Selling loot in Skyrim...

[Jaime Gemstone]

After completing Blackreach dungeon at about level 33 or so, me and Lydia were both jammed pack with loot. It had gotten to the point where we were tossing away ebony weapons because they were too heavy, so we could mine more soul gems instead. I thought it was awesome having so much loot, until I had to sell it...

Now, Skyrim apparently has tried to streamline a lot of things, so that the game is more appealing to a broader audience. In comparison to Oblivion, however, selling loot has become a lot harder.

All in all, after fast traveling to every city in Skyrim to visit every merchant, sleeping 48 hours at a time in my bed so merchants will then restock their goods and cash, it took me 3 hours just to sell my loot from Blackreach - a single haul. Oblivion, in comparison, I used to unload the lot on Thoronir in about 2 minutes.

This is bloody ridiculous. It's at the point where I don't really want to loot anymore, because it takes too long to sell it. And this is good loot - things like gold diamond rings and jeweled necklaces and expensive potions are just getting tossed away because I can't sell them and don't have another 2 hours to visit 50 different merchants.

I mean, think about it - a merchant has 750 gold most the time. So that's enough to buy 2 or 3 loot items... out of the 300 or so different things you have in your inventory.

So what do you do? Do you toss the loot? Or spend ages trying to sell it?

Since I play the PS3 version, mods are out of the question. I'm just stuck with a dumb game that gives you thousands of gold worth of loot and no real way to sell it. It's a real let down the game has so many issues like this that are ruining it for me.

[BobTheRedguard]

I just throw any crap I can't sell in a chest in one of my homes with the plan of selling it later. Of course, by the time I get to a merchant I have a whole new surplus of loot. But, at least I know I've got that chest full of goodies so I'll never have to be worried about being broke.

[Dovahkiin1]

If you're that annoyed by it, I would suggest investing perks into the speech tree. You can make it to where you can sell any item to any merchant, invest 500 gold in them so they always have 500 more, and make all merchants have 1000 more gold. On top of say 750, they will have a total of 2250 gold.

[Dark Spark]

At that point, I'd stop caring about earning money.

Prisoner: What are you in here for?

Cassie: Littering.

Prisoner: Huh? Weird that they'd send you here for that.

Cassie: Well, that's what I call it when I topple a stone tower atop three dozen Thalmor agents and leave them for dead in the middle of a blizzard. They had a different take on the situation.

[House of the Wolf]

-snip-

I don't really see it as an 'issue' with the game. It's forcing you, as the player, to make different (smarter) decisions, and plan your routes out more. I play on the PS3 as well, and my current character is a pure-melee build. I find myself carrying every ounce of loot I can, because there's no weight on gold after I sell it (same with almost every other RP).

You then have to start making decisions: ie, dropping the 35lb warhammer or the .5lb necklace of equal value; or, do I stop by this city on the way to my destination to help take a bit of my loot off?

What works for me is, if I find loot, I only pick up something valued at at least 10x its weight--stuff like Hide Boots (1lb, worth 10g)--because it helps streamline my looting, and makes sure I have enough room for the good stuff.

If that doesn't help you, sorry; to each their own. But for me, I don't have a problem at all with this system because it keeps you honest, and (as Dovahkiin1 said) you could always invest in a particular shop that you frequent and raise their gold limits.

[Redguard_Master]

The denset source of merchants is thieves guild. Become grandmaster and get the perk to sell anything to anyone and you got like 4 or 5 merchants waiting for you.

[shu]

After you complete the TG you have merchants with 4000 gold just waiting to give it to you in exchange for that lovely Ebony war-hammer. What I do is go to Whiterun and buy all the ore and ingots both smiths have, then I sell them all my loot (weapons). Then I go to the general store and buy all filled Soul Gems and whatever ore or ingots they have. I then sell whatever I have left, be it weapons or jewelry. Then I do the same in Solitude and Markath (if I need to). It doesn't take me more than fifteen minutes. Naturally I fast travel, otherwise it would take much longer.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

If you wanna be rich from loot, invest in Speech perks. It's essential in this game. I even did that with my Barbarian. It's just worth it.

[Mr.Argonian]

Is this seriously "ruining" the game for you. Out of all the things that people could complain about, you complain about how long it takes to sell things. Skyrim's loot selling system is much more realistic than Oblivion's. It makes absoloutely no sense if one merchant can buy all those weapons, armour, jewellery, potions and whatever else you have picked up in your travels. Skyrim has taken a step towards reality. By the time you don't have enough merchants to offload all your loot you will be at the point where money is no problem to you anyway.

[Dovahkiin1]

You can also invest in riverwood traders and their gold goes to 11,000 or so. You Can just sell everything to them

[Frost Mage]

Skyrim has gone back to the realistic (and more appealing) system that Fallout 3 used, where vendors weren't just able to buy an item with a max price of 800 gold, but where the vendor actually HAD that much money to barter with. It's much better, IMO, and makes looting a lot more fun and meaningful.

