Scribing a scroll for a third level spell takes one day, costs 325 gp, and will earn 750 gp if the scroll is sold for cash. That's 325 profit: nice. So the question becomes, how many times can this be done before the market is saturated?It's not a hypothetical question. I have a 5th level cleric of Abadar IMC. The player has pointed out that Abadar would want him to engage in trade for profit, and I can hardly disagree. He has access to all third level clerical spells, so he can pick whatever there's a demand for.
The economics of this can be pretty alarming. He'll fail his check on a 1, and I've ruled that the temple of Abadar takes a 10% cut of all scroll sales. His average return on investment is still going to be 70%. Every month he can scribe 30 scrolls worth 750 each, for a total gross income of 22500. Deduct 11250 for his expenses, 2250 for the temple's cut, and (average) 1175 for scrolls ruined by a bad roll, and he's still taking home 7825 gp per month, net. For a 5th level character, that seems like a lot.
Okay, at some point there will be no more market for scrolls of 3rd level cleric spells. In a normal economy, the laws of supply and demand would cause the price of scrolls to fall until it's not worth producing them any more. However, the D&D economy operates under strict price controls; a 3rd level scroll always costs 325 gp to make and always sells for 750. Also, the PC is in a large city, so it's reasonable to assume that demand is not yet slaked.
Am I missing something? Has anyone else run into this issue in their campaigns?
Doug M.
Doug this game is make believe......BTW....magic isn't real either but it makes the game cool. Don't sweat the economic theory.
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I guess it depends on whether you will allow him to sell the scrolls for full price, rather than the 1/2 of total that usually happens.
Plus, I would also see the temple taking a bigger cut than 10%, rather than letting the cleric profit off the divine blessings of Abadar. Probably would average his net gain out to 1/2 of total in the end.
Also, now he isn't adventuring, which basically makes the character an NPC. Would you want to take it over as the GM?
[Edited: Misread that it's another players character, not yours.]
I use the boring approach: If the PCs want to engage in mercantile behaviour, they can do so by making Profession (merchant) checks.
So maybe he sells a scroll for 375 gp gross profit, but there are advertising expenses, guild expenses (perhaps), bribes, building rental, etc. The end result? His net profit is what the Profession (merchant) die roll dictates.
Here's a few thoughts:
If he's selling them himself, then he'll have to deal with:
- Paying for a storefront, probably rental
- Business expenses (lamp oil for the store)
- Clerk(s) to work the front desk, so that he's not constantly disturbed by customers.
- Theft by said employee(s)
- City taxes
- "Protection" from the local Thieves' Guild.
- Having a stock of the scrolls that are actually wanted.
If he's going through a reseller, there will be a cut taken by the merchant that he's providing the scrolls to... and a not insubstantial one, considering that the reseller's going to need enough to make enough of a profit to make it worth his while.
Here's a few thoughts:
If he's selling them himself, then he'll have to deal with:
- Paying for a storefront, probably rental
- Business expenses (lamp oil for the store)
- Clerk(s) to work the front desk, so that he's not constantly disturbed by customers.
- Theft by said employee(s)
- City taxes
- "Protection" from the local Thieves' Guild.
- Having a stock of the scrolls that are actually wanted.If he's going through a reseller, there will be a cut taken by the merchant that he's providing the scrolls to... and a not insubstantial one, considering that the reseller's going to need enough to make enough of a profit to make it worth his while.
*chuckle*
Pathfinder: Retail Outlets of the Inner Sea
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There is a very nifty rule that says that a PC can sell any item in his possession that isn't jewlery or art or gems for HALF the price of the new item on the market. This rule exists specifically so that players can't profit from magic item crafting.
Granted, diplomacy can bring this price up to 75% of the price, but still, not too much of an earning.
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Scribing a scroll for a third level spell takes one day, costs 325 gp, and will earn 750 gp if the scroll is sold for cash. That's 325 profit: nice. So the question becomes, how many times can this be done before the market is saturated?
I might be wrong here, but the numbers seem to be off.
Scribing a third level cleric scroll costs 162.5 gp. A third level cleric scroll can be sold for 162.5 gp. The character would just waste his time without making a profit.The only way a character could make money through magic item creation would be the Hedge Magician trait and even than he would only make about 8 gp a day.
