History Main / ShopFodder

** Enough parties got frustrated with the ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors''' lack of treasure that they just looted the thick, enchanted [[{{Unobtainium}} adamantium]] doors instead. 3[[superscript:rd]] edition revised them to be enchanted steel.

* The large refractors you find in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManLegends Mega Man Legends 2]]'' are only good for selling for some cash. Even though the description ''explicitly states this'', many players remembered back to the first game where the large refractors were important PlotCoupons and were reluctant to sell them, thinking they might ultimately find some manner of machine to stick them in.

* ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier'' has the gold ingots. Those can be used in the Takonomics glitch that involved the manipulation of the gold market via the shop at Koorong [[labelnote: note]]the price of gold goes down as you sell ingots and back up as you buy, but this calculation is (erroneously) made ''before'' any actual physical inventory changes hand. You can therefore manipulate the gold market in the shop menu such that when you actually sell your gold, you get more money back. Then you travel to Nelson, where gold ingots are always sold at a fixed price. Rinse and repeat.[[/labelnote]] and then you will have all the money you'll ever need.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' has monsters drop crystals called sepith rather than money. Sepith can be traded for money, or used directly to acquire items and upgrades in certain shops. It also has sepith mass, which is a cruder form of sepith that can only be exchanged for money. The main purpose of the latter is so that the player can acquire money without having to exchange normal sepith, which makes it easier to save up for things that can only be bought with sepith.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' has several "Mystic Relics" that can be found and sold for Macca. There are also certain gold items that fetch prices for either 1000, 5000, or even a whopping 10000 Macca each.

* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei''/''Franchise/{{Persona}}'':

** In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', coins you get by killing the game's MetalSlime are usually worth a lot of money, and some of the items dropped by bosses are only there for you to sell.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', your first visit to the only equipment shop has the owner tell you explicitly that items dropped by enemies are useless to you and should be sold to him. A nice touch for those [[GuideDangIt worried]] about selling anything for fear of missing something later on. As an additional reason to do so, new weapons and armor become buyable if you sell certain amounts of stuff to the shop.
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Most of the treasure you steal from the various Palaces, include the main Treasure each of your heists are targeting, can only be sold at the weapon shop for cash. They have no other uses and stay in a separate tab from equipment and other usable items.

* In ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'' you take pictures of monsters and sell them for money. It's the only way to make cash as the Magnuses/Magni (magic cards holding the essence of something) dropped by enemies or found elsewhere sell for a pittance. There are some exceptions like the Chump Change that eventually change to Vintage Coints and then to Styx Passage Coins that can be sold for pretty penny or the Consolation Pay that sells for 30000. The series also features ''inversions'' of Vendor Trash: a certain magnus (Slight Debt) changes over time to the Debt with Interest, to the Snowballing Debt and finally the Debt Hell. Attempting to sell the Debt Hell will ''remove'' 5000 money from your possession.
* ''Mother'':
** Chickens, rulers, and protractors in ''VideoGame/EarthBound''. Luckily the game also has a "For Sale" sign which causes random people to wander up to you and [[WeBuyAnything buy your things]]. There's also the semi-rare Meteotite, which is dropped by some enemies and (as the description states) doesn't do anything but can be sold for a high price. And then there's the Insignificant Item...though it actually has a use.
** The Meteotite appears in the sequel, ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'', with the same purpose as in the game's predecessor: Selling for money.

* ''Xenoblade Chronicles'':

** [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 The sequel]] has Collectibles (spawned by collection points) and Treasure (acquired from salvaging). These are items that ''can'' be sold on their own, but they're often significantly more valuable when they're sold in collections (particularly the Treasures). There's an implication that the items sold in batches will be used to reconstruct lost technology, or simply form artistic objects with cultural and historical significance.
* ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' games generally have either useful items, or junk with "0 cp" price tag that nobody will buy. But in ''Shattered Lands'' there is one trader in [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Gedron]], who buys and sells literal trash (broken pots, mostly) at huge prices. Unfortunately, he gets better when you [[{{Brainwashed}} save]] his village from [[ForTheEvulz evil wizard]].

* In ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery ADOM]]'' there are several clearly useless items, like the Scroll of Cure Blindness (to use it you must be able to read it, spot the problem?) or [[JokeItem the si]]. However, there is also a Potion of Uselessness which [[spoiler: grants the player a random artifact if thrown on the Level 49 of the main dungeon. It can only be used for this.]] As in ''VideoGame/NetHack'', shops can run out of money - however, they eventually renew.

* ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'' has Plates, items which are commonly found in substories or by helping victims in the streets, and which serve no other purpose than to be sold. ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza|1}} Kiwami'' has one mission where you need a plate (for a dog to drink from), but they're equally useless after that (and even then, you could just sell your gold plates anyway and buy an iron plate that's 1000 times cheaper when you need it).

