The perks Investor and Master Trader can increase the base amount of gold merchants have to barter with, allowing for greater profits. Therefore, you can never gain more gold than was in the merchant's inventory to begin with. When you buy an item the merchant gains more gold, and when you sell an item to them they lose gold.
However, some merchants (typically stall vendors) will have a much smaller amount of gold, averaging about 25 gold. Most merchants, with you having no perks and not having invested in the merchant, will have about 750 gold to barter with. Each merchant starts with a certain base amount of gold in their inventory. Merchants in Skyrim have only a limited amount of available gold at any given time. You are also unable to sell any item marked as a quest item under any circumstances as long as that item is marked as a quest item. All merchants will refuse to buy stolen items, unless that merchant is a designated fence, or you have the Fence perk and have invested in that merchant. There are different types of merchant, such as blacksmiths, apothecaries, or general goods, and each will only buy and sell certain types of goods, unless you have the Merchant perk. Merchants are specialized NPCs in Skyrim that buy and sell goods with you.
Base PriceĮvery item has a base price, which is used to determine how much it is worth in transactions with merchants. For the purposes of commerce, the most important property of an item is its worth.
Items are carried in your inventory, and along with gold are the basis for commerce in Skyrim.