Newcomer / Intro Black Market: What am I Missing?

[Sotin]

So I am assuming that I am missing some crucial information concerning Black Markets due to my inexperience. Yesterday I decided that I want to start the road to unlocking the Dweller. So I picked up Six Units of Tobacco and headed for CD-27 5409 where I had determined it to be Prohibited.

Using the System map I decided to go to Plexico Dock where I found an active Black Market and confirmed the prohibited status of tobacco. My HUD informed me of my illicit cargo,(I was hauling nothing else), so I made a quick run for the dock, successfully smuggling the evil substance onto the station and opened the station services. However when I attempted to open the Black market contact I was informed that I had "Nothing to Sell", but when I went to the commodities market they were happy to purchase my tobacco for a markup of 977cr/unit, a decent profit.

I tried logging, I came back a few hours later, still without a successful Black Market run. So I chose to purchase Battle weapons from the commodities market (I think they are prohibited as well) and split out of there for the next system/station with a Black Market. I was successful eventually with the Battle weapons.

So what did I do wrong? Is the regular Commodities market supposed to trade in prohibited items? Is tobacco not cool enough for the Black Market? I would like to know for future daring smuggling runs.

any recommendations appreciated.

 

[bookmite]

So I am assuming that I am missing some crucial information concerning Black Markets due to my inexperience. Yesterday I decided that I want to start the road to unlocking the Dweller. So I picked up Six Units of Tobacco and headed for CD-27 5409 where I had determined it to be Prohibited.

Using the System map I decided to go to Plexico Dock where I found an active Black Market and confirmed the prohibited status of tobacco. My HUD informed me of my illicit cargo,(I was hauling nothing else), so I made a quick run for the dock, successfully smuggling the evil substance onto the station and opened the station services. However when I attempted to open the Black market contact I was informed that I had "Nothing to Sell", but when I went to the commodities market they were happy to purchase my tobacco for a markup of 977cr/unit, a decent profit.

I tried logging, I came back a few hours later, still without a successful Black Market run. So I chose to purchase Battle weapons from the commodities market (I think they are prohibited as well) and split out of there for the next system/station with a Black Market. I was successful eventually with the Battle weapons.

So what did I do wrong? Is the regular Commodities market supposed to trade in prohibited items? Is tobacco not cool enough for the Black Market? I would like to know for future daring smuggling runs.

any recommendations appreciated.

It sounds like they were illegal in the system you bought them but legal in the system you tried to sell them in

Can't think of any other reason

Fly safe

 

[Sotin]

It sounds like they were illegal in the system you bought them but legal in the system you tried to sell them in

Can't think of any other reason

Fly safe

Thanks for the reply, although I didn't receive the illicit cargo status until I jumped into my destination system. I bought the tobacco from the legal market. I was thinking that Plexico might be in the middle of a leadership change.

 

[rOmiLaYu]

It sounds like they were illegal in the system you bought them but legal in the system you tried to sell them in

It's my understanding that you can only purchase legal goods...which highlights one of the major inequities of the Black Market system as implemented. Why can I only sell to the Black Market? Why do I have to go out of the system and smuggle in everything? A Black "Market" where you can only sell things is hardly a "market."

As to what happened to the OP, I have no idea. Outside of maybe the illegal goods have to weapons? Given that the Dweller works on weapons? I don't know.

 

[d8veh]

I think that it's a lot more reliable to kill a pirate at the nav beacon or RES and pick up his stolen cargo. you can also find stolen cargo at some USSs.

 

[Maymo]

Select a cheap cargo mission (with minimum fine for failure) from the board of a station with a black market.
Abandon mission.
Sell the now 'stolen' goods on the black market.
Pay cheap fine.

For Dweller, Wyrd has a black market at each of its starports. So there's 3 to get you started.

 

[who?]

Thanks for the reply, although I didn't receive the illicit cargo status until I jumped into my destination system. I bought the tobacco from the legal market. I was thinking that Plexico might be in the middle of a leadership change.

It might depend on where you are in the system. What one faction considers illegal (and thus can be sold on the Black Market) another faction might allow. You can check this in the System Map where it shows prohibited items.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

The faction that controls a station may be different than the one that controls the system, so can have a different set of legalities. The station description usually lists what is prohibited at the station.
However, there is an occasional bug where goods that are actually illegal don't register for the blackmarket. I've seen it twice, but my blackmarket network is well over 400 stations.

Your safest bet is buying narcotics or battle weapons at a dictatorship or anarchy and taking them to a Federation system.

Another way is to salvage goods from USS or pirates. When these say "stolen", you can sell them at any blackmarket.

 

[Para Handy]

^^^^^^^^^^ Wot the Lizard says ^^^^^^^^

... plus - Although you might have had the cargo warning when you entered the system, when you get close to a station where that cargo is not illegal - the warning over the fuel gauge goes away.

... Also - I suffered a recent bug where the unlock didn't work, the stats for number of black markets wouldn't go over 5 no matter how many I used or how many commodities I sold. I raised a support ticket (NOT a bug report) and they sorted it real quick. There is a thread about it in the Engineers sub-forum if it happens to you.

 

[Elektriccobra]

Select a cheap cargo mission (with minimum fine for failure) from the board of a station with a black market.
Abandon mission.
Sell the now 'stolen' goods on the black market.
Pay cheap fine.

For Dweller, Wyrd has a black market at each of its starports. So there's 3 to get you started.

This is good info, thank you for throwing this in the thread!!