Having to learn how to trade quickly, I figured out some things about trading. I've had a few people ask me how to start trading and what to do so I took some notes I wrote for myself and jotted down this outline...
Trading Tips to Maximize Profits
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1. Make use of paper/pen or Notepad to keep track of changing prices
of goods at various stations.
1a. Note that some prices change after you purchase/sell
goods. Keep track of the changes otherwise you might find
yourself on a run that will lose you money.
1b. Other people trading for the same goods will effect the prices
that you get when you dock at a space station. This change is
usually small, but can turn a good route into one that doesn't make
much money at all, or even cause you to lose money.
2. The Trade Report is your friend. It costs only .1 per system
per log on, which you will make back and more during your first
run.
3. When first starting, buy a cargo transport from one of the
systems around Cirrus Minor to increase your transport load to
20 tons.
4. After you have a cargo ship, you won't be left with much to
start with. Begin by trading water (probably between Biplane and
Drellis) until you can start building up your credits to buy
more expensive cargo that will make you more each cargo run you
do. Make sure you keep an eye on how much you are making per
ton. That is what decides how quickly you will gain credits.
5. Make use of your Stardrive to travel between Cirrus Minor and
Tau Ceti. Uridium is only .1 per 10, and it only costs 4 Uridium
to go between these two systems, which again, you'll make up for
in one run.
5a. There are places that charge .4 credits per 10 units of
Uridium. These prices should also be noted on your paper.
5b. Cross-system trading is a good way to make a larger
profit, but the prices seem more likely to change and
the changes seem larger (see Section 1a).
6. Save up credits to buy extra cargo bays (found on Planitia)
when you can. The more you can store, the more you can make.
6a. Some people will suggest buying a finite drive or
a L8 stardrive before getting another cargo bay. Keep
in mind that a finite drive does not work with any
ship carrying cargo and the L8 stardrive will eat more
uridium.
7. Carry the cargo that a) makes the most profit AND b) you can
buy enough of to fill your cargo hold. Example: your cargo
capacity is 20 tons. You can make 1.0 credits per ton of both
metals and food from Drellis to Sabrada, but you can only afford
10 tons of metals as opposed to 20 tons of food. Carry the food.
As a guideline, try to never make a run without your cargo hold
full. It will maximize profit.
7a. Shorter routes mean more cargo runs can be made
in a given time. If there are identical prices on two
or more planets in a system, go for the closest one.
7a2. Some planets, such as Zyrane in the Tau
Ceti system, take a long time to reach when
coming out of a stardrive jump. Keep this in
mind when devising cargo runs.
8. If there are several goods you can carry and make a profit on
from one station to another, and they are of different profit
margins, maximize your cargo hold. Example: going from Drellis
to Sabrada, you can make 1.0 profit on metals, 0.8 profit on
food, and 0.3 profit on water but don't have enough to carry
a full cargo of metals, carry as much metals as you can then
switch to food and carry as much of that as you can, then
switch to water. It will maximize the run.
8a. Section 8 overrides Section 7 only if there are
varying profit margins in different trade goods.
9. Do not leave yourself without approximately 100-200 credits
after a purchase of a cargo hold, finite drive, or other addition
to your ship. Doing so will turn you into a .3 credit profit water
trader quickly. This is experience speaking.
10. Be helpful on the comm channel when it comes to helping someone
find a good run. Like in any multi-player online game, karma is a big factor
and there will be times you can't find a great cargo run.
10a. Learn who your fellow traders are. In dealing with
the growing threat of piracy, information is a big
commodity.
10b. Most traders are willing to talk, if just to pass
the time between long runs. The Comm Station is a good
way to trade information about runs, pirates, and
strategy.
11. If you are unsure if someone is a pirate or not, it may be
a good idea to use the tracking view (hold cntl, hit F10) while
they are targeted to get their bearing and distance. Keep an
eye out on anyone you don't know moving in behind you and getting
closer.
