i'm giving this game a third try after it running like garbage the first time, me not understanding a thing about character creation and the importance of Harm and Melee the second time, and i'm finally getting the hang of the interface and whatnot.
my problem is, both my inventory and virgils are full and i haven't left shrouded hills yet, but NONE of the merchants are willing to buy my items except my health potions. i gave ristezee the camera, stole his key and looted his chest cause i read that the camera can be resold to him...except it can't! he says he won't buy it, offers me 0 gold for some of my other items, and thats it.
same with all the other merchants in the town.
i picked up a bunch of random stuff i don't know if it's junk or what, but some of the things i have are obviously valuable like weapons and guns and shields, but no one's buying. should i just drop it all and keep moving to the next town and don't worry about it? or is it a glitch or something?

and on a side note, how on earth am i supposed to beat those thieves by the bridge?!? they're impossible! they knock me down then kick the s*** out of me, literally. it's pathetic. do i just have to pay them or work for them? is the "good" option really that impossible?

Ristezee also accepts another item you can find in Shrouded Hills area, it doesn't have to be the camera.
Arcanum's merchants are selective about what they buy, they specialise in things. General stores buy varied things but you'd get more cash if you sell to the right place (eg magical items to magic shops). Junk stores accept all, but pays little. Some items are ingredients to 'better' items which pays a lot of cash. But these raw materials aren't worth anything, some you can find in rubbish bins. Expertise in barter skill allows you to sell things anywhere at better prices.
There's an NPC in S.Hills bar you may be able to recruit for more space.

The thieves at the bridge, the way to get through them depends on your character, whether you're persuasive, combative or magicians. There are some goodies north of the crash site which you can use to even the odds. May be an idea to boost your level by completing all possible quests before confronting them.

edit:
Have you checked out Shrouded Hill's mine?
The $0 items, I can't remember whether general stores will give you tiny amount of cash or is it $0 for items they don't want ...

1) The blacksmith will buy things like weapons, armor, metal, etc. The general store will buy clothing, some gems, wine, etc. Junk dealers like Ristezze will buy almost anything. In general, stores will buy what they sell.

2) Merchants have only a random amount of gold to pay out per day. To refill their pockets (and change their inventory) walk at least one full screen away, and advance the game (by "sleeping") until the next morning.

3) Garbage cans often contain salable items; they're also where you'll find things like rags for Molotov cocktails.

4) You can save yourself the hassle of worrying about who buys what, by acquiring expertise in Haggle. This requires 12 willpower (9 if you're a gnome, or if you take one of the backgrounds that offers a Haggle bonus); 3 (or 2) ranks in Haggle; around 100 gold to the general store for apprenticeship, and another 500 to the inn's bartender for expertise.

5) Once you have Haggle expertise, you'll get better prices (in Shrouded Hills, the herbalist offers the best prices; in big cities, it's usually the magic armorer.) You'll also be able to do this trick: Go to the gypsy, save your game, identify a magic item, then ask her what she would pay for it. Some magic items (usually daggers) net you more money when they're NOT identified. (Never sell to a gypsy, though; they're almost as bad as junk dealers in what they'll pay.)

6) Definitely don't sell Ristezze the camera; the other item atkes mentioned can be bought back far cheaper, and resold in a specific place in Tarant. The camera, meanwhile, is part of a quest much later on in the game.

7) To get past the thieves, you have a bunch of options. SPOILERS AHEAD

Of course, save first before trying any of these. (You can quick-save with the F7 key, and quick-reload with F8.)

AGAIN, HERE BE SPOILERS!

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a) Take one point in Persuasion, and follow the dialog options to bluff them into thinking you're a thief as well.

b) After you have lots of money, buy the best weapon and armor you can, and take them head-on.

c) You can make things even easier by first putting rusty spikes on the ground in front of them; they'll auto-equip them, and do even less damage than usual.

d) You can take a rank in explosives expertise, and make a bunch of Molotov cocktails. You need at least one point in Throwing to use them. (You drop one in your hotkey bank, then click on it, then click to where you want it thrown.)

e) You can even side with the thieves and agree to blow up the bridge under construction south of town; this, however, will gain you mucho evil and leave you with a bad rep in town.

