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Where can I buy large numbers of lockpicks? I'm early in the game, my security is still pretty low, and the ones I've scavenged off of goblins and dead bandits have all run out. I had to leave the last two Ayelid ruins with a half dozen unopened casks and coffers because I didn't have anything to pick with!!!

Thanks for being patient with a noob . . .

Spoilers

1. Best place to get lockpicks is to join the Theives guild. Get yourself thrown in jail and someone will talk to you about it. Lockpicks are $5 each.
2. Shady Sam outside the walls of the Imperial city sells lockpicks. Go out the Talos District door and go clockwise.
3. Crabs, goblins and bandits have lockpicks sometimes.
4. There is a mod you can get for PC called the lockpick mold. It makes lockpicks from melting down gold coins. Lockpick Mold - Oblivion Mod Wiki
5. One of the Deadric Quests (Nocturnal) gives you a Skeleton key, a lockpick that never breaks.

Hope that helps

Thanks so much . . .

I'll try one or all of those.

If you're in the thieves guild, Go to Ongar's house in Bruma. He's selling 100 of them, 5 gold each.

Also, if you're using the auto lock pick option you might wanna try picking them manually instead. With autolockpick I use up all the 40-50 lock picks I carry around without success on hard and very hard locks. When doing it manually I use up 0-4 lock picks. Don't just try to l-click every time you push one of the "thingies" (can't remember what those are called in english) up. Rather, push each up a couple of times so you get a feel for how it moves (and how its movement changes with each new push) before you try to lock it in an open position.

My char relies on the lockpicks found. Never bought one yet. As qizatch said, you need to be careful lockpicking. But it you ARE careful (and it's a good idea to save game before attempting a lock, so you can reload if you use up more than 3 lockpicks) you can pick ANY lock. My char was picking Very Hard locks at Security level 10! (She is not a Stealth char and her Security skill is a Minor one, so slow to improve. She is now level 36 and her security has just hit lvl25).
It's just a matter of being patient until you get the hang of it. After a while you get a 'feel' for when to hit the bolt home.

As Fljotsdale said. The game is a lot more...generous in providing freebies, such as lockpicks. It's easy to find them, even in crates. Just be careful in their use; and if you can't be careful, be diligent in saving your games before lockpicking.

The real trick to saving lockpicks is not to watch the screen, but to listen to the clicks of the tumblers. Just close your eyes/ look away while doing it. Test each tumbler once, and you'll usually then get it really quickly. When I learned this, I had broken about 10 picks on a very hard lock, and my friend says "no, that's not how you do it", and using that method, he got the lock open on his first try, and it was his first time ever lockpicking in Oblivion.

As for finding lockpicks, just get lost in the woods for an hour or two (entering any caves/ruins you find along the way), and you'll usually come out with up to fifty. Once I lockpicked open a chest, and it turns out there were 27 lockpicks in it. How's that for irony?

You pick locks without looking, by the sound? :speech: Well, my hats off to you, blind master. You must be the Mr. Miyagi of picking locks. I'm going to try your technique, so thanks for the suggestion. I save before picking anyway, so I suppose it couldn't hurt to try.