I spent some time last evening going on crime sprees to 'test out' the viability of that method of moneymaking. Here's a few observations
There are a few places where you have a concentration of unguarded property. An obvious place is to go to the docks in a main city such as Daggerfall. The two ships that are docked there can be picked clean. The wardrobes, coffers, desks and cupboards usually contain a treasure item worth 40 gold, and the occasional recipe or furniture items. Barrels have the usual food or provisioning stuff. Pick the two ships clean, and jump on the transport boat to Wayrest where you can repeat the process on the two ships docked there. You can then hop over to Sentinel, rinse and repeat
By this point you're going to be having 'inventory issues', so go to the Outlaws Refuge and fence everything. This tends to raise about 800-1000 gold, depneding on the various drops. The problem with that, whilst it's quick and there's zero chance of picking up a bounty, you're picking up loads of trash that sells for 1g. On the plus side, ledgerdemain levels like crazy as advancement is based on the number of items stolen / fenced, not their value. So its good for levelling, not so much for moneymaking
A more efficent method is to go on a crime spree around a town or city. For my testing, I did this in Abah's Landing - where we have a closely packed concentration of private houses, shops, guilds etc. Focus on private housing (you get ledgerdemain levelling just for picking the lock!), get into sneak to avoid raising the ire of the residents and start stealing everything from containers - everything is worth at least 40g and some stuff is worth over 100g. Tip: go upstairs - there is often nobody around and there will be wardrobes and bedside tables to loot.
I found a much higher concentration of high value items in houses, shops and guilds than in ships and docks BUT you have a considerably higher chance of getting a bounty or catching the attention of guards. A crime spree around the upper class section of Abah's Landing netted just over 3500g - but I had to pay off a few hundred of that in bounties. Swings and roundabouts. Tip: pick up the Thieves Guild Clemecy perk (Level 8 in the guild) to be able to tell the guards to shove off once per day.
The other thing to keep in mind is that there is a daily limit to fencing stolen good - the base is 100 items per day (real time). Tip: pick up the Legerdemain Trafficker perk and be able to fence progessively more items per day.
TL:DR you won't get super rich from stealing, but you can easily pick up around 3000 gold for roughly half an hours work per day
I spent some time last evening going on crime sprees to 'test out' the viability of that method of moneymaking. Here's a few observations
There are a few places where you have a concentration of unguarded property. An obvious place is to go to the docks in a main city such as Daggerfall. The two ships that are docked there can be picked clean. The wardrobes, coffers, desks and cupboards usually contain a treasure item worth 40 gold, and the occasional recipe or furniture items. Barrels have the usual food or provisioning stuff. Pick the two ships clean, and jump on the transport boat to Wayrest where you can repeat the process on the two ships docked there. You can then hop over to Sentinel, rinse and repeat
By this point you're going to be having 'inventory issues', so go to the Outlaws Refuge and fence everything. This tends to raise about 800-1000 gold, depneding on the various drops. The problem with that, whilst it's quick and there's zero chance of picking up a bounty, you're picking up loads of trash that sells for 1g. On the plus side, ledgerdemain levels like crazy as advancement is based on the number of items stolen / fenced, not their value. So its good for levelling, not so much for moneymaking
A more efficent method is to go on a crime spree around a town or city. For my testing, I did this in Abah's Landing - where we have a closely packed concentration of private houses, shops, guilds etc. Focus on private housing (you get ledgerdemain levelling just for picking the lock!), get into sneak to avoid raising the ire of the residents and start stealing everything from containers - everything is worth at least 40g and some stuff is worth over 100g. Tip: go upstairs - there is often nobody around and there will be wardrobes and bedside tables to loot.
I found a much higher concentration of high value items in houses, shops and guilds than in ships and docks BUT you have a considerably higher chance of getting a bounty or catching the attention of guards. A crime spree around the upper class section of Abah's Landing netted just over 3500g - but I had to pay off a few hundred of that in bounties. Swings and roundabouts. Tip: pick up the Thieves Guild Clemecy perk (Level 8 in the guild) to be able to tell the guards to shove off once per day.
The other thing to keep in mind is that there is a daily limit to fencing stolen good - the base is 100 items per day (real time). Tip: pick up the Legerdemain Trafficker perk and be able to fence progessively more items per day.
TL:DR you won't get super rich from stealing, but you can easily pick up around 3000 gold for roughly half an hours work per day
