Newcomer / Intro Trading - help a newbie out :)

[Midgetalien]

Hello everyone,

I got this game a couple of days ago and aside from a difficult install everything is looking good!

I am currently doing trades from one station to another in the Everate (spelling?) system. I have took some trade jobs from the board which have took me to a few other systems and I always take a good look at their goods but they all seem the same :/

I am making some small profits in my sidewinder in Everate but I feel this could become a comfort zone. I am looking for more of a challenge so I went a couple of systems out than normal but still not seeing anything good for trade.

Also is it worth ditching the scanner and shields for more cargo space?


I considered mining once and that requires a cargo scanner and refinery. I backed out as I didnt know what to chuck :|

-MA-

P.S Thanks for any help/advice in advance

P.P.S if other newbies wish to converse tactics/profits/set ups/game talk and share their adventures as they learn I will be more than happy to add a few to my friends list in game! I am from the UK so UK night times is when I am on (usually after 7pm - till whenever I get tired lol.)

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

Welcome Commander

Doing Bulletin Board missions is a good start, and sometimes 'forces' you to explore new systems (no bad thing, to get out of ruts).

Two main types of missions. "Take that" and "fetch this". I far prefer the former.

"Take that", means a one-way trip, the mission gives you the cargo, and you just need to deliver it. Simples. Plus you can 'daisy-chain' a series of those sorts of missions. And any spare cargo space can be filled with normal trading of commodities.

"Fetch this", means a two-way trip, as you need to go and find it, buy it (your own money) and bring it back. Less simples, and leaves you back in the starting system. Good for building reputation with that faction if you keep doing missions for them. Can also fill the hold with cargo on the outward leg, and use spare space on the way back. RISK - that you can't actually find (or find quickly) the item the mission asks for.

Alongside these might be courier missions, also one-way, that take no cargo space. Could be data, plans, etc. Often will be linked to undermining a neighbouring system's faction, so you're into playing 'sides' by doing these missions.

NORMAL TRADING
I posted here (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=66494) bottom of the first page.

Also, there's a pattern to who buys what from who. On the Commodity Market page highlight an item, and top right in the side panel it will display the economy system types that typically buy/sell.

If you use the following rough principles you'll not go far wrong. There are items for every wallet. It's based on Economy types. Learn how to use the Galaxy Map to display systems by Economy (not the default Faction).

I assume you're starting out and may be buying lower value items.

Agricultural - can take Foods to any other system, usually for profit, but food stuff never makes big numbers. Let's take Fruit & Veg to an Extraction system.
Extraction - has mostly Minerals, so take Bauxite to a Refinery system.
Refinery - turns the Minerals into Metals, and also Industrial Materials, so take Aluminium to an Industrial system.
Industrial - turns Metals and Materials into Machinery and a couple of other things, which can go to most other systems, but let's take Computer Components to a High Tech system
High Tech - produces Medicines, Consumer Items, Technology and Weapons. Maybe take Animal Monitors back to an Agri system.

Rinse & repeat. You don't need to go through all five types. A nice round trip might be to pair an Agri and Indi, trading Foods with Crop Harvesters.

Please keep an eye on High Demand / High Supply goods.

At first if you make a profit on 2 out of 3 trips you're doing well. Eventually you'll be making profit 9 times out of 10. I still sometimes make a loss when going to a new system where I've guessed what they SHOULD buy, but it turns out they don't. Just sell, take the loss, and move on to trade again.

 

[Sarge13]

I found doing the seeking luxuries was a good way to get cash fast you can find heaps of YouTube clips on how to do it

 

[Ferris]

Also is it worth ditching the scanner and shields for more cargo space?

If you have no plans on doing exploration you can ditch the D-Scanner to make more space for cargo, or the shields if you are feeling adventurous.

Also Eratave is right next to a starting system, LHS3447, so the markets may be quite saturated in that area.. Might be worth moving away from that area, maybe 20/30LY and see if you get better commodity prices.

Good Luck.

P.S. Great Explanation Johnny Cyclops, I would +rep you but I already did for another post you made today.

 

[Razorwire]

...is it worth ditching the scanner and shields for more cargo space?

I considered mining once and that requires a cargo scanner and refinery. I backed out as I didnt know what to chuck :|...

Ditch the scanner if you're trading, but don't ditch your shield; one docking mishap and you set yourself back hours.

Also, you don't need a cargo scanner for mining, just a mining laser, a refinery and some cargo room. Again, I would be careful ditching you shield, as there are pirates in extraction areas.

