Newcomer / Intro Is there a better way to trade?

James Blonde

J
I gave up on trading very early in the game, as I found it horribly frustrating trying to figure out what to buy and where to take it, without physically writing down (on paper! with a pen! Just like in old Elite 1 days on the Amstrad!) the entire commodities lists for all of the stations I was trading between. The trade data seemed expensive and useless, trade routes on the galaxy map equally useless it seemed, and I couldn't really see the point of the other system 24 hour price comparison, as it didn't give prices.

So I went exploring, and if I took cargo with me, I didn't care that one station wouldn't take it at a decent price, as I'd eventually find one that did (and I could use it as bait for bounty hunting). Unfortunately trying to do exploring, trading and bounty hunting at once meant occasionally losing a ton of cartographic data, cargo and bounties if I picked a bigger battle than I could win! As has just happened and prompted me to ask this question!

I want to go back and give trading another shot to try to make some cash, but I don't want it to be as labour intensive and inefficient as I found it when I started. Any tips??
 

Hellhawk666

Hellhawk666
There are some user-created tools that make trading a lot less tedious. Slopey's BPC app is comprehensive and accesses shared data, and there are others that just record your own data. There is an OCR tool that makes adding data much easier, too.

This function really should be an in-game thing - I can't see any reason for not having a pilot's "logbook" that records trade prices and updates them each time you dock at a station. Not immediate access to current prices everywhere, just an electronic version of what pen and paper does. Seems daft not to have it.
 

Evyl Minkey

E
You can do it more efficiently but I honestly think the way you approached it before is the way to get the most out of this game. If you read all of the posts from people who focus on one trade at a time they often use words like grind and boring. I've never written down commodity prices, I just buy stuff and move on to find somewhere to sell at a profit. Mixing it with bounties for those who attack you and the sale of cartographic data, while not the fastest way to get rich, does appear to be the most enjoyable and fits in with the lore.

Others will tell you to use one of the many trading tools or if you are in a small ship do rares runs. I think you should continue as an armed trading explorer (Del Boy meets Marco Polo) and you will pick up experience, ranks and fun much more easily.
 

James Blonde

J
I had a Cobra hold full of rares when I perhaps bit off a bit more of an Anaconda than I could chew. And about 300K in assorted bounties. And another 100K in exploration data.

Bah.
 

Richard

R
Trading got a lot easier since the commodity descriptions were updated to tell you which Economies buy or sell it. Just by reading the commodity descriptions you should be able to find somewhere appropriate to sell your cargo and make at least some profit. Making good profit still needs a bit of exploration to find stations with high supply and high demand for whatever you're trading.
 

Hrolf

H
Yes, use Thrudd's: http://elitetradingtool.co.uk/. It's set up for several different trading styles. The one that you really make money on is the FIND TRADES tab. I've been making about 80K per loop from Sol using a Cobra and managed to upgrade the ship and add an intermediate and surface scanner (750K) to let me go exploring. It is a boring grind but for newbies it's a safe way to make money.
 

Pizz001

Pizz001
Try this 71 one stop rares run , all but 2-3 stops have large pads it worth a good 10-20 mill and also has a good load of high tech stations etc so you can upgrade your ship as you do the loop https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=101211

i've done this a few times and is well worth giving it a go ( if you like it give the op some rep as their work is very good )

also as the post above has said add a better scanner , but i'd say go for a advance one as that with the detailed scanner will give you lvl 3 scans and some system i've scanned have been worth a good 75k-120k a go
 
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zabadoh

Z
Regular trading is meh, especially in a Sidey with only 4-6 cargo spaces.

Rares trading is very profitable for ships with limited cargo space and the quick way to the middle game.

But do some missions first to build up some funds and upgrade your ship to maximize jump distance. You may want to lighten your ship by selling your ship's scanners, weapons and shields and getting additional cargo holds.

I forget, does the starting Sidey come with a fuel scoop? Because to save time, you'll want to avoid wasting time docking midway to refuel..

Here's a simple 2-cluster rares trading circuit that's perfect for beginners:

http://tomgidden.github.io/elite-dangerous-tools/Rares-Circuit-1.pdf
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
Rares trading is a honeypot mechanic.You're sure to see plenty of CMDRs if you do it in open.

Whether you trade rares or not is your call. Take guns with you. You can still make plenty of credits early-game without the risk. It's a but slower, but it works well enough to get you into a bigger ship relatively quickly. The key is to head away from the starter areas. The only proviso is that I don't recommend doing any trading at all until you are in at least an Adder.

What ship do you fly?
 

hawkenfox

hawkenfox
Actually I found out there are only a few commodity that is worthy of a commander's attention ... and I now exclusively trade those items.

Make your own list and just ignore the rest of those lowly commodity unless you are starting out.
 
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