Help etching a living between adventures

[Sintanan]

I have a 3.5 character --an Elan artificer/alchemist savant-- who is currently having some downtime (our group trades off on who's the DM, so everyone can play a character). So far the current adventure has gone for 3 months, in-game time... so I was wondering if there are any sources out there with information on buying a home/workshop and actually turning a profit on making and selling magic items.

I understand that the rules on selling loot is only 50%, but where are rules on running a shop to sell stuff through? I'm sure if you ran the only shop to undercut everyone else by 50%, you'll either end up out of stock constantly, with lots of enemies, or both...

[Tempest Fennac]

The DMG 2 has some buisness rules, but it's incredibly unreaslistic. I'd say just asking the DM how much a small workshop wouldcost in addition to how much hiring underlings would be while going from there would be the best idea.

[JeenLeen]

I can only see three logical in-game reasons why the party usually sells loot for 50%.

1. Reputation. As you are not a reputed shop, there is perhaps some risk in buying from you, so people are not willing to pay as much. (Some adventurers bring cursed items, for example.)

2. Damage. You are usually selling items used in combat or found in ruins or off corpses. There's going to be dints and scratches. Realistically, this shouldn't decrease the value by 50% since damage is easy to repair, but it adds some reason.

3. Few buyers. Few people are willing to buy insanely expensive--compared to normal people's stuff--magical items, so in exchange for the benefit of being able to sell, you only get half-value. I think this reason is the least logical, but it would give buyers an edge.

If you open a shop, especially in a town where you are respected, I would imagine that you sell things at the value you would pay for them at a shop. Of course, DM's ruling, but I would argue for this.


I could also see an 'auction house' mechanic, especially if your world setting has many adventurers. For a (less than 50% cut), a respected auction house sells your loot to the highest bidder among other adventureres. It should get you somewhere between 50 and 100% of the full value.

[Triaxx]

Then again you could open two shops, one in a high level area and one in a starter area. Get items from adventurers in the high level area and sell them in the starter area for just a bit more than you bought them. It's still a big cash expense, and you don't make too much, but even 10gp profit is 10gp profit.

[chiasaur11]

Might be worth looking up the rules for that in Frank and K's dungeonimonicon. Not perfect, maybe, but a good deal better than the default.

[ericgrau]

The simple reason your items sell for 50% is business overhead. Everything else falls under that. You're selling the item to the vendor and making him do all the real selling work. Time spent finding interested buyers, setting up a shop at a visible location, gaining a good reputation, knowing how to run a business, etc. I mean, are you going to walk around the red light district with a trench-coat offering to sell magic items worth as much as new cars? Who'd even show the slightest interest? Especially when spells like magic aura can make fakes.

[Leon]

as per the title
your a Artificer, set up a business doing printed circuit boards