Horizons Rares have a buy price where no supply

[stardotstar]

Hi commanders, I'm sure I just couldn't make the search for this answer work - so a quick one I guess:

Just started running a rares route and notice that as the sell price climbs with distance I still see low buy prices at stations with no supply. How does that work? It's not related to the galactic average or my original buy price.

ie

I have 4 Tonnes of Indi Bourbon at Poisson Dock
it is listed as SELL 14,818 BUY 105 - and I bought at 129

14 Tonnes of Centauri Mega Gin
SELL 15,044 BUY 265

34 Hutton Mugs
SELL 14,657 BUY 12

I notice that other goods with no supplylist their BUY price as '-' which makes sense.

Thanks for reading
Best,
Will

 

[goemon]

not sure what your question is...

- sell price increases over 150 ly till it caps out

- buy price at other stations has no relevance, as you can only buy those rares at special stations.

 

[stardotstar]

Thank you goemon, I get the concept of buying and selling rares but what I was wondering is why there is a buy price for them at stations that have no supply, and especially one that is so low.
Presumably if there is demand for the Hutton Mug at another system a long way away (or however far away) then there wouldn't be an advertised sell price there (unless it was an 'in case' price representative of the possibility that some trader like myself may come through - sell some amount of Hutton Mugs that they will then on-sell - in which case the sell price should sensibly reflect a margin as it does on other goods as opposed to a huge discrepancy).
It seems that the trade system is programmed to be able to present 'no price' for some goods for which there is no supply and only demand with the '-' instead of a value that is uninterpretable.
Your statement that the buy price at other stations has no relevance is really what I'm querying given the fact that other commodities have either a sensible buy price or '-' depending on supply and the rares have a (seemingly) in-sensible buy price represented when there is no (or ostensibly no) supply but the relative demand for those rares at that station.