Firan Survival Guide: The Market
From FiranMUX
Just about anything is theoretically for sale at the market, and you can use the for sale command to find out exactly what's for sale and then the buy from market command to purchase it. The price can vary from day to day, according to supply and demand, but in practice it tends to remain reasonably constant. Just because something is listed for sale, however, doesn't mean that it's always available. Some items, such as herbs or silk cloth or iron ingots, are scarce and tend to sell out quickly when available. When you buy something from the market sometimes you have to specify the commodity in the plural form, even if you only want one of them. There are some things from the market (like infertility potions or poisons) that could generate coded gossip or an @witness if you're spotted by NPC merchants buying them.
How much you're charged for an item depends on its current general value (for which you can look at the value command, plus the market sales tax) along with your skill in negotiation. Someone without the negotiation skill will generally pay a bit more than market practice for everything. Someone with the skill makes a skill check based on their negotation and allure and, depending on how well they do, may see the price raise or lower. In general the price will range from 85% to 125% of its actual cost, depending on the success of the roll. This is why you see people sometimes attempt to buy things multiple times before they accept a price.
Whenever you attempt to buy something at the market, you lose 1 ERP. Also, if you're making the attempt at night when the market is closed, you lose 5 social points. This is true regardless of whether or not you actually make a purchase. For this reason, it's often more cost effective to buy items in bulk and store them, as opposed to spending multiple ERPs every day to buy what you need.
If you do decide to purchase something at the market you must have the stenis to pay for it in your inventory. The cost will be deducted, and a few seconds later the item will appear in the room. At this point you can carry it home. If the item weighs more than you can carry you have a few choices:
- You can spend ERP if it's under your max carry weight.
- You can ask a stronger PC to move it for you.
- You can ask on the Help channel for an @delivery. This will move a heavy item into your inventory, but it may cost a lot of money. You'll have the option to decline to do this once you see the price, if you choose.
- If you have a cart or wagon, you can
loadit into the wagon for a certain number of ERPs. - If it's a separatable item, you can separate things out into a load small enough to carry, then come back for the rest. Usually you can leave something in the market for a short while, and come back to find it still there. It is, however, possible that someone might steal it while you're gone. This is an IC act and if a thief does this, you can take IC actions against them.
Selling to the market
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THINGS THE MARKET WON'T BUY
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You can sell just about anything within reason to the market if you're not a noble, but you need to have a noble sponsor (see the sponsor help file for details). Nobles, however, are permitted to sell only limited types of goods to the market; selling things like a common merchant or craftsman is considered to be beneath them. Some of the things nobles can sell include farm goods, wines, and certain luxury items. It's best to check on the Nobles channel for current limitations. Also, nobles can arrange for others to sell their goods, though there are social implications and pitfalls here so it's best to exercise caution. You can't sell unfinished crafted goods to the market, and you can't sell something back that was recently purchased at the market.
How much you get paid for an item depends on a number of things, including the current market price for the item, its quality, whether or not it has any customization (as is often the case within things like crafted goods), the current market sales tax, and your skill in negotiation. The market price fluctuates depending on how well stocked it is, so if someone just sold 100 bronze swords to the market, odds are good yours won't go for as much. If something is a container, like a barrel or chest, you may or may not also get paid proportionally for its contents as well. For quality, sales tax, and customization there is a fixed multiplier, but your negotiation skill modifies the selling price based off an @check. This is why you may see people trying to sell something to the market multiple times before they accept the price.
If your chracter isn't noble, they will need to pay 75% of what they're paid by the market to their sponsor. Therefore, it's best to do a little quick math and make sure that what you have left doesn't put you at an economic loss. For example, if you spent 500 stenis buying supplies to make something, and sold it for 1000 stenis, you would only get to keep to 250 stenis after sponsorship fees. Since your profit is less than the cost of supplies, you would lose money on the deal. In that case, you are best off selling the item at a higher price to a PC, or perhaps trading it for something of worth.
The market has a fixed amount of money it can spend buying things. Sometimes the market is simply out of stenis, and no NPC merchant will buy your goods. In this case you'll either need to sell it through some other means, or wait for another day. Note that this is strictly based on value of the goods, and has nothing to do with whether or not there's heavy or light demand for the item.
As with buying, you can only sell during daylight hours unless you have the streetwise skill. You must have the item you wish to sell either in the room, in your inventory, or in a nearby cart or wagon to sell it. Use the sell to market command to sell something to the market. If it's done at night 5 social points are deducated. After you sell an item it will disappear, and the stenis will be added to your inventory. Certain expensive items, such as gems, can be separated into smaller pieces to sell in the event that the market doesn't have enough stenis to purchase them. See the separate command for details.
Generic items sold to the market go into a holding pool, helping to populate available merchandise. Customized object go to one of the shops in the city to be bought at markup by PCs. Clothing goes to Jalon's Merchantile, jewelry goes to Emadissha's Jewelry Shop, food goes to Linosius' Grocery Store, and everything else goes to Thalon's Trinkets. See the section on shops for more details.
