Thoughts on Gem Trading Price for Magic Items

[DonCorazon]

Just curious what formula people generally use when trading magic items for gems. I am just talking about the sort of low level things commonly traded early on like dwarven hammers, earth boots, skull mentors in a game with so many players that there are competitive forgers around. In the past I have traded them at rule book cost to make (eg not including my own discounts for forging) plus the research cost of the forger in gems. So an item that costs 10 to make I will trade for around 15-17 gems.

Just curious to hear other people's formulas for item value and see if I am too cheap or expensive.

Thanks.

P.S. to all DC customers: Prices may be going up in the future based on responses to this post!

[Micah]

Man, that's steep, I usually trade stuff at base cost, keeping the hammer bonus for myself...usually giving the option to the buyer to wait on hammers or pay the extra 25% if they want the items in a hurry and I'm short on hammers.

[DonCorazon]

Wow, you are the Wal Mart of magic items. I hope my customers don't get wind of your low prices!

[Lingchih]

I use about the same formula as Micah. I might jack it up a bit if my Pretender has to forge the item in question.

[Omnirizon]

Generosity in trade is the grease on the wheels of future cooperation.

But b*tches who don't pay their debts get smacked down.

[DonCorazon]

Thanks, I just had no clue what the standard was so I had no idea how to determine what was cheap or expensive.

[vfb]

If no-one is accepting your trade offers, then your prices are too expensive. It depends on the game, what you can forge, if anyone else can forge it, who needs it, and how badly they think they need it.

Generally, between friendly nations (or for a nation I desire friendly relations with) I'll forge at cost, or a few gems over if the other nation will get a large benefit from the forging. I don't play earth nations all that much, so I rarely have more than two or three hammers.

If you are selling items at base+5 gems and people are buying them, then it's not too much. I'd pay 15 gems for a Fire Brand (if I couldn't forge it) or even 20 for a Skull of Fire (depending on the circumstances).

[DonCorazon]

Thanks for the input.

I have only traded items for gems a couple of times and those were in noob games. I always admitted to not really knowing what was fair and being open to alternative offers, but never had a trade rejected..

Just now getting to the point where I am starting to leave the "noob" zone, so now appreciate the value of gems, which is why I started to wonder if those prices might be high.

I do think trading at cost is somewhat cheap since you are losing some research but I guess if you need the gems in question then it is a good deal. Otherwise, cost plus a gem or two sounds reasonable in most cases.

[Saxon]

I agree, you should be including opportunity cost in your calculation, a kind of labour charge. The loss of 10 RP is worth something, but how much in gems or gold is hard to pin down. Not including the labour time is like selling a car for only the cost of the metal. Technically, you should even include part of the cost of the research that allowed you to forge the item, but that is going too far for this game.

However, the price also has to include what you are getting. Future cooperation or the value of an item you can not get any other way is hard to quantify. These intangibles make pricing even harder.

Another part of what you need to calculate is what you are trying to do. If you are doing an Ulm forge for profit scenario, you need to get good volume, which might mean lower prices. As Dom is not really a trading game, most deals will fall into the category of politically motivated trades, so you may wish to focus on that.