Making money from trading

jinx083464 · Post by **jinx083464** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 11:25 pm

Just started the game, Haven't really gotten anything done beyond the first 2 or 3 missions/quests/contracts, or whatever this game calls them. I'm thinking of making money from trading and I have some questions related to how it all works that I'd like to figure out before I invest a bunch of time.

So the map has a overlay you can go to that shows you in colorscale some economic measurement. What exactly does this mean? Does the green areas buy for high prices but also sell high?

I go to a station and they got a bunch of stuff to sell. Are the items produced at this location? meaning I can rely on future pickups of this same product from this location again as stocks replenish?

Will prices at a specific location fluctuate based on how much or how little of that item they have in stock? for example if they have food to sell and I start to buy it all, does it start to become more expensive at that location as stocks dwindle?

I used to play a bit of EVE online, and did some trading of npc produced items between stations. At the moment I'm thinking of going about trading in a similar method, provided the game works similar enough. I would start a spreadsheet collecting information in a somewhat large area, finding out what everyone is selling, and at what prices, as well as what items they are paying high for. Then I'd factor in distances, weight, price, profit, all that kinda stuff and work myself out a route to follow in my trading. Is this method going to work in this game?

morbosfist · Post by **morbosfist** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 12:45 am

The economic map is a broad-range indicator of the overall economy of the area: prices, technology, etc. The lower economy areas buy and sell low, but also don't have most of the high-tech items. Higher economy areas buy and sell higher, but also have items for sale that low-economy systems do not.

Items in each system have a slight variation but tend to remain fairly static. When you buy an item, it stays bought until the inventory resets after a short wait. This means you can't buy up several guns or whatnot, not that it would matter with limited cargo space.

Prices tend to fluctuate independent of what you're actually buying and selling, at least in my experience. They go up and down, but stay in a certain range based on the system economy.

Profiting from trading is as simple as buying items that are cheap in one system but fantastically expensive in another. Fuel converters are good for this. Weight's not a factor, though space in, and you shouldn't waste a lot of fuel on a simple run.

Remember, though, most of the high economy areas are also usually hostile to some degree. They'll charge you to dock and the locals will try to kill you since they cluster around stations and planets.

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:12 am

There are a couple ways you can greatly affect prices:

Buy a station license. When you do, prices at that particular station will drop significantly ... both for buying and selling.
Build your own station. This automatically gives you a license ... plus, if you build in hostile territory, it affords you greater protection.

Prices at other stations in your vacinity will not drop ... allowing you to buy at your own station and sell at someone else's.

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:30 am

Hi jinx083464,
trading is cool and profitable
but sometimes for a good trade you have to enter some hostile station and so on... it's not so quite

sometimes you must learn the good roads before finding the good trade
and sometimes i really cross half a quadrant and dont find anything good to buy nor a place where to sold my cargo

MiaZ · Post by **MiaZ** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:32 am

From post: 138158, Topic: tid=9414, author=Marvin wrote: There are a couple ways you can greatly affect prices:

Buy a station license. When you do, prices at that particular station will drop significantly ... both for buying and selling.

Build your own station. This automatically gives you a license ... plus, if you build in hostile territory, it affords you greater protection.
Prices at other stations in your vacinity will not drop ... allowing you to buy at your own station and sell at someone else's.

Yes, this is the secret to easy money making.

Also, you can remove your automatically given station license at a station you have built for higher prices at that station.