Rare commodities trade: Lavian Brandy

fw190a8 · Dec 9, 2014

So I equipped a pretty much stock Cobra (E4 FSD) for cargo, with 44t of space, and bought up 44t of Lavian Brandy, taking it to Eranin. At maximum jump range with full cargo it's just under 9 LY so it's possible to make the journey all the way to Eranin. I have put the trip details in spoiler tags in case anyone would prefer not to know.

Edit: added Pearl Whisky as well

Purchase of 44 x Lavian Brandy is 154,000 cr.

Fuel costs were approximately 15,000 cr, taking the most economical route possible (shortest distance even when it was possible to get there in fewer, longer jumps).

Journey time was about 1 hour, with 2 fuelling stops at stations. I could have taken a fuel scoop but it would have cost cargo space and taken longer.

Profit was 571,000 cr (about 16,500 cr per unit in Eranin).

When subtracting the fuel costs, that's 557,000 cr for about an hour's work.

http://i.imgur.com/rkmTPxO.jpg

For the Eranin Pearl Whisky on the return trip:

Only 34 units available, bought for around 56,000 cr.

I got the journey time down to 45 minutes, mainly because I knew more often where I was going and didn't have to rely on the galaxy map so much.

I used the most direct route this time, and found that the fuel costs were about 16,500 cr, so not significantly more, and well worth the time saving. Still 2 fuel stops.

502,000 cr profit on arriving back at Lave!

Interestingly, I did not sell immediately, because my game crashed, and I had to restart it. When I logged back in, the price had dropped to 447,000 cr profit because the sell price of Eranin Pearl Whisky had dropped! Not sure what's going on there.

(Sorry, I had trouble uploading this image for some reason.)

Hopefully other commanders will find this information useful! It should be noted there's usually a low supply of these rare goods available so it's not always going to be viable or possible to carry that many units at once.

SilverBlack · Dec 9, 2014

I made 1.7 million cr profit in my type 6 104t.

Egan · Dec 10, 2014

I made 666000 and change from 40t selling it at some high tech corporate station about 40 ly past Dahan.

I had a great session tonight doing the trade run out from Eranin to some system way out past Tionisla and then back through Lave and onwards. Visited a lot of systems I've never been to before, in directions I've never gone. My favourite was N Centauri. That binary at the heart of the system.....so close together the white star looks like its eating its companion.

Armante · Dec 10, 2014

fw190a8 said:
So I equipped a pretty much stock Cobra (E4 FSD) for cargo, with 44t of space, and bought up 44t of Lavian Brandy, taking it to Eranin. At maximum jump range with full cargo it's just under 9 LY so it's possible to make the journey all the way to Eranin. I have put the trip details in spoiler tags in case anyone would prefer not to know.

Edit: added Pearl Whisky as well

Purchase of 44 x Lavian Brandy is 154,000 cr.

Fuel costs were approximately 15,000 cr, taking the most economical route possible (shortest distance even when it was possible to get there in fewer, longer jumps).

Journey time was about 1 hour, with 2 fuelling stops at stations. I could have taken a fuel scoop but it would have cost cargo space and taken longer.

Profit was 571,000 cr (about 16,500 cr per unit in Eranin).

When subtracting the fuel costs, that's 557,000 cr for about an hour's work.

http://i.imgur.com/rkmTPxO.jpg

For the Eranin Pearl Whisky on the return trip:

Only 34 units available, bought for around 56,000 cr.

I got the journey time down to 45 minutes, mainly because I knew more often where I was going and didn't have to rely on the galaxy map so much.

I used the most direct route this time, and found that the fuel costs were about 16,500 cr, so not significantly more, and well worth the time saving. Still 2 fuel stops.

502,000 cr profit on arriving back at Lave!

Interestingly, I did not sell immediately, because my game crashed, and I had to restart it. When I logged back in, the price had dropped to 447,000 cr profit because the sell price of Eranin Pearl Whisky had dropped! Not sure what's going on there.

(Sorry, I had trouble uploading this image for some reason.)

Hopefully other commanders will find this information useful! It should be noted there's usually a low supply of these rare goods available so it's not always going to be viable or possible to carry that many units at once.

Upgrade your FSD with the profits. My CObra now jumps 18 Ly fully loaded, and I can make the run in 8 jumps.
Also, get a fuel scoop for goodness sake! Just skim a bit of fuel off every star and you won't need to spend time flying to a station.

Rather than an hour I can do that run in 15 mins (from memory)

Zeeman · Dec 10, 2014

I think it's time to ditch the Hauler for a Cobra. I guess I'll be getting one with the returns on the fake pets I've got in the hold of my Hauler right now... 18Ly jumps, wow, that would cut my jump time significantly!

Though, I wouldn't mind so much if exploration data actually could be sold...

Z...

Reacher · Dec 10, 2014

Did my first run last night from Eranin to Lave last night and I have 104t of brandy in the cargo bay ready for my return trip tonight.

As mentioned above a decent jump range and fuel scoop make the trip fast and economical.

DraigUK · Dec 10, 2014

There's a 20+ page thread on this, there are many many such routes.

here you go
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=63119

currently 27 pages.

Cmdr Andy B · Dec 10, 2014

the trick is to use the stations selling rare commodities as the end point of your play sessions, load up with what they have before logging out for the night then buy more when you log on again to continue playing.

fw190a8 · Dec 10, 2014

Trust me, I'd buy a better FSD if I could find one! Size 2 and 3 seem common but I couldn't find a size 4 one and even the better size 3s aren't as good as my E4.

