Our group kept the salt mine and are now trying to sell it. What do people think it would be worth?
Thanks
"Tsk... Mine in the middle of jungle... No survey report... I'd be taking a bit of a punt on this... Tell you what I'll give you 500gp as I like you."
Also, while that's happening the rest of the expedition turns up and reminds them that there's something more urgent they should be doing...
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I think it would be worth a few years in court as the legal inheritors of the Fzumi company hear about it and sue them. They don't own the property because they saw it. If anything the Sargavan government holds the deed or needs to sign off on the sale. Considering they are a rival faction they are not going to willingly approve the ownership for the sale to go through, or they levy massive an unreasonable property taxes for the land (Oh- you are the owners? Well the records show your property tax hasn't been paid for the last 25 years.) This is well within their hands to manipulate through bureaucracy and red tape. Let them tie it up to prevent their rivals from getting ahead.
Our group kept the salt mine and are now trying to sell it. What do people think it would be worth?
Thanks
you should look at them calmly and say "so let me get this straight?, you want to sit here?, in the middle of nowhere, haggling with a bunch of merchants over a salt mine? (not the only one around either), rather then trying to be the first expedition to reach A LOST CITY!!!!.
if they still say "yes", calmly pack everything up and leave. continuing any further is just going to be a waste of your time. LOL
If they've been able to make a legitimate claim to it why are they trying to sell it? In a world without refrigeration a salt mine is literally worth it's weight in gold.
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Our group kept the salt mine and are now trying to sell it. What do people think it would be worth?
Pretty high I'd think. It's contents are valued the same as silver, and it's absolutely needed to sustain life.
With that in mind assuming they still want to sell it their biggest worry would be finding someone with enough money to actually purchase it.
If they've been able to make a legitimate claim to it why are they trying to sell it? In a world without refrigeration a salt mine is literally worth it's weight in gold.
Indeed, its weight in gold. That is one more of those oddities along with pyramids that can be found all over the world. Just the same way, gold was always traded for salt weight by weight both sides of the atlantic.
Sorry to go necro on this thread, but I am trying to estimate the value of the mine at the moment. The group might be able to sell the mine some time later in the adventure path or let their faction do the haggling when they've finally met up with them at the ruins. This way or another I am sure that my players will want to see some gold.
So what might be a reasonable price for it?
Here's a couple metrics you can use:
In Sargava:the Lost Colony, there's price lists for players to buy noble titles in Sargava, giving different prices for a given acreage of different types of land. You can call that the 'market value' for land in sargava then just make a judgement call as to how much of what kind of land the mine's equivelent to.
For a more math based extrapolation - Establish a rule of thumb of how long a buyer would want to wait before an investement turned a profit, then use that to figure out the current value from the income it could generate. For example, say a farm yeilded a net profit of 10gp a year. Also say a buyer wouldn't want to have to wait more than 5 years to get his money back and start making a profit. 5years x10gp = 500gp, so you could sell the farm for 500gp.
So, figure out how much the mine could earn, and you can figure it's current worth (and it's good to know that anyway, incase the PC want to run it rather than sell it)
You could try using the rules in Kingmaker, since that's the closest Pathfinder gets to land overnship rules. In Kingmarker, a "resource" in a hex (like a mine) is worth a +1 on economy checks. That +1 bonus roughly equates to 1/5th of a Kingmaker Build Point per month. A BP is worth either 4k or 2k GP, depending if you're putting in or taking out. I'd use 2kgp since you're taking out (and you have to figure in overhead), which would mean that mine could be worth 400gp a month. In KM claiming a hex from the wild costs 1BP, and developing the farms and communities you need to cover the consumption for maintaning control costs 4BP in hilly terrain, so that's 5BP, or about 20kgp.
So, you could say it'd take a speculator about 50 months to get the mine on a paying basis, even if they got it for free - Because that's what it'll cost to build a village for the miners, farms to feed the miners, and troops to protect the miners and the trade rout to get the product to market in Eleder.
That's a little over 4 years. Will they find a buyer who wants to go through all that? Maybe that's the reason the mine's been abandoned this long to begin with!
But say they can find someone comfortable getting a very profitable mine in 5 years, that's 60 months. 50 months goes just to the start-up costs. So 10 months income would be what the investor would play the PCs for the Deed. 400gp x10 = 4000gp
So, you can make a rules argument that the deed could worth 4,000gp. (which I think is actually also about what you'd end up with useing the prices for titles in Sargava:The Lost Colony)
Another way to do it is extrapolate something from the Profession(miner) skill. Say the mine lets you use that skill at a +5 bonus or something, then calculate the average income taking 10, then use that to find current value.
I hope any of that give you more what you're after. I know in my campaing I'm doing it as a mashup with Kingmaker, so I used the deed a a plot device to let them claim thier first Hex in the Sargavan wild lands.
Thank you very much, Asphesteros! I think the Kingmaker mechanics work really well to determine the value and this will help me and my players a LOT to avoid discussions.
We've hit the same issue and I've had to mull this over as well.
I looked at page 22 table in Sargava: The Lost Colony and I don't quiet see an obvious match up. I've gone with Rocky Scrub and figure that its the value of the land and not the potential mineral value which should be added on top. Theres no total size of the mine, but given it saves time it should be quiet sizable (Note 1 square mile = 640 acres). I've decided to make it one square mile so its base land value of the site is going to be rounded down to 1200gp.
There's no real information on the mineral potential of the site so its really up to the GM to decide what it is. Looking a bit ahead I don't think its going to be a long term investment site as the group should be focused on racing to Saventh-Yhi and winning it. Thats books 2 & 3, which probably means they group will just sell it so its really a case of how much of an instant cash boost do I want them to have. Maybe I just say its got a price range of 5-10k. How much of that they get will depend on how much time they're willing to spend finding a buyer and their sell rolls (Appraise/Diplomacy).
My group are naturally world builders so I'm thinking maybe I don't make it so simple and have them work to find the value. I figure they'll need to spend a full day appraising the site to work out the mineral potential and therefore its value (appraise/profession miner check). I'll give them the option of paying an expert in Kalabuto to do it for them, which gives NPCs like NKechni and Cheiton a chance to contribute to the group. If I go this way given we're going to be spending game time on it so it has to be worthwhile. I think I'll expand the potential price range (say 5-20k) and throw in some luck rolls for the more valuable minerals to tempt them to keep the site.
Could make for some interesting role play choices as the group could get the mine up cheaper and extract the rare minerals (eg: Mithral) cheaper by exploiting the locals. Or the good guys could step to fore and run it fairly, potentially using it to create a small village where the locals are well treated and looked after. Some good roleplay potential here.