Pricing a magic item that grants a permanent +1 to a random stat

My group has found a one use magic item that grants a permanent +1 to a random stat. They want to sell it (and get the xp), and so I’m trying to price it out.

My starting point is that this is effectively a modified Wish spell given that permanent stat increases are the purview of that ritual. Wish is a 9th-level ritual, so the base cost should be 4,500 gold. However, I’ve not priced out a ritual as a magic item. As I understand it, there are other costs associated with a ritual than just the base cost.

However, a quick look at Alex’s “ACKS Magic Item Values” spreadsheet prices a Ring of Three Wishes at a paltry 13,500 gold. Therefore, a magic item with one Wish in it only has a value of 4,500 gold, the same as the base cost of a single Wish ritual. Seems very low to me considering the power of a Wish.

So, on top of all of that is that this isn’t even a Wish… it’s a limited, random effect, albeit still powerful.

In one of the forum posts, it was suggested that the real cost of casting a Wish is likely in the acquisition of the necessary materials, which can, of course, be nigh impossible to attain, and an adventure in and of themselves. However, that’s not the case here, as they have the item in hand ready to sell it.

Have any of you priced such a thing before? How would you do it?

First comment: The reason why a magic item with one Wish in it costs the same as casting the ritual is because casting the ritual creates a one-use magic item with one Wish in it. ACKS Core page 119.

The fact that the base cost does not include special components is the reason why magic items of known provenance sell for twice the base cost; which is the cost to make it if you buy the components and don’t have a formula and succeed every time.

That said, as you say, this is not a Wish item. My first step would be to figure out a spell level equivalence for this effect, and in order to know that, I’d have to figure out how it stacks and how it works overall. Hypothetically, if it’s a +1 to a random stat, permanently, but the effect can only be applied to a each creature a single time, my gut says that would be a 5th or 6th level spell. A one-use item of it would thus have a base price of 2,500 or 3,000 gp. (If the effect can stack, I would probably just call it a 9th level spell and it would be 4,500 gp. Then I’d give it a prohibitive special component requirement like a god’s blood to prevent PCs from running around with all 18’s.)