[Belthazor]

If you think selling stuff is a pain in Skyrim, you have obviously never played Morrowind. Ever tried selling an item that was worth 40k? I remember spending so much time with Creeper to sell stuff back and forth to make sure I got the full value out of those. It was like playing the Towers of Hanoi. :p

Question, though: What do you need all that gold for, anyway? Except for houses and spells, I rarely use gold for anything. And there are only so many houses and spells you can buy. It's ridiculously easy to become filthy rich in Skyrim, especially since you find gold pretty much everywhere.

[House of the Wolf]

I horde mine and spend it on healing potions. And after 1.6, horses.

[StinkyJozef]

If you're that annoyed by it, I would suggest investing perks into the speech tree. You can make it to where you can sell any item to any merchant, invest 500 gold in them so they always have 500 more, and make all merchants have 1000 more gold. On top of say 750, they will have a total of 2250 gold.

Seriously!!!! That's could have saved me countless hours?!?!?!?!!?

I don't mind going from shop to shop and city to city. I visit all alchemy shops and forge/enchant stuff for those skills.

[The N00b Merc]

Another way to "give" merchants more money, is buying training from them. One of my favorite merchants to do this with is Grelka. She will buy just about anything and offers Light Armor training, which is useful to a wide range of characters types. This, on top of the speech perks, gives her a massive pile of gold to help you pawn off most of your loot in 1 or 2 visits.

[Mr.Argonian]

Yeah I do that with Arcadia until I have level 50 alchemy, then I move on to Babette. This doesn't really gain you money but you gain skills for free and lighten your carry capacity.

[Jaime Gemstone]

-snip-

I don't really see it as an 'issue' with the game. It's forcing you, as the player, to make different (smarter) decisions, and plan your routes out more. I play on the PS3 as well, and my current character is a pure-melee build. I find myself carrying every ounce of loot I can, because there's no weight on gold after I sell it (same with almost every other RP).

You then have to start making decisions: ie, dropping the 35lb warhammer or the .5lb necklace of equal value; or, do I stop by this city on the way to my destination to help take a bit of my loot off?

What works for me is, if I find loot, I only pick up something valued at at least 10x its weight--stuff like Hide Boots (1lb, worth 10g)--because it helps streamline my looting, and makes sure I have enough room for the good stuff.

If that doesn't help you, sorry; to each their own. But for me, I don't have a problem at all with this system because it keeps you honest, and (as Dovahkiin1 said) you could always invest in a particular shop that you frequent and raise their gold limits.

Yeah, this is what I do, too. I used to base it on a wolf pelt - 1 weight to 10 gold. Then you start dropping the heaviest stuff, like weapons and armor. But after a big dungeon, you've got 200 weight of gold rings and mages robes, that's the problem - you can never sell it (or you can, but it takes like 2 hours, what I said in the OP).

The only reason I bother looting is for high level training. But I just can't get my head around a game that forces you to make the choice - either spend hours selling gear each day, or throw away quality loot like jewelery. It's just dumb. Looting was good at low levels, but at high levels you only should grab 2 or 3 loot items worth a lot, and just ignore the rest entirely.

[House of the Wolf]

To sum-up the other replies, along with my own, the best recommendation--if this is ruining your experience--is to invest in the Speech perk-tree, use the invest perk from that tree on a fav. merchant, and up your stamina to be able to carry more. On top of that, you could visit the Steed (Standing Stone) NW of Solitude, which makes all equipped items weightless and gives you an extra 100lb weight-capacity.

[Jaime Gemstone]

Is this seriously "ruining" the game for you. Out of all the things that people could complain about, you complain about how long it takes to sell things. Skyrim's loot selling system is much more realistic than Oblivion's. It makes absoloutely no sense if one merchant can buy all those weapons, armour, jewellery, potions and whatever else you have picked up in your travels. Skyrim has taken a step towards reality. By the time you don't have enough merchants to offload all your loot you will be at the point where money is no problem to you anyway.

Well when training costs 2,000 gold a go, that's over 10,000 gold for 5 sessions, then you need to sell a lot of loot. So I collect the loot, and when it comes time to sell it, it takes hours.

Realistic or no, do you honestly not see the problem with having to fast travel all over the world to sell loot and it takes you hours to do it? The time I came out of Darkreach with all that loot, I had been playing for ages, so I thought I'd just go sell it and be done so I could go have dinner. That was at 18:00... you can imagine the shock I got when I realized what time it was at the end, and the frustration of having to sit there all that time just to do what takes in other games only a few minutes.

To sum-up the other replies, along with my own, the best recommendation--if this is ruining your experience--is to invest in the Speech perk-tree, use the invest perk from that tree on a fav. merchant, and up your stamina to be able to carry more. On top of that, you could visit the Steed (Standing Stone) NW of Solitude, which makes all equipped items weightless and gives you an extra 100lb weight-capacity.

Great. Then I'll be able to carry an extra 500 kilo of gold diamond rings! Problem solved! You're as cunning as that wolf in your avatar, you know.

