@ Buffalobiian

Caps is really not that important later on in the game since they are very easy to obtain.

BoC is right, repair is easily the most useful skill in term of helping you make money early on.

What i usually do early on to make caps is since i had a high repair skill, i would just go around killing raiders and collect their armor. I would then repair the armor (since all raider armor can be use to repair each other) and combine increase their durability which raise its value. This was a really good way to make money since i could carry a lot more (cash wise) at a time by combining them in high value pieces instead of carrying 10 cheap one.

The real money makers are fully repaired Chinese rifles (350 caps), regular assault rifles (250 caps), those can be found on most super mutants and fully repaired Laser Rifle (600 caps) come mostly from talon mercs and engrave soldier.

As for the person who asked about improving V.A.T.S, there is a side quest called Replicated Man and it come with 2 reward (if you make the right choices) the A3-21's Plasma Rifle and some item that improve your accuracy in V.A.T.S.