Appraisal is a clean, low-risk income in Probably Stolen. Join the Appraiser Board around day 5–8 for 85 credits to get your Junior Certificate, Cybernetic Hand guide and magnifying glass, then just display the certificate to start attracting customers.
Inspect items and earn a base fee plus accuracy bonuses as you rank up from Junior to Master, unlocking Ribwiches and later Plasma Cartridges along the way. This is a complete guide for Appraisal and you’ll probably find everything you need here.
What You Need:
How to Join the Appraiser Board
Sometime around day 8 on normal difficulty (or as early as day 5 if you skipped the intro), a very official-looking person from the Appraisers’ Council will walk into your shop. They offer you membership.
The entry fee is 85 credits on normal difficulty (it scales up on harder modes). Pay it. This is one of the best early investments in the game because it opens a completely new income stream that doesn’t require inventory space, doesn’t attract heat and scales as you get better.
Once you pay, you immediately receive three things:
- The Junior Certificate
- The Cybernetic Hand Appraisal Guide
- An extra magnifying glass
I put that certificate in my display case right away. The game uses the certificate as a signal that you are open for appraisal business. If the certificate is sitting in a drawer or on a shelf somewhere, appraisal customers simply won’t show up. Many new players make this exact mistake and then wonder why no one is bringing them items to evaluate.
The certificate also acts as a reputation magnet. The better your rank (and the more visible the certificate is), the more consistently appraisal customers appear.
How an Appraisal Actually Works
When an appraisal customer arrives, they will usually bring 2–4 items of the same type. These items are specially marked so you know they are for evaluation, not for normal buying or selling.
Here’s the full process:
- Inspect every item carefully with the magnifying glass. Look at materials, condition, logos, serial numbers, seals, stickers, dates, and any other details the guide will ask about. The magnifying glass is your main tool, just don’t rush this step.
- Open the relevant Appraisal Guide. The game gives you a physical booklet for each item type. You have to work through it page by page. It is not automatic. You are expected to read the rules and apply them yourself.
- Calculate the true value by starting with the base value and then adding or subtracting every relevant modifier. Some modifiers stack. Some cancel each other out. Some only apply under specific conditions (for example, set bonuses).
- Submit your estimate. You type in the number you think the item is worth.
- Finally just receive the Appraisal Slip. This slip grades your work (Perfect, Excellent, Good, Mediocre, or Awful) and tells you how much you earned. The slip is just a receipt, read it, then throw it away. It has no other use.
The customer pays you a base fee plus a bonus based on how close your estimate was to the true value. The base fee starts at 20 credits for Junior rank and goes up as you get promoted. The accuracy bonus can be very substantial when you land Perfect or Excellent ratings.
The percentage accuracy is calculated from your estimate, not from the true value. This means you don’t have to be exact to the single credit, but you also shouldn’t throw out wild guesses. Consistent accuracy is what fills your progress bar toward the next rank.
Ranks and Promotions
The Appraisers’ Council tracks your performance. Every successful appraisal fills a progress bar on your current certificate. When the bar is full, the Board member returns and offers you a promotion (for a fee, of course).
The ranks are: Junior → Appraiser → Senior Appraiser → Master Appraiser
What each rank gives you: Higher base fee (so every appraisal pays more even before the accuracy bonus), access to new item types and better customer attraction
Specifically, reaching Appraiser rank unlocks Ribwiches and reaching Senior Appraiser rank unlocks Plasma Cartridges
You can refuse a promotion if you’re short on cash. The Board member will come back about a week later. There is no permanent penalty for delaying, but you do miss out on higher pay and new items in the meantime.
Always keep your current certificate in the display case. Old certificates can be stored or sold, only the active one matters for attracting customers.
Cybernetic Hands: Your Starting Specialty
These are the first items you can appraise and the ones you will see most often in the early and mid game.
Base value is 100 credits and the absolute minimum value 50 credits. The final price can never drop below 50, no matter how many negative modifiers you stack. This floor exists so even a completely trashed hand still has some scrap value.
You calculate the value by going through several categories in order:
1. Material
- Aluminum Alloy: +0 (this is the default, cheapest material)
- Carbon Composite: +50
- Gold-Plated: +200
2. Condition:
- Perfec: +0
- Worn or slightly dirty: –35
- Damaged: –85
3. Control Interface
- EMG: +0 (standard)
- EMG+: +45
- Neural Interface: +120
- Unspecified or missing: –60
4. Add-ons (stack with everything else)
- Armored: +50
- Blade: +80
5. Set Bonuses (these are the big ones)
- Tactical Set (+100): The hand must be Carbon Composite, have either EMG+ or Neural Interface, have no wear or damage and have both the Armored and Blade add-ons.
- Deluxe Set (+200): The hand must be Gold-Plated, have a Neural Interface, and have no wear or damage. Add-ons are optional for this bonus.
The set bonuses are worth chasing because they can more than double the value of an already expensive hand. Always check whether a hand qualifies before you finalize the number.
Work through the guide page by page. Many players (including me, during the second run) literally write the running total on a piece of paper while they calculate. It is slower at first, but it prevents expensive mistakes.
Ribwiches (Unlocked at Appraiser Rank)
Yes, you read that correctly. A discontinued limited-edition sandwich has become a collector’s item, and people will pay you to tell them whether theirs is real and valuable.
Base value is 150 credits, Hard minimum is 40.
If the packaging is missing, torn, damaged, or fake, the value is locked at exactly 40 credits. No other modifiers matter at that point. The packaging is everything.
When the packaging is intact, you check several things:
- Production run: Only two windows are valid, January 425 to December 429, and January 432 to December 438. Anything outside those ranges is either fake or worthless.
- Facility number (1–35): Some facilities produced higher-quality sandwiches (+50), some produced lower-quality ones (–50).
- Deluxe Edition: Requires both a sesame seed bun and extra pickles.
- Special sticker: Required for second-run sandwiches.
- Rare variants: Double-patty versions exist and carry a massive +800 bonus. First-run sandwiches, first (or last) month of a production window and high-quality facilities also give solid bonuses.
A perfect, rare Ribwich can be worth a small fortune. A damaged or fake one is barely worth the 40-credit floor. This is why careful inspection with the magnifying glass is so important.
Plasma Cartridges (Unlocked at Senior Rank)
These are fuel cells used in ship engines. They are more complex than hands and appear later in the game.
- Approximate base value: 300 credits
- Approximate minimum: 90 credits
Value is determined by three main factors that interact with each other: Overall condition of the cartridge, Grade of the plasma and which of the four manufacturers produced it.
