Pricing weapons and armour, especially enchanted items, is a pain; particularly since there are no hard and fast rules to serve as guides. However, value is an elusive term and, in any event, lies in the eye of the beholder. How else to explain some of the fantastic prices being asked and paid for certain enchanted items today?

20k for a katana of power? 10k for a halberd of force? Do these prices seem absurd? Well, maybe, but when you consider that such a weapon might earn its price within a few days, who's to say that it's not worth it? Keep in mind that magic items have no intrinsic value and that all prices are set according to what people are willing to pay. The prices that appear in this guide are the result of empirical research and reflect my experience as a merchant.

Your prices will be dependent on a number of factors, including your cost, location and, most importantly, current supply and demand.

While you have to factor your cost into the prices that you set, this should be the factor given the lightest weight - a successful merchant has fairly consistent prices that do not fluctuate except with supply and demand. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have the occasional sale to keep the customers coming back. You want your prices to be high enough to make it worth your while to continue the endeavours, but low enough to ensure repeat business.

Your prices will also be a reflection of how much time you wish to spend on your vendor. If you plan to devote a fair amount of time to Marlene, set your prices aggressively and rely on volume for high profits. If your vendor is more of a dumping ground for excess items, then set your prices higher and be patient - however, with high daily upkeep costs, this option is less viable. If you don't have the time to devote to Marlene, I would recommend doing a bulk sale to a player with an established vendor.

Pricing Guide:

Reagents:

The successful reagent shop makes its profit on volume sales. If you are in a high traffic area, especially one in the wilderness without easy access to a mage shop, you can easily sell out your stock 2-3 times per day with aggressive pricing. Our vendors (my partner, Lord Monteroy, is in charge of reagents, runes and scrolls) sell reagents at 1.5-2gp above store prices. To be more exact:

Black Pearl: 7.5-8 gp
Blood Moss: 7-7.5 gp
Garlic, Nightshade, Ginseng, Ash and Silk: 4.5-5 gp
Mandrake: 4.5-5.5 gp

Reagents are readily available from mage shops, if you have a little patience. The real service you are providing is convenience. If you wish to spend less time on your reagent vendor, set the prices a little bit higher. If your prices are too high, however, the extra cost will outweigh the convenience of using your shop and you will drive people to the mage shops.

Some reagent vendors, in prime "extortion" locations (most notably on the Isle of Fire and Ice Isle) have been known to successfully charge up to 4gp over store prices. However, these vendors rely on the desperation (or extreme laziness) of their customers and don't really bank on repeat business.

Runes:

All runes sell very well, as long as they are priced reasonably. I suggest the following price guide:

To your Vendor: 25-70 gp (depending on how much people want to go there anyway)
Common cities: 80-125 gp
Harder to reach cities (Cove, Jhelom, Nujelm, Magincia, Serpent's Hold, Ocllo, Papua, Delucia): 150-200 gp
Dungeons and Spots of Interest (Buc's Den, Chaos Shrine): 200-300 gp

When pricing runes, keep in mind your cost (if you're a competent mage, 35-40 per rune) and don't be too greedy. Especially now that we have meditation, rune marking is fast and easy.

Rune Books:

A new addition for scribes is the rune book. Currently, runebooks sell very well. Once the current population of Britannia all own these helpful tomes, demand will drop somewhat, but I foresee that there will always be a market for them. Right now, prices are fluctuating quite a bit; eventually, however, prices will stabilize. Here are some suggested prices:

Empty Books (i.e. no runes, no recall charges):

250gp base for 5 recall capacity, +50gp for each additional potential charge (e.g.: 6 charge capacity, 300gp)

Charged books (i.e. no runes, full recall charges):

I've seen a wide variety of prices, but here's my prediction on at what levels prices will eventually settle:

5 charges - 450-500gp
6 charges - 500-600gp
7 charges - 600-700gp
8 charges - 700-800gp
9 charges - 800-900gp
10 charges - 900-1000gp

Charged and filled books (i.e. runes and full recall charges):

Again, these prices will vary somewhat, but here's a rough guide:

Base price as above, plus:

City runes (set of 16) - 2000-3000gp
Dungeon Runes (set of 16, some multiple dungeons in different spots) - 3000-5000gp
T2A rune book (both cities, all dungeons, spots of interest) - 3000-5000gp.

Scrolls:

Well, I've gone and done it - I've entered the world of the GM scribe. My merchant character on Yamato, Bride of Zamboni, is now a quad GM - item ID, arms lore, inscription and meditation (I'm happy to report that her title is GM Merchant, as the game engine is smart enough to recognize that item ID is the most important skill of all).

