> In this situation items have no actual determined value. If someone illegally stole my Hat of Shouting +3 which I *could* have sold to someone on an auction site, what then?

This is no different than any other number of valuable items whose value is hard to calculate. If I have a rare comic book and you steal it, the fact that the cover price is only a nickel is not what matters -- it's whatever the fair market value is for the item. I.e., whatever I can get people to pay is what the item is worth.

Ste "And of course really 'things are worth what people will pay for them' is sort of a guiding economic principle in general" phen