I've always wondered: Are Treasure buyers like pawn shops?

Their conception seems to be the same: Buy items from players for resale. Though unlike pawn shops, they never seem to get enough of anything.

What if treasure buyers acted more like pawn shops? Where instead of having a standard price for the item, a modifier would be placed on the item dependant on how many the treasure buyer has of that item within.. say a 5 days or a week.

Day 1 - appraiser buys 10 rubies - modifier = 0
Total: 10
Day 2 - appraiser buys 10 rubies - modifier = -10%
Total: 20
Day 3 - appraiser buys 10 rubies - modifier = -20%
Total: 30
Day 4 - appraiser buys 10 rubies - modifier = -30%
Total: 40
Day 5 - appraiser buys 10 rubies - modifier = -40%
Total: 50

Day 6 - appraiser buys 10 rubies - modifier = -40% (assuming he sold the 10 rubies from the first day)
Total: 50

One huge effect is that people in highly populated hunting areas would be making less money - unless they held their gems to sell. (1) It would force the hunter to sell at a lower price, (2)it would lead more people to tie pouches (and therefore a Trader), or (3) they would just go to a Trader in the first place.

One bonus a Trader can get is that the modifier could be changed through bulk selling (or not even affect the Trader at all).

Instead of -40%, a traders' modifier would be half, or -20%, couple this with a Trader's bonus, it would still give experienced Traders profit.

The perception of the size of a Traders' selling bonus is would be even more inflated.

It would also add the risk of losing money for the Trader who goes out and buys gems/furs from hunters (if they buy at [appraisal value + bonus] from hunters), the Trader would have to find gem buyers who would make even more money for them. -- However, if the Trader knows this is the case, it would lead to the Trader not buying at [appraisal + bonus] but rather at [appraisal].

-Veii

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