So many things have been massively improved in the remasters that it's really hard to reconcile the substandard treatment of Garth's, especially in BT2:

1) Articles found in dungeons and sold to Garth should remain in Garth's inventory afterwards, in a fully recharged state, where the player can repurchase them if needed. As others have mentioned, it was a mistake to remove this capability in a recent patch. It's literally not a bug--it's a feature of the game. It's only rational that when he buys a used item, Garth would recondition and recharge it before putting it out for sale again. The way it is now, Garth pays good money for an item and them promptly destroys it...;)

2) Why is Garth's inventory always the same no matter in what town a Garth's store is present? This doesn't make any sense to me--and now that I'm playing again, I remember this being a disappointment I had in the original game. The inventory should change from town to town--but more importantly, BT2 should be selling more advanced items than were available in BT1. Although it's not critical, it would also help the game if *different Garth employees* worked in each of Garth's stores in their respective towns.
I know Garth gets around, but Garth being everywhere at once is ridiculous...;)

Lots of these issues--like the fact that each monster type in the games should have their own unique graphics to match their unique names--were present in the originals because of the limits inherent in the technology of the day. Those limits no longer exist, and there is plenty of room to do these things to really bring the games up-to-date.

I actually like that Garth's has all of the inventory everywhere. It helps prevent the "Whcih city did I sell that in?" problem that I know I'd have. I assume he just APAR into his vault, gets the item you requested, and comes back with it. If your party can teleport, so can he. :)

What I'd like to see is something where you can filter by what type of item you're looking for. Similar to the spell filters: Which spells buff your party? Which spells hit everyone? Which are for a single target?

Filter by weapons. Filter by Armor or even specific types of armor, like Shields/Chest/Helm/Gloves. Filter by Instruments.

Good points...;) I like very much your idea of Garth's inventory sorting!

It's just so frustrating to me to have, for instance, a flame horn in inventory, take it down to #1 use left, sell it to Garth for 50% of its retail value--only to have Garth toss it--which means it is lost forever. I don't think it was a bug in the original game because it makes too much sense--Garth pays 50% of its value for every item he buys--why would he discard these things when he can resell them to customers, refurbished, for 2x as much as he paid for them? It doesn't make sense that that was a *bug*...;)

Actually, what I meant about the inventory being different in each store in each town, is more on the order of each location offering a few advanced items for sale not offered in the other stores--not necessarily that each store inventory pool would be independent--I guess...;) But...I wish all the Garth stores would offer items more advanced than those in BT1--simply because this is, well, BT *2*... If they just corrected their "fix" and restored the ability to buy back the items you sell in Garth's, refurbished, that would go a long way.

As well, I think it would be really cool if a different Garth employee administered the store in each city--or you could even have Garth's family do it...;) In one store, you could have "Mrs. Garth," in another, "grandpa Garth" then "Garth Jr.," and "Garth III," and so on...! It would heighten the immersion factor as well as the humor quotient of the game...;)

If you're looking for humor in the game, there's really only one thing I can think of for a shop named Garth: Have a shopkeeper named Wayne. Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!

I agree that Garth destroying low charged items instead of recharging and selling them is kind of silly. If you want to stop the cheese factor, make the price of the item proportional to how many charges you've used. Item is fully charged? You get the full 50% back. Item is at 10 charges out of 50? You get 20% of the full sale price, or 10% gold. It has 1 charge out of 50? Enjoy getting 1% of the price you'll be buying it back at!

How many items do you actually use, though? Serious question here, as I don't really find myself using any charges from any items once I get my Archmage up and running.

Here's how it has worked for me in the classic versions, in terms of things that were useful and not just "because they're there, so I might as well try to find a use for it":

BT1: I tend to use breath attacks all the time. Other spells in items aren't particularly useful. (Remember: The original didn't have those nice Wizard offensive spells, so MIBL (only 10-40 damage) was the strongest general purpose attack spell in the game.)

BT2: Cold Horn early in the game, before my spellcasters learn attack spells. Otherwise, it really is only in the Grey Crypt that I use item charges; Masterwands are good in the DOS version, while Dragonwands and Flame Horns are good in the Apple 2gs version. (In the DOS version, Dragonwands and Flame Horns, for whatever reason, are rather weak; in the Apple 2gs version, the Masterwand (and other spellcasting items) will not work in the Grey Crypt. By the way, in the DOS version, the Grey Crypt's anti-magic will actually cause ranged physical attacks from monsters to fizzle (the enemy throws a spear at you but it fizzles!).)

BT3: Useful after getting the Chronomancer class, as characters in this class lose their old spells and need to gain a couple levels to get new spells that are useful. Otherwise, it's really just Deathhorns (breath attack that critically hits a group; useful in Malefia but not necessary before then) and items with the Harmonic Gem effect (restores all the user's SP; Harmonic Gems are ludicrously common in the 8-bit versions). Due to limited inventory space, if an item isn't as good as a Harmonic Gem, it gets discarded. I note that BT3 does not have Garth's, so no recharging in classic versions, but there are ways to duplicate items in such versions.

To be honest, I am far more inclined to use item charges in games where it's possible to recharge such items, and the removal of this ability is one of the remaster changes I disagree with. (I actually think they should add this capability to BT3, for a cost.) It's bad enough that there aren't enough uses for money later on, anyway. This is how Baldur's Gate and its sequel handle this.