Can't get alien blaster

[Titanopteryx]

I was moving around north of modoc looking for the alien blaster merchant. I came accross many merchants, each with a high priced mystery item. I used steal to see what they had and none had the blaster yet. Then the next merchant didn't have anything in his inventory. I decided to buy the item he was selling to see what it was but I didn't get an Item and he didn't take my money. I then killed him and he didn't have anything on him. Every merchant since then didn't have anything to buy or steal. I can't get the alien blaster because the merchants don't work. I had just killed the bad luck dog when this happened. Anyone else ever had this problem?