12. Regarding buying freighters: both the galactic and stellar freighters
are good investments. Each has a top Ion drive of 8 and each will
increase your cargo capacity. They can currently be found on the
planet Phong. When you have about 5000-6000 credits, buy the
galactic freighter (it looks a little like the Defiant for those that know
DS9). Personally, I waited until I had about 8000 because I was
running a good 10 credit/ton profit route and wanted to make sure
I could get the maximum I could get.
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General Price Guide
These are the general "good" prices of various goods found in the first three star systems to trade at. Hopefully this will help some that have difficulty in figuring out what is a good price and what isn't. The legend goes like this:
TradeGood - (good sale price) (good buys at price)
Food - 3.2 4.0
Water - 0.3 0.8
Minerals - 9.7 11.3
Metals - 26 28
Organics - 12.5 15
Industrial - 42 44
Computer - 102.5 110.0
---------------------------
Anyone is free to use this or ignore it or whatnot. Once I figure out more about deep-space trade, I will add to the guide.
Trading Tips to Maximize Profits
Trading Tips to Maximize Profits
Last edited by Damon on Mon Oct 31, 2005 6:10 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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morbydvisns
- Posts: 1889
- Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 12:51 am
excellent guide to the early stages of trading - very observant analysis 
couple of corrections/additions:
5. Uridium price varies between 0.1cr and 0.4cr - watch out where you run out unless you want hefty fuel bils!
10. given the supply and demand dynamics of space, other people's cargo can, and often does, affect the prices you will get - if they are trading the same items, that is.
(hence the more rapid price changes you've noticed in cross-system trading - the bigger/faster ships are probably doing the same run)
couple of corrections/additions:
5. Uridium price varies between 0.1cr and 0.4cr - watch out where you run out unless you want hefty fuel bils!
10. given the supply and demand dynamics of space, other people's cargo can, and often does, affect the prices you will get - if they are trading the same items, that is.
(hence the more rapid price changes you've noticed in cross-system trading - the bigger/faster ships are probably doing the same run)
Interesting. I was told (don't remember by who) that the prices were slightly different for everyone. I assumed, then, that others' trading routes didn't affect the prices on my screen. That, and the fact they didn't seem to change except slightly when I logged on, I would have to reset the prices on my goods list.
You are right about the differences in Uridium prices. I will change the guide to reflect that. I also noticed an error that had the beginning cargo ship with 10 ton capacity when it should be 20.
You are right about the differences in Uridium prices. I will change the guide to reflect that. I also noticed an error that had the beginning cargo ship with 10 ton capacity when it should be 20.
Hm. Another interesting idea. Perhaps a couple forums for different "types" of players? Traders, pirates, bounty hunters, planet-game players, police, etc?Mit wrote:nice lil guide, damon..
i imagine a group of chiselled, veteran traders hanging around the bar in a remote, dirty space station using that phrase as the ultimate insult. (and then spitting into a tin).
nice guide. mind if i copy it and post it on http://www.tuwr.net ?
forums would be interesting also. i know mit's not to keen on adding forums here, but i'll work them into the forums at http://www.tuwr.net sometime.
forums would be interesting also. i know mit's not to keen on adding forums here, but i'll work them into the forums at http://www.tuwr.net sometime.
thanks. its now on tuwr.net
it might actually be good to save up for and buy a fimp right away, aslong as you have even 50cr left over. from what i have seen (by going to every starport and taking pics of its product list), thier is almost nothing at all to be made by cross system trading, but thier are systems that can make you 4cr per item and thier are also smaller stuff that could be carried. regardless of how much you can carry, carring 2 items that will make 8cr is better then carrying 20 items that will make 5cr. and you can also carry smaller/cheaper things along with the expensive things to add to the profits.
it might actually be good to save up for and buy a fimp right away, aslong as you have even 50cr left over. from what i have seen (by going to every starport and taking pics of its product list), thier is almost nothing at all to be made by cross system trading, but thier are systems that can make you 4cr per item and thier are also smaller stuff that could be carried. regardless of how much you can carry, carring 2 items that will make 8cr is better then carrying 20 items that will make 5cr. and you can also carry smaller/cheaper things along with the expensive things to add to the profits.