 

[orgtest]

Trade is based on two things how much you carry and how fast your run is! Anything that dosnt boost those two things are no good to you! Just means you have to be very good at avoiding interdiction but again being able to jump 15ly is also preferable!

 

[Midgetalien]

Agricultural - can take Foods to any other system, usually for profit, but food stuff never makes big numbers. Let's take Fruit & Veg to an Extraction system.
Extraction - has mostly Minerals, so take Bauxite to a Refinery system.
Refinery - turns the Minerals into Metals, and also Industrial Materials, so take Aluminium to an Industrial system.
Industrial - turns Metals and Materials into Machinery and a couple of other things, which can go to most other systems, but let's take Computer Components to a High Tech system
High Tech - produces Medicines, Consumer Items, Technology and Weapons. Maybe take Animal Monitors back to an Agri system.

Rinse & repeat. You don't need to go through all five types. A nice round trip might be to pair an Agri and Indi, trading Foods with Crop Harvesters.

Please keep an eye on High Demand / High Supply goods.

At first if you make a profit on 2 out of 3 trips you're doing well. Eventually you'll be making profit 9 times out of 10. I still sometimes make a loss when going to a new system where I've guessed what they SHOULD buy, but it turns out they don't. Just sell, take the loss, and move on to trade again.

Thanks for the advice - it puts a new perspective on trading. I didn't realize that it was, well that simple but complex at the same time! That pattern should help.

If you have no plans on doing exploration you can ditch the D-Scanner to make more space for cargo, or the shields if you are feeling adventurous.

Also Eratave is right next to a starting system, LHS3447, so the markets may be quite saturated in that area.. Might be worth moving away from that area, maybe 20/30LY and see if you get better commodity prices.

Good Luck.

I am going to move a few light years away and use the pattern mentioned above see if I can get some more Credits

So heavy-populated systems direct supply and demand?

Ditch the scanner if you're trading, but don't ditch your shield; one docking mishap and you set yourself back hours.

Also, you don't need a cargo scanner for mining, just a mining laser, a refinery and some cargo room. Again, I would be careful ditching you shield, as there are pirates in extraction areas.

I mean cargo scoop not scanner lol. My bad. I already experienced a bad docking, well exit from a dock. Some guy came up from underneath me and slammed straight into the front of my. Knocked my shields out and caused an oxygen leak. I had to do a quick u-turn and repair at the dock.

Trade is based on two things how much you carry and how fast your run is! Anything that dosnt boost those two things are no good to you! Just means you have to be very good at avoiding interdiction but again being able to jump 15ly is also preferable!

so upgrade systems dispenser, thrust and FSD first before anything else?

 

[bigshep]

Not sure if this is still applicable, but there is a nice in system run in the Everate system (never can spell it right) Buy Tea at Ankerman market, sell at Mcmahron station (+250pt), but Crop harvesters and sell at Ankerman Market (+500 pt), or buy marine equipment (+600 pt). It is about a 5 minute trip and you get good practice at docking. I sold the basic discovery scanner on the sidewinder for more cargo space. I think I ended up with 9 cargo slots I think as i did ditch the sidewinders shields (ship was free after all and I wasn't shooting anything). The cash soon adds up, then I traded in for a hauler and had 16t of cargo. Doing the trade side missions is great and can be good profit, just remember who wants what. I normally have a pad and paper next to me to remember who wants what, tick it off when I buy it, cross it out when I sell it.

 

[Huntn]

Not sure if this is still applicable, but there is a nice in system run in the Everate system (never can spell it right) Buy Tea at Ankerman market, sell at Mcmahron station (+250pt), but Crop harvesters and sell at Ankerman Market (+500 pt), or buy marine equipment (+600 pt). It is about a 5 minute trip and you get good practice at docking. I sold the basic discovery scanner on the sidewinder for more cargo space. I think I ended up with 9 cargo slots I think as i did ditch the sidewinders shields (ship was free after all and I wasn't shooting anything). The cash soon adds up, then I traded in for a hauler and had 16t of cargo. Doing the trade side missions is great and can be good profit, just remember who wants what. I normally have a pad and paper next to me to remember who wants what, tick it off when I buy it, cross it out when I sell it.

