What determines value of the item?

Now I'm not asking about the value when you sell stuff to other player but the value stuff has to the merchant.
I know white<blue<purple<gold and that "Show me the money!" inscription increases value of the item but what determines the original value of the item?

It is randomly generated with a Min and Max value for each item type. So, you can ID the exact same item (ie color, mods, ...) and it will almost always be valued at a different price.

Hope that helps,

Krat

I've picked up a bit of info from just experience on this.

First of all it depends what monster drops the item. In Eye of the North, i got two white Tall Shields, 16AL, req.9 tactics on both. Both were found from Charr. . ID'd both, and although they were EXACTLY alike, their prices varied. Maybe it depends on what level the monster who dropped the item was...

Also i've found higher req. items sell for more gold at merchant.

I have collected some data on the merchant value of grape and gold drops. The collected data are consistent with the hypothesis that the merchant value v of an item is calculated by

v = 100 + 20 X(0.5) for grapes and
v = 200 + 20 X(0.25) for golds,

where X(a) is a random variable pulled from the exponential distribution with the argument a (probability density function f(x; a) = a exp(-ax)). The value doesn't correlate with any other properties of the item (like requirement or the number of mods on it), and is the same for weapons and armor alike. Since EX(a) = 1/a, the average value of a grape is 140 and that of a gold 280.

Although I haven't collected data on whites/blues, they are most likely calculated with a similar formula, like v = 50 + 20 X(1) (my guess).

It is, of course, possible that some other distribution is actually used.