Not sure I get trading

[Elo]

Alright, new player here

I'm currently sitting on a Viper with a total asset value of maybe 500k credits. If I want credits I can just head to a navbeacon and blow up two or three big ships for a total bounty of 50k to 100k. How exactly do you make that kind of profit with trading? I tried outfitting an adder with cargo space (I think I ended up with 22 available slots). Bought some minerals at a producing station, sold them at a refining station in a system 8 LY away. Got a profit of 300 credits or so per cargo slot. That's 22 * 300 = 6600 credits profit for docking at one station, jumping to another system, super cruising to the station and docking again. in that timeframe I could've killed an asp or something with a nice bounty on it.

Am I missing something? I can see how trading can be profitable if you have huuuuuuge cargo holds, but how do you make money when you can't buy one of those big transporters?

 

[rupok]

Alright, new player here

I'm currently sitting on a Viper with a total asset value of maybe 500k credits. If I want credits I can just head to a navbeacon and blow up two or three big ships for a total bounty of 50k to 100k. How exactly do you make that kind of profit with trading? I tried outfitting an adder with cargo space (I think I ended up with 22 available slots). Bought some minerals at a producing station, sold them at a refining station in a system 8 LY away. Got a profit of 300 credits or so per cargo slot. That's 22 * 300 = 6600 credits profit for docking at one station, jumping to another system, super cruising to the station and docking again. in that timeframe I could've killed an asp or something with a nice bounty on it.

Am I missing something? I can see how trading can be profitable if you have huuuuuuge cargo holds, but how do you make money when you can't buy one of those big transporters?

You need to find profitable trade routes that give like around 20-30k per run.

 

[Defacto]

The highest profits I've gotten since release are somewhere in the 800 Cr/tonne range.
No, right now, bounty hunting at nav beacons seems to be a better way of earning money. It's almost risk-free when you have something like your ship or better, especially with shield cells.

 

[CMDR Andy Dufresne]

Some players can't be amazing fighter pilots and can't shoot for toffee.
Some players just like to fill up the ship with goods and deliver to where it's needed while reading the newspaper.
Some players just prefer to not kill.

In essence, it's there because it needs to be. Just like your fat bounties. It's not all 'bout the dollah bills yo.