[Ze'Manel Cunha]

It's a setting flavor, the Power Item makes magics more distinct, the Powerstone makes magics more mechanical.


Personally I prefer specific fetish/items which make for distinctiveness, but I don't use the cash value of the item at all, since cash value makes absolutely no sense in any setting.


So a mage may end up with his wand/staff as a power item, or it could be a totem/fetish/amulet, or his grandpa's femur, a lock of his mother's hair, the piece of amber he found as a child, the bottle with sand picked up on the blue moon of his twelfth birthday, his placenta, etc.

This type of power item makes for much more distinct settings, and being unique lend themselves to more personal value.
I've also had those items hold magery, and other powers, as appropriate by setting.