I've got to say, if the player was determined to do this, I'd let them... but I'd require two things, if the business was expected to be successful:
- significant down time, to build up stock. If the character wanted to keep adventuring, it might be as a lower level than the other characters.
- small profit margins. After all, most retail shopkeepers aren't outrageously wealthy. There would definitely be a steady income from the store, but it'd be measured in silver-per-week, not platinum.
There is a very nifty rule that says that a PC can sell any item in his possession that isn't jewlery or art or gems for HALF the price of the new item on the market. This rule exists specifically so that players can't profit from magic item crafting.
Granted, diplomacy can bring this price up to 75% of the price, but still, not too much of an earning.
I think that's assuming the PC is selling to a merchant, not acting as the merchant.
If the PC wanted to act as the merchant, then he could sell for full price. Or free. Or whatever he wanted, because he's the merchant.
If you want to sell stuff quickly, you get 50% - which is what making the stuff costs in the first place.
If he desperately needs to kill time, fine, scribe your brains out.
If you want to make more money, you need to find a real buyer. Or at least pay someone to find a real buyer. The latter means you'll make less money, but you don't have to spend the time.
Anyway, even if you use a broker, he doesn't get the money at once. The other guy still has to find customers.
You might be able to do a scroll or two each day, but that doesn't mean you can sell that many.
The world is safe for another day.
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First, as covered above, the PC can only sell magic items for half price. So unless supply/demand has driven the market price above 100%, there is no profit.
Second, the above could reasonably be overcome if the characters primary focus was to make a profit. This means he devotes all his productive hours on scribing scrolls. Thus, he has little time to adventure. Again, its been discussed above.
I might be wrong here, but the numbers seem to be off.
Scribing a third level cleric scroll costs 162.5 gp. A third level cleric scroll can be sold for 162.5 gp.Where are you getting your numbers from?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items#TOC-Creating-Scrolls says that a 3rd level cleric scroll costs 12.5 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster.
Doug M.
For a 3rd-level scroll for clerics, that's 12.5 x 3 x 5.
That's not 162.5.
It's not 325, either. And 325 has no real relation to 750. Certainly not "is half of".
It's 187,5. Which is half for what they cost on the market, 375.
Your guys' math teachers must be very proud! ;-P
So, can we all stop miscorrecting each other's maths and go back to ridiculing each other's gaming styles again? :P
There are two cost-effective methods to really rake in the cash hand over fist. The first requires a general feat that can be taken at 3rd level and, effectively, results in a monthly RoI of 6.25%. Look this one up at your liesure.
The second and far more lucrative is via Craft (jewelry), the fabricate spell and a respectable initial investment in the appropriate "raw materials".
At 9th level you invest half of the difference in WBL going from 8th to 9th in appropriate raw materials - 6,500 gp. You in turn sell this bling for three times this amount in jewelry (cash): 19,500 gp. Rinse, lather, repeat every month of game time.
First month: 6,500 = 19,500. Set aside 10,000 to make more bling in the second month, pocket the 9,500.
Second month: 10,000 = 30,000.
Third month: 30,000 = 90,000.
Fourth month: 90,000 = 270,000.
Fifth month: 270,000 = 810,000.
Sixth month: 810,000 = 2,430,000.
Seventh month: 7,290,000 gp.
Eight month: 21,870,000 gp. Sharing the wealth with your fellow player characters, the entire party are now "5 million GP men" (5,467,500 gp each) with a bit less than half a million gp in "spending money". You have a good time in Absalom on 27,500 gp for expensive food, even more expensive libations and *extremely* expensive call girls/boys/toys. The other 450,000 you invest into ... something.
Granted, this doesn't account for how long it takes to actually sell 30 some-odd million GP of jewelry ... oh wait, it's cash, NO ONE CARES! ^_^
We now return to our regularly scheduled madness, already in progress.
*chuckle*
Pathfinder: Retail Outlets of the Inner Sea
I'm waiting for the adventure path were the PCs start off with a market stall and end up opening up a mall in Kaer Maga...
I'm waiting for the adventure path were the PCs start off with a market stall and end up opening up a mall in Kaer Maga...
*chuckle*
Pathfinder: Retail Outlets of the Inner Sea
I hope it has a pinkberry!!
Well, consider the fact that the pc with the same down time could simply be adding scrolls for his own use to his gear. Assume the PC just kept the scrolls he created instead of sold them. He now has the same increase in wealth (actually more) then if he was selling them as described by the OP.
