That's... a lot of gold. Anyway. At level 50+ you're going to find stuff that has 4K+ in the value part of the item. This was the OPs concern as no merchant can buy this (save for the fences)

Still spending money on training gets you the benefit of being able to sell your loot and getting stronger in the process. I say it's a good tradeoff. Your other option is to waste perks or sell it for less than it's worth. Might as well get something back for it right?

Best thing to do is to finish the Thieves Guild quests so that you'll have fences that has 4,000 Septims. Probably enough for you to sell those junk. And mind you, there are 9 fences supposedly but somehow Enthir is kinda buggy coz he's Septim limit is still the same even after finishing the quest for him.

Those perks are already spoken for. not enough points for all the perks I want.

Then stop whining.

I'm also level 33, and I could swear merchant gold is going up in my game. It seems that merchants that used to have 700 in gold now have over 1000. I haven't put any perks into Speech, though. I don't find anything about this on UESP, so maybe it's all in my imagination...

I think that's true, because I feel the same - Adrianne in Whiterun used to have about 700 when I first got there, I think.

I believe it's tied to skill level, which increases as you sell things, rather than actually perks, although perks might give a further benefit. I'm not sure on that, because I only took the first perk, early on, and haven't touched one since. However, my skill has certainly increased.

There is a problem with speech in that even if you're investing in shops, you're still selling your goods for more money. It's almost a wash.

Merchants just need to be more shrewd and some should even be racist. It's all kind of moot, though, because there isn't an economy in this game and there aren't enough ways to spend the vast amount of gold you can accumulate even without perks. I think your issue is temporary.

I'm pretty sure if you sell stuff to the same vendor, they get more gold.

Could just be speech going up as I'm doing it, but I've definitely noticed a change without putting a single perk into Speech.

I normally sell to what's-her-name in Whiterun, right next to the forge where you enter, when I first start a game.

Eventually she has more money than anyone other merchant I run across, its almost as if they have factions. Same thing with the main fence in the Thieves Guild...

The more stuff you sell to her, the more money she has.

I honestly don't see how people have a coin problem, you should easily be able to sell everything you have in Whiterun alone.

1 general merchant

2 weapon/armor merchants

1 alchemy merchant

(Get married)

1 more general merchant

I've noticed that I can NOT invest in all shops - bug or deliberate ??

really 3 armor merchants: 2 at the War Maiden plus the Drunken Hunter
And once you have the Merchant perk, you can sell anything to the Mage in the castle

I'm pretty sure it's deliberate, as some merchants are strictly small-time and would not have any way to do anything with the investment. Those you can invest in generally have regular outside trade of some kind and would be able to use the money to improve their shops.

Honestly, I think the problem is that people come to this game not used to merchants that have limited money to buy their stuff. It's obvious from the conversation:

"Put a few perks into speech".
"I don't want to waste the perks."

"Complete the Thieve's Guild questline. You get 9 fences that have 4000 gold each."
"But I need the merchants now." or "I don't want to do that questline."

"Use the console to add more gold to the merchants"
"I'm not on PC." or "That's cheating."

"By the time you're level X (usually 25-50), you won't have anything to spend money on, anyways."
"But I NEED to sell all this stuff NOW."

Seriously, what do you expect to happen with this complaint? For Bethesda to change all the merchants to have unlimited gold in an upcoming patch? It was done this way on purpose, and for a reason. You may not agree with that reason, and may not like it, but that's the way it is. Whining about it isn't going to change it.

Trust me, you'll get used to it, eventually. I was annoyed by it at first too, having come from other games where merchants didn't have any limits on how much they would buy. It didn't make sense to me that I had to run around to every merchant in town to get rid of all the useless junk I picked up in the dungeon. Then I realized that this was how it was meant to be, and the reasons for it, and I just stopped picking up most of the useless junk I came across. On my current play through, I'm only picking up gold and expensive light items (like potions, gems, jewelry, and scrolls), and you know what? I find I don't lack for money any more than when I was hauling around all that heavy crap, and spending all that extra time selling. It turns out, it was a just a mini-game that I didn't enjoy.

I even have a level 65 character that doesn't even bother to open most corpses and chests. There's no longer anything in them I need. I have over 120k gold, so why pick up crap that I have to run around finding places to sell to? I have access to the 9 TG fences, so merchants having the money isn't the problem- I just don't need the gold enough to waste time going to them to sell stuff.

Not realism, it's a fantasy world, but verisimilitude : are the merchants there to make a profit, run a sustainable business, and be part of the world and setting, or there to be a convenience for any one who has just cleared a dungeon? Should they be a service for the character, or the player?

Im just glad its not like oblivion. Made no sense when the traders had unlimited gold, no sense at all. Also, you want traders to have more gold right? How can you possibly consider those perk-points wasted if they are going to solve the problem?

IMO, it's already too easy to get gold fast. The merchants usually have things like soul gems/potions that you might want to buy, that practically makes their money-pool expand drastically.

Yep, if they have just one filled grand soul gem, there's another 700 odd worth of stuff you can get rid, without having to give it away.

Is that an exploit?

You have to get the perks to increase their gold, otherwise it never improves or goes up.

I'm level 60, and I have noticed that some merchants I regularly deal with have increased funds. I'm not sure on how it works, but it's mainly the smiths, and the more I deal with them, the more money they have. But you have to consistently deal with them, and I think it helps if you actually take a bit of a loss occasionally: merchant has 1100 gold, you have a magic axe worth 1200, sell it at 1100.

The other option I follow is to clear them out of potions and soul gems that I want, and then sell off the booty. Sure, I'm only making a profit based on the free gold they have, and the fact that I'm using a necklace of haggling and the priest mask, but it means I get something I use, and their cash, so it's more of a barter arrangement than buying and selling, but it works.

After a while though, money is pretty much meaningless.

Edit:

Tallenn is right, too. But that type of player attitude is across a range of issues in the game. First off it was the magick system, then it was destruction magic, then it was smithing and enchanting. Eventually I expect that people will complain about the packaging, and how they don't want to play the game because it had a plastic wrapper on it, and they are going to return it so they can get the download version that doesn't require unwrapping that will spoil their immersion

I think its possibly an easter egg for the talking mudcrab merchant.

Use the console command and give yourself the perk then, or drop all your crap and console command, "100 Million Dolllars" actually quoting an Austin power's movie was a bad idea

EDIT: Better idea; do you have loot but need cash now? Call JGwentworth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbGw3A9Dg-Q

Never say never. Joining the thieves guild will allow your fences to hold 4000 gold.

If you get the perk that makes everybody a fence will that make everybody have at least four thousand, I have not gotten the fence perk yet, or does that only apply to members of the Theives Guild?

I'm in the low 40's level wise. I carry about 65,000 septims on my person, though I should really put that in the safe at Proudspire. I have probably close to 100 gold ingots in reserve and maybe 150 gemstones of all types and quality. For some reason I still pick up the 4 septims on the bandit's table, lol.


I wish I had something to spend it all on. I read of a rp thing of "paying" your follower after quests by dropping some coin in their inventory.

Thanks, now I have that damn jingle in my head...