not the whole 450s were mine

spent a few days sitting in a buy-shop buying silver and copper lumps. 'converting' my money into items so i can sell it to the item merchant
also asked a few friend to keep items for me they would normally just npc. then when we thought we got enough i took my lumps and their items and sold all crap. then i payed their money back to them.
what im wondering about is, my friend sold stuff in worth of 100s to an npc and he did got the title
i also see many lower level people with even advanced merchant, who i dont think had even 100s