GameBanshee Forums

Ok, so I went to the Master Trainer for Mercantile, (the guy in the Zainab camp, don't remember his name,) and I trained all the way up to 100. Then I went home and found that whenever I sold anything, people only bought it for like, 1 septim. What's going on? I sold my Deadric Club for 1,250 septims when it was originallly 100,000 or something. And I sold about 50 exclusive potions for 200 septims. It's really angering me because I don't think I have a saved game before I got the training, and I'm not even sure if that's what happened. Is there a bug or something? Has this happened to anyone else?

Mercantile is broken. Basically, the higher you take the skill, the less you pay for goods, but also the less others pay for yours. This is a bug that's been known for years, and never been repaired by Bethsoft.

Wow, that sucks. Woulda been nice to know before I bought training... I didn't notice it before when my Mercantile was going up, how come? I trained from like 70 or so. So I didn't have bad Mercantile... Dang it... I just bought an enchantment not too long ago too, so I'm kinda in the need for cash. The way I got my cash was selling all my stuff... This really really sucks. Crap! I can't start over, either. Not when I'm so far ahead. Grr! This game aggravates me sometimes.

EDIT: I have a question... If I had just let my Mercantile go up without buying training, would this bug still have happened? Or does it only happen when you buy Mercantil training?

Happens regardless. You'll only really notice it in the highest reaches of the curve because of the formula they used, but it's a problem throughout Mercantile.

Well that's poo. So I guess I shouldn't try to get everything up to 100, eh? That makes me mad. But it seems like my being able to get them to pay more for my stuff (by having a high Mercantile) makes up for what they don't pay me. Like, say, normally they'd give me 100 septims for something, but now that I have a high Mercantile, they'll only give me 80 septimes, but I can usually raise the price by several hundred, depending on what I'm selling. An item normally priced at 100 septims I can usually sell for about 300-400 septims. I guess I just won't try and get that up any higher. And I found a previously saved game. It was saved quite a while ago, and I had done a LOT of exploring since then, which upsets me, but I can do it again. I didn't really lose anything except my exploring. And I hadn't even found what I was looking for.

Just create a damage skill spell and drop your mercantile skill way low when you barter? wont that work as well?

or just sell to creeper and muddy. Merc doesn't affect them.

[QUOTE=beornica]or just sell to creeper and muddy. Merc doesn't affect them.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I kinda figured that. I guess that's what I'll do if I ever get my Mercantile up again. Well, I ended up going waaay back and using a pre-saved game and I just didn't buy the training, so my Merc isn't bad, but it's not excellent. Anyways... Thanks for the help, guys. I appreciate it.

Does this bug apply to all versions? (I have the xbox goty version)

Yes, it does.

i have xbox goty and the regular version. the mercantille never screwed me. i always train it to 100 and it works great. the discount is pretty good. exclusive potions from Nycara with 100 positive disposition (thank you 100 speechcraft) and 100 mercantile costs about 170. if i remember right, if the disposition is at 100 and mercantile is at around 25, it costs about 250. thats a 30% discount. Same thing when getting training. With mercantile at 25 a level 100 session cost about 800. With 100 mercantile, its about 400.

Yes that's how it is for all. But now try selling that same stuff first with a low mercantile and then try the same with it maxed. You should notice you get less when your mercantile is higher.