How do you make your profit?

[Remington721]

The big problem for me up to lvl 30 is finding places to sell loot . I never put more than one perk point into speech tree , that gives back 10% increase in prices + what ever gear I have ( like T.G . hood . The T.G. is a sure way later in game to get rich, BUT I really hate to grind out all the mission's that they send you on in order to aquire" Fences " that each have 4,000 Gold . After completing that grind ( seems to never end ) your more able to move all the loot through the system into your pockets . Well you still have chests full of gems in your house , that stack up , seems I always have to many but that's not a bad thing .

 

[DrunkenMage]

I have the habit of looting every single urn I come across, even in the middle of combat. Still do it when I have over two million septims, I will risk everything to loot those 3-6 odd coins.

 

[PoeticEdda]

Mine gold and silver ore, smelt into ignots. Make a crap load of gold necklaces and sell 'em. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to take a follower into the dwarven ruins and load them up with Dwemer scrap metal and then smith a ton of Dwarven armour.

 

[KaitoGhost]

Step 1: collect underpants.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: PROFIT!

 

[Duecenburg]

I have the habit of looting every single urn I come across, even in the middle of combat. Still do it when I have over two million septims, I will risk everything to loot those 3-6 odd coins.

I do the same thing. Except I wait until I kill everyone......haha. I also don't have millions but I clearly could do without the 5-10 gold but I still feel the urge to grab it. Every game I play I always search everywhere for hidden chests as well. Its fun when you find a sunken treasure chest that you would have normally walked by and finding a bunch of goodies in it

 

[JoeReese]

Early on, I make money by not being afraid to "trudge and drop," meaning I walk very slowly, grossly overloaded, and then drop things in order to fight, pick them back up, and keep trudging home.

In dungeons, I have a habit of running back to the first zone several times, to dump off accumulated weight in an urn or even on the floor. Then, when I'm done, I fast travel right to where I am to "Call my horse."

As soon as I can, I head right for the Dwarven store room at mzulft. I make as many ingots as I can, save a few cogs for later, and sell the rest, then I make Dwarven bows...many, many Dwarven bows.

At level 23, I scour Skyrim until I find a weapon with a Banish enchantment. Then it's ON. Every iron dagger you take from a dirtbag, coupled with a cheap, mudcrab-powered petty soul gem, becomes a banish weapon with about a $650-$700 sale price at low selling levels. If you've upped your speech perks or have a barter potion or gear, or both, then it's more money.

I make and sell as many banish weapons as I can find, sell them to the smiths and general goods merchants. When they're short on money, I accept smithing materials and grand soul gems in trade. It grows out of control...

 

[berzum]

Looting dead bodies, taking hits from night mother, robbing places and people. and selling random junk

 

[DragonMage2013]

Pickpocket NPCs, especially the rich looking ones if I'm after money. If it's weapons/arrows/armors for fashion modelling (LOL), the guards or unwary enemies. It's so hilarious how you can strip all the enemies off their armors and weapons via sneak, then show yourself to them and fight them off while they're all naked... that is, until you realize that they're all magic-oriented enemies. darn. That was nasty.

I tend to level up armors that I pickpocketed/looted using materials that I acquired in the same manner. As of this post, I'm on a steady stream of 20K gold. A pretty decent amount so far in my playthrough considering that it's my first time to play the game.

I'm pretty sure there's a better way for earning money without outright cheating the game but I find the method that I've mentioned fun and within context of the game's world. And more importantly, it works for me. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Pickpocket NPCs, especially the rich looking ones if I'm after money. If it's weapons/arrows/armors for fashion modelling (LOL), the guards or unwary enemies. It's so hilarious how you can strip all the enemies off their armors and weapons via sneak, then show yourself to them and fight them off while they're all naked... that is, until you realize that they're all magic-oriented enemies. darn. That was nasty.

I tend to level up armors that I pickpocketed/looted using materials that I acquired in the same manner. As of this post, I'm on a steady stream of 20K gold. A pretty decent amount so far in my playthrough considering that it's my first time to play the game.

I'm pretty sure there's a better way for earning money without outright cheating the game but I find the method that I've mentioned fun and within context of the game's world. And more importantly, it works for me. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

On the negative, you are stealing from people all over the place. I hope you're playing a thief - otherwise you'd just be a real a**hole.

 

[DragonMage2013]

Pickpocket NPCs, especially the rich looking ones if I'm after money. If it's weapons/arrows/armors for fashion modelling (LOL), the guards or unwary enemies. It's so hilarious how you can strip all the enemies off their armors and weapons via sneak, then show yourself to them and fight them off while they're all naked... that is, until you realize that they're all magic-oriented enemies. darn. That was nasty.

I tend to level up armors that I pickpocketed/looted using materials that I acquired in the same manner. As of this post, I'm on a steady stream of 20K gold. A pretty decent amount so far in my playthrough considering that it's my first time to play the game.

I'm pretty sure there's a better way for earning money without outright cheating the game but I find the method that I've mentioned fun and within context of the game's world. And more importantly, it works for me. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

On the negative, you are stealing from people all over the place. I hope you're playing a thief - otherwise you'd just be a real a**hole.

