6.11 SHOPKEEPING

For buying from shops, see HELP SHOPS

In order to purchase a shop, you must find someone willing to sell you one. In order to do this, you could go to various player-owned shops in the major cities or communes, and type WARES. If  the shop is closed, then contact the government about buying it from them. 

Alternately, at great expense, you may invest in an aethermanse and purchase a shop for it. See HELP MANSE ARTIFACTS.

Shops have a standard stock limit of 250 items. This can be increased, if required, by 250 items up to three times for a maximum stock capacity of 1000 items. Manse shop owners can purchase an artifact that will do this for you, see HELP MANSE ARTIFACTS. Cities and communes can upgrade their shops at a cost of 1,000,000 gold per upgrade. This is done from the council chambers and the gold is taken from the Chancellor's budget. For guild stockroom upgrades, please speak to your Patron and expect to pay the same amount.

Once you own a shop, you may put items for sale by doing the following:

1) Drop an item on the floor of the storeroom for your shop.
2) Use the PRICE command.

   Syntax: PRICE [SINGLE|ALL] <item> <gold>

   It has slightly different meaning if you use the 'single' or 'all'
   keyword before the item. If SINGLE is used, it will price only the
   first item it finds, and it will mark that item as being for sale
   individually (it won't group with like items). The ALL keyword will
   find all matching items and price them the same (this also removes
   the single-sale flag). To price alike items (except for those marked
   for individual sale), simply omit both keywords.

   Example (say you have 4 longswords):

      PRICE ALL LONGSWORD 2000         - Price all longswords at 2000 gold
      PRICE SINGLE LONGSWORD1234 3000  - An exemplary longsword
      PRICE LONGSWORD 2500             - Price the other 3 a bit lower

   To see what items you have and have not priced you may use IH UNPRICED
   in the stockroom to search through your stock.

3) To remove an item, use either

   UNPRICE [SINGLE|ALL] <item>         
   -or-
   PRICE [SINGLE|ALL] <item> NOTFORSALE

- If you want others to help operate your shop, you must grant specific persons
  permission. This will allow them to get items from the shop or shoprift. It 
  also allows the use the PRICE command. You can designate up to 10 others to 
  help in the operations.

   SHOP LIST  - lists those who have permission to operate the shop.
   SHOP ADD <person> - adds a person to the shop permission list.
   SHOP REMOVE <person> - removes a person from the shop permission list.

- When someone purchases something from your shop, the gold will be deposited
  on the floor of your storeroom. Thus, it is in your best interest to ensure
  that only you and those you trust completely have access to your storeroom.

- Your shop will cost the city it is in money to pay for guards to keep
  thieves and brigands out of your shop. As such, the city may decide to tax
  your shop. If you type CITY SHOP INFO while standing in your shop, you will 
  be able to see what taxes you owe on your shop.

- You may pay your taxes by typing CITY PAY SHOP TAXES while standing in your
  shop, with the gold in your hands.

- City/commune shops may be linked to the Aetherplex. This is done via organisational Patron Request and costs 2,000,000 gold per shop (as a one-time fee). This is permanent and will remain if the shop changes owners. Permissions may be set by the Chancellor via CITY SHOP PRIVS, and shop policies that refuse customers will also prevent entry.

- For 50,000 gold you can purchase a shop log which will show you the goings
  on in your shop by using BUY SHOPLOG while standing in your shop. Note that
  the shop log will vanish should the shop change hands.

- You may sell your shop to another player by doing:
   SELL SHOP TO <player> FOR <x> GOLD.

The player will be asked for confirmation, and if he has the gold, the gold will be transferred to your inventory. Be sure to give the new owner your keys.

SECURITY NOTE:
  - All stockrooms inherently have the features of a monolith, key, eye, and
    palm sigil. This prevents teleporting in (monolith), souls entering (eye), 
    leaving the door open (key), and accidentally scooping items (palm).
  - Even so, no one will be able to pick up items in the stockroom or use the
    shoprift unless you have granted them permissions to operate the shop.

See also HELP SHOPPOLICIES and HELP BINS and HELP SHOP RIFT