8) If you need extra XP to do any of this, you can leave Shrouded Hills to the west, and sleep in the wilderness for random encounters.

i'm level 4, and no one's buying anything. f*** it though, i'll just drop stuff. seems idiotic and counter-intuitive and against every RPG player's instincts, but there's literally no other option, other than to "sell" stuff for free.
also, your point about the camera is noted, but useless in this case. i didn't ask how to get ristezee to talk to me.
as for the thieves, i had to dump points into melee and harm just to be able to hit anything, and i took child of a hero just for the sword. so naturally, i don't have any points in pickpocket persuasion or anything else, just melee and harm so every single wolf at the crash site wouldn't kill me.
are my options at this point literally be evil and side with the thieves, or pay them 1000 gold? wtf kind of choice is that? they're so much stronger than me i don't see how it's possible to gain enough exp in the areas i'm limited to to beat them.

Like I said, go back to the west and kill some more random creatures to bump up your XP. You could even go all the way back to the crash site, and follow the quest that starts with the ghost in the back of the cave there; that'll earn you not only XP, but it'll make more people like you (and be willing to sell to you) as well.

Plus, there's the mine. That by itself will earn you at least one level; there's no rush or timetable to get thru this game. And part of its fun is that there are so many ways to play it out.

so basically what you're saying is...start over. again. for like the 5th time. but this time gimp my melee abilities so i can boost haggling and persuasion.
but yeah like i said, no one buys anything. period. the blacksmith wants to buy my weapons and armor that i'm using, but not this useless gun i found and all this other metal stuff. and i don't know where you get the idea that ristezee buys anything, or that i didn't try that, but i did, and like i said before, he doesn't buy ANYTHING. literally, he doesn't buy anything.
yeah yeah, put points into haggling...but then how the hell do i even make it away from the crash site? the whole reason i'm even starting over now with this current character is cause my last one i put all kinds of points in superfluous, non-combat related stuff and got merked every two feet by wolves and those little blue zombie guys.
all your solutions, except for wait in the wilderness for the opportunity to grind (which really means damage/break my weapons...unless i put points into repair or something, i guess) are unfeasible. i did the quest with arbalah and farkus and the other guy. pretty cool stuff actually, and it got me psyched for the rest of the game, which at the moment i can't access.
if people like me now cause of the quest, and i'm the chld of a hero, and they STILL won't buy from me, it's gotta be a glitch or something.
and i realize there's no rush to get thru the game, and i love games like this so i know the drill, but my god i am DYING to get out of this damn town. yes, there is a MAD rush for me to get the f*** out. this is my 4th or 5th character. i'm tired of the dialogue with the constable, i'm sick of the damn gnome by the temple...i need to get out, and actually start the game.

You are trying to get out of the town at level four. That's not going to happen, unless you already know this game cold.

My advice: start over if you want to. Put points in Melee (at least two ranks, which takes 9 dexterity). Bring Virgil along for healing and to help with the fighting. Pick up a couple (or three) of rusty spikes, with which to cripple the thieves at the bridge. (You lay it on the ground nearby; they pick it up and use it, even though it's actually worse than their bare fists.) Plan to get to at least level 5 or 6 before you take on the thieves, which is no problem if you do Arbalah's quest and clear the mine. Do all fighting in turn-based mode.

In a worst case scenario, you'll need exactly one extra point, in Persuasion, to be able to bluff the thieves. Haggle is a convenience, but by the time you get to Tarant, you'll have enough shopkeeper options that you'll be able to get rid of nearly everything.

