I'd like to see certain npc's who buy and sell items only to people with a considerable investment in appraise.
How this would function is simple. A store would have an appraise check option, once used if successful this opens an alternate store window with the same items offered at a much cheaper rate. In addition items sold via this window give up to 12-30 gp instead of the usual 6-15.
At the moment you can have a negative appraise skill and still sell items at the maximuim amount. I think it would be nice to make the skill more worthwhile.
Just an idea.
While this sounds little, it isn't.
If the ranges are fixed (12-30 is a lot) i would agree with this suggestion. Add that if you fail the apprise check the merchant won't buy your stuff or will buy them cheaper, to add some risk to it.
Additionally i would suggest to stop the dwarf and the assistant from buying the stuff, it makes too little sence they buy it. A bazaar merchant should be added to each settlement (Gobsquat/docks/ziggurat/exile's camp and any others) that buys this things and still sells them at a resonable price to other PCs.
i think it would be cool if you could just sell reasonably worthwhile items to a certain vendor for a maximum amount equal to your appraise skill
Bring back the creepy little pawn shop owner halfling that bought everything for 1-6 gold but sold it for 200% more :)
I have no problem with high appraise scores giving people monetary advantages. If you really want to make gold as a merchant you'll still have to interact with PCs. So many items are marked as "stolen" as to prevent a boost in this regard being overly powerful when dealing with NPCs.
It's a tricky thing really. In the Underdark where merchants buy more things and pay more than typical the gold flows in ridiculous amounts. It would need to be a careful change if it goes in.