I'm approaching the age of tournaments and I was wondering what the cost of loosing your horse and armour and what the profits of taking someone else's would be.

The book gives the list prices but that's the value for, what I presume to be, new armour and a young horse. How much would you be able to sell 2nd hand armour and older horses for? How much would you be able to buy them for?

I don't want the game to descend into penny counting but having some quick and dirty numbers would be handy.

What have other GMs done?

Quick and dirty and hallowed by the rulebook re: selling your stuff:
50% of the price. Also, this could be already 'codified' into the rules of the tournament, that the losing side can ransom his equipment at 50% of the list value. Less of a hassle for all concerned.

More complicated:
- Reduce horse's value based on its age: quick idea, -10% per year after 5. In our campaign, we have admittedly not bothered to keep track of horses' ages... they die easily enough on the battlefield as it is.
- Reduce armor's value by 20% per technology step to reflect the fact that most people will buy something better even if it is more expensive. So if the common armor is Reinforced Chainmail, the regular chainmails 'value' would be 80% of the list price. (Note, this is explicitly contradicted by the rulebook pricelist: armors don't get any cheaper. Also, this assumes that the armor is in good condition.)
- Then, once you have the 'True value', sell it at 50% of the said value, to reflect the fact that you are trying to turn it into cash. If you wish to hang onto it (and risk the horse dying and the armor gathering rust), you can probably get even more for it, if there is a knight looking to get a horse and armor. (Note, in tournaments, there can be plenty of knights looking to buy their equipment back, but not all can afford it even at 50% of the price so there might be some excess supply -> 50% would be the 'sell it now' price.)

50% seems a decent workable sum to be getting on with...

I'll start a new thread about armour prices....

Thanks for the response.