Before meditation, I sold generic 1-6th circle scrolls at 10*circle, generic 7th level scrolls at 100 each and generic 8th circle scrolls at 250 each (the shard was young, not much competition). I also sold:

Recall - 55/1, 250/5, 475/10, 925/20
Mark - 75/1, 350/5, 675/10
Gate - 140/1, 650/5, 1250/10
EV - 275/1
Resurrection - 300/1, 800/3, 1200/5

(The 8th circle scroll prices were a little higher than on established shards because of the high demand and low supply.)

Meditation is a scribe's dream. Not only do I regenerate mana at a ridiculous rate, but also I have an excuse to scribe while naked! Now we have the added bonus of no skill delay for inscription. Here's an analysis of scroll prices before and after meditation:

In theory, the price of 7th and 8th level scrolls should go way down now - especially 8th.

However, this may be one of those cases of reduced production costs not being passed down to the consumer - as long as the supply is controlled, the consumer really has no choice but to keep paying the same prices.

While actively meditating, Bride of Zamboni produces about 2 mana per second. In the old days, with failures figured in, BoZ averaged about 7-8 8th level scrolls per hour; with meditation and no skill delay, she cranks out 30-40 8th level scrolls per hour.

The pre-meditation price on Yamato for 8th circle scrolls was 250 gp - with meditation, taking into account only the rate of production, my price should drop to around 80 each.

However, you have to take into account the fact that I could be scribing reveal scrolls about 5 times as fast
(2/5ths the mana and 100% success rate) and selling them to npc mages for 37gp each.

Figuring out profit per second (more or less), I can do 5 reveal scrolls in about 80 seconds, for a profit of (185 - 65)/80 per second, or 1.5gp per second. My level of return on 8th level scrolls has to match this (or come close). If I can scribe, on average, 1 8th level scroll in 80 seconds, my price should be 120gp plus my cost - on average, say 150gp per scroll.

Using the same analysis for 7th level scrolls, I can do approximately 1.5 7th level scrolls in 80 seconds. Therefore, my price should be around 80gp plus my cost - on average, say 105 gp per scroll.

Full spell books used to sell for between 2500-4000gp. In my opinion, 2500 was always way too cheap, considering the amount of work involved.

Now, however, I'd use the basic pricing formula of spell level * 10gp to arrive at the proper price:

80 + 160 + 240 + 320 + 400 + 480 + 560 + 640 = 2880

I'd say that 2500-3000gp per book is still a fair price range. If you have the time and want to put a whole bunch on your vendor, you can still make a decent profit at 2000-2250 each, but the scribe union will hunt you down - and there's nothing uglier than an angry scribe.

My prices on generic scrolls of circle 1-6 have pretty much stayed the same. My current bulk scroll prices are:

Recall - 50/1, 225/5, 425/10, 825/20
Mark - 70/1, 325/5, 600/10
Gate - 120/1, 550/5, 1000/10
Res - 200/1, 575/3, 900/5

Potions:

Since I'm not an expert in potions, you might want to check out Sie Ming's Alchemy Guide which has a section on pricing potions. Here are some estimates, but the Guide is much more detailed. Sie Ming also has an excellent guide to Potion Kegs, another addition to the vendor arsenal.

Gr. Heal: 40-55 gp
Gr. Explosion: 60-100 gp
Deadly Poison: 125-200 gp

Unique Items, True Rares and Semi-Rares:

Some items in our fair lands are much harder to come by than others. These items fall into three general categories: (1) Unique Items; (2) "True" Rares; and (3) Semi-Rares.

Unique Items:

Unique items usually come from quests and other special events. In the early days of UO, special items were awarded for the successful completion of quests.

Examples of unique items are the various jewelled weapons (one of each type, all newbified and with very high magical bonuses), special sets of armour and Blackrock (from the FoA quest). Unique weapons often have names (e.g.: on Atlantic, there was a unique staff named Jovar's Rod) and are usually coloured differently from regular weapons. Unique items have been known to sell for 250000-1 million (or more) gp.

Unique items are too pricey to put on vendors for sale to the general public. However, if you have a buyer for your item, the safest way to sell it is to put it on Marlene and then take the buyer to your shop, where she can immediately purchase the item.

One thing to be wary of is thieves. A favourite tactic of these vile miscreants is to pretend to be a customer for your rare goods. The thief's goal is to get you to take the item out of your bank to show it do them and then to try to steal it from you before you can put it back in the bank. Be very careful when handling your rare items - the best time to do so is when you're alone. If your buyer insists on viewing the item (as a prudent customer would), recall to a quiet bank (Nujelm and Magincia are my favourites) and pick up the item (preferably while hidden). Put the item in an interior bag and weigh that bag down, so it's tougher to steal. Recall to your shop and run to your vendor, then hide (if you can). Place the item on the vendor as quickly as possible, pricing it at the agreed upon price. Once placed, meet the potential buyer and escort her to Marlene. If the customer backs out of the deal, make sure that she leaves before you take the item off of Marlene. When you do take the item off, place it back in the interior pack, recall to the quiet bank and slam it back in your bank box as quickly as you can.

