My group are about to enter book 5 and as far as I can tell there are no ways of buying items above 14,400gp (Vyre limit)
Is this right ? Are they supposed to rely on crafting (they don’t have an magical crafting feats)
Connected to this are there rules on limits for enhancing existing items in cities or is it down to the GM? So could a player handover an item and get 14000 gp worth of enhancements if they had 2 weeks to spare?
At that point in the AP, the players probably have teleportation magic, or shadow walk; an ally in Sargaeta; connections to noble families who have further connections throughout the Inner Sea region, or other sea-faring friends. As long as they spend some time, I'd allow them to buy some big-ticket items.
I always try to connect the first couple big purchases to a roleplay opportunity. One of my players positioned themselves to became the New Newt at the black market and kind of glad-handed a bunch of nobles into procuring items for the Silver Ravens. So I think between some easy skill checks and a couple of scenes, they were able to then buy whatever they wanted. I put like a 34,000 gp limit on individual items.
The New Newt was also a crafter, so I didn't feel like I had to open up the market to the point where they could buy anything they wanted.
City stats don't allow for many high-level magic items so you can either handwave it and pretend that the city (or Vyre) has what the group needs, take xrayregime's advice (which I quite like), or make them special order items from crafters they can contact then make them wait until the right amount of time has passed.
Personally, I prefer to (mostly) handwave it once the players have a sensible way for them to get things. (Eg: My players had a good relationship with Manticce Kaleekii over in Vyre so she was able to procure a lot of the things the group was looking for. They also had Ravzee and his group working for them, and a lot of high-level NPCs willing to help them.)
I had my players teleporting to Absalom, and then later plane shifting to the City of Brass, for purchasing magic items in the later books.