1. Updates
2. Introduction
3. Theory
4. How To Barter
4.1 Bartering For More Profit...
4.2 Bartering For Even More Profit...
5. Tips
6. FAQ's
7. Special Thanks
8. Credit & Copyright Information
~ It seems like forver since I updated this guide. A few things have been
changed...
~ I have changed the wording in some parts of the guide to be applicable
for both the X-box and PC versions of the game. This will make things
easier for everyone.
~ I have edited the "Faster Scrolling" trick. I remind you that this
trick ONLY works on the X-Box version. unfortunately, I know of no trick
of this kind for the PC version...so don't ask. I have also found an easier
way to perform the trick as well. For more info, head on down to section 5.
~ Added a GREAT new tip submitted by Reno.
~ I have since figured out that you can only take the platter and the key
BEFORE handing in your papers. After that, they will arrest you. So if you
have already handed in your papers...unlock the warehouse with a scroll or
with your own skill. Or try stelaing the warehouse key without being noticed.
Sorry for all the confusion this may have caused some people.
- June 18, 2002.
~ Added a new tip. It is a great tip if you hate pressing the black and
white buttons for so long. It speeds up the process by about 2X.
~ Changed the title of the guide from: "How to barter effectively and make
a lot of money" to: "Bartering Guide". It's smaller, simpler, and it
looks more professional.
~ Changed the layout a bit. You may not have noticed but I find it looks
much better.
Hello there, you've come to this FAQ looking for information on becoming
rich using the bartering system. Well, you've come to the right place. With
this FAQ, I will teach you how to become a better salesperson. Not only can
you become rich, you can become rich right from the beginning of the game!
This FAQ is mainly suited for beginner's trying to get some extra spending
money, but everyone can use it at anytime. Read on to learn how I theorized
this process.
The theory of this technique is simple which I completely found by accident.
The theory is, you can buy/sell anything, and I said ANYTHING for absolutely
no cost. That's right, you can basically get everything for free if you
really wanted. At least from barterers that you can bribe that is. The whole
idea I conceived was buying something lower than cost, and selling it back
for a much larger profit. My theory was tested, and it proved true. This is
the fastest and most efficient way to make money from very early on in the
game. This technique will also raise your mercantile ability extensively and
will in effect, make you a much better salesperson as time passes on. Read on
to the detailed FAQ to learn exactly how to scam the dealers into giving you
all of their money.
You've just been released from custody, and you're in a city you've never
been to before. You realize that you have no cash and everything to spend it
on. What do you do? Well I'm here to tell you what you do. You make some
money is what you do. How do I make money? It's quite simple actually.
The first step is to get something to barter, preferably something
expensive. Something like a Limeware Platter perhaps? Yes. A Limeware Platter
would be perfect. Go to the Seyda Neen Census end Excise offices where
Socucious Ergalla is located and take a look at the shelf behind him. Sitting
up on the shelf is the Limeware Platter worth 650 Gold that you'll need for
bartering. To take it is a completely different story. Here's what you do to
take it. Step up as close as you can to the Platter. Take it...as soon as you
take it; open your item screen.
Drop the Platter(and anything else you may have stolen previously to be on the
safe side) and wait for the guard. He'll tell you that stealing is a crime and
not to do it again (hopefully). Press "goodbye" and you should be able to pick
up the Platter that you just dropped. You might want to practice this technique
on the bottles before actually performing it on the platter. If the guard
catches you before you dropped it, then you won't be seeing that item again
for a while...so practice. This trick also works on the key to the warehouse on
the shelf in the Excise Offices where Sellus Gravius is located. But the key
one has backfired on me once and I had to pay a 300 Gold fine.
Now, you're going to need a bit of bribing money before heading on over to
Arrille's Trade House and selling him the platter. I suggest completing the
"Where's Fargoth's Hiding Spot" mission and not reporting back to the Nord
who sent you on the mission in the first place. This will give you some money
to bribe Arrille (give Fargoth his ring back before completing this mission).
Another mission you could complete would be the "Who Killed The Tax
Collector" mission. Take the gold found on the body of the Tax Collector and
use it for bribe money. By the way, giving Fargoth his ring back will make
Arrille's disposition towards you be a whopping 80/100. Bribe him for the
rest.
Once you have 100/100 disposition with Arrille, you can begin the trading
process. Let's start with the platter shall we? Barter the platter. Depending
on how high your mercantile skill is; increase the value you want to sell
for. For right now, I suggest rising the price in small increments to see
just how far he is willing to rise for you. Once you figure out how much he
is willing to spend, sell it. Remember how much you sold it for, so you can
buy it back for a lower price. Now, buy it back from him for lower than what
you sold it for. Again, I suggest lowering in small increments to see how
much he is willing to sell for. Once you figure out what's reasonable, sell.
Remember that if he doesn't like the offers you are giving him, his
disposition will lower. If it lowers too much, leave the dialogue box, and
talk again. His disposition will return to 100. Another thing to remember is
that the dealer will eventually run out of money. If he does in fact run out
of money, wait in his store for 24 hours and his money will regain.
If you are just beginning your game, you won't see much of a profit right
now. After bartering for a short time, you'll see that your mercantile skill
level is increasing. Every time your mercantile skill level increases, you
can afford to sell for a little more, and buy for a little less. Eventually
you can manage to make 200 Gold from each transaction with the Platter. But I
know what you are thinking...this is chump change. Well, you are right. It is
chump change. It is possible to be making a lot more Gold than what you are
making right now. On to the Next Step...