True Rares:

There is a large variety of true rares, of various degrees of rarity, available to the collector. Prices on True Rares are difficult to set, as sales of such items are themselves rare and depend on many factors. The most important of these factors are: (1) Can the item be displayed in a house or shop without fear of it being stolen/used up; (2) How many of the item exist; and (3) Does the item still spawn?

An example of an extremely valuable true rare is a bubbling flask. Very few of these items exist on each shard - the item spawned when shards first came online, but never respawned. Other examples are hourglasses, kettles and marble tables (which are rumoured to still spawn, although only once per month). Such a rare usually sells for 100000-500000gp.

Semi-Rares:

Semi-rares are items that, while not at all common, either were available in large quantities or are still available to the public.

An example of the first type of semi-rare is the black dye tub. Even though the tubs are no longer available, they were given out as holiday gifts in 1998 and there are still quite a few of them around. Other examples of this type of semi-rare are Ranger Armour, Statues (from ticket redemption) and Open Books (which spawned in large numbers at one point, even though they're no longer available). Most holiday gifts fall into this class of semi-rare. The price of such semi-rares varies greatly depending on supply and on how much a given collector is willing to pay. Here are some suggestions for the semi-rares that I list above:

Black Dye Tubs: 10000-30000
Ranger Armour Pieces: 2500-10000
Statues: 75000-400000 (the most popular statues are dragons and daemons, the least popular are alligators and ratmen)
Open Books: 10000-30000

An example of the second type of semi-rare is the whip. Whips spawn regularly, although most players don't know where to find them (and a character needs lockpicking to get them). The price of this category of semi-rares varies mostly with how nice the item looks and how often it spawns. Here are some semi-rares that belong to this class and some suggested prices:

Whips: 2500-7500
Coils of Wire (gold, silver, copper, iron): 500-2000
Hanging Plants (2 types of dried flowers, onions, dried herbs): 250-1000
Chisel, rolling pin, horseshoes, forged iron, arrow shafts, square tool kits: 1500-10000
Food (slabs of bacon, bunches of banana/limes/lemons/dates, split coconuts, large pumpkins): 100-2000
Backwards items (tool boxes, clocks, ingots): 100-1000

Sunken Treasure:

Since the Fishing Fiasco of '99, the bounty of the sea has been very profitable. Many are the fisherfolk who return home from a voyage with a hold filled with treasure recovered from shipwrecks. Here are some of the items available as booty from these salvage operations and some suggested prices:

Small Paintings: 2000-5000
Medium Paintings: 2500-7500
Large paintings: 7500-15000
Non-dyeable pillows: 100-400
Dyeable pillows (only 1 type - long and thin): 250-1000

Shells: 50-250
Body Parts: 50-500
Bones and Bone Piles: 50-1000
Globes and Candelabras: 100-1000
Barrel Staves: 25-250

Unfinished Barrels: 250-1000
Broken Clocks: 250-1000
Footwear: 25-50

Magical Armour and Weapons:

This area is, by far, the trickiest in which to set prices. I will set out a very rough guide for your use, but you will have to experiment to find the prices that best suit your customers. The high range weapons and armour have the greatest variation, depending mainly on specific purchasers. I set most of my prices near the bottom of these ranges for sales on Marlene and shoot for the moon in many private sales.

The factors with the greatest influence on the price of armour and weapons are supply and demand. The Fishing Fiasco of '99 flooded the market with magic items, causing a drop in market prices. Even the huge amounts of gold generated by fishing and the general oversupply of gold in today's market have not made enough impact to overcome this increase in supply.

Pre-Patch vs. Post-Patch

Pre-patch items no longer exist within UO. If someone offers you one -- pass. A patch leveled all weapons (and armour) quite some time ago.

In the past, some players have suggested that when the ID label on a magic weapon doesn't stick (e.g. you ID a magic longsword and find out that it's a longsword of might; you single click on the item and it still says "a magic longsword") that the item must be pre-patch. Well, pre-patch has come and gone and items still aren't retaining their labels, so we can finally lay those rumours to rest. The best explanation that I have heard for this phenomenon is that items are encoded with a list of who has ID'd them and that this list can only hold a finite number of names. Think of the item like an exclusive night-club - if you're not on the list, and the list is already full, then the item will pretend not to recognize you and will force you to ID it over and over.

Rule of Thumb #1: Arms Lore is one of the more underrated UO skills, as its effective use can greatly enhance your character's ability to choose weapons that give big whackies (i.e.: while arms lore doesn't modify damage, you can use arms lore on a weapon to see if it's a top-notch mangler). Until customers catch on to the damage ranges provided by arms lore, however, the merchant is best off to assign prices to items according to weapon type and the accuracy and damage modifiers.

