So i have this crown thing, just normal loot that is said to be worth 200 septims. when i go to sell it i can get 90 for it... what gives? now mind you i have only put in the first perk of speach craft but i wear a necklace that increases the price by 12%. so what's going on and how do i get a better deal?

You can get a better deal by either improving your Speech perks, simply leveling your Speech (higher level equals better prices), or getting more items that increase pricing. However, 90 septims for an item that is worth 200 is not a bad deal - merchants buy stuff really cheap, and not even a high level of Speech increases that. I would suggest you don't add much more to Speech, since you don't really benefit much from it.

Yeah, merchants buy low and sell high. The gold value for the item that you're seeing in the inventory is its base value, not what it's going to buy or sell for. If its base value is 200, you'll sell it for less than that but you'd pay more if you bought it from a merchant. It's how a profit is made by a retailer. Like the man said, you can get better prices by developing speechcraft...primarily by buying and selling stuff, but also with various potions and enchantments.

Think of merchants as pawnshops.

So I have this car I bought for 30k. But nobody wants to buy it for 30k. *GASP*

check the merchant and see if they'll give you a task. A lot of them do and will give you better prices for helping them out. It's usually just taking an item to someone else in town, something quick and easy.

So the car merchant buys your car for 10k, and then proceeds to sell it for 60k. ffuuu

Yep. That's a "welcome to real world commerce" to the OP.

Well, the markup/markdown is a bit excessive in Skyrim, but anybody does the same thing in the real world. If you sell something to a retailer of used goods, they're gonna give you less than what they're gonna resell it for, or they wouldn't be in business.

Speechcraft is fairly worthless.

Speechcraft isn't worthless at all if you are looking to stockpile gold. The skill that lets you sell anything to any merchant is great to have.

Although there really isn't much to spend gold on in the late game. I just took the perk so that I could hit the 100k gold mark by dumping all of the useless potions I crafted while getting my alchemy skill up.

As I said, Speechcraft is pretty useless.

Only useless for getting into fights. For making money it's useful. For roleplay reasons it's useful.

I can kill enemies without taking enchanting that doesn't make enchanting useless does it?

It's useful for roleplay reasons? How, exactly?

You can only persuade/intimidate/bribe in a small amount of instances.

Getting better gold, as the one person said, doesn't exactly mean much after a while. You can't use that extra gold to do anything worth while other than buy trinkets that probably aren't ever going to be as good as something you can create yourself.

Investing, making a Fence out of every merchant? There's little RP there. Those perks are a simple "wait, wait, I just leveled, so that thing you wouldn't buy or couldn't afford two seconds ago, you will now!"

At least Enchanting can directly affect how well you do other things other than just fight.

I know that i can't get excatly what it says, but i mean 90 is a bit low if you think about it.

I actually like the way it works its more believable and it prevents the player from getting too rich off 1 merchant.

I don't use fast travel, and I like to loot. Now, how on earth could speechcraft be useful to me?

I like to loot as well.

Speechcraft is still fairly useless.

I like to play a Drow, but even with Speechcraft I can't connive, bribe, persuade, or intimidate my way out of every situation. I can't Speechcraft my way into a Bandit hideout and request aid for a particularly hard dungeon and promise them some spoils (which I lied to them, of course). There's no build up or even a conversation to get someone to trust you enough to become a Fence merchant or allow you to invest with them, it's a simple "ding, level up!" and now all of a sudden the item they wouldn't buy from me two seconds ago will now be happily purchased.

Speechcraft, yes, let's you gain a fair amount of gold, but by mid/late game it is fairly useless.

My merchant/artificer freely spams the crap out of high-end enchantments, staves, and master-level spell scrolls even though she isn't trained in conventional magic

Khajiit: "500 gold a spell? - Pocket change!"
Bandit: "Yikes, weaponised gold?"
Khajiit: "You bet - have some gold chaff"
Bandit: "Gold chaff? - OW MY EY- OHH SHINEY!"

Hah! Just like the real world.

Everyone wants to sell at retail and buy at wholesale. And get annoyed when they can't.

This is why I wish that "loot" didn't show a visible "value" for the player to see. If you are rummaging around an old tomb and come across something shiney.... It DOES NOT still have the price tag attached to it.

Something is worth whatever someone will give you for it. If it looks valuable take it to a shop and find out. You shouldn't know exactly what it 'might' be worth. An appraisal perk would have then made speechcraft a bit more useful.

Agree.

Something I noticed too ... when selling arms and armor, for the best return use an actual armorer rather than a five-and-dime shopkeeper. The shopkeeper will buy the item, but at a reduced price.

The shopkeepers pay us miserable prices for our loot.. yet we have to travel around all Skyrim to sell it all off. I think I would be annoyed if I put any points into speech; except if I went all the way to get the perk that gave all merchants 1000 gold. Well, I'm not planning on doing that.

A masque from one daedra lord improves prices by 20 percent.Then there is the amulet of zenitar.And fortify barter potions.