Price Catalogue
| Price Catalogue | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Book |
| Location | Bookseller |
| Sell Price | 1000g |
The Price Catalogue is the cheapest thing on the Bookseller's table and the one most players reach for first. Reading it adds a sell value to the information panel of every item that can be sold, so hovering over a stack in a chest answers the only question that matters before it goes in the shipping bin. The figure shown is the real one: it already counts the size of the stack and any profession bonus the farmer has taken. That turns a lot of guesswork into a glance, and it saves the slow business of shipping one of something to find out what it was worth. For a few thousand gold early on it is the best quality-of-life purchase in the whole set.
The in-game description reads: You can now see the value of your items.
Overview
A travelling bookseller sets up twice a season on the open ground north of JojaMart, reached by the short stairway behind the shop. His visits are picked at random, and the calendar outside Pierre's General Store marks them with a small hot air balloon so the day can be planned for. A message in the corner of the screen also announces him on the morning he arrives. His table carries a different handful of titles each time, but the Price Catalogue is modest enough that it rarely feels like a wasted visit.
The power it grants is pure information. Every sellable item gains a line in its hover panel giving what the shipping bin will pay. Where a stack is held, the number shown is the total for the whole stack rather than for a single item, which is what makes it useful for deciding whether thirty Blueberries are worth more as fruit or as wine. Where a profession is raising prices, the displayed figure has that raise folded in already, so a Tiller's crops and an Artisan's kegs read true instead of needing mental arithmetic. The same applies to the powers that lift a price, so a farmer who has also read the Treasure Appraisal Guide sees artifacts at their boosted value.
Experienced players use it as a planning tool rather than a convenience. Cooking a dish often pays less than selling its parts, aging a good in a cask multiplies it, and some foraged items are worth far more when preserved than when shipped raw. All of those decisions become visible instead of remembered. It is also quietly useful in the museum and the mines, where a pocket full of unfamiliar minerals and artifacts can be sorted into keepers and sellers without leaving the floor.
Like the Animal Catalogue, this book hands over its power on the first read and has nothing to add on a second, so a duplicate copy is better sold on or wrapped up as a gift. The power lives on the Special Items and Powers tab once it has been taken. On a farm shared by several players the price lines appear only for whoever did the reading, so a second farmhand needs a second copy before the hover panels change for them.
Gifts
These villagers love receiving Price Catalogue as a gift.
| Villager | Image |
|---|---|
| Pierre | 
|
Notes
Pierre loves being handed one, which is a small joke worth noticing: the man who sets the prices in Pelican Town is delighted by a list of them. Penny loves it as she loves any book, and Elliott is glad of it. Most of the rest of the valley is unimpressed, and the catalogue is one of the few books that a long list of villagers actively dislikes receiving, so it is a poor choice for birthday rounds.
Dropped into the dye pots at 2 Willow Lane the catalogue counts as a yellow, and through the spool of the Sewing Machine with a dyeable garment in the feed it produces a gold instead. Reading it also ticks one of the entries needed for the Well-Read achievement, so even a farmer who prefers to work out prices by hand has to open it once.
All Books
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Animal Catalogue | 
|
2000g |
| Bait And Bobber | 
|
500g |
| Book Of Stars | 
|
2500g |
| Book of Mysteries | 
|
3000g |
| Combat Quarterly | 
|
500g |
| Dwarvish Safety Manual | 
|
1000g |
| Friendship 101 | 
|
3000g |
| Horse: The Book | 
|
1000g |
| Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Thick | 
|
500g |
| Jewels Of The Sea | 
|
800g |
| Mapping Cave Systems | 
|
4000g |
| Mining Monthly | 
|
500g |
| Monster Compendium | 
|
2000g |
| Ol' Slitherlegs | 
|
1000g |
| Price Catalogue | 
|
1000g |
| Queen Of Sauce Cookbook | 
|
10000g |
| Raccoon Journal | 
|
1000g |
| Stardew Valley Almanac | 
|
500g |
| The Alleyway Buffet | 
|
3000g |
| The Art O' Crabbing | 
|
1000g |
| The Diamond Hunter | 
|
1000g |
| Treasure Appraisal Guide | 
|
500g |
| Way Of The Wind pt. 1 | 
|
5000g |
| Way Of The Wind pt. 2 | 
|
10000g |
| Woodcutter's Weekly | 
|
500g |
| Woody's Secret | 
|
500g |