Hello!
So I have a merchant character. She is a full bard, and I wanted her to be a great merchant, for selling and buying from NPC stores. I thought I was doing fairly well, actually. I am level 13. I have skill focus in Appraise, the three mercantile feats, and max appraise and influence. With my gear, but without my bardsong, my appraise is 36. With my bardsong, and with a spell glibness, I have a 41 appraise, and a 45 influence. That puts my Barovia OCR to a 1. I recently met another character though, who could sell Amulets of Kali for fourty, which is six fang over my price, but I'm not sure why. Her appraise is 34, without bardsong, and I believe she said her influence was a 20. She also has the three mercantile feats, but does not have skill focus in Appraise. She is level 14, full bard.
I heard yesterday that influence had an affect on prices, so today I releveled to max my influence. Yesterday I was selling Amulets of Kali for 34 fang, with a 41 appraise, and a ten influence. After releveling, and picking up the spell glibness, I have what I said above, but I'm still only selling the Amulets of Kali for 34 fang. I'm really wondering what I am doing wrong. So onto my questions.
Does Influence affect pricing, or is it a racial affect for pricing? I am a halfling, but does a native core get a better deal? I cannot remember the race of the other character.
I have the rings, amulet, and gloves for appraise. I know there is a hand held item, the ankh of Ptah, that gives one appraise that I do not have yet. Am I missing anything else?
Is there some other thing that may affect mercantiling that I am missing? I don't do power builds often, but I really want to be the best merchant I can be. I want to be able to say with full enthusiasm that I can sell for the most and buy for the least.
Thank you.