Couple of Imbuing Questions

[Opaloka]

I have read as much as i can find from Stratics, UOGuide and of course the Pandora Wiki before asking questions here.
And yes i am probably jumping the gun as my skill is barely 25 yet, but im working at it and this question is still a mystery to me -

Given that looted or crafted can be imbued, what exactly is the benefit of say imbuing
 * a piece of loot with 3 or 4 abilities on you want, but would like to improve
 * a plain old exceptional iron weapon (non runic)
 * a runic crafted exceptional item, again with some abilities you want but some you dont

How do those 3 situations above compare?
Because - and i am sure i am misunderstanding it - from what i've read all of them can be imbued with up to 20 abilities, and in the case of a loot piece and a runic piece there is bound to be some abilities you want to remove first, and others you'll want to improve, given all that it seems to me an exceptional standard weapon would be better than a looted (as it will have the exceptional bonus) and would save you having to remove lots of abilities you dont want.

So if someone can explain why im wrong (because i must be?) it would be greatly appreciated.

[weasel]

From what i have seen myself and heard  you are correct in that items can be imbued upto 20 times , not sure that meens 20 properties but i doubt that . Runic made items already have some properties on them when crafted , a few may not be wanted but can be removed without useing up an imbue . So we have a runic with say 3 properties you dont want , remove the properties and you still have 20 imbues left . It will be cheaper in the long run to use a runic made item as a base because it does have some properties on it and you don't have to add those to it . Some of the imbues you would add can be costly and haveing them on the item is a better base .  

This is just my understanding of how it works .

[Opaloka]

Ah ok

See i was thinking that if said runic had 3 properties on you were keeping, that they would count towards the 20 adjustments (and i agree i doubt its 20 separate abilities) so may have used up say 10 of them already

So from what youre saying a looted or runic item with some desirable properties already on, do NOT count towards the 20 modifications we can make with imbuing?
If correct that does at least explain why people want runic and/or looted to further imbue

[Jupiter]

Its cheaper. Some properties, like lets say Lower Mana Cost, require relic fragments to imbue, some times uo to 5 relics. And considering the going rate on relics is around 300k, that would be 1.5mil right there. And thats only if your lucky and it imbues first shot. Also, alot of imbue mats, if you buy them, are pretty pricey in general.

[weasel]

Yes if the item has 3 props you want to keep and 3 you want to remove and you remove the undesired 3 you still have 20  possible imbues left  not to exceed the max properties weight .  
Not sure if i worded that correctly , there are only so many properties an item can hold before it is at max property weight .

[Opaloka]

Thats great guys thanks, i understand it much better now, and dont worry you worded it fine, at least, i understood what you meant,