I was having a conversation with a friend of mine earlier tonight, about how easy it is to amass a huge fortune in Oblivion, yet struggle to find ways of spending it all. On one of my most played characters I recall having hoarded around 400,000 septims but never spending anywhere near even a quarter of that! I've spent a fair amount the conventional ways, paying for training enchanting etc. but could never think of anything interesting or worthwhile.

We started trying to think of ways to spend money (or lose it) somehow. I had the idea of working your way up to a Master of Mercantile and simply investing in every store/trader before purchasing every player house in the game and furnishing them accordingly. Then not only do you invest in the store but then proceed to purchase all of that specific shop's stock and essentially amass an insanely large collection of weaponry, armour, clothing and the like. It would probably take a while to do but I might give it a go nonetheless.

Their idea was a little less heavy on the encumbrance. If they ever manage to get an amount of gold that large again, they're going to travel Cyrodiil, giving money to the rich and poor alike. In a word, bribing. Simple yet effective. Plus, everyone in the entire land would love you!

I'm going to have a search for some mods that maybe add expensive shops or other activities for me to spend my money, I always felt it was a shame to be able to earn your riches but never have anything to do with them.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post here and see what kind of things you all spent your fortunes (or pittances) on. :tes:

spell making and enchantments mostly...thats about it, i mean after you get the houses there are really no big things to purchase

The mod you want is http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25078

Merchants don't have infinite gold: they receive/lose gold when you buy/sell items. Bartering is done at real values, not rounded up (an arrow worth 1 gold, sold at 30%, will net you 0.3 gold, not 1). Item prices varies depending on the city and the merchant (a Smith will pay well for swords, but not for clothes). You can change the base price of various item types. You can adjust how much gold you get from quests or from any other sources. You can reduce the number of enchanted items found in the game. You can gain more experience when you sell expensive items or group of items. You can reprice individual items by editing/importing text files with price data. You can reprice the buyable houses. You can reduce the high values of enchanted loot. You can reprice services. You can add taxes that need to be paid on any houses you own. If you do the main quest Merchants' prices and willingness to trade is affected by the Oblivion crisis.

If you're a high level already this next mod may not do you any good, but I'll mention it anyway. http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=2839 removes the vanilla skill-use system. You advance skills only by buying training. This gets very expensive at higher levels and is a great way to rid yourself of disposable income.

Buffy the mystic archer's strength is permanently at 30. That makes getting rich a little slower and harder. Then the poor thing has to pay exhorbitant property taxes on her modest home in Bravil. She buys every sweet roll & stawberry she finds for herself and every apple & carrot for her mare, Superian. The loot she picks up to sell is usually crap like wolf pelts and iron arrows. She often sells off any loot she has picked up to her fave merchant - who is at the Arcane University with a whopping 15 gold to barter with. Oh and once in awhile, she has a blonde moment and accidently sells her enchanted bow for a pittance only to buy it back for 5000-8000 gold. For some reason, she seems to remain of delightfully modest means. Go figure. :twirl:

Pseron Wyrd - I'm going to definitely try out the Enhanced Economy mod, not sure of the Must Train one though, although I have a feeling it'll be similar to Morrowind in the sense I can train as many times as my budget will allow. Thanks for the info!

Acadian - I admire your dedication! I've always fancied myself a bit of a roleplayer at times but I've never had the inspiration to truly make my character come to life in the game, I just seem to struggle because of the meta-gaming aspect I have tuned myself to. No matter what my character is or does, I always have that little feeling like I already know what to do or where to go to make money, among other things.

In OOO, houses are more expensive. Rosethorn hall costs 125k and furnishings costs 20k I think.

How do you amass gold by the way?

Mine is killing Mage Apprentices in Arcane University thru frenzy, then sell it to Hamlof in the Red Diamonds. Then I steal it back and sell to a fence.