Does Tech Level effect the Sale Price of an item?

[MasterGwydion]

If a Player has a TL12 rifle (doesn't matter which one) and wants to sell it on a TL8 or 10 world, what does this do to the price? Or a computer? I am pretty sure that all of the big computer companies on Earth in the real world would pay billions to acquire that technology. I would imagine that it would be much less so in Charted Space, due to interstellar trade, but it should still be something. Right? Or is this not covered in Our current ruleset?

Closest rules for this that I could find were from GURPS. lol

 

[Vormaerin]

If the world was actually isolated and the PCs were the only traders who had found the place, they could sell at a huge mark up.

But within the Imperium, TL is pretty nebulous. All that stuff is is available in the Sears Interstellar Catalogue or whatever. Just the local industry doesn't produce it. Or it's an Amish planet and they don't want it. But if it is useful enough, able to be maintained locally, and legal on that lower tech planet, anyone able to pay a lot who wants it could have already gotten it.

The rules don't get into the complexities of local pricing, planetary currencies, tariffs, sales taxes, import licenses, and all that. It just pretends a rifle is a rifle. If you want to adjust the price for TL differential, you can do so. But it will be on a case by case basis, not a defined mechanical adjustment.

 

[Vormaerin]

The closest you get to any such effect in the rules is the Hi Tech and Low Tech Trade classifications having an effect on speculative trade.

 

[Condottiere]

Probably a black market item, with black market prices.

 

[Vormaerin]

Probably a black market item, with black market prices.

Only if it is illegal.

 

[Condottiere]

Someone turns up with a quantum computer on Earth, and plans to auction it off.

Chances are that any number of governments will invoke eminent domain.

 

[Vormaerin]

Chances are the various governments of the Earth are not part of the Imperium and not subject to its free trade mandates.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Chances are the various governments of the Earth are not part of the Imperium and not subject to its free trade mandates.

I was more thinking in general Traveller rules as opposed to in the Charted Space setting.

 

[metlk]

This question did come up once for me. If I remember right, I used the availability modifiers from the CSC combined with their broker skill to give them a boost to the base sale price. I think it was 5% increments per effect, so a TL 12 item being sold on a TL7 planet would have a DM of -2, making it a 6+ broker roll. A skill check of 10 would have been an additional 20% increase. (4 effect x 5%.) It seems like I had something else in there, but I can't remember off the top of my head.

 

[Vormaerin]

I was more thinking in general Traveller rules as opposed to in the Charted Space setting.

Ah. You mentioned Charted Space in your post. But mostly those replies were to Condottiere's specific hypotheticals.

 

[Vormaerin]

Anyway, it will depend on the situation on that planet. It will be different on every world.

Is the fancy TL12 thing something that actually has a use at their TL? An iPhone wouldn't be of any use to a WWI era technology. At least, not for very long.

Do the purchasers actually have things of value to the seller? Do they value them the same?

Are you going to have tech import issues like Condottiere was talking about, where the government(s) might be interested in it to the point of confiscation?

Is there additional sources of this tech via interstellar trade?

That's just the most obvious factors.

 

[Condottiere]

There are restrictions to exporting high end gaming graphic cards to mainland China.

I'd say anything that provides a substantial edge over competitors, commercial or political, is either going to be actively acquired if available, or denied to the competitors, one way or the other.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Anyway, it will depend on the situation on that planet. It will be different on every world.

Is the fancy TL12 thing something that actually has a use at their TL? An iPhone wouldn't be of any use to a WWI era technology. At least, not for very long.

Do the purchasers actually have things of value to the seller? Do they value them the same?

Are you going to have tech import issues like Condottiere was talking about, where the government(s) might be interested in it to the point of confiscation?

Is there additional sources of this tech via interstellar trade?

That's just the most obvious factors.

Okay, so in other words, no rules written that are better than the GURPS rules. Okay. Those rules are complicated to make trade routes out of, having to constantly change the currency value. In Imperial Space, I would guess the average would be TL12 since that is the TL of all of the Starports. Outside of Imperial Space or outside of the OTU, I have no idea, as even the currencies would shift from system to system.

 

[Vormaerin]

Correct.

 

[MasterGwydion]

I think I figured out a solution that won't give Me too many headaches. It is a variation of the Retro-tech rules for Brains from the Robotics Handbook. Plus 50% for every TL lower than the item and minus 50% for each TL higher than the item.