Merchants (Skyrim)



"Don't think you can barter with me like I'm one of those damned shopkeepers."

- Hold Guard

Merchants can be found in almost every city and town in.

Most are open from about 8am to 8pm, but some merchants are available all day. The following is a list of merchants and their locations.

Before you begin it should be noted that the merchant's inventory seem to run off of an item generator. This basically means, each separate save or character created from that save will have completely different inventory every single new game. For example, in one save, a shopkeeper may sell Fortify Smithing, Alchemy and Two-Handed enchanted equipment, but not One-Handed, Speech or Magicka equipment. And on a brand new save, exactly the same merchant may sell One-handed, Speech and Magicka equipment and not sell Smithing, Alchemy or Two-Handed.

Types
The various types of merchants include:
 * Alchemists
 * Blacksmiths
 * Fences
 * Fletchers
 * Food Vendors
 * General Goods Merchants
 * Jewelery Merchants
 * Spell Merchants
 * Taverns

Merchant Trainers
Some merchants offer training services. This can be useful since the gold paid to them for their training is added to their inventory for trading, allowing players to get their gold back after training by selling items to the trainer.

A list of merchant trainers in Skyrim:
 * Lami – Adept Alchemy training, Thaumaturgist's Hut in Morthal
 * Arcadia – Expert Alchemy training, Arcadia's Cauldron in Whiterun
 * Babette – Master Alchemy training, Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary
 * Phinis Gestor – Expert Conjuration training, College of Winterhold
 * Sybille Stentor – Expert Destruction training, The Blue Palace in Solitude
 * Faralda – Master Destruction training, College of Winterhold
 * Gharol – Expert Heavy Armor training, Dushnikh Yal in The Reach
 * Drevis Neloren – Master Illusion training, College of Winterhold
 * Grelka – Expert Light Armor training, Riften Marketplace
 * Colette Marence – Expert Restoration training, College of Winterhold
 * Ghorza gra-Bagol – Adept Smithing training, Markarth
 * Balimund – Expert Smithing training, The Scorched Hammer in Riften
 * Eorlund Gray-Mane – Master Smithing training, The Skyforge in Whiterun
 * Revyn Sadri – Adept Speech training, Sadri's Used Wares in Windhelm

Trivia

 * If enough of Merchant's possessions are stolen, they may hire Thugs to "teach you a lesson".
 * A spouse is also a merchant. After marrying them, they open a store (it's not an actual place, they sell things from their home) and the Dragonborn may buy items from them.
 * If a merchant lives in their store and the Dragonborn goes beyond the counter to their room, they will follow them, making theft more difficult.
 * To reset a merchant's inventory without any assault or waiting for 48 hours in-game time, save the game next to the merchant and quit into the title screen. After that load the latest save and the merchant's inventory and gold will reset. Doesn't seems to work with indoor merchants.
 * The Dremora Merchant can be summoned with the Black Market power which is learned in Untold Legends. He has 2,000 gold and he often sells Daedric weapons and armor

Bugs

 * Merchant's inventory will reset if the Dragonborn attacks them, then loads a save immediately prior to attacking (attacking then using a Calm spell will not work.)
 * Loading a save will not revert a merchant's inventory.
 * Solution: Make a save, then attack the merchant and reload the game. This method does not work with spouse.
 * Reverse pickpocket can allow merchants base gold supply to be raised. This has worked at the Riverwood Trader, getting the base gold up to 10,000 —however, the same method failed when applied to merchants in Whiterun.
 * Rare issue where selling to merchants yields no gold after buying a large value of gold from them.
 * When the merchant's gold reaches 32768 it yields no gold when selling items, while still taking gold when buying.
 * If a NPC talks to the Dragonborn when entering a new area, the NPC may spawn next to Dragonborn. The NPC will then return to its previous area. This can be troublesome when exiting a store, as the merchant of the store may exit with the Dragonborn, which will cause the store to be locked. Sometimes the store will remain closed indefinitely, even after the merchant has returned to it.
 * Lockpicking the door can then count as trespassing.
 * To prevent this, simply wait for the merchant to be silent when exiting a store.