So I'm out helping the Bards get their items back and when I try to "Give them back," they do not take them back. I cant drop them, sell them or store them. I receive the nice perk bonuses but now have close to 10 lbs of musical crap helping to encumber me.

Is there a point in the quest line that I can look forward too and will remove them from me, or are they my new permanent dunnage in my backpack?

Same thing happened to me. Even the instruments that I didn't pick up prematurely (before the quest was given). svcks, but I think we're stuck with them until at least January when some quest-related bugs are supposed to be ironed out.

i don't pick up flutes and dumb crap like that cause i know i would get stuck with it..i don't mind a few things in my inventory..i see those things and don't ever pick em up...so i guess i won't be doing bard college quests.

It is very annoying. They're not light either...quest objects should be weightless IMO.

Agreed quest items should be weightless im stuck with a witches head and some other crap and those things wont ever be used later.

Weightless objects never make much sense...
Quest items should be droppable/storable/sellable. Just like anything else; if you don't want it, lose it.

That's fine too. As long as you can get rid of it, the weight wouldn't bother me.

Quest objects are weightless.

I'd much prefer this. Just have a popup stating it's a quest item and are you sure you want to drop/sell it.

I guess that could be true , but the Bard college objects are listed as having weight in the inventory. I can't really test it because I can't drop them.

You can test it. Drop everything else you're carrying except your quest items.

All quest items have a weight listed, but picking them up won't increase your encumberance, not even the 25 WU Dragonstone or the 20 WU Elder Scroll

There's probably a few exceptions to this, just to keep us on our toes

They do have weight... but will (or should not) encumber you... Drop all your disposable stuff and voila proof..
It's annoying though... on the other hand on lower levels the reward can be worth it.

I tested it. at least in my game, they are wieghtless. the witches' heads were droppable by me after the quest was done.

I had instruments in my inventory and zero weight (I put eveyrthing in a chest to test, I was sure I was overweighted, turns out...potions get heavy!)

But then you get the legions of complainers who'll flood the forums whining about how they can't complete such-and-such quest because they lost such-and-such item, and therefore the game is "broken." Damned if you do and damned if you don't, from the developers' POV.

FWIW, I agree with you. But it seems that we're outnumbered.

They could fix this problem by putting a special chest in each of your homes that are for quest items only, and making these the only places that you can drop quest items. You'll be able to drop quest items and you'll never lose them because if the quest items aren't in your inventory, then they'll be in one of your homes. Problem solved, and everyone's happy. I'm not sure why the devs haven't thought about something like this yet though... Maybe they have and there's problems with dropping quest items that the devs would run into during development.

Once you use the first head for the quest, you should be able to drop the other heads.

So far, the only quest-specific items I haven't been able to store in a chest in my house are the ones for the Bards. The keys, the letters etc. all plop into a chest or cupboard quite nicely after you've finished the associated questline.