I've just hit a very frustrating wall while trying to finish the thieves guild quest line. I made the mistake of returning the honorblade of Chorral to the Countess early on and now I don't get to use Fathis Ules as a fence. Fencing items to him seems to be the ONLY way to get a message saying you've fenced more than a 1000 gold for the "Independent Thievery" quest. I've finished "Boots of Springheel Jak" and have fenced more than 1000 but can not get that message selling to the other fences. He's also the only fence that you still get a red marker for after reaching master thief in the guild. I wish I had known that. VERY frustrating.