One last thing: All magic items are found in unused condition. However, you should still be wary of items that you are purchasing from another player - you have no idea how many archers have used that bow of vanquishing before it made it to the marketplace. Arms lore gives information on the current state of repair of a weapon or piece or armour and can be used to ensure that you're not buying a worn out item. This could be called Rule of Thumb #2

One other oft overlooked function of arms lore is its use to determine whether a weapon is poisoned - arms lore will advise if a weapon is covered with nasty green stuff. However, arms lore won't tell you how strong a dose of poison has been applied to the weapon.

Prefixes and Suffixes

The prefixes and suffixes for weapons and armour are as follows: (for numerical data please see the Enchantments Tables)

Damage Bonus (suffix):

Ruin, Might, Force, Power or Vanquishing

Tactics or Archery Bonus (prefix):

Accurate, Surpassingly Accurate, Eminently Accurate, Exceedingly Accurate or Supremely Accurate

Defence Bonus (suffix):

Defence, Guarding, Hardening, Fortification or Invulnerability

The AR Bonus to a piece of armour varies greatly depending on what the item is (e.g. since a gorget only adds a small amount to AR, each defensive bonus only increases the base by a small amount).

Toughness Bonus (prefix):

Durable, Substantial, Massive, Fortified or Indestructible

The toughness bonus of an item determines how many hit points it has (i.e.: how long it lasts). Currently, the bonus only seems to add value for quarterstaves, bows and crossbows, which cannot be repaired (it is a popular misconception that magical heavy crossbows cannot be repaired - they can; however, player made heavy crossbows are unrepairable). The prefix "Indestructible" does seem to add a small amount of value as well.

Silver:

Silver weapons have become very popular, as Deceit is one of the best places to get loot. Silver weapons do double damage against undead. A powerful silver weapon can kill a lich in 3-5 hits!! The value added by silver is often in the eye of the beholder - if you have a customer who visits Deceit on a regular basis, she will pay a handsome premium for a good silver weapon regardless of any other bonuses.

Silver can double the value depending on the weapon with the minimum premium ranging from 800 - 5000. Silver has been undervalued in the past and in my view these premiums reflect the market value of the bonus, even on a so-called mundane weapon.

Silver katanas, bardiches, halberds, war axes, war maces, quarter staves, war forks and krysses are the most popular silver weapons (big surprise there) and fetch the highest premiums. The prices quoted within this essay assume that the weapons are not silver.

Magical Spell Bonuses (suffixes):

For weapons: Wounding (Harm), Daemon's Breath (Fireball), Thunder (Lightning Bolt), Mage's Bane (Mana Drain), Ghoul's Touch (Paralyze), Burning (Magic Arrow) or Evil (Curse). The other suffixes are self-explanatory (e.g.: clumsiness). For armour and clothing: Protection (parry), Cunning (intelligence) and Agility (dexterity) (all others are self-explanatory).

So-called 'magical spell bonuses' have little or no value in my opinion and should not even be considered in pricing a weapon. These special abilities all have limited charges that run out rather quickly. The only ones that seem to add any value to a weapon are Ghoul's Touch and Thunder. For a long time, the only magical effect that added value to defensive items was spell reflect; however, recent changes to the duration of these effects and the ability to "stack" effects (e.g.: if you wear a helmet of strength and a sash of strength, the bonus is cumulative) have made items of strength, agility, cunning, bless and protection (which adds to parry) increase in value.

See the end of this section for some pricing tips on spell effect bonuses.

Condition:

The state of repair of a weapon is also very important. As noted above, you should repair all items (where possible) before putting them out for sale. Arms Lore tells you how effective and how battered an item is.

Weapons

I've completely redone the weapons pricing guide to take into effect the weapons patches, the Fishing Fiasco and treasure hunting. In the past, I haven't included modifiers for accuracy bonuses, but as players wise up to the great advantages to increased tactics, these modifiers become more important. What follows is a rough guide to pricing for accuracy bonuses; for the less popular weapons, use the lower end of the bonus range; for the more popular weapons, use the higher end of the range. Faster weapons (e.g.: katanas, krysses) with good accuracy bonuses can command very high prices.

Accurate: + 50-500gp
Surpassingly Accurate: + 100-1000gp
Eminently Accurate: + 250-2000gp
Exceedingly Accurate: + 500-3000gp
Supremely Accurate: + 1000-5000gp

For example, a surpassingly accurate cutlass might sell for 150gp, while a surpassingly accurate halberd might sell for 600gp.

