History Main / TeaserEquipment

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has a couple merchants on Dantooine with some shockingly good gear at just as shockingly high prices. The Rodian merchant outside the Jedi enclave, for example, sells one of the best heavy armors in game (Cassus Fett's armor). If you want it, you have to get very good at Pazaak, do a lot of griniding, or make a return trip ''before'' you get the third Star Map [[spoiler: because Malak's attack on Dantooine means the merchants and their items are LostForever]]

* There seems to be an example in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', with some useful but expensive accessories sold rather early in Nisan. By the time you earn enough money to comfortably buy them, [[LostForever they don't sell them anymore]].

* The first DungeonSiege has some powerful items in shops literally marked "PRICELESS".

* In ''[[{{VideoGame/Faxanadu}} Faxanadu]]'', one of the game's most powerful spells and the best shield can be bought near the beginning...if you have obscene amounts of gold. You can either grind for a very long time[[note]]Which turns the Death spell into a GameBreaker for half the game[[/note]], or get the spell near the end of the game (when the price has actually increased).

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' - The shop at Castle Town sells bombs, arrows, and other mundane items for thousands of rupees - the exact same gear can be bought elsewhere for 1% of the cost, or found on monsters roaming town, with the exception of a unique set of Magic Armor that costs '''a hundred thousand'''. The absolute maximum number of rupees Link can carry at all is 1,000. Once you give enough money to Malo (which doesn't even come close to the amount needed to buy one pack of bombs from the Castle Town shop -- [[FridgeLogic go figure]]), he buys out the shop, which reduces the cost of items immensely.

* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', when guiding Jeff out of Winters to join Ness's party, you'll notice that the store outside of the Snow Wood Boarding School sells the T-Rex's Bat, Non-Stick Frying Pan, and Coin of Silence at insanely high prices, yet you don't have access to the ATM (since Jeff doesn't own an ATM card). These items are the T-Rex's Bat at $698, the Non-Stick Frying Pan at $1490, and the Coin of Silence at $2800. Granted, it ''is'' possible to grind money by selling the food items dropped from enemies outside the store, but the selling prices for them are abysmally low, only going up to $6 at most.

* Inverted in all the main series ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games. Even if you have the money to do so, shops refuse to sell you the higher level Poke Balls and healing items until you've advanced the plot and obtained sufficient Gym Badges.

* In ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' at the beginning of a new campaign, the "Tunder" 5.45 may be bought from Sidorovich. From the moment the player starts a new game, he will randomly offer the weapon for sale at a price of 20000 RU at a time when having 200RU is an achievement. However, the "Tunder" 5.45 will only appear up until the Marked One speaks to Wolf after defeating the Bandits that captured Nimble. The weapon is also a [[DiscOneNuke Disk one Nuke]] since it fires the very common 5.45 round prompting some players to grind money until they can afford it.

* In ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' at the beginning of a new campaign, the "Tunder" 5.45 may be bought from Sidorovich. From the moment the player starts a new game, he will randomly offer the weapon for sale at a price of 20000 RU at a time when having 200RU is an achievement. However, the "Tunder" 5.45 will only appear up until the Marked One speaks to Wolf after defeating the Bandits that captured Nimble. The weapon is also a [[Disc One Nuke]] since it fires the very common 5.45 round prompting some players to grind money until they can afford it.

* In ''VideoGame/STALKER'' at the beginning of a new campaign, the "Tunder" 5.45 may be bought from Sidorovich. From the moment the player starts a new game, he will randomly offer the weapon for sale at a price of 20000 RU at a time when having 200RU is an achievement. However, the "Tunder" 5.45 will only appear up until the Marked One speaks to Wolf after defeating the Bandits that captured Nimble. The weapon is also a [[DiscOneNuke in the first chapter]].[[/ since it fires the very common 5.45 round prompting some players to grind money until they can afford it.

* In S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl at the beginning of a new campaign, the "Tunder" 5.45 may be bought from Sidorovich. From the moment the player starts a new game, he will randomly offer the weapon for sale at a price of 20 000 RU. However, the "Tunder" 5.45 will only appear up until the Marked One speaks to Wolf after defeating the Bandits that captured Nimble. The weapon is also a disk one nuke since it fires the very common 5.45 round prompting some players to grind money until they can afford it.

** Another example occurs at the very beginning of the game. The [[spoiler: Guru]] Melchior is visiting the Millennial Fair and has a Silver Sword for sale. Unless you farm money for a long time, you won't be able to afford it until you've progressed through at least one more dungeon.