It's an interesting point about the fuel scoop. Consider a Cobra with a 25% fuel load. Is it quicker to dock and refuel at a 500 Ls station, or scoop to 100%? Ignore the fact that buying fuel costs money in this situation!

The next question would be as to whether the fuel scoop is worth losing a 4 capacity cargo bay for, in terms of lost profits from the smaller load.

Cat_Astrophe · Dec 10, 2014

Took a couple turns on your Lavian Brandy between Lave and Ethgreze in my Cobra. Argh... how boring. Made about 550k per run. Good leg up for someone starting, but I couldn't bear a steady diet of that!!! Same as in the first version, a time or 2 and it's enough. I'ma gonna go back home and mess with the locals! More fun!

Armante · Dec 10, 2014

Cat_Astrophe said:
Took a couple turns on your Lavian Brandy between Lave and Ethgreze in my Cobra. Argh... how boring. Made about 550k per run. Good leg up for someone starting, but I couldn't bear a steady diet of that!!! Same as in the first version, a time or 2 and it's enough. I'ma gonna go back home and mess with the locals! More fun!

If all you care about is money it is an efficient way to do it. I used it to earn a few creds quickly before resuming my regular opportunistic play style.

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fw190a8 said:
Trust me, I'd buy a better FSD if I could find one! Size 2 and 3 seem common but I couldn't find a size 4 one and even the better size 3s aren't as good as my E4.

It's an interesting point about the fuel scoop. Consider a Cobra with a 25% fuel load. Is it quicker to dock and refuel at a 500 Ls station, or scoop to 100%? Ignore the fact that buying fuel costs money in this situation!

The next question would be as to whether the fuel scoop is worth losing a 4 capacity cargo bay for, in terms of lost profits from the smaller load.

Look for upgrades at high population high tech worlds mostly.

As for the fuel scoop, i like having one on my cobra. Can stop almost anywhere to get more fuel. Plenty of systems without stations in the big black

Cat_Astrophe · Dec 10, 2014

Armante said:
If all you care about is money it is an efficient way to do it.

No, I could have done better mining. The benefit came from seeing the effects of focused trade and realizing how it can be used... Well, there is an A4 shield available at Ethgrese too and that did influence me a bit. I don't go for big bank balances, so needed a second trip to get it. Drudgery over, I can now have some more fun!

fw190a8 · Dec 10, 2014

Cat_Astrophe said:
No, I could have done better mining.

Could you? I'm honestly quite interested in that. At a baseline, I can make half a million in an hour with rare commodities, in a stock Cobra with cargo upgrades, and others above have mentioned that an FSD upgrade makes that quicker. Of course, this is subject to availability constraints and so you can't fly this route consistently for the same massive returns.

I watched a YouTube video on mining where (sorry, I can't remember the guy's name) a chap was mining pristine metal rings, and he reckoned an hour's work would net him a load worth 250,000 cr on a good day, and 200,000 cr was an average haul. He was absolutely pro-gaming the mining though, to the point where he's discussing what angle and where to cut the rock so that all the metals line up and make it faster to collect. This video was during the beta phase though, so I'm not sure how up to date that information might be.

I want to stress I'm not looking to "make maximum profit at any cost" or make money or grind as quickly as possible. I'm quite happy doing a Del Boy in a few local systems and making 10 cr profit on a 20 t load of Russian VCRs. It's more like these questions stem from a desire to understand the economy as a whole, and what a player's options might be if they DO want to jam as many space creds in their pockets as possible. If you understand what the limits are, you know how to get yourself out of a pinch and also how to avoid wasting time.

For example, I'd imagine that there is a jump range below which a trip from Lave to Eranin would be impossible, but this is really hard to see from looking at the galactic map in its current state, and it would be a real shame if someone dropped 150,000 cr on Lavian Brandy only to find that 5 systems along the way, he or she couldn't go any further!

Also thanks to AndyB who points out you can purchase rare commodities before logging off, then continue purchasing them when logging back on, which is probably really obvious to some people but is something I hadn't considered, and will really help!

Cat_Astrophe · Dec 10, 2014

fw190a8 said:
Could you? I'm honestly quite interested in that. At a baseline, I can make half a million in an hour with rare commodities, in a stock Cobra with cargo upgrades, and others above have mentioned that an FSD upgrade makes that quicker.!

Yes, I can and have. I'm in a Cobra as well. The trick is finding the right resources. Thing is, it can take a buttload of time finding those resources, so the pay/hour gets watered down significantly when you take that into effect. But I rustle up my own locations rather than mining the forum for data and I consider that an honest way to go about it! The actual pay/hour is a lot lower that way, but it is far more challenging! besides, if the resource system changes so that mining the forum for resource spots goes away, what do the forum miners do then?
>
People can brag all they want about making whatever, but what is the "WHOLE STORY"? How long does it take to find those juicy deals, good trades, and resource spots? That's what no one wants to take into account when they cry about one thing or another. Sheesh, you can probably break 300k in an hour mining in a hauler... after you find a good spot. It's pure drudgery tho, so far. I mine and trade so I can afford my true passion: EXPLORATION! Heaven knows, that's the lowest pay you can get so far... so bad I needed to get a second job to support it! lol (I'm not complaining, it's all good.)