Who are the Richest Traders in Skyrim?

As the Dragonborn adventuring across the wintry region of Skyrim, you’ll quickly find yourself burdened with valuable loot and epic gear that needs offloading. Finding traders with deep pockets is key to making bank in Bethesda’s acclaimed open world RPG. According to my 200+ hours exploring Skyrim, here are the wealthiest merchants to track down:

The Riverwood Trader – The Single Richest Shopkeeper

Located in the sleepy village of Riverwood, the ominously named Riverwood Trader is unanimously crowned the richest merchant in all of Skyrim. As you wander Skyrim searching for a buyer willing to purchase your precious gems or enchanted daggers, no other trader approaches the Riverwood Trader‘s maximum potential gold count.

Once the merchant levels up, he tops out at a wallet-bursting 4,000 gold – dwarfing every other seller in the land. No other shopkeeper I‘ve encountered exceeds half that amount! This makes him the undisputed king for selling high-end gear.

However, early on the Riverwood Trader suffers from paltry funds, barely scraping 100 gold. You must first complete his Special Delivery quest – returning his Golden Claw and unlocking his stockpiling potential. Afterwards, he serves as my go-to dealer for offloading anything too hot for other vendors.

Table 1: Actual sales totals completely wiping out the Riverwood Trader‘s reserves

When combined with Speech perks allowing you to sell any item to any merchant and maximize gold returns via bartering, the Riverwood Trader has unlimited earning potential. Just be prepared to wait 48 hours for his coffers to refill after big ticket purchases!

Upgraded Thieves Guild Fences – Ideal for Selling Stolen Goods

As the Dragonborn, resorting to a life of crime can become a necessity for survival in Skyrim‘s harsh wilderness. While illegal, relieving bandits and tomb raiders of excess valuables they won‘t be needing anymore provides a profitable supplemental income source.

Fencing these ill-begotten gains requires specialist black market traders willing to conspicuously overlook your suspicious surplus of diamond rings and unusual gemstones. The Thieves Guild fences across Skyrim present the perfect solution – once you complete enough quests to upgrade them.

In their starting state, these underworld merchants barely keep 1,000 gold on hand for dirty dealings. But after advancing through the Thieves Guild questline and restoring the guild’s influence, maximum fence gold reserves increase accordingly:

• 1,500 gold – After completing the first Special Job quest
• 2,250 gold – After completing enough Vex/Delvin special jobs
• 3,000 gold – After becoming Guildmaster
• 4,000 gold – After completing the entire Thieves Guild questline

With over 400,000 septims worth of stolen items sold across my playthroughs, the four upgraded fences in Riften, Windhelm, Solitude, and Whiterun serve as reliable outlets for transacting contraband. Offloading entire dungeon raids worth of illegally obtained equipment is made possible thanks to their expanded funds.

Just know that investing time in the Thieves Guild is expected beforehand. But the payoff provides stable recurring income beyond most legal tradesman.

General Merchants – Reliable Retailers With Investment Potential

For above board business, general store owners like Belethor in Whiterun present another wealthy merchant option. They stock a nice variety of merchandise and command respectable purses approaching 2,000 gold once you grow your character.

And thanks to the Investor Speech perk, up to 500 gold can be sunk into these standard shops to permanently expand their gold reserves used to barter with you.

After investing in all of Skyrim’s major general merchants and clearing their inventories multiple times over, I’ve moved hundreds of thousands in goods through these mainstream retailers.

While not as obscenely flush with coin as the Royal Riverwood Trader, general merchants provide reliable trading partners in most cities. And the added ability to invest gold directly makes them an easy way to control financial flows in Skyrim’s market. No merchant guild license required!

Strategies for Amassing Gold – When Shopkeepers Come Up Short

However, even with thousands of gold, Skyrim‘s savviest sellers run short when the Dragonborn arrives loaded with epic equipment and glittering gemstones. As the prophesied hero, you simply accumulate too much valuable loot to exchange through ordinary means. When the ability to trade starts getting constrained by merchant gold limits, it‘s time to start employing some advanced strategies for accumulating gold.

