In Oblivion, I had two favorite money-makers:
- Dump all my stuff except some basic armor and potions, and raid an oblivion tower. The armor and weapons was worth lots, and selling it in Anvil made a lot of cash fast.
- Harvest an entire farm's worth of crops, create 'restore fatigue' potions and sell them.
Skyrim seems to spoil this:
- Merchants have a max-amount per day/QOD/… instead of per item
- You can't carry as much (or maybe I have yet to discover the strength/feather spells)
- Alchemy is a lot harder (most common items go into food recipes now, which don't sell for those prices)
- On top of that, once a dungeon is cleared, it doesn't respawn – so no 'farming' familiar dungeons?
What are some easy/repeatable money making methods in Skyrim? Which are most efficient effortwise/real-life-time wise?
Best Answer
I've found the best way to make money is pick up ingredients in the wild, make potions and sell them.
Easy to find
Wild ingredients are easy to find. Or you can buy ingredients from many vendors. Avoid buying expensive ingredients like void salts, fire salts, daedra hearts etc. The return isn't worth the cost.
They're light
Most ingredients weigh little. If you make a lot of potions and can't sell them all, the potions also don't weigh a lot - 100 potions weigh about the same as 1 piece of heavy armor. Their value/weight ratio is high.
They sell for a lot
I regularly sell a 0.1 weight potion for $200. There are other items with higher value/weight ratios, but I can quickly make 10 of these with ingredients that aren't hard to find. This works best for invisibility, because you can sell it for squillions. I've made around 20k mostly from potions.
I have seen potions with values in the thousands!
It's good for your alchemy skill
It'll also help your alchemy skill, and as your alchemy skill gets higher, you'll make more valuable potions.
You'll always have potions
There's nothing worse than getting into a battle without the right potions. Having a few spare potions for health and magika on hand will help you a lot!
Win win win!