Sale of magic items

Hello

I read the Verditus rules for selling magic items and begun wondering about the following. Does a skilled Verditius magus sell his or her items cheaper?

E.g. One magus with craft skill 7 makes a wooden staff with 16 magnitudes of power. The total vis cost is 1(for preparing the item for enchantment) plus 8 for infusing the powers, thus 9 in total. Thus the skilled magus charge 27 vis.

A other magus magus with a craft skill of 3 does the same enchantments and uses 13 vis in total, thus charging 39 vis in total.

The difference in vis cost is ridiculous and I am looking forward to hear your ideas on the subject, how shall we fix this?

sell for the same cost. the more skilled just gets more profit.

You don't fix it.

Consider, a more skilled craftsman SHOULD make more money for his efforts... Because his skill is higher, he can reduce his costs. He therefore puts more in his robe.

A good comparison is an auto dealer. When they work on your car, they charge X for doing a particular job. They call this 'book' time. As a rule, they will only charge X for this. Sometimes, if the job requires more they might boost this amount, but only for certain types of jobs (electrical is one that comes to mind).
However the the shop charges you, the mechanics fixing the vehicle get paid. In some places they get paid an hourly wage. Thus, they work a certain amount of hours and get those hours times a certain pay scale...no matter how many jobs they do. In other shops, they work on something called 'Flat Rate'. What this means is that they get paid by the JOB. Thus if the job pays Y hours, they get paid THAT amount, no matter how much time they take. So if the mechanic takes eight hours to do a job that pays two hours wages, then he is not making much. If however, he is good, he might be able to do that job in onehalf hour. He still gets paid for two hours, but he has an extra hour and a half. 'He' can then do three more of those jobs...so he gets eight hours of pay in two hours...
He is good, so he is more efficient. He makes more money.

Remember though that this is in Mythic Europe. In the middle ages, prices varied widely...so this isn't out of norm....

Also take into mind that in general competitive business to make a profit was considered a sin. Guilds for instance engaged in price fixing to ensure that no guild member undercut any other.

Standard rates for Verditius are therefore almost a certainty and IMS a verditius charged under the going rate might encounter stiff penalties from his housemates for "cheating".

So this of course favours the more experienced and skilled verditius as they make more profit from the standard sale. The cost is therefore likely to be set at a level that makes it unprofitably for other houses to match but where even a young verditius can make a profit (if only a small one to start).

Yes, the difference in costs is indeed weird, however.. what you have to consider is this.

You want this staff.. there are two mages who offer to make it for you, one charging 27 vis, the other 39 .. .. who are you gonna pick? ^^

The more skilled mage is the one making the money (or vis in this case).

What this -does- do however, is give incentive for the younger, less skilled mages to instead make smaller items.. as they will be eventually be charging the exact same price as a master.

Take this example.

This time someone wants a magnitude 8 staff. Both the master and journeyman can do it for only 1 + 5 = 6 vis, charging 18 vis for it.

Buuuut.... the master has no real incentive to be working against the younger magi in this case, as making such an item only nets him 12 vis profit, whereas with his skills, he could easily be making 18 vis profit from making better items... with no competition, the less skilled magus gets hired instead.

So in short.. if you stick to your rough level of crafting skill.. you've found your correct niche, and can likely be able to make a profit roughly equivalent to your skill level. If you try and compete against the bigger boys when you're not skilled enough, you get nothing ^^

So yes, they do sell them cheaper.. but that's why people buy them off them and not others.

I guess my question would be,
"What is sticking with your level of skill?"

If you can do the enchantment, its within your skill. So if you are trying to compete with those above you, by that thought, you CAN'T...you can't generate the lab total...
Of course if you are talking about making lower level enchantments that you both can do...then (agreement)
8)

Well, clearly the most efficient item you can make would be one that required your craft skill +1 in vis to open.

In truth though.. I prefer to sell lesser invested items.. you often tend to get more profit for your seasons of work. Making really big items actually tends to make you less money, though certainly might get you more prestige.