[House of the Wolf]

Is this seriously "ruining" the game for you. Out of all the things that people could complain about, you complain about how long it takes to sell things. Skyrim's loot selling system is much more realistic than Oblivion's. It makes absoloutely no sense if one merchant can buy all those weapons, armour, jewellery, potions and whatever else you have picked up in your travels. Skyrim has taken a step towards reality. By the time you don't have enough merchants to offload all your loot you will be at the point where money is no problem to you anyway.

Well when training costs 2,000 gold a go, that's over 10,000 gold for 5 sessions, then you need to sell a lot of loot. So I collect the loot, and when it comes time to sell it, it takes hours.

Realistic or no, do you honestly not see the problem with having to fast travel all over the world to sell loot and it takes you hours to do it? The time I came out of Darkreach with all that loot, I had been playing for ages, so I thought I'd just go sell it and be done so I could go have dinner. That was at 18:00... you can imagine the shock I got when I realized what time it was at the end, and the frustration of having to sit there all that time just to do what takes in other games only a few minutes.

I've never, ever, used trainers. Especially not for the Speech skill. In the early part of the game, when your carrying-capacity is limited, your lower-speech skill helps you by keeping the prices of your items lower. The more you barter, the more your skill increases, allowing you to level up and keep increasing you stamina (if you so choose).

To sum-up the other replies, along with my own, the best recommendation--if this is ruining your experience--is to invest in the Speech perk-tree, use the invest perk from that tree on a fav. merchant, and up your stamina to be able to carry more. On top of that, you could visit the Steed (Standing Stone) NW of Solitude, which makes all equipped items weightless and gives you an extra 100lb weight-capacity.

Great. Then I'll be able to carry an extra 500 kilo of gold diamond rings! Problem solved! You're as cunning as that wolf in your avatar, you know.

You're welcome?

What I do, for my own purposes, is I set up base at Whiterun, which has two blacksmiths to sell my weapons/armour to, one general merchant to sell most of my jewelry/clothing to, one alchemist to sell my potions to, my spouse (who's usually another general merchant), and (if I'm lucky) a Khajiit caravan. Whatever I have left, I just sell at the next town on my way to my next quest, but I usually don't have too much left at all.

[MaKo]

Question, though: What do you need all that gold for, anyway?

My characters use money for: (1) training, (2) (healing) potions (those who don't use Alchemy), (3) filled grand soul gems (all who use Enchanting have constant lack of these), (4) items with special enchants you haven't yet found in dungeons, some of them are hard to find (e.g. Muffle, Resist Poison); buy them immediately, if you find one, (5) miscellaneous: for example, ingots and such, as you don't always have the materials you need at the moment.

To sum-up the other replies, along with my own, the best recommendation--if this is ruining your experience--is to invest in the Speech perk-tree, use the invest perk from that tree on a fav. merchant, and up your stamina to be able to carry more.

And Thieves Guild, finally granting you traders with as much as 4,000 golds. Take Speech perk to make all traders as general traders, and you can sell all your jewelry to blacksmiths, who already have more money than others.

[Avron the S'wit]

If you think selling stuff is a pain in Skyrim, you have obviously never played Morrowind. Ever tried selling an item that was worth 40k? I remember spending so much time with Creeper to sell stuff back and forth to make sure I got the full value out of those. It was like playing the Towers of Hanoi. :p

Oh my goodness, those were the days!

But yes, I think you got plenty of good suggestions in this thread. I invest a bit in speech and it goes a long way (always had in this series; charisma tends to be a neglected attribute no matter where you go). A good tip that I can throw in additionally is don't let it ruin the game for you. The loot is fun, sure, as everyone likes shiny stuff, but if it's really utterly ruining the game for you you're probably thinking much too hard about it. Relax and have fun; try some other things!

[edgukator]

I think this is the reason your houses have display racks. Basically I'm maxing out a house, decorating it with loot, then moving onto the next house. I don't really need to sell much, as selling potions is normally enough to sustain me... everything else is enchanting practice or decoration. I tend to loot more books than weapons, just for the bookshelves!

[SmallFries]

If you think selling stuff is a pain in Skyrim, you have obviously never played Morrowind. Ever tried selling an item that was worth 40k? I remember spending so much time with Creeper to sell stuff back and forth to make sure I got the full value out of those. It was like playing the Towers of Hanoi. :p

Question, though: What do you need all that gold for, anyway? Except for houses and spells, I rarely use gold for anything. And there are only so many houses and spells you can buy. It's ridiculously easy to become filthy rich in Skyrim, especially since you find gold pretty much everywhere.

This. Morrowing your needed creeper and the mudcrab merchant hehe.

and question for everyone. What do you spent your gold on???? My two level 50 chars each have over 100k gold. I have no idea where to spend the stuff. I feel like after level 25ish and you've bought a couple houses, there is nothing left to spend your money on.

[Theificka]

Pick up minor loot until you are emptying out more than one merchants inventory (Based on the "usual" haul), then just pick up things like jewelry and gems, and if you are having a really hard time, only enchanted jewelry (And maybe armor). Old habits break hard, but keep at this process, and you'll be swimming in gold and free inventory space.

I prefer this system over Oblivion's any day, but it does get annoying to have to sell to more than one city at a time.