Despite what my name may imply, I'm actually enjoying the stealth approach. I'm so good at stealthing/pickpocketing/lockpicking (without the skeleton key) at this point in the game that hostiles thought "they heard something" while in reality, they're being slashed to death one by one. But not before stripping them naked (pretty effective for obviously warrior type NPCs but not so much for mages). I dunno if an "ask whole" would be the term but I do stealth steal from pretty much EVERYBODY and EVERYWHERE.

Except Lydia.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Pickpocket NPCs, especially the rich looking ones if I'm after money. If it's weapons/arrows/armors for fashion modelling (LOL), the guards or unwary enemies. It's so hilarious how you can strip all the enemies off their armors and weapons via sneak, then show yourself to them and fight them off while they're all naked... that is, until you realize that they're all magic-oriented enemies. darn. That was nasty.

I tend to level up armors that I pickpocketed/looted using materials that I acquired in the same manner. As of this post, I'm on a steady stream of 20K gold. A pretty decent amount so far in my playthrough considering that it's my first time to play the game.

I'm pretty sure there's a better way for earning money without outright cheating the game but I find the method that I've mentioned fun and within context of the game's world. And more importantly, it works for me. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

On the negative, you are stealing from people all over the place. I hope you're playing a thief - otherwise you'd just be a real a**hole.

Despite what my name may imply, I'm actually enjoying the stealth approach. I'm so good at stealthing/pickpocketing/lockpicking (without the skeleton key) at this point in the game that hostiles thought "they heard something" while in reality, they're being slashed to death one by one. But not before stripping them naked (pretty effective for obviously warrior type NPCs but not so much for mages). I dunno if an "ask whole" would be the term but I do stealth steal from pretty much EVERYBODY and EVERYWHERE.

Except Lydia.

So you're not really a thief, you're a psychotic killer that steals people's things. COOL! Sound like a fun guy. I like the stripping 'em before you kill 'em. Can you imagine what their reaction might be? I can.

 

[Willow]

I collect all the ingredients I can and start making potions. Then I take those potions to Khajiit traders or general goods stores where I can trade for soul gems. I find or make a weapon with soul trap and start exploring and killing/trapping souls. I enchant all the armor and weapons I find/make with my filled gems. Then I start the process over... I also obtain the transmute spell and turn iron ingots into gold, make gold rings, enchant them, and sell them... This process increases my alchemy skill, speech skill, smithing skill, enchanting skill, and the skill of whatever weapon I'm using to soul trap with (lately its been a bow).

 

[Snake Tortoise]

I'm level 42 right now and have smithing and enchanting levels well into the 90s. I make iron daggers and put stamina damage enchantments on them, which is the most valuable enchantment I have at the moment. I'm looking out for a banish enchantment though; last game I was enchanting daggers with that and making a fortune. I had to take a bunch of speech perks to make selling practical, then started doing loops of Riften, Whiterun, Riverwood, Falkreath and back to Riften to shift everything. At the time I had the discipline to horde all iron ores/ingots and filled soul gems so I could do it all in huge sprees at the weekends

After reading about salmon roe I'm going to have to start trying to get hold of that! I could do with leveling my alchemy a bit, and the money looks great

Selling loot just doesn't match up to enchanting your own cheapo iron daggers. That's where the money is!

 

[Vaga8ond]

Transmuting and jewelry crafting is very lucrative as are dragon bones and scales. I think we all kill and loot lol. I create potions, however those are primarily for my consumption. I guess I would consider myself more of a hunter/gatherer.

 

[Blackdoom59]

I'm a drug skooma dealer, obv. How else can you make a living in a world where the only other pleasure a being can get (besides skooma) are sweet rolls.

 

[Twiffle]

Alchemy, ,, ,, all that free gold just lying by the roadside, mix a few potions with multi effects and sell, and keep the ones you need to buff your character, such as smithing potion of 125%, or destruction spells 110% more powerful, , and no need for lots of stamina to carry a few flowers worth huge amounts, IMHO

 

[AJK]

Dragon Bones & Scales, Enchanting/selling jewelry, looting corpses, and Alchemy.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

I'm confused by folks saying Dragon Bones & Scales. Don't y'all horde them and then use 'em to craft mega weapons, armor and arrows? It's the one thing I've never sold on any character. I horde them and then use them. I guess I'm just weird.

 

[AJK]

I haven't gotten to the point where I can do anything with them yet. Smithing is one of the skills I've used the least. And it seems like there's no shortage of dragons, so I figure I won't have too much trouble replenishing my supplies later. Early in the game they're a big value item, and they're so heavy they're a pain to carry anywhere at early encumbrance levels.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

I haven't gotten to the point where I can do anything with them yet. Smithing is one of the skills I've used the least. And it seems like there's no shortage of dragons, so I figure I won't have too much trouble replenishing my supplies later. Early in the game they're a big value item, and they're so heavy they're a pain to carry anywhere at early encumbrance levels.

Makes sense. I'm a smithing fanatic on almost every build and I luv the dragon scale armor on almost every character I make, so I tend to hord. I also luv the weapons I can create (to me they just look cool). Since I'm not one for ebony, daedric, elven or glass, the dragon scale is the way to go for me.

How is it playing with no smithing? I'm not sure if I would survive. The only ones it seems to work on are my strictly stealth thieves and assassins (I still do smithing, but more for weapons on those builds).