This is equipment he could use, presumably targeted to spells he would want to have scrolls of when adventuring. If you have a problem with the PC gaining X wealth in gold, why is it not a problem if he gains X wealth in gear? Is there something the PC could buy that he couldnt make himself if he took say craft wonderous item instead of craft scroll?
It seems to me the pc is following the roleplay applications of his background and is actually giving the dm more control over his characters wealth then he would have if he just made his own gear. He could easily spend the same downtime and investment money crafting armor or weapons, or wonderous items that would be equally valuable to himself or his party then the gold gotten from this trade. And instead the dm can control what magic items are available for sale reducing the value of that gold when compared to just crafting useful items.
It seems to me if you are not ok with this increase wealth and dont want to adjust how much down time there is in your campaign, you shouldn't allow the crafting feats.
Yeah, except that we've already stipulated that the temple handles all that. God of trade, yeah?
I could increase the temple's cut to maybe 20%. But more than that would seem excessive, given that they have no manufacturing costs and no overhead beyond running the storefront.
If you've already stipulated that the temple does this, the you've got all of the NPC clerics who can do this in their down-time. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, your PC should, at best, be allowed to do this as part of/in place of tithing.
I've got a character with essentially the same issue; my solution is, sadly, not one that you can force on a player.
But what I do is track wealth-by-level - and anything over that is spent exclusively on stuff that's shiny, but not really adventuring-useful. Like the 1k/month level of living expenses. Or building a clockwork horse to ride around on. Or assembling expensive gifts to secure the favor of various nobles in the area. Etc.
...Of course, I'm also playing a wizard with a wisdom of 8, which makes it rather easier to justify dropping large amounts of gold on frivolous things.
My campaign assumes modest amounts of downtime -- the PCs hang around town for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks between adventures. So he wouldn't be doing this for a year at a time.
But he could totally do the scroll thing for a month, make 3000 gp, and go right back to adventuring.
If you use the Profession (merchant) skill, then he can make about 60 gp in a month (assuming he hasn't invested any ranks in that skill). Maybe that means his costs were higher than anticipated, or demand was just not that high, or that someone embezzled from him, or what have you.
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I think you do not need to worry about saturation. Demand is a funny thing and the most expensive thing may not be the most lucrative. The temple can make demands on the spells they will sell as they are the most popular. Hey what a surprise 1st level spells are the most popular. The bishop scribes the 3rd level scrolls himself as he wants that cash himself and he gets the bishop's discount on sales.
During festivals faithful can get sale prices to clear out some of the unpopular scrolls that have been donated or written by stubborn priests. That sale price is for 72% of market price.
Since he does not control the store he does not control his cash flow. That means some of his scrolls might not sell for a long time. The church could have a vast store of scrolls and slowly be working through them. Then when his level calls for it his scrolls sell.
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Am I missing something? Has anyone else run into this issue in their campaigns?
The economic system is designed solely for the purpose of providing rules for adventurers buying/making stuff for their own use and selling stuff that they don't want. All of this assumes that they are dealing with an undifferentiated market that is effectively in balance. When PCs go into business, the simplicity of the system is clearly demonstrated...the game isn't designed to do that. If you want to run a robust economic market, your game of Dollars & Donuts will need rules appropriate to a game on that topic.
Market saturation stuff is fine for the purpose of providing story lines and motivation. If players want to run businesses, maybe they need a Ferengi campaign. :)
Scribing a scroll for a third level spell takes one day, costs 325 gp, and will earn 750 gp if the scroll is sold for cash. That's 325 profit: nice. So the question becomes, how many times can this be done before the market is saturated?
It's not a hypothetical question. I have a 5th level cleric of Abadar IMC. The player has pointed out that Abadar would want him to engage in trade for profit, and I can hardly disagree. He has access to all third level clerical spells, so he can pick whatever there's a demand for.
The economics of this can be pretty alarming. He'll fail his check on a 1, and I've ruled that the temple of Abadar takes a 10% cut of all scroll sales. His average return on investment is still going to be 70%. Every month he can scribe 30 scrolls worth 750 each, for a total gross income of 22500. Deduct 11250 for his expenses, 2250 for the temple's cut, and (average) 1175 for scrolls ruined by a bad roll, and he's still taking home 7825 gp per month, net. For a 5th level character, that seems like a lot.
