When trading items for Tribute, most items get you 1 Tribute per 2.5 Echoes of value at the Bazaar. Mountain Sherds, which are worth 62.5 Echoes at the Bazaar, get you more than that, at 35 Tribute each, rather than the more typical 25 Tribute for a 62.5 item at 2.5 Echoes per Tribute.

At The Court of the Wakeful Eye, you can trade 20 Tribute for other 62.5 Echo items, like a Night Whisper.

Night Whispers can be sold at a markup at the Rat Market (when the Rat Market is accepting them -- it isn't currently) for 825 shillings (or 82.5 Echoes), with zero Rat Market saturation. The saturation basically means that the more you sell, the lower the markup you get, so that 825 will drop with subsequent sales in the same weekend until you're eventually only getting standard Bazaar rates (i.e. 62.5 each).

So, 4 sherds worth 250 Echoes, can be converted into 7 Night Whispers via Tribute worth 437.5 Echoes at the Bazaar (making the source sherds worth ~110 each), or between 577.5 and something north of 437.5 if sold at the Rat Market, depending on how many you tried selling at once. If you sell the Night Whispers over multiple weekends, you would be looking at 577.5 Echoes / 4 sherds = ~144 Echoes per sherd.

Now, it's going to be less than that because it takes actions zailing to the Court, actions converting Tribute into items, actions getting into the Rat Market, and the fact that you're unlikely to sell only a single Night Whisper at a time.

In essence, however, using these trades with Mountain Sherds can increase your profit considerably.

Check <a href="/wiki/Associating_with_Radical_Academics_(Guide)" title="Associating with Radical Academics (Guide)">Associating with Radical Academics (Guide)</a> and <a href="/wiki/The_Rat_Market_(Guide)" title="The Rat Market (Guide)">The Rat Market (Guide)</a> for more details.