Computers can be a very lucrative cross-system trade (11.9cr per tonne earlier this morning), as can machinery and organics - but as has been said elsewhere, the more expensive items and the longer routes reduce their value far too quickly!zaroba wrote: from what i have seen (by going to every starport and taking pics of its product list), thier is almost nothing at all to be made by cross system trading, but thier are systems that can make you 4cr per item and thier are also smaller stuff that could be carried. .
good tip - but watch out - carrying a smaller supply of more expensive items or a mixed load can sometimes work out less profitable than carrying a full load of cheaper stuff. it's worth taking that extra second to do the math , rather than assumingzaroba wrote: regardless of how much you can carry, carring 2 items that will make 8cr is better then carrying 20 items that will make 5cr. and you can also carry smaller/cheaper things along with the expensive things to add to the profits
Actually, for cross system trading, there were a couple last night that were in the 4.0 to 4.5 credit per ton profit range. Not to mention the computers. I saw them last night and tried to get the route going but my computer was acting a bit funky. However, in-system trading rarely nets above 1.5 credits per ton, at least from my observations.zaroba wrote:thanks. its now on tuwr.net
it might actually be good to save up for and buy a fimp right away, aslong as you have even 50cr left over. from what i have seen (by going to every starport and taking pics of its product list), thier is almost nothing at all to be made by cross system trading, but thier are systems that can make you 4cr per item and thier are also smaller stuff that could be carried. regardless of how much you can carry, carring 2 items that will make 8cr is better then carrying 20 items that will make 5cr. and you can also carry smaller/cheaper things along with the expensive things to add to the profits.
The part of carrying different items is what is in Section 8 of the guide.
ahh, ok, thats what i get for not looking extremly closely yet 
also, i made a mistake in my last post. the infimp i meant, not the fimp drive.
the infimp will let you go to systems other then the 3 main systems, not the fimp.
the infimp will also cut your route time in half. take a load, and use the infimp to get back to the starting location. when it comes to cutting single system route times and increasing profit per an hour of playing, nothing beats the infimp besides buying a different ship. plus, for only 730s at the zoric starport in m-25, its cheaper then a 10t expansion bay.
another good tip would be to not buy a cargo ship in cirrus minor.
cargo ships only cost 21s in m-25, also at the zoric starport. this leaves 79cr for trading instead of only 40cr if you buy a 60cr cargo ship in cirrus.
also, i made a mistake in my last post. the infimp i meant, not the fimp drive.
the infimp will let you go to systems other then the 3 main systems, not the fimp.
the infimp will also cut your route time in half. take a load, and use the infimp to get back to the starting location. when it comes to cutting single system route times and increasing profit per an hour of playing, nothing beats the infimp besides buying a different ship. plus, for only 730s at the zoric starport in m-25, its cheaper then a 10t expansion bay.
another good tip would be to not buy a cargo ship in cirrus minor.
cargo ships only cost 21s in m-25, also at the zoric starport. this leaves 79cr for trading instead of only 40cr if you buy a 60cr cargo ship in cirrus.
the circle thing kinda works, but isn't totally accurate - usually is a visual reminder for me that I'm running low on uridium, rather than range-finder
keep an eye on the distances - unfortunately m25 is just over 5.5 parsecs away, and not reachable with L4.
sometimes, it will let you go a little further than stated, as long as the extra distance is less than 0.25 parsecs over your limit. anything over that, and its no-go
keep an eye on the distances - unfortunately m25 is just over 5.5 parsecs away, and not reachable with L4.
sometimes, it will let you go a little further than stated, as long as the extra distance is less than 0.25 parsecs over your limit. anything over that, and its no-go
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Magicfinger
- Staff
- Posts: 1078
- Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 10:38 am
- Location: here,there and everywhere
any chance you could send over that spread sheet that chezzie did, sounds like a good player resource
send on to the usual email address if its okay.
send on to the usual email address if its okay.
Last edited by Magicfinger on Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.