* ''[[{{VideoGame/Alundra}} Alundra]]'' has ''two'' separate examples of this. The first is the Inoa shop, which always has the Silver Armor in stock, but picking it up will have the shopkeeper tell you it's not for sale. You won't be able to acquire this until the very end of the game. The second example is somewhat similar to the Pokemon bicycle mentioned above. About 1/3 of the way through the game, a shop will open on the beach, which sells [[HeartContainer Life Vessels]] and several unique accessories for 10,000 Gilder, exactly one more than the max of 9,999. A subquest a bit later on allows you to obtain these in exchange for the Gilded Falcons you find here and there throughout the game.
* The ''Fallout'' series occasionally has equipment sold by [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] that maybe be just out of your price range, moreso when you've just started and lack any caps. The [[DownloadableContent Gun Runner's Arsenal]] for ''[[{{VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas}} New Vegas]]'' can fall into this trope heavily, as it distributes the new weapons and weapon mods throughout the game in the inventories of most vendors quite randomly, so you might wind up looking through an early-game NPC's stock to find items that you wouldn't be able to afford without procuring a downright absurd amount of [[VendorTrash loot]].
* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has a couple merchants on Dantooine with some shockingly good gear at just as shockingly high prices. The Rodian merchant outside the Jedi enclave, for example, sells one of the best heavy armors in game (Cassus Fett's armor). If you want it, you have to get very good at Pazaak, do a lot of griniding, or make a return trip ''before'' you get the third Star Map [[spoiler: because Malak's attack on Dantooine means the merchants and their items are LostForever]]
* In the second game in ''TheDenpaMen'' series, there's a shop that's only available before setting foot inside the NoobCave that sells a number of rare and expensive items, including one that increases the rare item drop rate. It's normally only available as an ultra rare drop from one of the mushroom enemies in the overworld. If you don't buy it then (for 20k gold--when most enemies drop single-digit amounts), the only way to get it is either to hope it RandomlyDrops or to wait for a certain shop to open up in the endgame.
* There seems to be an example in {{Xenogears}}, with some useful but expensive accessories sold rather early in Nisan. By the time you earn enough money to comfortably buy them, [[LostForever they don't sell them anymore]].
* ''OgreBattle64'' has the game-breakingly powerful Draconite element spell-book Annihilation available to buy at the end of the first chapter. If you're particularly frugal throughout the game, you might have enough money saved up to come back and buy one near the end of the game.

* ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'': The shops in the first area of the game sell some really nifty swords, armor, and crossbows, usually for around 700-800 gold a pop...at a time where you're lucky to have more than 50 or so[[note]]If you spend an inordinate amount of time grinding, you ''may'' be able to afford some of the gear, but since encounters are semi-random (monsters wander, and the map is huge, but there's a fixed number of battles per chapter), and not every battle results in an actual ''reward'', it's prohibitive at best. On the other hand, if you get a lute and grind your bard skill, you could ''eventually'' have enough money, if you're okay with getting it at a rate of 1 gold every four or five attempts[[/note]].

* In the second game in ''TheDenpaMen'' series, there's a shop that's only available before setting foot inside the NoobCave that sells a number of rare and expensive items, including one that increases the rare item drop rate. It's normally only available as an ultra rare drop from one of the mushroom enemies in the overworld. If you don't buy it then (for 20k gold--when most enemies drop single-digit amounts), the only way to get it is either to hope it RandomlyDrops or to wait for a certain shop to open up in the endgame.

* In ''[[{{VideoGame/Faxanadu}} Faxanadu]]'', one of the game's most powerful spells can be bought near the beginning...if you have obscene amounts of gold. You can either grind for a very long time, or get the spell near the end of the game (when the price has actually increased).

* ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'': The shops in the first area of the game sell some really nifty swords, armor, and crossbows, usually for around 700-800 gold a pop...at a time where you're lucky to have more than 50 or so (unless you spend an inordinate amount of time grinding).

* Seltzer in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'' is sold at many shops throughout the game, starts out prohibitively expensive, and its price continues to rise dramatically based on the total playing time. Unlike most examples, this is just a somewhat useful out-of-battle healing item, so there's not even much reason to buy one anyhow.

* In ''[[{{VideoGame/Faxanadu}} Faxanadu]]'', one of the game's most powerful spells can be bought near the beginning...if you have obscene amounts of gold. You can either grind for a very long time, or get the spell near the end of the game.

Don't confuse with ATasteOfPower - that trope is when you get to use really high powered gear early in the game, only to have it taken away from you, while this one taunts you with said gear in the item shop, but you don't get to acquire it until later. or with EquipmentSpoiler (where the presence of affordable but unusable equipment foreshadows a new party member). A specific type of inversion of the SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness.

Don't confuse with ATasteOfPower - that trope is when you get to use really high powered gear early in the game, only to have it taken away from you, while this one taunts you with said gear in the item shop, but you don't get to acquire it until later. A specific type of inversion of the SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness.