Some of the stuff for sale in bazaar is there mostly because of the tribute demand. A good example is
Mistletoe Cutting Sickle which tributes for 1312 and sells for about 200 plat or so in bazaar. So instead of tributing plat direct which is inefficient, you can buy the Mistletoe Cutting Sickle and get more than 6.5 tribute per plat spent at that example price.
This is very usueful if you want to have have a focus effect, attack bonus, haste speed ect., that is not readily available cheaply at your level. One thing to note: all tribute effects count as worn effects, and will be subject to the same stacking limitations as any worn item's effects. HP, End and Mana are the only bonuses with no stack limit.
There is also a limit to the amount of tribute you can have stored at one time, I think its 150K but not positive.
Lucy linked on this site under Items/Equipment to the left, lists the Tribute value of items, which makes it easier for you to choose what to tribute. Some items like the
Helm of Senselessness can be sometimes found in bazaar at 15 plat and tributes for 600 which is a great return on your plat. Most items if not all tribute for the same or less than their for sale value from NPC merchants, so NPC vendor diving is not a good way to find tribute bargains.
Edited, Jan 16th 2007 10:40am by fhrugby