Selling cursed items

[z118]

Why should I not be able to sell items that I feel are cursed? This doesn't make sense to me. How does the shopkeeper know what I feel about an item unless I tell him? It isn't as though he will give me more money for an item I feel is good.

It would make sense to me that you should be able to sell items you feel are cursed with the risk that it will anger the shopkeeper enough that he closes his store.

Thinking about it more, it might make sense if they wouldn't buy cursed items at all, meaning even before I got the feeling.

Thoughts?

[konijn_]

Why should I not be able to sell items that I feel are cursed? This doesn't make sense to me. How does the shopkeeper know what I feel about an item unless I tell him? It isn't as though he will give me more money for an item I feel is good.

It would make sense to me that you should be able to sell items you feel are cursed with the risk that it will anger the shopkeeper enough that he closes his store.

Thinking about it more, it might make sense if they wouldn't buy cursed items at all, meaning even before I got the feeling.

Thoughts?

Well, if I were a shopkeeper and I got a cursed ring from you and I found out that you knew about it, I think I would start selling rings of DOOM as rings of speed +15 to you ... Think about that. Shopkeepers never lie because their customers never lie.

T.

[z118]

Well, if I were a shopkeeper and I got a cursed ring from you and I found out that you knew about it, I think I would start selling rings of DOOM as rings of speed +15 to you ... Think about that. Shopkeepers never lie because their customers never lie.

T.

I guess... but for as much as they don't lie, they sure are willing to ignore my feelings for an item if it's "good." Why should they ignore my "good" feelings but refuse to buy an item based on "cursed" feelings?

[Pah]

Hmm, I think you have just discovered the nature of capitalism.

[Elsairon]

Allow the sale of known cursed items to the shop, and then have that shop refuse business with the player until the shop owner changes.

Interesting feature, as long as the player knows the danger. It might happen that swindling one shopkeeper could grant enough gold for an item one wants/needs in another shop. The tradeoff.. how long do I have to wait until the shop owner changes?

[pesachyonah]

I guess... but for as much as they don't lie, they sure are willing to ignore my feelings for an item if it's "good." Why should they ignore my "good" feelings but refuse to buy an item based on "cursed" feelings?

IAAL and what's going on here underlies most laws governing commercial sale-of-goods transactions, at least here in the US, but it's actually intuitive.

In essence, when you walk into a store to sell stuff, you are implicitly representing that what you have to sell is actually worth something to the storekeeper. If the object is ID'd, then the storekeeper knows exactly what he's buying. If the object has not yet been ID'd, then the storekeeper isn't buying the object from you so much as the rights to both the opportunity and the risk--the chance that the item is good vs. the chance that it's cursed--by giving you what he would give you if the item were known to be completely ordinary.

However, if you know the item's cursed and withhold that information, the shopkeeper thinks he's getting both an opportunity and a risk, but you know he's only getting a risk--this is fraudulent, and under most legal systems, the transaction is unenforceable and void if the storekeeper can demonstrate that you knew the item was cursed. If you tell the storekeeper that the item is cursed, of course he won't buy it unless there's another reason why it might be worth something, i.e. it's a cursed artifact or other ego-item with potential side benefits.

All of this raises two other questions about *band play economics:

1) Having players sell items as a way to ID them makes no sense from the shopkeeper's point of view. If I were the shopkeeper and I had access to unlimited ID powers, I would make sure that nothing crossed to my side of the counter without having been ID'd first. If the player hasn't ID'd the item, give him a choice--either the player IDs the item by whatever means necessary, or pays the shopkeeper a flat fee for ID services (ala NPP). If the player can't ID and doesn't have the dough, volunteer to ID the product in exchange for a contingency fee which is item-type-specific (e.g. 60% for a mushroom because they generally suck vs. 10% for a rod because the worst you get is trap detection). If the player can't ID, won't pay for it, and won't negotiate a stake in the item, turn the player away.

2) Another thought: every *band player knows that on average the cheapest way to ID ammo is to sell a test shot. If it's good, the player can charge full value for the rest of the quiver. If it's ordinary, nothing gained or lost. If it's cursed, the player loses out on maybe 1-2 gp per shot. You do the math. And frankly, the storekeeper would do the math as well--storekeepers should refuse to purchase un-ID'd ammo except by lot.

There now. Now I can go back to work suing the bejeezus out of someone.