The prices quoted below in the main guide assume that weapons have no accuracy bonuses - use the above modifiers to more accurately price the weapons. The prices also assume that the items are in "unused" condition.

Swordsmanship Weapons:

Halberd, Bardiche

The halberd and the bardiche are still two of the most popular weapons in the game. Finding the magic variety of the pole arm is relatively rare, and the high prices commanded by even low quality magic pole arms are a reflection of this rarity. Halberds are more popular than bardiches.

Ruin: 400-1200
Might: 1000-3000
Force: 3000-10000
Power: 8000-20000
Vanquishing: 25000-50000

Note: only time will tell if the recent patch which eliminated pre-casting will reduce demand for halberds, which were the weapon of choice for pre-casting combos.

Katana

The katana has risen through the ranks to rest alone at the top of the one handed sword weapon popularity list. The katana is extremely fast and hits quite hard.

Ruin: 250-750
Might: 600-2000
Force: 3000-10000
Power: 10000-25000
Vanquishing: 20000-60000

Viking sword, Long sword, Broadsword, Scimitar

All four of these one handed weapons are quite popular. The scimitar will sell slightly lower in the ranges and the broadsword might price down a bit because it's one of the more common magic items in the game, but as weapon speed becomes more and more recognized, these once neglected weapons will sell well.

Ruin: 100-500
Might: 400-1000
Force: 1000-4000
Power: 4000-8000
Vanquishing: 10000-25000

Cutlass

The cutlass is rising in popularity. While it doesn't hit that hard, it's extremely fast, making it an assassin's delight. Cutlasses don't command huge prices, especially on vendors, but poisoning aficionados will pay well for a cutlass with good damage and accuracy modifiers.

Ruin: 75-300
Might: 250-750
Force: 1000-2500
Power: 3000-7500
Vanquishing: 7500-20000

Large Battle Axe, Double Axe

Almost all two handed weapons in the game have taken a big hit in price. I'm not at all sure that these two specimens are better weapons than their smaller cousins are (battle axes, axes), but they're still at least a little bit more popular.

Ruin: 100-400
Might: 300-750
Force: 1000-3500
Power: 4000-8000
Vanquishing: 10000-25000

Battle Axe, Axe

These weapons just aren't sexy enough for the average player. Although both deal decent damage, and axes are fairly fast, neither of these is a big mover in the weapons market. Being two handed seems to have been the kiss of death for these unfortunate choppers.

Ruin: 75-300
Might: 250-600
Force: 800-2500
Power: 3000-7500
Vanquishing: 8000-20000

Fencing Weapons:

Fencing now rivals swordsmanship as the most popular melee skill. Magical fencing weapons are quite rare and top level ones command huge prices.

Kryss, War Fork

In my opinion, only the katana rivals these weapons for PvP action. An experienced player with a deadly poisoned kryss or war fork can hold her own in a crowd of hostile faces. Give me one of these and a bag full of potions and I'll take on 2 meditating mages any day.

These two weapons, especially krysses, are among the most popular in the game right now and command extremely high prices. (Not like in the old days when I used to have to walk 10 miles uphill (in both directions, of course) to school every day and I would find magic war forks littering the streets of our fair land; fortunately, I'm a pack rat and collected more than a few of those.)

Ruin: 600-2000
Might: 1250-4000
Force: 4000-12500
Power: 8000-25000
Vanquishing: 20000-60000

Spear

Spears are excellent PvM weapons but are of limited PvP value because they require both hands. Still quite popular, a good spear will sell for a nice big pile of shinies.

Ruin: 100-500
Might: 400-1000
Force: 2000-5000
Power: 5000-10000
Vanquishing: 15000-30000

Short Spear

Faster than their longer cousins, short spears are also limited by their requirement for 2 hands. These little stickers are still quite popular among the knowledgeable fencing crowd.

Ruin: 100-400
Might: 300-800
Force: 1500-4000
Power: 4500-9000
Vanquishing: 15000-30000

Dagger

While daggers don't hit very hard, they hit very often. A dagger of power can rip through a lightly armoured opponent and disrupt just about any spell that a mage attempts to cast - in other words, a newbie-shirt-wearing mage's worst enemy.

Ruin: 50-200
Might: 200-500
Force: 750-2000
Power: 2000-5000
Vanquishing: 5000-15000

Despite changes to stamina depletion, the magic mace market maintains a morose mean mark-up (say that 10 times fast). Only the quarterstaff, which is extremely quick and saps stamina faster than you can say "pass the total refreshment potions, please", continues to rise in popularity.

Quarter Staff

The quarterstaff has become the mace-using PvPer's weapon of choice. If a q-staff is whacking you, you better have total refreshment potions or you aren't escaping from your foe. The only limiting factors on the price of q-staves is the inability to repair them and the addition of the exceptional q-staff, which can now be crafted by carpenters. The large price range on q-staves is a reflection the varying level of public knowledge about the q-staff's effectiveness.

