How do you make money smuggling?

[DYSEQTA]

as a smuggler I always take on smuggling missions and often find more than the mission requires as well as dropping into random USS's to come across cargo, black boxes, military plans etc as well, its half the market price and I often do slave runs (supply 2 slaves to x faction) and I found that where I am based, I can make a profit of about 750Cr per ton of slaves at the 50% price and over 25K profit per 2 ton I supply to the BBS

The thing with the USS pickups is you get more for the BBS missions more often than not per ton than the black market buyer gives but because it has essentially only cost you jump fuel its all profit.

I do not bother with silent run, when going for a station I line up outside the 7Km range and boost in, dropping the landing gear once I hit about 3Km as the computer takes a few seconds to respond to this and I use the computer responding and full reverse as soon as I hit the letterbox (in a cobra with full pips in a grade thrusters) and I am usually down to stopped before I reach the middle of the station

This is the answer. However I do not agree with the station entry procedure. I used to do it that way too, until that one time where I forgot something important and left myself no room to manauevre due to the spped of approach. What I do now is as follows and has never failed:

First it should be noted that I always fly with only the modules I currently need on. For instance if I am travelling about I don't need weapons on, or if I am fighting I don't need a fuel scoop. No point having a bigger signature than necessary, ever.

• Stop upon entry to station space
• Locate station entrance
• Manuevere around until in front of entrance keeping a good 8km out
• Request docking
• Turn off all non essential modules including life support
• Approach entrance using normal flight method
• Engage silent running at about 7km
• Lower gear at about 3km
• Enter station and drop below entrance level immediately
• Disable silent running
• Land
• Profit

Being cautious is pretty much the backbone of smuggling. What excalibus said works, right up until it something goes wrong, and with that method "wrong" likely means dead.

Bear in mind I play blow=clear until a proper Ironman mode is implemented so I guess blowing is far more important for me to avoid then most players.

 

[nbhamilt]

This has always been one of the issues.

Selling (legal) stolen good - you should get a massive cut in the sale price, but smuggling goods deemed illegal in a base ought to net higher prices. Its how it works in the real world anyway.

 

[vonvonbraun]

Correct. I already know about piracy and stolen goods. I want to smuggle items I buy from one place into another place..... illegal activity. Weapons, drugs, slaves, you name it. But there needs to be a better reward than simply going to a outpost with zero risk and docking. I am smuggling these things into the station.... they are wanted and illegal; hence better pay.

Want to know if anyone is doing it this way.

- - - - - .

This is my understanding of smugglin, but alas is not implemented this way

what this game has for "smuggling" at the moment are stolen goods at half price no matter what. The pbvious logic is yoirs, that an illegal good would be in demand if prohibited, hence expecting an higher price.

never saw any weapon dealer or drug lord import some illegal goods and sell for cheap, havent we?


please fix smuggling!

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This has always been one of the issues.

Selling (legal) stolen good - you should get a massive cut in the sale price, but smuggling goods deemed illegal in a base ought to net higher prices. Its how it works in the real world anyway.

Exactly, is basically trading illegal items. It should be implemented

 

[Rearden]

You can follow the link on my signature as I am not going to repeat everything again, note that on the second page of that thread you have an example spreadsheet of goods that are high in demand in some places, for example agricultural systems tend to like slaves and personal weapons. Industry tends to like combat stabilizers, etc - I haven't repeated the full set of tests yet for release as they are time consuming but it is enough to have a general idea.

Of course the risks still do not compensate the (lack of) profits. It is basically the same as trading profit wise... unless you make a mistake.

 

[vonvonbraun]

They are fetch missions, but I disagree about the danger or profit. A mission to pick up say two tons of Prototype Tech can pay 28K. That's 28K profit right at the start for just finding the items. Now when you find a USS with the items, sometimes you'll find just the two tons, but other times you'll find ten. So, you deliver the original 2 on the bulletin board for the 28K, then sell the other 8 for something like 3-4K apiece for another 32K. 60K for a few minutes work. Even better is if you stack smuggling missions from the same stations.

But mo' money, mo' problems. The danger is getting scanned with all those goods in your hold. I used to think that was no big deal because the hefty fines eat into the profit margin. But I had run of bad luck this weekend and got caught a few times smuggling in Alliance space and they threw the book at me. The entire Alliance is now hostile to me. Security forces fire on me. Individual sub factions allied to the Alliance harass me when I try to bounty hunt. I'd take that as a compliment and embrace the extra opportunity for bounty except I actually WANT to be friendly to the Alliance.

The absolutely STUPID thing is I enjoy trying to sneak into a station. It's a rush hearing "SCAN DETECTED" as I'm bombing toward the slot, begging to see my pad # light up before "28,000 Credit Fine" and the red arrow next to my rep.

So I dig those bulletin board missions.

if you want to get rep fast stack slave missions in warinus, the outpost in lave system. Buy the slaves in orrere next door


regarding profit i think there should be an higher margin, after all this is illegal stuff in high demand, it does not make sense that is actually paid below average




if we look at trading vs smuggling, there is a 4 fold difference in average profit for me at least (50k vs 250k), i think it should be close to similar the bigger your black market network is... You know you are one of those with the "connections"

 

[vonvonbraun]

Its a shame the black market screen is blank unless you're carrying illegal stuff, I guess for now a good way would be to carry 1 of each illegal item to check the prices and demand on a particular black market and then find somewhere that sells these items for cheaper, then you have your smuggling trade route set up.

So does the minus 50% value only apply to stolen goods? i thought it was just a base deduction on anything you tried to sell on black market.

Just checked my area

high demand is roughly 60% galactic average. I say it should be 110-120%


Note that the slaves are not stolen, so full price (but low demand)

 

[BACKER#50040]

I too like smuggling. Does selling certain goods in a system, say, federation controlled contribute to things like civil unrest and such things?

 

[vonvonbraun]

I too like smuggling. Does selling certain goods in a system, say, federation controlled contribute to things like civil unrest and such things?

Apparently no

 

[Rearden]

Just checked my area

high demand is roughly 60% galactic average. I say it should be 110-120%


Note that the slaves are not stolen, so full price (but low demand)

Interesting, I may be confusing my tests with imperial slaves there. Otherwise there are 3 options:

1) Other traders or NPCs are flooding the market there
2) It is random
3) It is broken (well, more than we already knew it was)

Imperial slaves should be something more rare (assuming you're more than 40 LY away from an imperial station) so I don't think the NPCs would overdo it (or players) and you should be getting something better. I just checked my agricultural system and it had high demand for personal weapons (no slaves around here atm).

 

[FreeeLancer]

Just checked my area

high demand is roughly 60% galactic average. I say it should be 110-120%

That makes no sense. A fence will never give you more money for stolen goods then the goods are actually worth.

A marked bill worth 1 pound is not worth 1.2 unmarked pounds. A stolen famous painting is not worth more then same painting obtained through legal auction.

 

[kamenjar]

"How do you make money smuggling?"
Answer is you don't at the moment. You make more money finding legal routes for these commodities.

Demand for illegal goods should be naturally "very high" in most cases, but what makes sense in real economy doesn't make sense in this game. See my FAQ and linky from it to a more in-depth guide.