mine is ~37,000 in whiterun, killed all the guards so i rarely have to worry about getting in trouble

I have no reason to get on the guards bad sides. So aside from petty theft, my record is clean.

I had a save with a 100,000+ bounty. I made a murdering thief psyco. I always cast spells in whiterun market that caused a large bounty every time. I left the city for a few days and returned for more criminal stuff. It took about 15 hours to reach my target.

My only bounty is because of Markarth.

In normal gameplay? Whatever the charge for murder costs. 1,000?

Screwing around? 150,000+ I believe.

Outside of when I got the trophy (trophies?) related to bounties, the highest bounty I've ever gotten is the one forced on you during the DB questline.

It was about 12,000 after a rampage in Whiterun. I turned into a Werewolf after a guard insulted me. Then you can probably guess what happened next.