QUESTION 1.. In oblivion a common merchant had lets say a limit of 1200 gold but had unlimited gold. This means that you could sell a sword for 1100 gold and instead of having 100 gold left the merchant still has 1200. The merchant can give an unlimited amount of money just in increments of 1200 or smaller. In morrowind however if a merchant had lets say 1500 gold then that is truly all they had. if you sold a sword for 1000 gold they would only have 500 gold left until some time went by in the game and there money rose to 1500 again. Which would you prefer and why would it make the game more interesting. i have mixed views on this and can't decide.
QUESTION 2.. Every piece of armor or weapons had a base value. Let's say a sword had a base value of 2000 but when you sold it you would most likely get 1200 for it. Should there be an option to trade items at 100 percent of there value for items only instead of cash. so a 2000 sword for a 2400 piece of armor, one could just give the sword and 400 gold? what do you guys think?

I would like each merchant to have a limited amount of money, and a cap on how much they're willing to give in a transaction. So merchants have say, 30,000 gold in the bank. They are only willing to risk, say a 3000 gold loss with a customer. I'd also like a more realistic economy to accompany all this, so a merchant has to actually EARN back the gold they lose when you sell them stuff by getting other people to buy their goods.

edit1: I'd also like a merchant to remember how close you are to the cap for an entire day. So once you hit their cap a merchant is done with you for that day.

Ya i didn't think of that that's a good idea it could make the game more interesting because in obliovion i had a house in every city with still 200000 of spendin money

I voted "other" because in both games it is really broken, in Morrowind 95% of my "In game days" have been spent in front of Creeper* bartering and waiting a day so he can have 5000 gold again, really it takes a minimum of 160 in game days to sell Keening & Sunder because of this, and that′s just two items among hundreds.
In Oblivion I just cry on the inside every time I find an expensive item since I know I will never get the full value for it, no matter what.

How I would like to see it would be the trading system and I′d also like if it it could be like in Morrowind except with banks and auctions, I′d like to be able to sell stuff on loans, there could be a bank and if I′d sell something to a merchant I′d perhaps not get the full value for it if it was not rich enough to buy it but instead the merchant would deliver a set amount of money to the bank daily and I could come whenever I wanted and take out the money I had, in the same way I′d like to be able to buy things on a loan, I perhaps have 200 septims but I want a sword that costs 350 septims, I could perhaps pay 200 up front but then I′d have to go to the bank and pay the last 150 within a set amount of time, like if perhaps that time was 3 days I could just come the next day and hand the 150 over, or on the 3rd day, or if I wanted I could pay slowly 50 septims a day, and if I wouldn′t pay then I should have to pay later on interest, like I′d maybe only pay 50 septims and I′d still owe 100, then by the 3rd day if I had not paid there would be a 10% interest and I′d have to pay 110 and the day after it would be 121 and so on, and if a certain amount of days would pass without me paying any I′d get a bounty and get haunted by guards in town, also if I sold something on a loan then I should not get the money that the NPC delivered to the bank but it should go into paying my debt.

There could also be auctions, I could go to an auction and bid on items, or put an item up on the auction with a minimum bid that I would set, and then I could earn more depending on the value of the item and my luck, like if I put a hammer that had a value of 800 on the auction with a minimum bid of maybe 600 I could perhaps get 600 for it, but it would be more likely I would get something close to the original value if I good luck, or perhaps even more than the original value with very good luck, putting items on for their exact value there could even be a chance it would not sell, but it could and even for more if with good luck, and putting an item up for more than it′s worth it would be unlikely you′d manage to sell it unless you had very good luck, and even impossible if it was put up for too much more than it was worth (so you could not put a carrot up for 453415615313 gold, that kind of a sell would be impossible unless you had like 99999999999999999999999 luck, but no one does, maybe more like put an item worth 1000 on for 1050 that is 5% more than it is worth and it would only be likely to sell with maybe 90+ luck or something like that, I′m just giving rough ideas here).

*I use Creeper rather than the Mudcrab merchant because I can sell Dwemer Coins to Creeper, those make transitions just so much smoother, love them.

Merchants should get shipments and earn money themselves. It should all be done by the AI.

I like how it was done in Morrowind and Fallout 3 where the merchants had a limited amount of money. I would love to see that in Skyrim.

Neither, bring back banks and then add installment payments. It was always stupid that I could find something worth 200,000 gold and then have to sell it for 500 because nobody has more. Have major transactions automatically done by bank contract and you can pick up your money weekly/monthly/whenever. If they don't pay, the guards take them or you can break their legs and you get to confiscate their possessions and whatever. If YOU don't pay, that's why there's a justice system in the first place.

I voted Morrowind, but honestly I like Rhekarid's system, it's not overly complicated and allows for high value items to actually be sold near their value.

you and rhiekard have the best ideas i didn't think of that if there was a way to combine those that would be perfect. adding loans would be a great dynamic to the game because it can lead to new quests like bounty hunters or maybe one can join a loan office and become a bounty hunter to get various AI who didnt pay there dues..maybe i should add that to the poll

I downloaded Living Economy as a mod for Oblivion, and I think it handled the whole barter system better than both Morrowind and Oblivion. It comes close to what I'd like to see in Skyrim.

Reference:
http://www.oblivionmodwiki.com/index.php/Living_Economy

Living Economy, a mod for Oblivion, did a nice job of making it feel more real. Varying amounts of gold, and you could bleed a merchant dry. I think having a more dynamic economy, instead of the static ones we've seen in the last two TES titles, makes the most sense. Thus, I vote for Other. But they could take a lot from Living Economy.

i added a new option to the poll because rhekarid and ellert had great ideas that would be awesome and can really add to the strategy and content of the game, goodjob guys

Skyrim should follow the X3 economic model. you see an awesome suit of armor in a store that's way out of your price range, so you go around saving up money until you can afford it, and just as you start to head down to the store, money in hand - an adventurer walks out with a smug look on his face, and you know that he beat you to the amazing deal you would've gotten on buying up all that spaceweed.

;_;

actually i'd be cool with something like Morrowind's model, maybe with better economic balance so going around collecting every fork in town and selling it wouldn't be a viable tactic.

Where's the option for limiting both?

I think having a limited cap is good, to prevent you seeling an item for a ridiculous amount. On the other hand I'm not totally against having limited money(although it does become a bit of a drag having to wait or shop around if you have loads of stuff). If they had limited money but raise the cap per item/transaction from what it was in oblivion, it might be nice. They just have to find the right balance.

I think making higher tier items(glass/daedric) harder to get(instead of being on every enemy human..) will make a difference too.

As long as we can sell things for more than 1500 at a time.