Mercantile (Oblivion)

The Mercantile skill gives the Hero better chances of selling items for higher than their average value, and buying items for cheaper than their average value. The skill increases for each sale made.
:Governing attribute: Personality
==Skill levels==
*Novice (0–24): Value of items is reduced by condition of the item.
*Apprentice (25–49): Item condition no longer affects value.
*Journeyman (50–74): Can buy/sell any item to a vendor, regardless of the vendor's specialization.
*Expert (75–99): Can invest in a shop, increasing the shop's gold permanently by 500 .
*Master (100): All shops automatically have 500 more available, all items are bought and sold at base value, regardless of disposition or what barter is set at (limited by merchant gold).
==Leveling tips==
*Since the skill increases for each sale made, it's best to sell items one at a time. Selling the whole batch at once will only increase the skill once, while selling the items one at a time in a batch will increase the skill that number of times.
==Mercantile trainers==
*Refer to the Trainers page.
==Books that permanently increase the Mercantile skill==
*A Dance in Fire, Book VI
*A Dance in Fire, Book VII – Can be found as part of the quest "Two Sides of the Coin"
*The Wolf Queen, v 4
*The Buying Game
*2920, vol 07 - Sun's Height
==Leveling text==
Apprentice-level text:
Negotiation, bargaining, dickering, haggling, they're all a means to an end... getting the best price for your goods. You are now an Apprentice of Mercantile. The damaged condition of an item is no longer a factor when you sell it.
Journeyman-level text:
Negotiation, bargaining, dickering, haggling, they're all a means to an end... getting the best price for your goods. You are now a Journeyman of Mercantile. You can buy and sell any object to any vendor, even if they normally do not deal in that type of wares.
Expert-level text:
Negotiation, bargaining, dickering, haggling, they're all a means to an end... getting the best price for your goods. You are now an Expert of Mercantile. You can now invest in a shop. Give the merchant money to permanently increase his shop's available gold by 500.
Master-level text:
Negotiation, bargaining, dickering, haggling, they're all a means to an end... getting the best price for your goods. You are now a Master of Mercantile. All shops in the world now have 500 more gold available for barter.
==Character dialogue==
When one's Mercantile skill reaches 70 or higher, characters will say: "You look like a shrewd businessman."
==Tips==
*Using Speechcraft along with Mercantile can help a lot. If you get the Merchant's disposition to its maximum, you can haggle the merchant to a higher percentage.
*On the , hitting the left bumper will move the slider to nearly best haggling price automatically, speeding up the tedious selling process for players trying to maximize their Mercantile skill. However most of the time, one can push further for a better price.
*For , simply press L2 to move the slider to the left, and R2 to move the slider to the right.
*Making a spell to fortify mercantile for 100 points for 1 second on self will give you the expert skill perk and the ability to get a better bang for your buck. It is an easy spell to make considering the duration (it can be cast with a novice restoration skill). As long as you talk to a character immediately after casting it, the effect will stay in effect.
*The easiest way to access skill fortification spells is if you have The Thieves Den official plug-in, as many of the pirates you hire will have several of these types of spells. After you have bought one, you can make a fortify spell for any skill you like.
*The apprentice bonus negates not only the negative effects of wear and tear, but also the positive effects of armoring the item above 100.
==Usefulness==
Mercantile is not generally considered a useful skill. However, there is some benefit in obtaining the Journeyman level, as being able to sell any kind of goods to any merchants can save significant amounts of time looking for a particular salesman. The payoff in gold is minor compared to other methods of obtaining gold, and the need to sell items one by one makes leveling it up an extremely slow process. You might as well increase the skill by paying Mercantile trainers. Conversely, if the Hero engages in a lot of selling, this is an easy way to level up without doing anything extra.
==Appearances==
*
*
*
* (appears as Speech)
de:Handelsgeschick (Oblivion)
es:Mercantil (Oblivion)
fr:Marchandage (Oblivion)
pl:Handel (Oblivion)
ru:Торговля (Oblivion)
Category:Oblivion: Skills