Selling Magic Items

[Starchild7309]

So we are playing through Hoard of the Dragon Queen and since I had no magical items yet I was given a Rod of Absorption that still has 41/50 charges left on it. I am a Mace and shield cleric who most of the time doesn't wield the mace so he can cast since I don't have war caster yet. This rod is basically useless to me but magic items are few and far between in our campaign. So we are currently in Waterdeep and I figure it should be worth a ton of money....but how much and how would one go about selling something like that in a world where where magic items are extremely uncommon. Uncommon as in we are almost 8th level and we all have one magic item each (somehow I am the only one that got something useless to my character though... :smallmad: ) So like I said, how would I sell it and how much is something like that worth?

[Addaran]

I've been told it's better to try to trade magic items in 5E, since there's no magic-mart and no price listed for magic items.
Either find a wizard who might have crafted stuff, a church for divine objects or a rich merchant/collector that might have 1-2 items.

[JackPhoenix]

Rod of Absorbtion is a Very Rare item. According to guidelines on pricing items in DMG, that's worth something between 5k-50k gp. Now, yours is about 20% depleted, lowering the price a little. If there are no magic shops and you don't want to keep the rod (which is an awesome useful thing for any caster, IMO), I suggest you organise an auction. You'll want heavy security (that thing is both powerful and worth a lot) and possibly make it invitation-only and do some research into parties that could afford and use it.

[Shaofoo]

Selling items is DM dependant function. The DMG basically says that to sell a magic item you need some downtime to look around for potential buyers and after a roll you get offers.

We can't answer anything because every single thing is up to the DM and that is how the game was designed around, from how is it sold to how much can it be sold to if it can even be sold. Just say that you find the rod useless and you would like to either find another magic item to barter or someone who is willing to pay top dollar.

[SharkForce]

before you try and sell it, your first question should be what is your DM's stance on *buying* magic items.

because if you can't buy a magic item, the only thing you can get from selling the rod of absorption is gold, and gold is basically useless dead weight until you turn it into something useful.

unless you seriously never even come close to running out of spells, and have no expectation of ever doing so, i wouldn't sell the rod unless i was certain i was going to get something i *can* use in return. because regardless of how unimpressive that rod is to you, a pile of gold that you can't carry because it weighs too much and which can only buy you things that are functionally useless is even more unimpressive.

[Starchild7309]

Well all good points, bartering probably would be the way to go...

As for the pile of gold, I am attempting to build a temple so gold would be helpful.

I realize that as we advance in level things will cast spells at me, but most of the time I am cowering behind a shield to preserve my less than average HP. If I put the shield down, my AC goes down, if I keep the shield up my AC is ok, but can't use the rod except to absorb spells. Also, apparently with a holy symbol in one hand and a rod in the other I would need warcaster to cast the spell. I think thats wrong, but thats what was decided.