Those are your only two options other than taking a loss on every item. I do feel your pain. I just grabbed the speech perks, invested in the dude at Riverwood that runs the general store, and sold, sold, sold!
- That is something I desperately wanted Bethesda to patch in. A big boost to merchant gold amounts in the bigger cities, like Solitude.
- I also realize that without the merchant perks, the speech tree is completely worthless. That's why I know that Bethesda will never up their gold amount.