Black Market prices

[Kaaihn]

I looked through the various stickies, but didn't find the info I'm looking for. I'm trying to understand what drives the prices of goods on a Black Market? Specifically, what makes the prices higher at one station for x commodity than at another station? Pick a common prohibited commodity, like slaves or imp slaves.

If I wanted to plug in all the filters to EDDB to come up with a likely candidate for a station where the Black Market would likely pay the most anywhere for an Imp Slave, what would the criteria be (besides imp slaves being prohibited)? I would assume controlled by Archon Delanie or Pranav Antal, but what else would impact the price?

 

[Starwolfe]

BMs operate under similar effects as the regular markets.

Boom will up the price for most everything
Famine will up the price on foodstuffs
Outbreak will drive up the prices on medicines and foodstuffs
Civil Unrest and Lockdown* up the prices on the personal weapons and landmines kind of gear

Typically Lockdown closes Black Markets along with everything else, but there are rare glitches instances they are open.

 

[Kaaihn]

BMs operate under similar effects as the regular markets.

Boom will up the price for most everything
Famine will up the price on foodstuffs
Outbreak will drive up the prices on medicines and foodstuffs
Civil Unrest and Lockdown* up the prices on the personal weapons and landmines kind of gear

Typically Lockdown closes Black Markets along with everything else, but there are rare glitches instances they are open.

What about economy type? I went to a station yesterday that is Industrial, in Boom and checked price of Imp Slaves. Went to another that is High Tech, Refinery, in no state and checked price of Imp Slaves. The non Boom station was paying nearly 2000 cr more than the one in Boom. I'm trying to understand why that would be the case.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

What about economy type? I went to a station yesterday that is Industrial, in Boom and checked price of Imp Slaves. Went to another that is High Tech, Refinery, in no state and checked price of Imp Slaves. The non Boom station was paying nearly 2000 cr more than the one in Boom. I'm trying to understand why that would be the case.

Where legal, Industrials usually export Imp Slaves, and Refineries import them. So you're selling to an "exporter" (even though under its current leadership it doesn't) and will get a lower price than if you sold to an importer.

Imperial Slaves are also a price-insensitive good - the state doesn't really affect the price directly (though it will sometimes substantially affect the size of the demand/supply)

EDIT: I have tables of the state effects on price and supply/demand of various goods at https://cdb.sotl.org.uk/effects (one interesting thing to note is that at fulfilled supply+demand, all economies run deficits, often large ones). Data is somewhat limited due to certain state-economy combinations being extremely rare in Colonia

 

[Kaaihn]

Thanks for the table! I found another station that is hi tech/refinery where imp slaves are illegal, so I went there to compare the price against the other hi tech/refinery I've been to. The first station (state:none) is paying 1063 more than the second (state:boom).

Both low security. The station paying less is 726 ls from star, station paying more is only 15 ls, so I wouldn't think distance from star is changing it (it would be reversed if so). Higher paying one has pop of 22,544,984, lower paying one has pop of 4,968,864.

Any of that data jump out at you as explaining such a big price difference between the two stations (O'Leary Vision vs Kanwar Orbital)?

 

[Kaaihn]

After some more digging around on your spreadsheet and eddb searches for some candidates, I think I have my questions answered. Thanks for the help!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Most likely, there is a significant element of randomness in pricing, presumably to make it less "you've seen one Refinery you've seen them all". Different stations have higher or lower baseline prices and supply/demand levels for different goods, on top of the effects applied by state, economy and supply/demand bracket.

Other possibilities:
- there is a difference in baseline price between HT and Refinery and the two stations have different mixes of HT and Refinery (but I think they're both 20% refinery)
- the higher price is in a better demand bracket (e.g. medium demand rather than low demand)