Find a fencer, makes it so much easier.

If you choose to invest perk points in the speech tree (I do this on all my characters) merchants will generally have around 1700-2500 gold each (even most of the little stand vendors in cities). Also, joining the Thieves Guild and doing all their associated quests will provide you with around 10,000 septims to sell items at the Ragged Flagon. Also, with the TG, Khajiit caravans will have 5000 septims to work with. There is plenty of money all over Skyrim, you just have do quests and invest points to gain it's potential. It's also good to note that if you have items to sell, and can also train in certain areas, look for trainers who are also vendors (Grelka in Riften is an example). Train in your craft, and then sell all your merchandise, which basically almost allows for "free" training.

This is what i did. Albeit, he won't buy everything you have to offer...like certain staffs for example... but my guy has over 11k just sitting there waiting to buy my junk.

I think Enthir at Winterhold College is a fence, but I think that's only after you completed the Mage's Quild Questline

Another source of merchants can be found in various places in the mountains of Skyrim. Ever seen an Orc Stronghold? Don't raid it and don't murder the Orcs living there. Orc characters get to enter the stronghold by default because they're...well...Orcs. Other races have to do a real quick and easy fetch quest to be made Bloodkin and thus gain entry to all the Strongholds. Most Strongholds have an Alchemist, Blacksmith and a Mine. So yeah, if you explore a bit you'll be amazed what you can discover.

Ultimately though, the best course of action is to put perk points into the speech tree as many already mentioned so that you can invest in stores and thereby increase their limit.

Also, if you get married your spouse will be quite happy to trade with you. If your spouse happen to be a follower as well it can be really convenient.

I hate the idea of wasting perks in Speech personally. Just do the thieves guild quests which gives you access to the 4k gold fence and use those perks elsewhere.

Plus as others have said, in the end, you will have bought all of the houses and upgrades, and still have gold running out of your ears.

I understand your frustration.

Personally, I am no longer concerned with selling loot for profit. There simply isn't anything to do with all that money.

Yeah, no kidding. How many soul gems and potions do you have to buy before you can sell of a few ebony weapons.

If enemies and loot level with you, you'd think the merchants would too... Or at least have their money capacity increase the more times you barter with them.

Most merchants start out with 750g and you can invest 500g with "Investor" and they get another 1000g with "Master Trader"... So the maximum they'll ever end up with is about 2250g... Maybe up to 3000g with some merchants. That's only about three ebony weapons, I often return to town with about ten. I just wish I didn't have to visit everybody and their mom just to sell my loot.


This would be cool:

- Merchants get about a 20g increase in available funds for every Speech skill increase you get. That would be 85 increases (80 for Bretons, and Nords) by 20g - So they'd have an additional 1700g by the time you master Speech, not including perks.

- Their available funds increase by 5g for every 100g that you SPEND at their shop. So if your Warrior buys 1000g worth of health and stamina pots from Arcadia in Whiterun, she'll have an extra 50g to barter with the next time you visit. This would give you a huge advantage to doing business with a few select merchants.

- All merchants can (but don't always) give radiant quests that permanently increase their funds.

- Also THIS: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1160987-skyrim-traders-guild/page__fromsearch__1

What I always wondered about, is if there is some merchants guild, that only allows ONE of each type of vendor in a city? I look around the tiny little town I live in, and there are literally dozens of little mom and pop shops that sell assorted items...... One would think that in the CAPITOL of the province, there would be more than just one alchemist.... etc.

I think I am just going to put some perk points towards speech so I can sell more items to all merchants and then boost the amount of gold they have. Right now I just swing into town, sell what I can to anyone I can sell to...armor/arms to smiths, general goods to stores, herbs to herbalists. Then I move to the next town....yadda yadda.

Since I am getting tired or squeezing every bit of gold from everyone NPC in every town, I think using person to make the merchants better is the only solution.

You have to remember the economy is based on the lowest common denominator. They EXPCT people to be screwing up and wasting items and gold...so it is overly generous with gold and the game drops tons of equipment to sell off.

The best solution would be:

- Armor and arms not to drop after combat. After you fight an enemy, their arms and armor should be listed as BROKEN and worthless 80% of the time.

- Crafting must have a longer learning curve, and the price to craft should be far more expansive then buying an item. Moreover, raw material for weapons and armor should be a bit rarer to find & in stores raw ore, ingots, leather, act should be 2x more expensive.

- High ticket items should cost less but requiem more "effort" to get. (Make it cost less money, but make it more work!)

- Have a FAIL SAFE. If a player runs out of money because the economy is so much tighter allow the player to receive a small gift if they run out of money...trade a level of experience for $1,500 gold...YES A TERRIBLELY HIGH PRICE...but that is the point they money should not be free!!! That way if you NEED potions or a weapon or armor because nothing is dropping you can trade a level of experience for enough gold to get you started again...$1,500 is enough to by some health potions, weapons, armor, or raw materials to craft.

Ideally, warriors should be buying most weapons and buying most armor…not fining it. Mages should be buying most of their staffs and written spells not finding them. Crafters should be making less money from what they craft…crafting should not MAKE you money unless you find the materials and finding them should be harder. For stores to WORK they need to be more than just places to DUMP trash for gold. All players should be buying twice as much as they sell.

sorry to say but its almost the only way to get any skill in speech so you can put in the perks.