Ruin: 200-600
Might: 300-1000
Force: 1250-5000
Power: 5000-20000
Vanquishing: 10000-35000

War Mace

After quarterstaves, war maces are the most popular mace weapon.

Ruin: 200-500
Might: 300-800
Force: 1000-4000
Power: 4000-10000
Vanquishing: 12000-25000

War Axe, Hammer Pick

War axes are holding on to their value by a thread; once the proud ruler of the mace family, the mighty war axe has fallen to the third rank; not because of its current usefulness, which is greatly diminished, but because of its previous popularity. Hammer picks have risen up the ladder - fast and hard, these weapons put a nice dent in the foreheads of their wielders' foes.

Ruin: 100-400
Might: 250-750
Force: 750-2500
Power: 3500-10000
Vanquishing: 8000-25000

Mace, Maul, War Hammer, Club

With the possible exception of the war hammer, which is just too slow for PvP, these weapons are versatile and effective. I've always been a big fan of the mace, but most customers don't share my appreciation (which is a merchant's dream - I get to keep weapons that I like but that don't have a large market value). The club is a decent enough weapon, but has the big disadvantage of not being repairable. Another reason why the war hammer and mace don't command high prices is that they're among the most common magic weapons found in the game.

Ruin: 75-250
Might: 200-600
Force: 600-2500
Power: 2500-7500
Vanquishing: 7500-20000

Archery, once by far the most popular weapon skill, has seen a steady decline in usage. The two biggest banes of archery have been the requirement for a free hand to drink potions and the improvement of melee weapons. Bows are still quite popular, but nowhere near as beloved as they used to be.

Bow

The bow is the best loved of the archery weapons. Still fast enough to be useful in PvP and with good range, the bow is a good complement for a mage or bard who often requires a "finisher", but who doesn't want to get too close to the action. Unrepairable, bows with high durability command better prices than their flimsy counterparts.

Ruin: 150-500
Might: 400-1000
Force: 1500-4000
Power: 5000-10000
Vanquishing: 12500-25000

Heavy Crossbow

Once among the most popular of all items, the heavy crossbow has fallen from grace. With a greatly reduced range and poor speed, its power doesn't make up for its shortcomings - the heavy crossbow just doesn't make the cut for PvP anymore. The magic heavy crossbow does have one advantage over all other archery weapons, however - it can be repaired. These weapons still command decent prices, but not like in the good old days when every PK had a heavy under her arm.

Ruin: 250-1000
Might: 500-1500
Force: 2000-4000
Power: 6000-12500
Vanquishing: 10000-30000

Crossbow

Ahh, the sad, neglected crossbow. Always alone in the corner of the weapons shop, gathering dust and providing homes to spiders. Not a horrible weapon, really, but not as sexy as its more powerful cousin or as fast as the bow.

Ruin: 75-200
Might: 200-600
Force: 750-3000
Power: 2500-6000
Vanquishing: 7500-20000

Where, you might wonder, are the mighty cleaver, pitchfork, skinning knife and crook? Surely these fearsome tools of destruction haven't been left off the list? Sadly, they have.

There are a number of weapons in the game that have little or no combat value. Here's a general pricing guide for all of these; with top level modifiers they can still net you a couple of thousand gold for their curiosity value.

Ruin: 25-100
Might: 50-250
Force: 500-1000
Power: 1000-2000
Vanquishing: 2000-7500

Armour

With the introduction of meditation, the armour market has been shaken up a bit. Once discarded leather armour of guarding and hardening is actually of some use to mages now, even though it wears out over time and can't be repaired. We now also have exceptional armour of all types, further complicating the market.

The price of armour is mainly related to the type and the defensive bonus. The toughness bonus does not seem to affect prices much, even though it should, especially with the current repair system. The only toughness bonus that adds to the price of an item is indestructible. The prices that I set out below are aggressive and with the intention of moving inventory fairly quickly.

As a key to the system used, I have listed the armour by type, then piece. Each piece has 5 ranges beside it, for defence, guarding, hardening, fortification and invulnerability. Again, items with the top defensive bonuses will have a wide price range.

In the beginning, there were magic gloves. Then, for a long time, there were no magic gloves available at all. Now, however, magic gloves appear on a regular basis, although magic plate gloves are still relatively rare (less so since the Fishing Fiasco). I now include prices for magic loves in this guide, as they have stabilized. Price ranges for gloves tend to be rather wide as players ascribe vastly different values to them.

Gorgets are perhaps the most interesting piece of armour. While plate and studded gorgets of defence and guarding are quite common, those of hardening and above are considerably rarer and command high prices. Plate gorgets of invulnerability are quite possibly the most expensive non unique magic item in the game (although, since the introduction of MIBs, more common than before).

