This is my first Witcher game, so this is a newbie question.

When I sell stuff to merchants/herbalists/armorists I seem to only get about 1/9th the value it shows in my inventory screen. I presume this can improve over time as I hone certain skills or just gain XP, similar to how you get better prices in Skyrim if you put effort into increasing your Speech skill.

Granted I'm only Level 2, but when can I expect to get more fair prices when selling stuff? And is there something I can do to help that along? (Tried using Axii on a Merchant, but it didn't seem to help.)

Thanks.
Looks like I'll be slumming it for quite a while. Always low on crowns. You'd expect a Witcher like Geralt would have more to show after such a long an illustrious career (Witcher 1 and Witcher 2). This guys starts Witcher 3 with weak equipment and just a handful of coin in his pocket.

I think he forgot where he put his money when he recovered his memory. Ahahahaha

Yeh, I'm now at around 7k gold/crowns and every time I buy something, I am able to quickly get myself back to 7k gold again. I'm at level 17 character right now.. I noticed that around level 8 or so, I was no longer short on cash and my cash reserves steadily rose and now has kind of stagnated around 7k gold.. but I'm sure once I upgrade to the next level of witcher gear, I'll start to get a boost in gold because I'll be fighting higher level stuff and getting their junk loot etc

The price you see in your backpack seems to be a guide if you have less space left and need to leave some loot behind.

As for selling to vendors there seems to be various factors playing in. Specialised vendors will pay more for an item than a general vendor but they will not buy all your junk. Secondly there are "wealthy" merchants that will pay more for a wide variety of stuff. Their purchase value seems on par with specialist shops. One of those are in Novigrad and he sells some quest items as well. Then there are a form of familiarity factor playing in. There is a nice merchant that talks about meeting you again and he does in fact move around as you pass thought the world. He gives good prices but don't actually have that much money to work with. Similarly Hattori will buy at quite ludicrous prices though that may be tied to how well you perform in his quest.

So in general:
Avoid selling to general merchants, unless they are "wealthy".

Sell to specialist as often as it is convenient. These will often also offer services (repair, crafting and the like) so you can use their services first, which will replenish their coffers, before you bankrupt them again.

Keep an eye out for businesses who are on friendly terms with Geralt. These may be the golden goose.

One of the first things I bought when I finally had approx. 200 crowns was a better saddle bag. I can now carry 90 weight at Level 2. I bought it from the first traveling merchant you run into - the guy who looks like Sonny Bono, with the broken down cart. Oddly enough, this saddle bag also weighs less than the default one you start with and was actually cheaper than the one sold by the armorer in White Orchard.

I was then able to clean out the battle field in very few trips, and have now have enough extra space to carry around the more valuable stuff until I find someone to sell to who is not a cheapskate.

Once you make level 8 you will make so much money you won't know what to do with it.

Thats no lie just wait soon you will not find a vender with enough money for you to sell anything you will spend a quarter of your time traveling just to sell things

The reason he is broke is easily explained: Yen and Triss. Once Geralt runs out of money, they find an excuse to be elsewhere and only find Geralt when he once again has the cash to spend on them.

You can save a lot of money early on by not repairing your equipment. Even at 0% durability items won't break.
They only loose a percentual ammount of damage / armor depending on the difficulty level.

So unless you want to buy something you don't need money.

Potions and bombs replenish completely during meditation by using 1 alcohest. I've never run out of alcohest,
never bought a bottle and have 50 to 60 spare ones.


edit: grammar