# Selling Animal Skins



## TarionzCousin (Aug 13, 2011)

How much will NPC's pay for animal skins?

Our PC's have some deerskins and need lots of gold (Level 2 + Severed Limbs = Too Expensive to Heal).

I can't find any guidelines on how much animal skins are worth in the D&D universe.


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## Janx (Aug 13, 2011)

TarionzCousin said:


> How much will NPC's pay for animal skins?
> 
> Our PC's have some deerskins and need lots of gold (Level 2 + Severed Limbs = Too Expensive to Heal).
> 
> I can't find any guidelines on how much animal skins are worth in the D&D universe.




Well, they're worth money (as in the real world).

However, basic economic trends apply:
1) components cost much less than the next level of refinement/usage in a product
2)things double in cost for each layer of agency re-selling the product


For #1, as an example, my wife can get alpaca fur for dirt cheap and spin it  into yarn herself.  She can pay much more for spun alpaca yarn.  A hand-knit alpaca sweater would cost even more than that.

For #2, case in point, try to trade in something for cash/credit, and you generally get 50% of its resale value.  So bring in a $200 item, they'll give you $100, and then put a sale tag sticker of $200 on the item.  This is standard practice on pretty much anything (not just trade-in).  Marked up price is almost always double its cost to that agent.

With these 2 concepts in mind, examine product pricing for products that will be made from the deeskins.    The skins themselves will be 1/2 to 1/10 of that price, most likely.

Clothing (explorer's outfit, extreme weather gear) or tents, backpacks might be a decent comparison.  While not precise, 1 deer skin can probably make a backpack or an outfit.  I think a backback is 1GP, so start there.

At 1Gp for a finished good, the basic steps to make it are:
tanning/prepping the skin to be workable leather
selling the leather to a supplier
supplier sells it to a backpack maker
backpack maker sells it to adventurers.

That's easily 4 layers of price doubling (and therefore price halving).

1/2/2/2/2 = .03125, so 3CP per skin

You could rule out a shorter chain, but then there could also be more layers.  Consider the fur trade industry when north america was settled.  trappers get furs, sell the furs.  Furs get prepared.  furs get shipped over seas, furs get made into stuff, stuff gets sold in stores

Anyway, glad I could help.  If you want real world dollars, I got a guy who actually does this stuff.  he use to run trap lines and sell furs, and he owns a deer farm.


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## I'm A Banana (Aug 13, 2011)

I'd let them use skins to get their GP requisite from treasure.

They're level 2. They can get up to their expected level 2 reward for the skins they have. They'd have to go out and earn more levels to get better skins (Chimera skins! Dragon skins!) in order to get more gold.


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## Ed_Laprade (Aug 13, 2011)

Janx had the right of it. I wouldn't give them more than a quarter of what a suit of soft leather armor costs, and that's being generous! They'd have been better served selling the meat, if possible.


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## Janx (Aug 13, 2011)

Ed_Laprade said:


> Janx had the right of it. I wouldn't give them more than a quarter of what a suit of soft leather armor costs, and that's being generous! They'd have been better served selling the meat, if possible.




On leather armor, I'd rather use pigskin.  That stuff is way tougher than deerskin. (I know this from personal experience in tanning and preparing both materials).

I'd have to pay a visit to Tandy leather to see what the thickest I can get cowhide, but Pigskin is vastly tougher than deerskin.

Deer don't generate as much meat as regular farmed meat animals.  Still pretty tasty though.


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## frankthedm (Aug 14, 2011)

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/206443-skinning-creature.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/243997-chunk-meat.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/35574-critter-bits-magic-recipes-2.html


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## S'mon (Aug 14, 2011)

Assuming deer are common in the area, the deerskins aren't going to be worth much.  I think around 2 sp per deerskin sounds right, or about 2 days' subsistence wage, or about 20% of what the finished article made from the skin would be worth.  Hunting deer would be a trade that gives the typical NPC a little above subsistence lifestyle IMCs.

Edit: The venison may well be worth more than the skin.  *mmm*, tasty venison...


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 14, 2011)

I would think that the venison and antlers would be more valuable than the deerskin, overall.  Heck, the antlers may be the most valuable part of the deer in any market.  It makes for some very nice handle-making material.

Until you get it to the big city, that is.  That soft skin would be in demand for clothing uses...especially among those who can afford to have clothing that is more delicate.


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## MarkB (Aug 14, 2011)

The deers' heads, if intact, might be worth more as fake hunting trophies, especially if they managed to bring down a buck with an impressive head of antlers.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 14, 2011)

And if the deer in question were _flying_ deer...

"How much do you want for this glowing red bit?"

"That nose?  Erm...5PP sound fair?"

"Its a deal."

"Whatcha going to do with it, if you'll pardon my asking?

"Making a Staff of "Find the Path" is what I have in mind..."


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## TarionzCousin (Aug 14, 2011)

Thanks for all the interesting and thoughtful replies. Here's what I'm taking away from this thread so far:

Skins: 2 SP each.
Antlers: More.
Full fake trophy heads: More.
Venison: Yummy--we ate it in the wild or took it back to Oleg's.

Perhaps I should be more specific: how much should Oleg pay for the various parts of the deer my group provides? Or for the skin/head/antlers as one item? 

Is 5 sp per deer without the meat a fair price? Perhaps 1 gp per whole deer?
_
Remember:_ a severed leg and severed hand are depending upon your generous calculations.


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## S'mon (Aug 14, 2011)

I think 1-2 gp per whole butchered deer carcass would be reasonable.  You can look at livestock costs for a reasonable comparison.


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## ExploderWizard (Aug 15, 2011)

There was a table in the 1E DMG that listed usual prices for various pelts.


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## David Howery (Aug 15, 2011)

I wouldn't put a whole lot of value on a deer carcass, unless the area they are in is suffering from a famine... if the area is a normal operating village/city, then leather will scarcely be in short supply.  Antlers and trophy heads are interesting, but not all that valuable.  If the party needs to put together a pile of gold in a hurry and wants to do it with wild pelts, they're going to have to be more creative.  Go after something rare and valuable; big cats, winter wolves, etc.  Heck, there's an adventure hook right there...


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## Chris Knapp (Aug 15, 2011)

Not to derail this interesting topic, but do your players really want to grind to get their limbs back? Wouldn't they rather you hand wave this, saying, "After a month of recovery, where you make your living off the wild lands, you save up enough gold for the magic spell. . ."?


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## TarionzCousin (Aug 19, 2011)

Chris Knapp said:


> Not to derail this interesting topic, but do your players really want to grind to get their limbs back? Wouldn't they rather you hand wave this, saying, "After a month of recovery, where you make your living off the wild lands, you save up enough gold for the magic spell. . ."?



I'm one of the players, not the DM. 

After a few days, the DM said the church of Gorum would restore the limbs for 300-500 gp, or replace them with metal equivalents for less (and the promise of future testing/evaluations). 

The PC whose leg was cut off (near the hip) said he would gladly take the offer. The PC whose arm was cut off said it was too expensive and she would deal with the semi-dead hand.


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