Appraising Touch in plain sight.. merchants, how do you feel?

[Dihydrogen Monoxide]

Let's say hypothetically you're a merchant.

A wizardly-looking fellow walks into your store and looks through your goods. You offer some pretty cool looking trinkets, but unfortunately, they're a little too spendy for the wizard man.

The wizard man continues looking through your things and thinks to himself.. "Hmm.. these things can't be worth that much.. there's no way." He mutters a few words to himself, perhaps waves his hands slightly erratically and in an instant, he gains a the eyes of a master appraiser for a short amount of time.

How would you, the hypothetical merchant, feel? Besides the obvious of not making the killing you might normally make on someone less observant, would you be inclined to call the guard? Kick the wizard out of your shop? Or shrug and pay no heed, considering that you'll be making some stags anyways?

[[DM] Grinning Death]

I'd assume that most merchants have a good idea of what is in their stock, and how much it's worth. Hypothetically the merchant might think it's worth more than the wizardly-looking fellow says it is, but then that's a level of realism that doesn't come into play when in an automated D&D world.

And you'd probably count yourself lucky the wizard doesn't turn you into a frog, or somesuch.

[Satoshi]

You'd probably count yourself lucky the wizard doesn't turn you into a frog, or somesuch.

Pretty much this. As long as they aren't abusing illusory magic or enchantments in a manner that could constitute theft or mental alteration, there's not much the merchant could legally do. Unless, of course, they just bar you from the store with 'no magic allowed'. That's been done in several places in the Realms.

[ManUtd4Ever]

...or the merchant teams up with a "local" wizard, hired by the "local" merchant's guild, to place wards on and around his shop to prevent this from happening.

[Doubtful]

I'd imagine the store keeper would feel about the same as a modern shop keeper feels when some produces a smartphone and asks 'do you pricematch the internet?'

[Shedboy]

It all comes back to how badly the merchant wants to sell and how badly the customer wants to buy.

Supply and demand

[Dave Fritz]

(snip) ... then that's a level of realism that doesn't come into play when in an automated D&D world.

The scenario you mention would not come into play, I don't think, for a standard, in-game store, ie an NPC merchant.

For a PC merchant, you and the merchant should be able to RP it any way you both want to. Haggling anyone?

[GodBeastX]

Next update...

We hired people to RP the store merchants. They will now refuse to sell to you because they are racist pricks.

What? That's realistic!

"Sorreh bo'hy, we don't serve ye'r kind here!"

[TakenByTheStormX]

Gbx, I'll accept that role. AKA: no one is getting shit, so get the hell out of my shop.