Just because you found something, however, doesn't mean it's worth anything. That gun at the crash site is worse than useless; even Ristezze doesn't want it. If no one will buy it, drop it from your inventory and move on. (Exception: those explosives can be valuable, but they can only be sold to junk dealers, or the gun merchant in Tarant.) A lot of the stuff you find is a component in a tech schematic, but isn't valuable by itself; the gun and the thermometer are two examples of this.

You can be the child of a hero if you want, but if you help Doc Roberts deal with the bank robbers, he'll offer you the choice between a sword, axe or gun as payment. So don't limit your background options unnecessarily.

Hope this helped. Good luck.

P.S. If a merchant won't buy it, he'll say so; if he offers you zero gold, then he's out of money for the day. See my post above about how to reset their bank account.

Theres 3 grenades inside the barrel in the back of the cave at the crash site, near the bed with the dead body whose spirit you talk to.

Use those grenades to fight the thieves if you are having trouble with them.

Save before doing so because your accuracy with grenades will be really bad. You will need to land some good throws, because you need each grenade to hit well since you only have 3.

If you target the ground near the opponent's feet rather than the opponent directly, it seems to have a better chance of hitting that area rather than flying way past the target opponent if you click right on them.

Can you give us some items that you are trying to sell that no one will buy? I know you said everything, but specifically what are some that you have stocked up that you're trying to get rid of?
Yes, the thieves at the bridge can be a bitch to take out, but just follow TwoHandedSword and ewmarch's advice and you should be able to do them in. Really the simplest option is to put a point in persuasion. Also, don't forget to get Sogg Mead Mug as a meat shield.

In fairness, grabbing Sogg requires at least a 9 Charisma; so if points are as tight as the OP claims, that may have to wait a bit.

(Of course, I'm biased against Sogg anyway, since all he is is a meat sack with a backpack. No roleplay value at all.)

True, just giving him an alternate way to make the bandit fight easier. :D

THAT IS A LIE!
There is like 10 different places he will tell you has a pub/does not have a pub! I get all jolly innside every time.

I guess that does count as roleplay of a sort. Props to the developers for thinking to add it.

And IIRC, unlike most followers, Sogg isn't particularly beholden to the place where you first found him; should you abandon him, rather than returning to Shrouded Hills, he'll probably turn up at the nearest town with a pub. Kind of makes you wonder why you have to wait for Gil Bates to tell you where Ashbury is (or force the issue by boarding the train); a mind that dedicated to his next bottle would be better than a GPS. :D

On the stuff problem: A lot of what you're picking up is complete and utter trash. Broken Flintlock pistols and the like. Their only use is for crafting - as far as I know, nobody will buy them, no matter your haggle skill.

On your build - it sounds like a pretty good build, and should certainly make the combat easier for you, but not magically easy either. That particular fight is a really tough one, and I'd wait to level up more. Talk to everyone in Shrouded Hills, see if they have stuff they want you to do, see what equipment you can get, go back to the crash site for the grenades, maybe use some dynamite if you have some you don't need, and definitely go check the mines since there's good xp and good loot there. And if you have at least 9 charisma, get Sogg Mead Mug to join you. Man's a melee machine. Don't worry though, you haven't screwed yourself out of a victory chance, and if I made it through that fight on my fragile-as-glass technology character you can make it through on a melee+harm build. Just not at level 4 unless you're ready to savescum every turn of the fight.

And speaking of turns, you are playing on turn-based, right? I found all but the easiest fights almost impossible in real time.

hmm... I am now level 21 or something and way out of the town.
Didn't kill those bandits at the Shrouded Hill bridge.
I had a go prowling and tried to explode the gates with a dynamite I found somewhere.
That got me nowhere, since it was impossible to be that leveled up for such a thing.
Anyhow there was another way, at least one...
And why worry about going for the dark side for a while?
I mean got now 52 on the light side, and I have done some shadowy stuff anyhow :)
I copy that about stuff, I got frustrated too at first then started to get the stuff people really pay good money.