Vendor

Vendors in Ultima Online come in a multitude of varieties, but are generally differentiated into two distinct groups: Player owned vendors that are based out of player houses and Non-Player Character(commonly NPC for short) Vendors that sell basic goods.

Player Owned Vendors

Player owned vendors are all unique and feature goods that their controlling player wishes to sell. Some may sell Artifacts, some Bulk Order Deeds, and others Stat Scrolls and Skill Scrolls, nearly anything that can be picked up or looted in the game.

Prices on player owned vendors fluctuate wildly, and generally prices are highest on vendors surrounding the Luna area. The cause of the "Luna Price Spike" is largely the high-volume of visitors each Vendor gets. An item listed for 50,000 gold pieces on a Luna Vendor may sell in a matter of hours, while the same item on a vendor in a less trafficked area may take days or weeks at half the price.

In order to place a vendor inside a house, first a contract of employment is needed to be purchased from NPC bankers or minters. The house that the vendor will be placed should be set to public. Double clicking on the contract will set the vendor on the same spot you stand. While the spot the vendor is standing cannot be changed, its name, gender, race, direction and its appearance can be changed by using the gump that appears by double clicking on the vendor. The vendors bag of goods can also be seen by selecting the 'See Goods' options on this gump.

Vendor Rental Contracts are available to rent a vendor spot inside a house to another player. The contact options display the contact length, the price per rental and the names of te landlord and the renter. The option to renew the contract on expiration and if so, the renewal price can also be set on the contract options.

Each house is able to hold a minimum number of 10 vendors also known as the vendor count. The size of the house can increase this number to a maximum of 42 vendors for customizable houses and 72 for castles. Vendors have a base fee of 20 - 24 gp per UO day. while first 500 gp worth of items are covered by this fee, for each additional 500 gp worth of items, the vendor charges 1gp per UO day. Below is a calculator for vendor charge per real world day:

The vendor fee formula changed some time ago.
The vendor system now figures and charges it fees by real day (rather than a UO day).
The base fee for a vendor is 60 gold per 24 hours.
The vendor increase his charge by 3 gold per 500 gp worth of a single item.
If you have every item at 499 gold or lower the vendor will charge no additional fees and only cost 60 gold per day
There are some exceptions to the 499 rule. Certain items evidently have an intrinsic value and will charge a fee no matter how low you set the price. Blackrock stew will charge a fee of 6 gold for any price between 0 and 1499 and then begin following the vendor fee rules. Other notable exceptions found are: ships (small classic ship 48 gold vendor fee at zero price), Samuels Secret Sauce (3 gold vendor fee at zero price), Interior Decorating Tool (48 gold vendor fee at zero price), Statuette Engraving Tool (6 gold vendor fee at zero price) etc. The calculator below uses the older system but for amounts 1000 gold and over comes with-in 9 gold.

NPC Vendors

NPC Vendors include Scribes, Tailors, Blacksmiths, Tinkerers, Fletchers, Mages, Paladins, Healers, and all vendors that populate Ultima Online's various shards that are not under direct control of the players. They are usually found in towns.

Prices on these vendors fluctuate based on the demand for specific items the specific vendor is selling. For example, Iron Ingots may have a starting price of 8 gold pieces each, but if a player purchases thousands or tens of thousands of Iron Ingots from one specific NPC Vendor the price per ingot will raise slowly. Ingot and other raw materials prices raise at the rate of 1 gold piece per 1000 units purchased with no limit on the maximum price.

To access a NPC Vendor a player can click on them with the context window and either select "Sell" or "Buy". A player may also say "Vendor Buy" or "Vendor Sell" in order to access the basic buy and sell functions.