And I can't find anything allowing AU members to buy from non-employees.The AU helpfile wrote:Only merchants need to be licensed by the Artisan Union. Merchants are defined by the
Artisan Union as an individuals selling, which is good for coin.
However, I have seen several NPC stall holders who will buy from players - I assume these are meant to be legal, but I don't know how my character is supposed to realize that, based on the wiki + helpfile info + NPC descriptions.
I've also seen PCs buy & sell used items for coin, and I think there have even been a couple of board posts offering to sell or purchase raw materials for coin - all with no RP to indicate any concern about the legality of these actions.
Note that I'm not (in this post

(a) what they are, and
(b) how my PC is supposed to ICly tell the difference between an authorized and an unauthorized buyer, if indeed there is something special that differentiates these NPC stall-keepers from, for example, PC ones.