Hey, you guys are bright, lemme know if NOW this is possible (I been suggesting it since day 1....
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Every client has a variable indicating total wealth. That's how much they have and how much they paid for everything they own and how much they'd have if they sold everything else - it goes down when they drop something, it goes up when they get something. The ammount they can earn for any given job is inversely proportional to their total wealth. For instance, an oldbie can sell a gold durby for 1 gralat, a newbie can sell a gold durby for 10.
It wouldn't fix everything - nothing will - but it'd be a start.