Welcome to capitalism!
The price based on your cargo hold is completely correct. I won't say it's fair. But it is real. There are a few reason for that.
- Bulk prices are always lower than retail prices. So selling a good bunch of items should be cheaper than selling a few. To avoid cheating by selling one by one, cargo hold is a good measure for bulk prices.
- You want your cargo space back. That forces you to sell sooner, at lower prices. You want more money? Then wait until prices rise, but you won't be mining more LTD.
- Supply also regulate prices, not only demand. If you put an big selling order on the market prices go low even before the transaction is made.
- Look at the news. How many farmers are struggling because the have to sell at minimun prices, even lower than production costs.
Large Miner ships, or those wing mining, are working on economies of scale. And I kinda figured this was capitalism too.
But as the seller, if I have 512 of something that doesn't mean I'm interested in selling them all in one spot / outpost/ station... I agree bulk is cheaper, but the seller should be able to choose to sell a smaller quantity, and not be stuck with the bulk price just because they are carrying it around. The person who decides to sell 100 units out of their 512 unit hold is going to put in more time going to other stations and they are going to have to decide for themselves if the profit/hour is worth the extra jumps, dealing with pirates, etc.
Or, let pilots store loaded cargo modules...that way they can wait for the market to improve. Heck, let them take "futures" on a commodity?
I know a thing or two about farming and ranching, and you are correct. It's why certain commodities become subsidized by government. And those subsidies are supposed to help provide farmers time to adjust to market demands or find new markets for their products, but they aren't as responsive as most markets, which are also affected by a thousand other variables, like the weather (not just local to the farmer, but global.) Some of us don't have to read the news, our families have lived through it and is why many of us didn't follow in the legacy after watching our parents deal with making the family budget and pay for the ranch while contending with the huge economic swings agricultural production... it doesn't make for much of game.
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