HEALER'S SERVICES

Though there are no fixed rates for the services of the Healers, it is generally considered proper form to compensate them for their services and time in full consideration of the dangers involved in traveling around Gor.

SLAVE RENTALS

Members and Honored Guests have free sexual use of slaves unrestricted by their owners. Goreans with affiliations in established Home Stones are to pay rental fees and return the slaves who are free to serve in the same condition they were received. Those with no Home Stone may use slaves only with the Owner's stated permission. A reasonable price for a mat slave would be at least five silver tarsks; a pleasure slave at least one gold tarn. Gratuities Accepted!

SLAVE SALES

The prices of slaves, again, is not fixed. I've been offered ridiculous amounts for slaves. These are to be laughed at. Though in the canon at auctions, prices paid were huge. (See the final quote.) What follows are quotes about ordinary prices for slaves in the canon. You can see they range from several copper tarsks to forty gold tarns with bartered goods. Prices depend on the quality and type of the girl, the economy where they are being purchased and the preferences in girls the buyer has.

"I had been sold for six copper tarsks. It was my worth on Gor."
Slave Girl of Gor, 251.

"Tupa was added to the chain after me. She brought her captor only twelve copper tarsks."
Slave Girl of Gor, 281.

"I brought Rask of Treve, my captor, fifteen copper tarsks."
Slave Girl of Gor, 281.

"She was very beautiful in the bit of slave silk. I noted the bells locked on her left ankle. She was slender, dark-haired, dark-eyed. Her eyes were wide. She had exciting legs, well revealed by the slave-height of her brief silk. 'What do you want for her?' I asked Samos. He shrugged. 'Four pieces of gold,' he said. 'I will buy her.'"
Hunters of Gor, 15.

"Yesterday I would have regarded her as a four-gold piece girl. But today lovely Ilene's value had considerably increased. The auctioneer, I expected, would close his fist on a price of ten gold pieces for her."
Hunters of Gor, 220 – 221.

"But I did, of course, pay them well and, in my holding, knowing men, saw that they could have their pick of some of Port Kar's most beautiful slave girls. I had purchased the girl whom I had seen dance in the Page Tavern, for forty pieces of gold."
Raiders of Gor, 139.

"You saw how I moved,' she challenged. 'Would it not have added a dozen gold pieces to my price?'
'Yes,' I said, 'it would have.'"
Nomads of Gor, 57-58.

"Yesterday afternoon, for an incredible forty pieces of gold, four quivas and the saddle of a kaiila, Kamchak had sold Tenchika back to Albrecht. It was one of the highest prices ever paid among the wagons for a slave...." Nomads of Gor, 106.

“Why did you show me the girl in the cell?” I asked.
“What do you make of her?” asked Samos.
“I would say about five copper tarsks, in a fourth-class market, perhaps even an item in a group sale. She is beautiful, but not particularly beautiful, as female slaves go. She is obviously ignorant and untrained. She does have good ankles.”
“She speaks the Earth language English, does she not?” asked Samos.
“Apparently,” I said.
Explorers of Gor, 23.

“I am curious about the blond-haired slave,” I said. “On the wharf, the slaver, Vart, said that he had gotten a silver tarsk for her.” I looked at Ulafi. “Surely such a girl, a wench of only average beauty, a tense, tight girl, awkward and clumsy, one untrained, new to the collar, one who can hardly speak Gorean, a barbarian, is worth, at best, only two or three copper tarsks.”
“I can get two silver tarsks for her,” said Ulafi.
“Her hair and coloring is rare in Schendi?” I asked.
“Such girls, and better, are cheap in Schendi,” he said. “Do not forget that Schendi is the home port of the black slavers.”
“How then will you get two silver tarsks for her?” I asked.
“She is on my conditional ‘want’ list,” said Ulafi.
Explorers of Gor, 86.

But I had begun to walk toward the blond-haired barbarian. Uchafu hurried along behind me, and seized my sleeve, stopping me.
“No,” he said, “not her.”
“Why?” I asked, as though puzzled.
“She has already been sold,” he said.
“How much did you get?” I asked.
“Fifteen copper tarsks,” he said. He had put the price a bit high for this girl and this market. That was, I supposed, to discourage me. I recalled she had had an honest bid on her once at the market of Vart, once Publius Quintus of Ar, in Port Kar, a bid from the tavern keeper, Procopius, of forty copper tarsks. She had received this bid, of course, only after her unusual heat, for a new slave, had been made clear.
“I will give you sixteen,” I told him.
Uchafu looked annoyed. I did not permit myself to smile. I knew that he had not yet sold the girl, for she was still on his chain. He was waiting for his buyer. Further, I knew, from Ulafi, he would have paid two tarsks, of silver, for her. He would doubtless receive three or four silver tarsks from the awaited buyer. But then he smiled and shrugged. “Oh, misery, for a poor merchant,” said he. “I could have received sixteen for her and sold her for fifteen. Misery! But I cannot now renege upon my word, sadly enough, for I am a merchant of well-known integrity. Much as I would love to sell her to you for sixteen tarsks I must let her go to a previous buyer for fifteen. Such is occasionally the sad lot of one who has made the difficult choice, and will abide by it, of dealing straightforwardly and honestly with all men, whomsoever they may be.”
Explorers of Gor, 129.

SLAVE AUCTIONS

Finally, the prices of girls sold in auctions can be exorbitant. This final quote is, as far as I know, the highest ever paid for girls on Gor. There, three girls are being auctioned off in a bundle, Elizabeth, Virginia and Phyllis. So the final sum, should be divided by three.

"'Does Samos, First Slaver of Port Kar, mistress and jewel of gleaming Thassa, now care to express interest?'
'He does,' said Samos, dispassionately.
'What is the Curulean bid?' inquired the auctioneer.
'It is bid,' said the man, 'by Samos, First Slaver of Port Kar, for the wenches now on the block three thousand pieces of gold.'
There was an audible gasp throughout the audience in the swirling amphitheater.
The auctioneer stepped back, astonished. Even the girls lifted their heads, startled, breaking the discipline of the submitted flower. Then, smiling, Elizabeth lowered her head again, and so, too, did Virginia and Phyllis. I felt sick. Doubtless Elizabeth thought Samos the agent of Priest-Kings, sent to purchase them and carry them to safety and freedom.
Cernus was chuckling.
The fist of the auctioneer closed, as though grasping a handful of golden coins. 'The women are sold!' he cried. The crowd shouted its pleasure, its delight."
Assassin of Gor, 309.

For more information see Coinage in our Weights and Measures Page.

As always, feel free to write me with questions or comments.