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** The three statues were originally used for a {{sidequest}}, but in the [[VideoGameRemake remake]], ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia Legends'', this quest was taken out, and the statues became shop fodder.

* Selling shop fodder is your main source of income in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. It should be noted that a lot of items are available earlier, cheaper, and/or exclusively if you sell a certain quota of shop fodder. Info in the bestiary frequently describes which items a monster drops and what they're used for, making the fact that they sell for decent money more plausible. And there's also a direct correlation between what you sell and what stuff you can buy from the Bazaar.

* 'VideoGame/AlphaMan'':

** Many alien items have little or no use for the player, but can be sold for big bucks. Particularly noticeable with [[EnemyScan Mind Probes]] - of questionable utility on the battlefield, but worth more than even the heaviest guns when sold. Of course, it's not hard to imagine why various civilian and military bodies would be quite interested in mind-reading devices. Alien corpses can also be sold for a pretty penny, which leads to the question of what these people are doing with all these dead aliens...

* D&D's spiritual successor ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' tries to {{reconstruct|ion}} this trope by providing the notable features, resale value, and potential buyers of some truly bizarre shop fodder, right up to up-market embalming oils from a famous tomb and a legendary GadgeteerGenius' room-sized vintage calliope (with further notes on the difficulty of getting it out in mint condition and the depreciation rate for wear and tear).

Shops throughout the realm will pay money for useless trinkets like that! Money. Money that you can use to buy something actually ''useful'' ([[MoneyForNothing maybe]]). Sometimes a respectable amount, too, depending on the nature of the item. In rare cases, the Shop Fodder actually appreciates in value throughout the game!

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' has various treasures scattered around the place whose only purpose is to sell to the merchant for money, which can then be used to buy and upgrade weapons. Several treasures can be combined to form new items which are worth more than the sum of their parts, too. Luckily, they take up no inventory room and are listed seperately from key items (which actually serve a purpose), so you know you won't later regret selling them, and the compound treasure items point out in their description that they seem to be parts of a whole.

[[folder:Real-Time Strategy]]
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'': In skirmish games, some items are better off sold, especially if they replicate a spell your faction already has or your hero can cast better. It's better to sell them and get money than leave them lying around where the enemy can take them.
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* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' has a lot of loot items that are only usable for trading to merchants. In a slight twist on the trope while some items are only tradable for [[PracticalCurrency shards]] others are also required to barter for gear upgrades.

* In ''Frontier'' versions of ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'' it's the same, except there are a few more exclusions (game-relevant goods): two sorts of fuel on the list and useable Chaff, plus Rubbish (what normal goods may become if the ship is hit) and Radioactives (byproduct of military drives) that usually have a negative price (you can jettison them instead, but may get punished for littering in space).

** [[UnusableEnemyEquipment Enemy equipment]] - you can't wear most of the clothing that other races drop, seeing how it's too big or narrow for your dwarves. You ''can'' use most of the weapons, but they're usually poor-quality compared to what you can make locally or buy. However, depending on the material that it's made out of, traders will sometimes give you quite a bit of money for it. Metal items can also be melted down, and the junk left behind on a battlefield acquired the FanNickname of "Goblinite, the fourth iron ore". As a result, goblin invaders were {{nerf}}ed to wear leather armor, which had the perverse effect of making defending the fortress ''harder'' on metal-poor maps despite the weaker enemy armor.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'':

[[folder:Wide Open Sandbox]]
* You can literally sell anything you find in the trash in ''VideoGame/{{Chulip}}''... and this includes piles of Poopie.
* The Golden Carp in ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' serves no purpose other than to be sold for an easy ten gold. The Neon Tetra serves the same purpose but doesn't sell as much, to offset the fact it can be caught in the jungle easily.
* ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'' has Plates, items which are commonly found in substories or by helping victims in the streets, and which serve no other purpose than to be sold. ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza|1}} Kiwami'' has one mission where you need a plate (for a dog to drink from), but they're equally useless after that (and even then, you could just sell your gold plates anyway and buy an iron plate that's 1000 times cheaper when you need it).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' introduced a character who accepted monster-dropped shop fodder items for rewards above simple cash. However, this was never expressly stated in the dialogue with him.
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', there's a whole line of treasure items (Goron Amber, Ruto Crown, etc.) that are nothing ''but'' shop fodder. The exact amount for each item varies from game to game and there is a way to trade these items between games to increase your profit.
* ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}''

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* shop fodder is almost everywhere in ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', but for simplicity's sake it is instantly converted to money the moment you grab it, so you never have to explicitly sell it.

** THe game goes as far as color-coding its sellable items. If you see an item with its name in gray, you can rest assured its only purpose in the game is to be sold to vendors. This was eventually [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] with the item "[[http://www.wowhead.com/item=27442 Goldenscale Vendorfish]]," a rarely caught fish which sells for an impressive amount of money for its item level.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress''

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Related to BetterOffSold, which refers to items that have a use other than simply being sold, but are generally sold anyway due to players having no use for them.