Selling treasure question


Rules Questions


When you sell stuff like painting, gems, and gold ingots, do you get full price or half price for that stuff? I know for gear etc, you get half, but I'm not sure if that applies when you build a treasure heap of random crap. Can i get a quick answer?


Greg Clements wrote:
When you sell stuff like painting, gems, and gold ingots, do you get full price or half price for that stuff? I know for gear etc, you get half, but I'm not sure if that applies when you build a treasure heap of random crap. Can i get a quick answer?

That is totally up to the GM based on the world economy. Generally speaking if you take the time to sell something and find a good buyer you can get up to full price, but you don't get retail price at the pawn shop. Also if you are trying to sell a Mustang in a trailer park town you can't get full price. Most towns have a gold piece limit. Also keep in mind that high value items (like gems) are often lighter than their gold equivalent, so it might be a good idea just to keep them and barter. There are no rules for buying and selling; it really depends on the GM and the setting.


According to RAW:

Quote:

Selling Treasure

In general, a character can sell something for half its listed price, including weapons, armor, gear, and magic items. This also includes character-created items.

Trade goods are the exception to the half-price rule. A trade good, in this sense, is a valuable good that can be easily exchanged almost as if it were cash itself.

So your gold ingots, paintings and gems are usually full price. Obviously, however, all sales prices are determined by the GM and the available economy. Most peasants can't afford, nor care to buy, a Renoir, but might trade you an axe for a pig.


I typically keep my players fairly economically strapped so that they can't just throw money around. In fact I would say my players are border line poverty stricken at all times in comparison to other adventurers.

In this case though, especially gold ingots, I would say they should be able to get full value for these items unless of course no one in town can afford to pay full value for them.


Greg Clements wrote:
When you sell stuff like painting, gems, and gold ingots, do you get full price or half price for that stuff? I know for gear etc, you get half, but I'm not sure if that applies when you build a treasure heap of random crap. Can i get a quick answer?

"Gold is gold." It's a commodity. Gold should always be worth what gold is worth in an economy - possibly worth more than an equivalent 'weight' of coinage (because everyone KNOWS all coins are debased). It is easily divisible (by heat, saw or clippers) to make change and everyone loves it except for dwarves and dragons - who REALLY love it - though dwarves will cheat you and dragons will just take it. Best bet for turning gold into coin is to talk to goldsmiths or moneychangers - who will be able to determine the purity of your gold and probably give you something close to a fair deal (like 90%). Mints (the places they make coin at, not the plant, or the candy) should give you 100% value...in their debased coins :-).

Gems...less so. Some fantasy economies treat them as coinage (ruby weighs X = Y gold coins). Realistically, talk to a gem dealer (lapidary?) and you'll probably get 50% of 'real value' - otherwise the gem dealer would never make money...gems are not high turnover items. However, in a fantasy world, certain gems will be in high demand. That 5000gp diamond? Component for Raise Dead. That 25000gp diamond? Component for Wish. Arguably diamonds will be worth a lot more than they should/would be normally because of this need - so a 5000gp diamond isn't that impressive (1 carat?), but the demand for such stones keeps the market price high. Anyways, sell those gems for no less than full price.

As for art...50% to an art dealer. Consult an art sage to find a proper collector of said piece (if he exists) and get full price. Any luxury item should follow that rule - sell to a luxury dealer for 1/2, or try to find an end-buyer for full...just don't try it too often or you bog down the game. Special art objects (and the sales thereof) are adventure fodder for GMs, of course.


As far as I recall, treasure such as gems, paintings, gold ingots, a pound of copper, bushel of corn, etc, may be sold at its full market value. Equipment and magical items are sold at half value. At least that is how it was in 3.5. I haven't bothered to look at if the language changed in PF.

Now that comes with the caveat that a GM may adjust the prices at any time according to his campaign. If the PCs are traveling through a poverty stricken region, or a region flush with a surplus of a certain commodity, then prices (both sale and re-sale) will fluctuate accordingly.


Yeah, we're getting up in levels and we can't sell some of our gear because the villages or towns are too small.

The fast rule we use is if you could use said item as currency to buy something else, then you can sell it for full or near full value.


With my emphasis on Trade Goods, in Equipment section of the PRD, Paizo wrote:


OTHER WEALTH
Merchants commonly exchange trade goods without using currency. As a means of comparison, some trade goods are detailed on Table: Trade Goods.

Table: Trade Goods Cost Item
1 cp One pound of wheat
2 cp One pound of flour, or one chicken
1 sp One pound of iron
5 sp One pound of tobacco or copper
1 gp One pound of cinnamon, or one goat
2 gp One pound of ginger or pepper, or one sheep
3 gp One pig
4 gp One square yard of linen
5 gp One pound of salt or silver
10 gp One square yard of silk, or one cow
15 gp One pound of saffron or cloves, or one ox
50 gp One pound of gold
500 gp One pound of platinum

SELLING TREASURE
In general, a character can sell something for half its listed price, including weapons, armor, gear, and magic items. This also includes character-created items.
Trade goods are the exception to the half-price rule. A trade good, in this sense, is a valuable good that can be easily exchanged almost as if it were cash itself.

There you go.


Mauril wrote:

According to RAW:

Quote:


So your gold ingots, paintings and gems are usually full price. Obviously, however, all sales prices are determined by the GM and the available economy. Most peasants can't afford, nor care to buy, a Renoir, but might trade you an axe for a pig.

PC: "I'd like to sell this battleaxe +1."

GM: "There's no magic store in town. However, Burgrog is willing to trade you his prize sow."

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