For the first time I've included magic bone armour in the pricing guide. Although it's still rare, treasure hunters and fisherfolk are reporting increased discoveries of these pieces of enchanted skeletons.

It should also be noted that for armour, the sum of the whole can be greater than that of the individual parts - often one can sell quality suits of armour for more than one could sell the individual pieces.

Plate mail is still the most popular magic armour, although stamina conscious melee fighters and metal conscious mages have started to shun this heavy protection. A high end magic plate suit is the gem of many a fighter's collection, though, and still commands high prices. Plate has the inherent advantage of being the only armour type from which one can make a full suit.

Tunic: 450-1000/800-1800/1500-4500/5000-12500/15000-50000

Legs: 400-750/500-1800/1250-3500/4000-10000/12500-40000

Helm: 250-750/500-1400/1250-3500/3500-8000/10000-25000

Arms: 300-700/500-1400/1250-3000/3500-8000/10000-25000

Gorget: 200-600/500-1250/1500-4000/10000-30000/35000-???

Gloves: 1000-4000/2500-10000/7500-25000/20000-40000/30000-???

Many melee fighters and archers favour chain mail. It's light weight, doesn't penalize your dexterity and offers decent protection.

Tunic: 300-750/600-1500/1250-4000/3000-8000/5000-25000

Legs: 250-650/500-1250/1000-3000/2500-6000/5000-15000

Coif: 200-500/350-1000/750-2000/2000-5000/4000-10000

Ring mail is slightly heavier than chain but tends to offer similar protection. Ring mail just isn't as aesthetically pleasing as chain, however, so it is less popular and doesn't sell quite as well. Like chain mail, ring mail does not penalize a player's dexterity.

Tunic: 300-650/500-1250/1250-3000/2500-6000/5000-15000

Legs: 250-500/400-1000/1000-2500/2000-5000/4000-10000

Arms: 250-500/400-900/1000-2250/2000-4500/4000-10000

Gloves: 250-750/500-1250/1000-2500/2000-7500/5000-15000

All pieces of magic studded leather are repairable except for gloves (the prices for gloves assume that they are in brand new condition; further, a good durability bonus can significantly increase the value of gloves). Studded gorgets are very popular as they provide decent protection without the dexterity loss associated with plate gorgets. Studded leather contains metal (the studs), so one cannot meditate while wearing it.

Tunic: 150-400/350-600/600-1500/1500-3500/3000-8000

Legs: 150-300/300-500/600-1250/1250-3000/2500-7000

Arms: 100-250/200-500/500-1200/1200-2500/2000-6000

Gorget: 75-150/200-500/500-1400/1000-4000/3500-15000

Gloves: 100-250/200-500/500-1500/1500-3000/2500-10000

No magic leather armour can be repaired - that's its greatest drawback. However, leather is lightweight and allows mages to meditate while wearing it (although not up to full speed). Magic leather prices are still reasonable, but expect the price of top quality magic leather armour to go up over time. All prices assume that the armour is brand new and, as with other non repairable magic items, high durability will increase its value.

Tunic: 100-250/200-400/600-1250/1500-3000/2500-6000

Legs: 75-200/150-350/500-1000/1400-2750/2000-5000

Arms: 75-175/150-300/400-800/1000-2500/2000-4500

Gorget: 50-100/100-250/400-1000/800-3500/3000-7500

Gloves: 50-150/150-400/500-1000/1000-2500/2000-8000

Magic bone armour is unrepairable but of very high quality. Its relative rarity increases its value significantly. Even though more magic bone has appeared in the wrecks of ships and in treasure chests, lessening the rarity bonus, it can still command fairly high prices from collectors. As with all collectibles, bone bits have wide price ranges.

Tunic: 400-1500/800-2500/1500-7500/3000-15000/5000-30000

Legs: 200-1000/500-2000/1250-5000/2500-12500/4000-25000

Helm: 200-1000/500-1500/1000-4500/2000-10000/3500-22500

Arms: 200-1000/500-1500/1000-4500/2000-10000/3500-22500

Gloves: 200-1000/500-2000/1000-5000/2500-12500/4000-25000

Close Helms and Helmets have the same AR as plate helms, without any dex penalty. In theory, they should both have greater value than plate helms, but players seem to love their magic plate. Close helms seem to be slightly more popular than helmets, purely because they don't look as goofy on the paper doll (the helmet graphic makes it look like its on crookedly). Bascinets are 2 classes lower (chain coifs squeeze into the middle) and not very popular. I've never seen a magical nose helm; for some unknown reason, some armour and weapons just don't come with magical attributes (e.g. two-handed axes, executioner's axes and heater shields - although I've had some reports of magical executioner's axes existing in the dawn of UO).