Okay, at some point there will be no more market for scrolls of 3rd level cleric spells. In a normal economy, the laws of supply and demand would cause the price of scrolls to fall until it's not worth producing them any more. However, the D&D economy operates under strict price controls; a 3rd level scroll always costs 325 gp to make and always sells for 750. Also, the PC is in a large city, so it's reasonable to assume that demand is not yet slaked.
Am I missing something? Has anyone else run into this issue in their campaigns?
Doug M.
By the rules of the game items are sold for half price. That is done so the players don't find a way to get more gold than the GM wants them to have. If he spends 100 gp to make something and sells it for 100 gp he will never make a profit.
Given the 50 % rule if would suggest to your character to search for the right markets:
- A town thats attacked on a regular base might pay quite well for a scroll of Flame Arrow to arm the militia.
-A scroll of consecrate is just the right thing for the aspiring undead hunter in complicated circumstances.
-Your town wall is broken, and you already see the barbarian invaders on the horrizon? Try Stone Shape ^^
Man, apparently everyone hates for PCs to make money. Bunch of socialists iffin ya ask me!
Whatever. If I were a GM and MY player wanted to do this, I would rule that the size of the town determines how many scrolls a week (or month) could reasonably be bought. I would also allow things like this to go on commission. Scribe 3 scrolls, commission them for the week. At the end of the week (or next time the PC is in town), collect a sum equal to:
COST_OF_SCROLL + (RETAIL_VALUE - COST_OF_SCROLL) * rand(d100)% per scroll.
I would look at the sizes of the villages, say maybe 1 in 50 people need a level 1 scroll per week, 1 in 150 people need a level 2 scroll per week, 1 in 500 people need a level 3 scroll per week. (feel free to adjust this as you see fit)
Settlement Type->Population Range
Thorp----------->Fewer than 20
Hamlet---------->21–60
Village---------->61–200
Small town----->201–2,000
Large town----->2,001–5,000
Small city------>5,001–10,000
Large city------>10,001–25,000
Metropolis------>More than 25,000
Based off these settlement size, you could say
Settlement Type->Population Range
Thorp----------->0 Scrolls
Hamlet---------->.5 - 1 Lvl 1 Scrolls/wk
Village---------->1 - 4 Lvl 1 Scrolls/wk, .25 - 1.3 Lvl 2 Scrolls/wk
Small town----->4 - 40 Lvl 1 Scrolls/wk, 1.3 - 13.3 Lvl 2 Scrolls/wk, .2 - 4 Lvl 3 Scrolls/wk
Large town----->etc
Small city------>etc
Large city------>etc
Metropolis------>etc
And use fractional totals to accumulate over a number of weeks until it breaches 1.
At the very least, if your players become bored or annoyed with this guy churning out scrolls instead of adventuring, it wasn't a very difficult system to set up, and they'll quickly get the hint that if they want a second day job, they could have it. Alternatively, I see no reason why a cleric of Abadar wouldn't scratch out a few scrolls when the party has down time to earn a little extra pocket change.
+1 to using Profession checks instead. If you think there should be more or less profit to the plan based on using craft feats or spells, then give a circumstance bonus to the roll. As others have said, there's possible bribery, tax, overhead, networking, tithe, etc costs that could easily drop the profit to the sane pro-adventuring levels of the existing downtime profit skills.
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Man, apparently everyone hates for PCs to make money. Bunch of socialists iffin ya ask me!
I'm fine with PCs making money by non-adventure activity. I just don't want to game it with a game that isn't designed for it. And I don't want to GM it. More power to those who do and want to invest the time for that type of gaming.
Howie the socialist, control-freak GM. :D
COST_OF_SCROLL + (RETAIL_VALUE - COST_OF_SCROLL) * rand(d100)% per scroll.
So selling a scroll of True Resurrection *could* yield 1,455,662 gold and 5 silver?
Why not hire an army of wizards -- or even better, set up a wizard school (they pay *you* for the labor) -- to do this?!
Screw adventuring. Time to become the headmaster. . .
Screw adventuring. Time to become the headmaster. . .
That's all find and dandy, until a former pupil, this faceless Evil, whose name I will not utter here, decides to finish killing off a young wizard lad, that he orphaned years earlier.
Hmmm. Sounds like its time for an adventure after all.