Now that you've got the hang of it, your transactions are becoming more and
more profitable. But there is a way to earn even more of a profit. Once
you've been able to amass a large sum of Gold, you can move on to bigger and
better items. For this step, you'll need at least 3000 Gold to continue.
Head on over to Ra'Virr's Trade House located in Balmora, right beside the
Mage's Guild. He has an item worth 3000 Gold. Unfortunately he only has 600
Gold to barter with. It doesn't matter at this point, because you can make
all 600 of it in one quick move. Rest. And then do it again. First of all,
raise his disposition to 100/100 towards you with some of that cash you've
amassed. Next, purchase that sword. Lower his initial offering to what you
think you'll be able to pull off. Then purchase it. You know the routine.
Sell it back for a lower cost than you paid for it and you'll be making
larger profits than you were with the platter. If you want more than 600 Gold
a turn, purchase the sword, keep it, and travel back to Seyda Neen and trade
with Arrille for up to 800 Gold. You might as well stay with Ra'Vir because
you might like some of his items.
Again, the higher you sell for and the lower you buy for, the faster your
mercantile skill will increase. The mercantile skill is very important to the
success of bartering. The higher your mercantile skill, the more money you
make in profit. Once you reach around 70, you'll be practically getting
things for bargain prices. Once you reach 100, you'll be practically getting
things for FREE!
If you are getting sick and tired for only trading for 600 Gold a turn, then
this is what you should be reading. If you really want to be raking in the
big dough, then head over to the Alchemists house in the North West end of
Balmora. She has a whopping 3000 Gold pocket and a nice item to barter. The
item in question is the Master Mortar and Pestle. this item is the perfect
item for bartering. Buy one, then sell it back. You'll notice that she now has
2. The more you do this, the more she'll have. When she has 4, purchase 4 at a
time. Lower the cost significantly, and buy. If you are good enough, You can
easily make all of her 3000 Gold in one turn. Don't forget, you have to have
100/100 disposition with her. This is the person the experts should be trading
with. Well, you should know what you are doing by now and you really don't need
me to explain how to barter anymore. I'll let you do what you have to do to make
some easy money.
~ This technique will work with every character you can barter with.
Every bartering character can be scammed using these effective bartering
techniques. You also must be able to persuade them as well. So this trick
will not work on Creeper.
~ You can essentially buy items for free. That's right. When you want to
legitimately purchase an item, you can purchase it for free. Here's how...
Purchase the item of your choice for any cost. It doesn't matter because
you'll be making all of your money back anyways. After purchasing the desired
amount, use the bartering techniques you learned above, to put the money you
just spent, right back into your pocket. This trick will work with any retailer
that can be pursuaded.
~ Buy and sell at even values. It's just easier.
~ Don't spend all of your money! Always keep around 3000 Gold so you don't
have to scrounge around for petty cash when you want to purchase an expensive
item. After buying and selling for high profit sales, bartering for cheap
items gets annoying. This is of course for players that have been bartering
for a long time.
~ You can also use admire instead of bribing if your SpeechCraft is high
enough. This can save you some money you would have normally spent on
bribing.
***XBOX VERSION ONLY***
~ Instead of just holding the black or white button to raise your cash up
or down, try this. Double tap the button corresponding to the direction you
wish to go. For example, if you wish to raise the amount, double tap the
Black button. DO the opposte for lowering. You'll notice a quicker scroll
speed. It's that simple.
Credit goes to f00dfight for originally pointing this out to me.
~ When you buy items from a merchant that has a high disposition with you,
you will recieve them for a cheaper cost. When a Merchant has a low
disposition towards you, than you will buy things for a higher cost. We all
know this...but here's the trick. Merchants will also BUY things from you for
a higher price when they have a lower disposition. So buy from them at a high
disposition, and sell back with a low disposition. I suggest lowering to about
50 so you can raise it back up fairly easily. This can save you time from holding
raise for a couple minutes. I recomend using this trick for more expensive items
rather than insignificant ones...it's more or a time consumer on cheap items and
not worth it. After finishing your deal, remember to get the merchants disposition
back to 100 by either admire, or bribing. This trick will raise your SpeechCraft
and Mercantile skills together...although slowly. This is great trick...use it.
Credit goes to Reno for bringing this trick to my attention.
If anyone finds any other tips they come across while using the bartering
technique, send them to:
~ Q ~ Did you know you can make more money by finding Daedric Armor or
killing ordinators taking their armor and selling it to Creeper or mudcrab
merchant?
~ A ~ Yes, I did know that, but this FAQ was made with bartering in mind.
Plus bartering doesn't require you to go on long journeys or kill anyone!
It's free and anyone can do it.
~ Q ~ Why does it take so long???
~ A ~ Well, it's a process. And processes are long sometimes. Be thankful that
your making money!
~ Q ~ Does resting so much affect your gameplay? Does how many days you spend
playing the game matter?
~ A ~ To my knowledge: no. I'm pretty sure you can spend as many "in game"
days as you require.
If you have any other questions NOT ANSWERED IN THIS FAQ, please send them
to:
All information in this FAQ was written and edited by Travis "kuilio" Cole.
This FAQ Copyright ® 2002 Travis Cole.
Any unauthorized reproduction of this FAQ is strictly prohibited.
If you wish to reproduce this FAQ on a website, Book, Magazine or any other
facsimile, you must request my (Travis Cole) permission before doing so.
Personal use is permitted, you can make as many copies as you desire, but do
not attempt to transmit this FAQ into any other FAQ (or similar) website. You
must request the permission of Travis Cole if you wish to transmit this FAQ
into any other website than GameFAQs.
You may not edit or alter ANY information in the above FAQ, and claim as your
own.
