Have your PCs ever sold magic items?

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Magic items command very high prices (especially in the 1E books!). But have you ever had PCs actually sell magic items? For example, has anyone here ever been in a game where a fighter found a vorpal sword and decided to sell it for the 50,000 gp it's listed as in the DMG?

I can't say I recall any PCs in my games ever trying to sell magic items. They may have used minor ones (scrolls, potions) as bribes once in a rare while, or in trade for something vital to their adventure (ie a cure for a disease or healing the seriously wounded).

At higher levels they've gifted followers with relatively "minor" magic items (ie a 15th level fighter who already has a sword, +3 frost brand finds a sword, +1 and gives it to one of his henchmen/followers).

But I can't recall them ever really selling magic items simply to generate cash. They always seem to feel that the magic item is worth more than the cash value.

What have the rest of you experienced in your games?

[Mira]

It happened quite often in my games, but I did run a pretty high magic game. I only looked at the prices in the books to get a baseline when I wasn't really sure though, in most cases, the prices were very different. I had my own tables for the merchants, and they went with the idea of what was popular and what wasn't for the region. The general rule of thumb I went with for buying and selling was to buy at 30% less than what the normal value was, and sell at 30% higher than it was worth. (I did have some allowance for haggling, but my players never figured that out )

In Haven, I took things a step further, magic in that city had to be licensed. Every magic item sold needed to have a tag from the mage's guild that verified what it was. So the cost of identifying an item wasn't real cheap, it might even be more than you could get by selling it None of the PCs wanted to put up with the rules of the mages guild, so none of them became guild members. Contrast that with the eccentric wizard that lived in the backwoods town near the great forest, he'd usually identify things for fairly little (not much above the material cost of the spell), was accurate, and gave bulk rates. The church in that town was an unusual one, they were the only one of that faith and the head cleric was an old adventuring buddy of the wizard. no magic items were sold from there, but spells were cheaper there, though there was usually some kind of service also involved. That seemed to work well for my game. if they really need a Raise Dead or Restoration, they could usually afford to pay for it, but in turn would have to repay the church with some service (ie a lead in to the next adventure )

Mira (How can you tell when your out of invisible ink?)

[garhkal]

I have mad many a magic item sold off, especially to pay for raise and resurections..

[Varl]

They sell off what they don't want, but NPCs tend to be quite pessimistic on whether the item is actually magical, so they often require a demonstration of its power before they buy it, if they're even interested in the magic item in the first place. Most magic items they can't find a buyer for they save for trade for spells they need cast, but even then, sometimes the items aren't desired or require a demonstration by the faith or mage that will be casting the spell(s).

[Jared Synn]

My players are greedy little hoarders!

They save every damned magical item they find, then sell the least powerful stuff, but only in a pinch if they need to (like to pay for a resurrection). Maybe they have some dragons blood in them!

But they sometimes give items to followers and henchmen, but probably only so they can get them back if the follower dies!

[Sir Clarence]

Selling magic items that aren't needed (and buying new ones if possible) is something that nearly all of my players do when in town. The main problem here is that they need to find a buyer who is willing and able to pay the prices listed in the DMG and UA. Very often this is only possible in big cities or capitals with a lot of resident cash. As to the selling of really valuable items: The one that I remember best is the successful sale of a Robe Of Eyes to a powerful wizard who was eager to get it and who paid the full price of 50.000 GP. Now that was a bunch of happy players.

[Hegel]

I allowed the players to do it once and it was a 3E game, so the game got completely out of hand in a while. But usually, the answer is no, they actually are very satisfied to find healing potions I'm not all that bad. Once they found about 300k gold pieces worth in gems and art objetcs, but since they were too deep in undermountain (level 2 or 3 i guess), and their map got confusing, they didn't manage to come back up to the surface.

[Torctref Spleenkiller]

Magic items command very high prices (especially in the 1E books!). But have you ever had PCs actually sell magic items? For example, has anyone here ever been in a game where a fighter found a vorpal sword and decided to sell it for the 50,000 gp it's listed as in the DMG?.....What have the rest of you experienced in your games?

I have had players in the past sell magic items. But the situation was more...If you go to this location and search the crypt, I'll pay "X" amount of gold for this item. So I guess that would be more of contract deal...

If they really wanted to sell magic-items, I'd allow it. But they would have to search out and locate a serious buyer if they wanted to collect anything near full value...

I have had the players use magic items as tools of barter...Give the Lord a +2 Vorpal Long Sword for permission to construct a stronghold on the boundaries of his lands...that sorta thing.

[Torctref Spleenkiller]

The main problem here is that they need to find a buyer who is willing and able to pay the prices listed in the DMG and UA.

I agree totally...In fact why not make an adventure out that...It would probably be mostly roll-playing. Unless there was a group of NPCs that were trying to locate and steal the item that the party was trying to sell...

Oh by the way...great to see you, Sir Clarence.

[Minstrel]

I think they tried to sell some items off now and again. I didn't make it too hard to find a buyer, although I recall once the party got the shaft from a mage using the fool's gold spell.

[Algolei]

I've always tried to limit magic in my games, so when my players have wanted to sell of their magic items, they tended to get screwed on the price.

Player: "This is a +3 sword!"
Buyer: "It's a what now?"
Player: "A magic sword."
Buyer: "Really? Well! I'll give you these 10 magic gold pieces for it!"

[Torctref Spleenkiller]

I've always tried to limit magic in my games, so when my players have wanted to sell of their magic items, they tended to get screwed on the price.

Player: "This is a +3 sword!"
Buyer: "It's a what now?"
Player: "A magic sword."
Buyer: "Really? Well! I'll give you these 10 magic gold pieces for it!"

No...stop...wait...my sides are hurting.

I don't care who you are...that's funny...

[Algolei]

One campaign began with the local lord supplying the 1st-level characters with "whatever they need, within reason." They made a list sort of like this:

1 leather armour +1
3 chainmail +1
2 longswords +1
1 footman's mace +1
1 shortsword +1
etc.

This is what they got:

2 leather armour
4 chainmail
3 longswords
2 footman's maces
2 shortswords
etc.

[Xyzchyx]

Sure... PC's will often sell what they cannot use. Although the price they will get for it is nowhere close to the actual listed price. I tend to cap NPC offers for magic items at about half of their listed worth. On the rare occasions when I've allowed PC's to buy some magic items, I tend to charge at *LEAST* the amount listed, often double or even triple that amount.

[Raimen]

Instead of selling magical items, I usually arrange for a trade and typically for a lesser item. If the PC's are adamant about selling the items, I'll offer them a pittance for it but if they try to buy one I'll drastically overcharge. For example, I had a suit of leather armour +1 going for 5000 GP recently. Having said that, I'll only ever have the most basic of magical items available for sale or for trade, so +1 items and the like. I can't see anyone selling a Holy Avenger or a Staff of the Magi.

[Tarrax Ironwolf]

Years ago my players used to sell magic items like bad time shares. But back then my games were extreme Monty runs. *holds head down in shame*

But by the time I was out of high school, my campaign world began to change when it came to magic item acquisition. With each new group the appearance of magic items dropped in my game by 30-40% (I've only had 3 new groups since the original). Now magic items are highly prized, even the lowly 'average' +1 dagger are treasured (no pun intended), and it takes a lot of willpower for a character to sell a magic item in my game. And when they do sell an item, magic item merchants only buy them at quarter of what the value says in the DMG.

But then there's the fear of being caught with a magic item in my game which also adds to the hesitancy of trying to find someone who would even purchase said magic item(s).

Loads of fun.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Tarrax, welcome to BIP! It's nice to see some new but familiar faces here!