Hmmm. Sounds like its time for an adventure after all.
Well, at least until I roll a 100 on my d100. Then, it's time for a permanent vacation.
+1 to using Profession checks instead. If you think there should be more or less profit to the plan based on using craft feats or spells, then give a circumstance bonus to the roll. As others have said, there's possible bribery, tax, overhead, networking, tithe, etc costs that could easily drop the profit to the sane pro-adventuring levels of the existing downtime profit skills.After about 3rd level, the amount of money you make off a Profession skill isn't even worth the effort to roll the d20, let alone consider all the bonuses and calculate the end result.
Absolutely. Which would be my not-so-subtle way of telling the players "merchants -- even merchants of high ticket items like potions, scrolls, etc. -- basically make peanuts compared to adventurers, so let's not worry too much about that part of the game".
In the game I'm playing in, we opened a shop in the main town in the area of the country we are in.
We built our own smithy outside town.
We hired a guy to run the shop for us, and a guy to build stuff in the smithy.
We take any items we don't want and put them in the store. We then wait for people to come by and buy them for 75-125% of full price.
If we need cash now, we take them out of the store and sell them to another store in town for 50-75% of base price.
We pay the salary of the shop clerk and the blacksmith.
If we have some down time, those with craft skills craft something (anything from weapons to scrolls to rope to clothes) and then we put them in the shop before we head out again.
It's a steady stream of gold, but it's not Gold Right Now! We postpone our pay out but get more down the road.
It's working well so far.
Sure the person can make some good money if he can sell anything. I would look at the settlement rules.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/settlements.html
Even a large city only has 4d4 minor items for sell so there is no way that same location can buy a lot of anything. The group (AKA hero's) are just about the only group than will ever need or want a level 3 spell.
Sure the person can make some good money if he can sell anything. I would look at the settlement rules.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/settlements.html
Even a large city only has 4d4 minor items for sell so there is no way that same location can buy a lot of anything. The group (AKA hero's) are just about the only group than will ever need or want a level 3 spell.
Oh, I don't know, a scroll of Wish or Resurrection is probably a highly-desired item.
Of course, Joe Schmoe can't afford those, it would take a very wealthy individual to even desire such a thing. Someone who would have to commission the PCs. Someone controlled by the GM.
So, for scrolls that sell for too much, you have an automatic control on how much is sold.
COST_OF_SCROLL + (RETAIL_VALUE - COST_OF_SCROLL) * rand(d100)% per scroll.So selling a scroll of True Resurrection *could* yield 1,455,662 gold and 5 silver?
Why not hire an army of wizards -- or even better, set up a wizard school (they pay *you* for the labor) -- to do this?!
Screw adventuring. Time to become the headmaster. . .
I don't believe I follow your math at all. Could you explain it to me?
To maybe put together some other people's ideas:
You have to account for demand. Not every scroll he decides to make will necessarily sell. A lot of spells have little use to non adventure types.
And account for supply. The church may well have several people making these in demand scrolls and a few more obscure ones for the odd sale. How many would they even require your cleric to make?
A purify water spell may be common enough to provide steady income. But the odds of someone buying your high level scroll should be randomly determined with a low chance of occurring over even a few years perhaps.
I've ruled that the temple of Abadar takes a 10% cut of all scroll sales. His average return on investment is still going to be 70%.
Raise the cut. There are lots of good reasons...maybe the temple could realize that they aren't selling enough of them, so overhead costs are going up (or, maybe they'll still sell the scrolls, but they'll pay the PC "soon"). Or an enterprising group of NPC clerics offered to pay a 30% tithe in return for exclusive rights to sell scrolls at the temple - the PC can join in if he/she wants, but otherwise the temple shop is now exclusive access. Or you quietly set the saturation to keep the PC within something like wealth/level guidelines, and reduce the gold from the adventuring.
Alternatively, you could do something like "hey, not that many people can use scrolls. So for purposes of scroll sales, any town is three size categories smaller." And put some sort of limit on sales from there.
Or maybe (just a suggestion) you take the player aside and have a discussion about what this game is and isn't, admit you made a mistake on that ruling, and you go on with the part of the game that is fun for everyone. Because if abusing the system horribly doesn't get old for your players (once they see that's what they are doing), you might need new ones.
Also, if you need more reasons, TAXES.
