Is it possible to sell stolen items?

Question

I recently discovered the average shopkeeper is unwilling to buy stolen goods (how they know they are stolen, I do not know).

Is there anyway for me to sell stolen items, without making use of the console?

Answer 1

You're going to need access to a Fence if you want to sell your bucket-gotten gains. The Thieves guild provides access to them (after completing the 2nd quest).

You might also be interested in the 'Fence' perk in the Speech tree.

You can sell stolen goods to any merchant you have invested in.

Answer 2

The standard route is through Guild fences or by achieving a high-level speech perk that allows you to do so. I'm not a big fan of the speech perks, though - by the time you get to the high-level benefits, you don't really need them anymore - and Guild fences are few and far between even after going through the Guild quest line.

An alternative, for the skilled pickpocket, is to reverse-pickpocket your stolen items onto bandits or other enemies. Then kill them. Then take your legitimately-earned loot, without 'stolen' tags, from the corpse.

Answer 3

I read if you drop an item in front of a friendly hero they will pick it up and give it to you. This removes the stolen 'tag' on the item.

Answer 4

The thieves guild is in Riften. After a couple initiation quests you will be allowed to sell all stolen goods to Tonilia.