I was curious how other GMs handle reselling large- and huge-sized magic items.
One thing about Runelords (and the upcoming Giantslayer) is that you'll be facing a lot of large-sized entities. But you honestly don't see much in the way of large-sized creatures in cities and towns. So do you allow large-sized items and magic items to be sold, and if so how do you justify it?
I'd already chosen not to allow magic ogre hooks to be sold, seeing that the pictures of ogre hooks show a rather rough-looking item and I cannot see interest in even a magic ogre hook. But what about other giant items? Stone, fire, and frost giants all are skilled craftsmen (especially fire giants). But their weapons are pretty much useless for anyone who's not a giant.
I can't even see allowing it to be sold to be broken down for materials, seeing that reforging metals often results in a lower-quality metal alloy (see "pot iron" for an example).
(On the plus side, this does allow a GM to take all those +1 weapons and armor with the giants and ogres, say "you can't sell those," and replace them with treasure the players are more likely to use.)
I just finished running Fort Rannick last night! I was a little curious about the same thing and found this thread!
I have a few thoughts, in no particular order.
1)Magic items *must* be masterwork. How you reconcile this with the artists rendering is up to you. Perhaps they are "ugly, but surprisingly effective"? In addition, creating these ugly hooks took raw materials equal to half the base price, so these hooks incorporate 500 Gp worth of *something*.
2)The Grauuls had large size hooks. The kreegs had HUGE size hooks. Even harder to sell.
3)Saying they can't sell them but inserting treasure of equal value is an easy fix.
4) In a fast and loose campaign I would just let them sell the items. In a tighter campaign I might have a percentage chance that the item would resize.
5)Something I like to do is add some roleplay. The PCs go to the bazaar in *insert large city here*. They find a trader who ships things all over the world. They have to negotiate a price based on how many of the item they have (more being harder to move) how esoteric it is, basically how hard it will be for the merchant to flip the items. Usually the merchant will give them more value if they trade for items from his stock instead of cash. Diplomacy checks, roleplaying, etc.