I think the issues would be solved realistically through the following:

1. Give gold weight.

2. Generally enable players to hold less (less loot from dungeons to sell - players must make a decision about what to take and what to leave).

3. Give merchants less gold to spend on random goods peddled by the PC. The vast majority of a businessman's money which is not for consumption would already be in use for a longer term investment - not just laying around waiting for someone to peddle random items.

4. Make it so that merchants pay very, very little on items that they have little knowledge of, e.g. a potion seller does not know if it is worth buying armour from the PC for resale. Thus the general traders would usually be the best to sell poor and average items to (since specialised traders are better able to detect quality), and specialised traders would be the best to sell high quality items to. This adds an extra level of transaction costs to the game.

5. Have general traders buying lower than other traders due to their less specialised knowledge. Therefore, in conjunction with 4, they would be the most convenient to sell to, but the least profitable in monetary terms. This would of course be influenced by Speechcraft (which I believe now includes the Mercantile skill), giving it a more important use.

Hopefully with "fixed" leveling this won't happen.


You know a lot of your money came from selling bandits' glass armor.

Maybe make it like Fallout 3 where the merchants didn't have infinite caps?

Forgive me, but did Oblivion even HAVE an economy?
Nothing ever changed.

The only way to really earn money was to horde crap.
After level 15, it doesn't matter what you find because that awesome $5000 helmet will only ever net you about a grand.

There was almost no point doing faction quests for money at early levels. $150 for a quest that took an hour and a half was insulting at best .

I would like to be able to spend money outfitting a small town/keep with guards, servants, farmers, crafters, etc... and the more and better people and facilities I want the higher the upkeep will be. This way if I can burn through money if I have an excess while not having the feeling of NEEDING to acquire wealth to support my character. If I find a ton of money I would like to be able to hire a mercenary band to run around with me for a while. That would give me a direct benefit for obtaining money and using it. The more I spend the better equipped and skilled my band of troops could be.