On a side note, what is the market for 3rd-level divine scrolls? Sit down and think about who can use them:
1) divine spellcasters...of what god? Would clerics of other deities really shop at Abadar instead of keeping the funds within their own temple? Besides, only those below 5th level are interested, since most higher-levels could scribe their own or know someone who would do it for them (scribe scroll isn't exactly a high-prerequisite feat). So maybe you've got druids interested? Those that really want to come shop in a large city?
2) people with UMD... I'd assume that's WAY less than 1% of the population, probably closer to 1/1000 (most NPCs are commoners, not adventurers, and don't have skill points to spare. Even most adventurers may not have this ability, PFS percentages notwithstanding).
Who did I miss? Is it really a large market that isn't saturated at, like, two scrolls? It's not like arcane magic, where you could imagine even high-level wizards being interested in your scroll of Magical Whatsamajig that they don't have in their spellbook...
Now, if you make the above arguments, do be prepared for the PC to pick up Brew Potion. That is a skill that at least makes sense to make money with - after all, anyone can use a potion.
The really big thing is that a huge portion of the population cannot even afford to buy scrolls in most 'medieval' style sterotypical game worlds. And also remember that the only ones buying scrolls are people who can USE the scrolls somehow (other divine casters in this case and folks with good UMD).
While he can make scrolls very easily, CASTING most spells costs nothing but effort. Scrolls require expensive resources that most people simply cannot afford and those who can afford and USE the spells, will often be able to cast spells themselves.
Markets should get saturated very quickly, especially in big cities where there will already BE scroll crafters making a living (and who probably will not like some adventuring punk traveling through and undermining their livelyhood).
In the end, how much he can make is directly proportional to how much 'free' cash your comfortable to him getting from this feat in your game. All the economic theory falls to poop when applied to a GAME that has fiscal restrictions as part of game balance.
If your world simulation, then resign yourself to wealth by level going out the window with creative players and get ready to alter encounters appropriately. If your more comfortable with Wealth by Level as a balancer, then limit demand.
After all, EVERYONE would love a scroll of almost any spell. But few can afford them, in general, and fewer yet can USE them.
I don't believe I follow your math at all. Could you explain it to me?
Yeah I think I borked up the math on this one |: I think I counted the material component of the scroll as half as much. . .
Using that formula and a scroll of true resurrection
COST_OF_SCROLL + (RETAIL_VALUE - COST_OF_SCROLL) * rand(d100)% per scroll would be:
26912.5 gp + (28,825 gp - 26912.5) * 100 =
26912.5 gp + (1912.5) * 100
So that's only 218162.5 gp on a 100, which is a markup of around 8.4 times.
I don't believe I follow your math at all. Could you explain it to me?Yeah I think I borked up the math on this one |: I think I counted the material component of the scroll as half as much. . .
Using that formula and a scroll of true resurrection
COST_OF_SCROLL + (RETAIL_VALUE - COST_OF_SCROLL) * rand(d100)% per scroll would be:
26912.5 gp + (28,825 gp - 26912.5) * 100 =
26912.5 gp + (1912.5) * 100
So that's only 218162.5 gp on a 100, which is a markup of around 8.4 times.
Yeah see, I think I know what you did. 100% is like multiplying by 1 not 100
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Looking at it from the side... most dms want to restrict the amount of money that a character has because an increase in money often correlates to an increase in power, which upsets the challenge rating system and generally makes the whole game harder to balance/play for the dm.
Unfortunately, many dms also choose to make these balancing decisions without informing the players as to why he's making them. Pass the concept onto your player.
Then let him know that his God does want him to involve himself in trade for the temple. However, in this regard he is acting as an agent of the temple and does not get to keep the monetary profits for himself. Those are for the temple itself. He'll be covered for crafting costs only. However, his God will "reward him in blessings" for his work, which may have rewards down the road for him.
Doug this game is make believe......BTW....magic isn't real either but it makes the game cool. Don't sweat the economic theory.
Not helpful. I've had several players who find trading and getting rich on the side to be central to their fun. I don't particularly get how it's fun either, but I respect their fun and try to meet their needs. The OP has a question, try to be productive in answering it.
I've used some d20 supplements on ships that have had good tables for selling tonnes of wheat and such, including magic items. But individual scrolls? Supply and demand based on the danger of the area and the number of potential buyers.