That doesn't mean much by itself. It means that the people who *do* bother with items pay that price for them, but it doesn't mean that most people would like to pay that price for them, or that those who do pay that price like how they work. Maybe they just haven't had enough experience with them yet: in my experience, it's much easier as a council member to get offered uniques, and it took me a while of dealing with them to really get tired of them. People just haven't had that experience, maybe?
The 50 gold really surprises me, though. In my experience, almost all of the offers were for 0 gold. On the other hand, people who are offered these usually have more gold then they care to deal with, making 50 gold peanuts for them.
So here's an idea: if an item reaches 0%, it drops and won't provide any prestige or bonuses until repaired. That way, people can't hog onto them forever and keep them at 0%. They have to get them repaired, and advies are always a risk of loss.
However, if this is implemented, I still think decay should have a cap that is much lower than what most items seem to have.
Nothing wrong with giving infils the option to steal them, either.
I understand that we don't want hoarding, but I in no way see this objective as incompatible with permanent items.
And I strongly believe it would make things more interesting.
As Tom has said, he doesn't CARE if most people don't actually bother with uniques. It is not a core part of the game, so as long as the bulk of the items available are being traded it is satisfying the design.
