What the title and topic say's really. I've just signed up with the mages college and done a quest for them, I've got a lot of things to sell but what seems to be the only general goods merchant in town - Birna's oddments seems to be closed all day every day. I've wandered around the town but haven't found anyone called Birna. Any idea's why the place is always locked up or if there's a very specific time and day i'm missing when it is open? It'll be a pain having to travel off to another town every time I want to sell anything.

Bump - I've googled around and seen a fair few other people asking about this topic around the net but nobody has gotten any answers so far. Anyone else encountered this problem with Birna's oddments or know if there is something you have to do to get the shop functioning?

It was closed the one time I checked it too. I haven't really been back since that one time, though. Maybe I'll head back to take a second look. If it's still closed, I suspect there may be a quest involved with that shop or NPC.

Like yourself I tried the shop a couple of times the day I arrived in winterhold and thought Oh well, maybe it'll be open the next day. Got caught up in a quest, filled up my inventory with loot, went back and it was still closed. Then I waited 1 hour at a time for a couple of days and it was still closed up each time & as i mentioned I can't find a birna around the village. Might be as you say, a quest related to it, I'll try asking around and see if anything comes up from the other people in the village. If anyone else comes up with any answers let me know.

Cheers for the input

It was open for me.

That's weird then, shops working fine for some and for others it always seems to be closed up. Possible bug or glitch then. I'll have to trek off to the nearest town or village to flog my stuff then.

Found a mention on another site that Birna was killed in a dragon attack in one persons game. Now I was attacked by a dragon when i first went to winterhold, I remember most people seemed to flee into various buildings when it happened & it just seemed to be me and the town gaurdsmen left on the streets, also I didn't think the game would allow an important npc like a merchant to be killed, but now I'm thinking that maybe Birna was killed when I was attacked by the dragon as her store continues to be closed up whenever I visit.

I have found that toftir - think that's his name & one of your fellow students who sleeps on the 2nd floor of the tower where you have your room will buy general goods off you so there are still a couple of options in winterhold for flogging stuff, they don't have much money though.

Don't know what Birna was doing outside to get killed by the dragon when I visited the town though, it was about 11am game time, she should have been safely tucked up in her shop. Just thought I would update this though & effected by this issue know about the other options for buying and selling general goods within winterhold.