SPOILERS
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This might be a question best directed towards Sam, though if anyone else knows the answer for sure, please feel free to answer.
I'd like to know whether or not there is any difference in terms of the quality of the items you get in the various items that you can get on the various levels in towns, from monsters, exploration, and pools.
Upon first glance, common sense tells me that of course there's a difference, the harder and deeper the level gets, the better items I would get. However, I've had several incidents that seem to shoot some mighty big holes in that theory. They are as follows:

1. In the level 1 town (Perrin, I believe), sometime early on in the game, I entered the shop and was astounded to find a item that cost over 500,000 gold (I believe it was the rogue's cowl or something like that). That early in the game, there was absolutely no way that I could possibly afford it, and when I left the town, it disappeared :(
2. Much later in the game, upon entering a town (Kaliti), for some rest and to sell some unneeded items, I found another item that cost over 500,000 gold called the sorceror's gloves. After stripping my characters of and selling off some of my more valuable pieces of armor (heater shield, cooler shield, plate armor+3, etc., the one exception being light armor, I refused to sell that) and selling off some items that I had been keeping in reserve but weren't absolutely neccesary to the well being of my party (anti-heat leather, hover shields, etc.), I could afford to buy it. It would seem that it would almost have to be an "item of extra specialness"(I can't be sure, since there's no label that says "SPECIAL ITEM" and there's no listing of special items in the instructions or wherever I've looked), because it gave my character a tremendous boost in cold resistence, heat resistence, speed, among other characteristics.
3. Upon diving in a pool on Level 5, I found a "thief's sneakers". Again, I think it's a item of extra specialness, but I can't be sure. This one gave me a tremendous boost in speed and other characteristics.

I think those items I found above are special items/items of extra specialness, if there's anything better, I sure would love to have them :). Sure, when I dive in the pools on Level 8, I get some good items--plate armors+3s, light armors, etc. But I also get some lousy items--quivering wand (yes, some people might say that this is a good item, but I consider it useless), leather boots, leather gloves, etc. In addition, if you'll notice, the items that I found above are items that I found on Level 5 or higher, I haven't found any items of that caliber in any of the levels below that, and I've completely explored levels 6 through 8, numerous times.
So, to repeat my question, does the level/quality of the items that you can find vary from level to level in shops, treasure chests, monsters dropping them, and pools, or is it pure chance as to the quality of the items I get anywhere in the game?