A standard trope of fantasy is the traveling shop, a magic shop that while it isn't always there, once it's there, it's always been there.
My favorite version is the Discworld version, but the concept is one I've always been fond of. Some magic, greater than the players can comprehend has cursed the operator of the shop to serve adventurers by appearing in the town and offering them various magical goods for reasonable prices. Occasionally the items are more than they bargained for, but rarely are such items actually dangerous, just a little unusual. Asking for a refund generally won't work, because by the time you return to the place where you entered the shop, it won't have been there anymore.
So, does this fit into Golarion, specifically into some of the APs as a way for the players to get access to magic items that they otherwise couldn't find?
If the GM (you I assume) wants it to, then it can fit right in. Although I can't think of anything similar in any Golarian sources that I have read, that doesn't mean that such a place is impossible or could never occur there.
You don't even have to have a curse involved or anything, you could simply make it run by a Mercane who comes and goes at his own whims (perhaps with a plane traveling wagon that is larger on the inside then on the out, which can serve as his shop).
Not only does it fit, there's an extraplanar creature in beastiary 2 (mercane) that is basically this idea personified. They plane shift around the multiverse buying and selling (but mostly buying) for their own inscrutable reasons.
Sounds like a Varisian caravan ;)
Having gone to my FLGS and read the entry on Mercane, that's similar to what I was looking for.
I'm thinking perhaps a mercane in a magic disguise, who takes over empty shops in small villages to avoid attention.
I think I still prefer the idea of the shop appearing on a blank wall, and the locals remembering it had always been there, at least until it's gone. Not sure what sort of additional magic that would require.
Any suggestions?
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It would fit if you want it to fit. Golarion is very flexible world setting. It is fairly easy to make most anything fit. It also sounds a lot like something Rite Publishing did with one of their books. A very good book I might add. Evocative City Sites: Kavit M. Tor’s Emporium of Collectible Curiosities, you can find it for sale here on Paizo.
Having something that edits itself into and out of people's memories is big magic on the order of a Wish to create such powerful Mass Suggestion, and may additionally be even more powerful if it somehow edits itself into historic paintings of an area, etc.
An easier and simpler thing is simply to have a tent that's bigger inside than outside or simply have the magic peddler purchase a shop in a town where he wants to operate in and open the shop the same as any other business. If the mercane wants the whole "this shop has been here for years" vibe to be going on, the best bet is for the shop to have actually been there for years and the shopkeeper to be a Simulacrum sent there by the Mercane to do decorating and set up the right ambiance.
So, twenty years ago a simulacrum goes into town, buys a shop, opens up a shop dealing in antiques and curios, and finally the Mercane goes in stepping into the role he's instructed his sleeper to fulfill. The locals are all "Oh, that old shop? That's been there for years. I bought a dresser there in fact." But strange and wondrous stuff can actually happen there now.
Interesting thought. Definitely not quite the level I was thinking. Given how suggestion works, I'm not sure if a suggestion "remember that this shop was always here." is an unreasonable magical property of a traveling shop.
Though looking at the spells, it seems like it would be closer to demand than suggestion, since it's an area effect. Which would probably take it out of the realm of reasonable.
If the magic makes people believe the shop was always here, what happens in societies that have such regular things as city maps and tax records? Is it magically edited in? What happens when the local thieves guild goes to collect protection money, or are they like the tax collectors? What do the town gossips who know everything about everyone say when asked about the shopkeeper, who, for someone who's lived here for ages, doesn't apparently get out much?
Sounds like a variation on the Antipathy 9th level spell. Non-adventurous humans prefer to not even think about let alone approach the new shop, easier to dismiss it as always been there and safe to ignore.
However, I don't recall ever running into the always been there version of the travelling shop, except one that a town actually grew up around, all locals aware of and bored by the supernatural stall moving around as it pleases.
In any case, its creepy and low key enough to easily fit in with the rest of Golarion imho.
Instead of a spell that makes people remember it as always being there, wouldn't it be easier to have an illusion make the place seem empty to all but the prospective customer.
Then you just need an illusion enchantment with a limitation (not versus the fated customer).