Invest Heavily Across Multiple Shopkeepers

The first move is to reinvest merchant profits across every trader possible to maximize collective wealth available for bartering across Skyrim. With the Investor perk and 500 gold invested into every shopkeeper and barkeep, you create a robust trade network capable of moving goods. This adds up to 23 total merchants that can be invested in.

• 23 merchants x 500 gold invested = 11,500 more gold circulated

This substantial capital injection energizes commerce and provides needed liquidity. Now you have reserves distributed to better handle large batches of valuable items.

Transmute Iron Into Gold Ore

When coin purses still come up short after outfitting merchants with extra working capital, alchemy offers the next progression for multiplying money. Converting readily available iron ore into precious gold through the Transmute Mineral Ore spell provides large batches of extremely valuable materials to sell.

This almost seems like cheating – the ability to produce gold quite literally from Skyrim‘s soil. But nothing generates tremendous wealth faster than transmuting iron into gold:

• Mine all the iron ore possible from tunnels across Skyrim
• Cast Transmute Mineral Ore on iron ores to change them into gold
• Smith gold jewelry, vastly increasing inherent value
• Sell newly forged golden jewels for immense profits

With no material cost beyond magicka, this alchemical gold allows for tremendous gains limited only by available iron. I easily craft $100,000+ gold worth of jewels on ore hauls from abandoned dwarven ruins. No merchant can compete with this free money magic!

Pros

• Extremely high profit margins from nearly worthless iron
• Rapidly levels Alteration magic skill
• Easy way to generate huge gold sums

Cons

• Boring button clicking
• Highly repetitive grind process

But when you‘re overencumbered after raiding three Nordic tombs and need to liquidate inventory fast, transmuting all that looted iron gear into pure profit is extremely satisfying.

Pick Every Pocket Along the Way

Sticky fingers can also pickup extra coin not reliant on local seller inventories. Skyrim‘s cities and towns have no shortage of oblivious NPCs wandering around stacked with gems and gold. Why wait around for shopkeepers when the richest citizens carry personal fortunes?

With the Pickpocket skill maxed out, every passing villager presents an irresistible opportunity for redistributing income. Some inventory additions courtesy of my midnight burglaries:

• 1 Flawless Diamond – Lifted from the Jarl‘s mage in Riften
• 530 Gold – Generous donation from a Solitude guard
• 7 Precious Amethysts – Friendly neighbor in Markarth wanted to share

Lightening the heavy pockets dragging down Skyrim locals allows their economic mobility to take off! While less reputable than relying on shopkeeper funds, picking pockets definitely pays.

Just save first – in case anyone catches wise to your sneak thievery.

Accelerate Income Through Assassinations

And when all ethical concerns get tossed aside in the pursuit of fast gold, political assassinations commissioned by the Dark Brotherhood provide major quick payouts.

Neutralizing key figures across the hold capitals on behalf of the Night Mother nets big bounties:

• Vittoria Vici – Solitude Wedding Contract = 1,000 gold
• Emperor Titus Meade – Assassinate the Emperor = 20,000 gold
• Narfi – Kill Beggar Narfi = 300 gold

With the Emperor‘s life alone worth enough to buy property across Skyrim, a freelance career as Listener for the Dark Brotherhood certainly funds more adventure than selling vegetables in Whiterun.

Just know any guard captains with lingering suspicions about all those high profile murders are going to demand far larger bribes to forget such ethical lapses. But for fast gold with no questions asked, political assassinations are extremely lucrative.

Relying on standard shopkeepers poses predictable problems whenfaced with the near limitless wealth generation of the Dragonborn. Their meager coffers quickly prove inadequate.

But by leveraging the Riverwood Trader, fully unlocking Thieves Guild fences, investing across merchants, transmuting iron ore, liberating the inventories of Skyrim locals, and accepting shady assassination contracts, no shortage of gold needs slow down this hero’s adventures!

Now I’m off to test my new Nocturnal armor set by seeing if anyone notices me borrowing books from the Winterhold College library in the dead of night…

Let me know if you have any other great tips for amassing mountains of gold in Skyrim! Talos guide you.