I am a newcomer to the 3D Fallout series, and had a stupid question. In my inventory, weapons have a higher value than when I try to sell them, say, to a weapons dealer in Diamond City. Predictably, the prices are slashed considerably when I try to sell it to them; something that has a value of 100 in the inventory would only sell for 20 or something to the vendor. I know there's a perk that allows you to increase the amount of caps you get for a weapon, but is this a glitch in my game? Or are the prices usually this low when I try to sell things for everything (weapons, utilities, etc.)?

No glitch,its always been this way.

it depends on charisma and your bartering ability, to get more caps for stuff you need to raise charmisma a bit, you can also wear clothing/articles to help with that lke hats, glasses, pices of cloting, and you can raise your bartering skill with the cap collector perk, but starting out you don't get full price for stuff.

Thanks so much for such a prompt reply, you guys!

the max selling price is 80% of an items value, and the minimum buying price is 120% value iirc.

The game makes you work for your caps, my advice is look for an item that is abundant and sells well and do lots of trading. Try finding lots of Salisbury steaks in kitchen areas of buildings, then sell them.

Produce water and chems. That earns you much more than weapons. Also, a high charisma and associated perks are kind of mandatory in this game, if you really want to make caps and pass speech checks. It gives you higher offers at vendors and quest givers.

Jet, cheap to make, sells high...Become a drug dealer.

It's kinda like real-life. when you sell a comicbook (or other collectible) to a dealer they can't give you guide price...because likely they will be selling it for the guide price. So to make a profit you generally don't get much more than 50% of guide. So just consider the inventory list price the Overstreet Priceguide!

yes especially water is easy to make. I tend to break down weapons for scrap, the best I keep or give to settlers.

I scrap all weapons (be sure to get the Scrapper Perk). The only weapons I sell are extra Fatboys and Missile Launchers. I sell chems since I never use them anyway.

But honestly I've never used any perks or anything to get more caps or better prices and I've never felt like I was poor in this game. Caps are just everywhere.

I think the price of weapons is rather odd in this game. They are balanced to keep players from becoming too rich since they are inexhaustible as loot, but that makes them ridiculously cheap. (Armor shares the same problem, for the same reason.) Just have to push those 'I Believe' buttons, I suppose, but it's really strange that a fruit is often worth more than a pistol.

You don't need to put SPECIAL points into charisma to max out vendor price benefits nor to pass speech checks as reasonably common hat, glasses and clothes can give +4, a beer an extra +1 and graqe mentats, that are extremely spammable, gives you +5 and an additional vendor price bonus, that +10 already and you can get more.....

The only reason to put points into charisma is for any perks you want.

Their is a cap on buying and selling prices you hit with charisma 9 and cap collector 2 at 80% value selling and 120% buying same as Skyrim.

That makes sense. The only thing is the weapons don't sell for 50% even! Like I said, if something's at 100, they sell for at most 25 or 30, unless you have the necessary perks. Is that normal?

Also, what's the minimum price at which you can sell a weapon? Less than 50% of the original price?

The selling price is huge [censored], but you don't need to worry much.

Bring a companion, ask them to loot. If their inventory is full, they'll be collecting items one by one. Spam-command them to squeeze those items in their pocket. Then go to your favorite market and sell them off. Easy peasy - no hassle.

I'd sell armor, weapon, and aids.

Aids are the best to sell, I think. Purified water, Med-X, Rad-X, sell them too if you don't need.

If the vendor is out of caps, just sleep for in-game 24 hours.

Buy and Sell prices are affected by your Charisma. Higher Charisma means better prices. The absolute best values are getting 80% of an item's Value when selling to a vendor, and paying 120% of an item's Value when buying from a vendor. These caps are reached at 16 Charisma. If you manage to get your Charisma higher than 16, you won't get better prices; if your bonuses would give better prices, the game ignores your stats and uses the 80/120 cap instead. Also, getting the Barter Bobblehead, two ranks of Cap Collector, and all 8 issues of Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor will allow you to buy and sell at the barter caps with only 10 Charisma. This means that the only reason to boost your Charisma past 11 (which guarantees you'll pass every Speech Check in the game) is to have more Settlers per settlement.

Bingo. It's often far more worth it to scrap a weapon, as you can get hard to find bits and pieces for mods.

it would seem by now, Beth would have fixed the value of an item to where it scales with your charisma/perks.

Hmm ... I wonder if Lady Killer gives me better prices with female merchants.

I would just use cap collector instead, it is 20% and works on all vendors.

But can someone tell me what the minimum percentage is when it comes to selling stuff to a vendor? Do they give you only 20% of the original price without any perks?

At 1 Charisma, vendors buy items for 29.85% of base value.

don't take the perk that lets you find more caps, take the perk that lets you find more ammo.

then sell ammo you don't use anyway. i always have thousends of 5mm-ammo which i don't need since i don't use the minigun, so i go to a vendor (they usually have around 300-400 caps), buy all rare ammo i need (like in my case .44), then they have around 600-700 caps, and then i sell them 600-700 rounds of 5mm-ammo. i end up having more ammo for my specific weapons AND having more caps then before. do this with each vendor you meet, and you never run out of ammo or caps.

btw, you don't need caps in this game anyway.