How much does a magic item cost... (3E)

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... if you don't know it's magical?

For example, let's say Redgar the fighter goes into a dungeon. He vanquishes some undead, then picks up a nice-looking sword that is way better than his old piece o' rust. So he trades his old sword for the newly acquired one, which, unbeknownst to him is magical (+1).

Later, Redgar gets an even better sword. He still has the sword from the dungeon, which he does not know is magical. He meets a merchant who wants to buy it. The merchant is unaware that the sword is magical.

So how much should Redgar sell the sword for? I was thinking using one-quarter (as a default) the magic price for it, but there's no reason to think that. If I did that, Redgar would sell the sword at 400 gp (300 + 500, then halved, because that's what you normally do with selling magic items, I believe).

As most magic swords might have jewels or have gold embossings or whatnot, they are probably a bit more expensive. But some might look rather simple. So, uh, any idea what it should cost if you didn't know it was magical?

 

treat it as a masterwork weapon. I've had players selling a magical weapon as a normal weapon since they didn't examine it.
Detect magic is a cantrip and a quick way to figure out what magic is in the weapon. And a small spectacle of detect magic would only be 1000gp for a merchant. Should be doable.

Remember that most traders in magical items are mages. Even those who craft items have to have some magical prowess and thus could identify auras on the weapon through spellcraft checks.
I doubt a normal blacksmith without any magical ability would have such a trade, since he could never really know what was sold to him, nor tell what the value of what he's selling.

As for selling/buying value of a weapon, I'd say it should be sold for what it appears to be (even if it's not).

If you sold a magic item that you didn't know was a magic item to say a merchant who didn't know either it was magic, I'd go for the price it appears to be. masterwork and type are one, and special materials or ornaments (gems, mithral, adamantite, etc.) would be the other.

 

Since none of the properties are known, he should sell the sword for whatever he would feel its worth. Since the weapon is a masterwork to be magical and that's what it looks like (unless its very powerful and glows), then its most likely to be sold as a masterwork.