Close Helms: 300-600/500-1300/1200-3300/3500-6000/7000-15000

Helmets: 250-500/450-1250/1000-2750/3000-5500/5000-12500

Bascinets: 50-150/150-300/400-1000/1000-2500/2000-5000

The only magic shields that sell with any consistency are metal kite shields (the checkerboard kite shields, not the teardrop ones). It's possible to sell high end wooden kite shields, bucklers and wooden shields, but not on a regular basis. Since the market for these less popular shields isn't large enough to be stable, I haven't included prices for them. Parrying is more popular than it used to be, so these shields continue to hold their value.

Metal Kite Shields: 200-500/400-900/1000-2000/2500-7500/5000-12500

Magical female armour now exists in the following varieties: plate tunics, studded tunics, studded bustiers, leather tunics, leather bustiers, leather shorts and leather skirts. With each of the tunics one cannot equip armour that covers the legs at the same time (the tunics are more like body suits, I suppose - although for some reason, you can still wear leather shorts). Of all of these armour pieces, only the plate tunics can be repaired.

There is no stable market right now for magical female armour. I'm not saying that it doesn't sell; on the contrary, high quality female armour can sell very well, if you have a customer base for it. However, at this time there isn't enough market information for me to provide a useful pricing guide. Shrewd merchants will size up their customers and estimate how much the armour is worth to them (hmm... perhaps that's another good use for item identification - when used on another player, it will tell you how much gold they have in the bank).

Miscellaneous Magic Items

I'm often asked how much merchants should be charging for wands, gnarled staves and miscellaneous items with spell charges. As a general rule, weapons with these charges don't have any increased value. Here's a rough guide that you can use:

Spell:

Identification - this is the most popular spell charge. Wands and staves of identification sell for 5-10gp per charge.

Healing - A wand of healing with a lot of charges can be quite effective in PvP, if you live long enough to use it. These items sell for 2-5gp per charge.

Greater healing - much rarer than healing, most of these items have limited charges and sell for 5-20gp per charge.

Lightning, Fireball, Harm - none of these wands are terribly effective against other players, but can provide decent magic resistance training (not up to the same level as casting the spells would provide, though). These items sell for 5-15, 3-10 and 1-5gp per charge, respectively.

Weakness, feeblemind and clumsiness - these wands are nearly useless and don't sell very well - I usually sell them to my local NPC mage.

Mana drain - these wands are currently useless, but, being an eternal optimist, I'd hold on to the ones that I have now and hope for the best in the future.

Strength, cunning, agility, bless, protection - while these items used to be almost worthless, recent changes have rendered them quite valuable (especially to players who enjoy "server about to go down" wars, where the server doesn't save so you can use the same items over and over). The two changes of note are the increase in duration of these items and the cumulative effect of multiple items (i.e.: a player wearing a helmet of strength and a body sash of strength gets the bonuses for BOTH of the items). Add the following to the base price of the charged item:

Cunning, agility, protection - 5-50gp
Strength - 10-50gp
Bless - 20-100gp

The top of the range should be reserved for wealthy server-down war fanatics, but it's possible to sell a top notch item for the amounts listed. Sale price of these items is also heavily dependant on how easy it is to equip the item and whether the item blocks some other form of protection (e.g.: a leather tunic of strength is worth less than a cloak of strength; while the leather tunic replaces your body armour, the cloak is easy to equip and won't adversely affect your AR).

Spell Reflect - although spell reflect charges drain very quickly (while you have an item equipped, it will lose a charge every 5-15 seconds, regardless of whether or not you get hit with a spell), these items can make the difference in PvP. I've thoroughly tested them (usually in server down time fights) and my fencer can wade through 5 mages without harm (to me, anyway - it's always amusing to see the following sequence of spells: explosion, paralyze, e-bolt, great heal, great heal) while wearing my mighty sash of spell reflect (82 charges). Items with spell reflect are of greater value if they are easy to equip and unequip - notably cloaks, boots, sashes and shields. Jewellery is of limited value because it's very difficult to unequip once you have it on (and you have to remove other pieces of equipment before you can equip it). Spell reflect charges can sell for 5-50gp each, mainly depending on what item bears the charges.

Invisibility - as with spell reflect, invisibility charges are somewhat buggy and the value of the charges is strongly related to the type of item. My treasure hunter loves his bracelet of invisibility - it's the only think that keeps him alive after digging up a level 2 or higher chest. Invisibility charges can add up to 3-20gp per charge to the value of an item.

Teleportation - only rings have teleportation charges. Although rings are a pain to equip and unequip, it's a little known fact that you can use a teleport ring even if it's not equipped - just double click it in your pack. Even so, these items only sell for 5-20 gp per charge.