kind of money
as other skilled Everburning Torch manufacturers. It should not lose
him money, but he shouldn't quickly get ridiculously rich either.

Anyone who knows they are dealing with the creator of an item rather
than a merchant is stupid to pay full price as they are passing on all
the profit that would normally go to the merchant to the creator when
there's no reason to keep some back for themselves (other than the
competition they get for the seller's services from people who *are*
that dumb!)

Yet the creator would be stupid to sell for the same price as he'd
give a wholesale merchant who only buys it to sell it for a profit.
If the buyer really needs it, he's willing to pay more than 50% of
the value. In fact, if he needs it pretty soon, and there's a lack
of merchants or artificers who have the item in store, he may be
willing to pay more than 100% to have the item created for him.

On the other hand, if everybody is selling that item, and he can
afford to shop around a bit, he's going to get as close to the
creation cost as possible.

I used to see this in the real world with Magic card trading where
people would only sell/swap cards face to face for the price shops
would sell them i.e. the values in the price guides, not realising
that they were not shops; if they were trying to get rid of cards that
made *me* the shop as much as them, and shops don't pay much for
second hand cards.

Exactly. Selling surplus that nobody wants it hard. And there's a lot
less overhead in the trade of Magic cards than in magic items which
are harder to transport and need to be protected from high-level
thieves. On the other hand, if you want something that nobody has
in surplus, suddenly it's a seller's market and you pay what you can
afford.


mcv.
--
Science is not the be-all and end-all of human existence. It's a tool.
A very powerful tool, but not the only tool. And if only that which
could be verified scientifically was considered real, then nearly all
of human experience would be not-real. -- Zachriel
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: RMMGA CD banter
    ... >>>and getting copies at cost. ... But it's volunteer, ... IOW - it will affect the price of the CD's. ... If we sell more than 600 sets, that's $10 of gravy for each set. ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic)
  • Re: 3E - Economics of Long Downtimes - Long
    ... characters who are not good at maths). ... 1/2 cost for materials and sell for full cost. ... price or almost full price. ...
    (rec.games.frp.dnd)
  • Re: SF Publishing Opportunity
    ... But for a nicely produced physical book, which you are happy to sell ... at near cost, Lulu is less hassle. ... Or up the price; if your operating costs per copy are so high that they ... If I wanted to try and make a profit, and believed I could sell more ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Clarify terms for a newbie, please?
    ... wondering why Home Depot, Sears, and Lowes all sell the same ... So they can all have "the lowest price" without any of them having the ... They cost more than the local hardware store's 75 foot rolls, ... Most welding suppliers care little for the web. ...
    (sci.engr.joining.welding)
  • Re: Cost Vs. Sell Resource Rates
    ... On the resource sheet, add costs as standard rates, cost per use, etc. ... The answer to an "At Sell" price is going to be different depending on what ... Suppose you want to sell all of a resource... ...
    (microsoft.public.project)