when i take an already existing merchant and duplicate it into my own custom interior it is stripped of all the items it had where it existed in the world, except for maybe the bare basic stuff like just repair hammers. i have played around with all the settings in the merchant's properties with no luck. could someone please help me out on this.

You shouldn't copy any NPCs, you should rather create your own, all you got to to is edit the merchant, change its ID and click on OK button. A dialogue box should appear asking you if you wish to create a new object or no. Click yes, and use your new merchant that is identical to the existing one, and does not change the original merchant.

i dont think it works it if is in a diffrent area...

i right clicked a merchant i want in my INTERIOR cell area and selected new, i then typed in only an ID and clicked ok, i then drag-n-dropped the npc into my INTERIOR cell and tested it out... it didnt work...

the npc creation tutorial from TiTo13KFM has helped me more than any of the other 3000 things i have looked at...

here is tito's site:

http://tito13kfm.netfirms.com

here is the tutorial:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/fil..._npc_create.txt

all that remains is the problem of having to select each item and set it's number...

i'll make a post about this on the main...

You missed my point. I told you to EDIT the merchant, that means double left click it, delete the old ID, type in the new one, and then save it as a new item.