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105 shop items ranked within their rarity: 25 Common, 40 Rare and 40 Epic.
Items are per hero, three slots each to start, and they sell back for two-thirds of what you paid. That makes them cheaper to get wrong than relics, but slots run out fast in Act 2. Every Common, Rare and Epic the shop can roll is ranked here, with a note on who should hold the good ones. Itemize your front-liner first. Most Act 1 losses are a tank that ran out of health before the backline got going.
Items are ranked within their rarity, since a shop slot rolls one rarity at a time and Commons cost 5 Shards, Rares 15 and Epics 25. The question is whether the item earns a slot on the hero it belongs on, so class items and Stall or Rush items are judged in the teams that use them, not on a random hero. Placements use the demo's 0.5.13 numbers, including the 0.5.9 nerf to Serrated Dagger and the earlier ones to Sentinel's Plate and Runic Buckler. The 58 Unique items (event rewards, Crests from relics, and hero items like Zeus's Thunder) aren't ranked because the shop never offers them.
Each shop slot rolls one rarity, so a Rare item only has to beat other Rares.
5 Shards each, and they sell back for two-thirds of that. Single-stat Commons give a full dose of one stat; the two-stat ones give half of each.
15 Shards. Rares are where items start doing things: Stall and Rush timers, positional bonuses and the class items that grow.
25 Shards, and the Auction House always has one. Glyphs change a hero's class; the Crowns and Eyes change Rush and Stall timing.