OK, how to you find decent missions? I'm a newb that is going broke. My first hauling mission netted me 2000 credits or so. After that I saw hardly any decent missions at my start location, (Trivithick Dock in LHS 3447 System) So reading online that Everate was a great place to trade, I headed there. Looks like a little incident approaching Ackerman Market involved a 900c bounty, (I was attacked by a pirate, authority forces showed up, I killed the pirate, but ended up with a bounty on my head and destroyed?? ) which I payed left me with about 900 credits. Plus I have a paid a 400 fine for landing pad loitering in Akerman and now I'm down to 500c.

So here I am in the so-called great trading place and last night I did'nt see jack in Ackerman Market. This morning, none of the missions are acceptable cause "they don't trust me enough", hah! I figured out how to open the galaxy map. How do you analyze where the decent credit making opportunities are? Especially missions that newbs can handle. Should I go back to where I started?

Help me figure out how to make some money. What happens if you run out, are you dead in the water or can you get some credits somehow? In such a circumstance how would you reboot yourself in this game? Fortunately I have nothing invested in my ship. With the lack of guidance this seems like a serious flaw in the game. In not a wild man out there living on the edge, just trying to get started. My observation is that ED should be much more forgiving of new players than it is. But I'm not giving up yet.

 

[Stegs]

Useful thread, thanks. I'll try using some of the tips above - could be a good way of gaining some initial game experience and a few credits.

 

[Rhonda]

So reading online that Everate was a great place to trade, I headed there.
[...] In not a wild man out there living on the edge, just trying to get started. My observation is that ED should be much more forgiving of new players than it is. But I'm not giving up yet.

Don't give up!

As soon as you read about a good trade route on the internet, you can assume it's already sucked dry. Find your own trade route/circle. Cling to all the good advice Johnny Cyclopse already gave in the 2nd poste on this thread.
Color the stars in your Galaxy map to show their economy. Also the im/export paths can be quite helpful if you filter for certain commodities. Don't trust them too much, you still need to check supply/demand and prices yourself.

Regarding missions: while you look for a good trade route always check the BB. If you stay in an area for longer you will increase faction standing and they will offer better missions. Unfortunately the map is no help when looking for good missions other than checking which (sub-)faction controls a certain system. And a small yellow globe indicating you have an active mission in a system.

 

[Ferris]

OK, how to you find decent missions? I'm a newb that is going broke. My first hauling mission netted me 2000 credits or so. After that I saw hardly any decent missions at my start location, (Trivithick Dock in LHS 3447 System) So reading online that Everate was a great place to trade, I headed there. Looks like a little incident approaching Ackerman Market involved a 900c bounty, (I was attacked by a pirate, authority forces showed up, I killed the pirate, but ended up with a bounty on my head and destroyed?? ) which I payed left me with about 900 credits. Plus I have a paid a 400 fine for landing pad loitering in Akerman and now I'm down to 500c.

So here I am in the so-called great trading place and last night I did'nt see jack in Ackerman Market. This morning, none of the missions are acceptable cause "they don't trust me enough", hah! I figured out how to open the galaxy map. How do you analyze where the decent credit making opportunities are? Especially missions that newbs can handle. Should I go back to where I started?

Help me figure out how to make some money. What happens if you run out, are you dead in the water or can you get some credits somehow? In such a circumstance how would you reboot yourself in this game? Fortunately I have nothing invested in my ship. With the lack of guidance this seems like a serious flaw in the game. In not a wild man out there living on the edge, just trying to get started. My observation is that ED should be much more forgiving of new players than it is. But I'm not giving up yet.

Try checking out the Harmless Guide to the Galaxy. It is a great guide for players just starting out. Gives basic info on trading, combat and missions.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=80291

If you are completely stuck and have run out of credits entirely you can always reset your save game from the main menu.
It can be a little frustrating to earn your first few credits but once you do, you can start buying ship upgrades and gaining rep with factions and you will find much more lucrative missions and trading opportunities will open up.

The trade info on the galaxy map can be a little bit misleading at the moment. Personally I prefer visiting the local systems/stations, check out the markets for myself, with a notepad (or take a screen grab) and then compare supply and demand. It shouldn't take too long for you to find a trade route that you can rinse and repeat a few times.

Good Luck..

 

[Huntn]

Don't give up!

As soon as you read about a good trade route on the internet, you can assume it's already sucked dry. Find your own trade route/circle. Cling to all the good advice Johnny Cyclopse already gave in the 2nd poste on this thread.
Color the stars in your Galaxy map to show their economy. Also the im/export paths can be quite helpful if you filter for certain commodities. Don't trust them too much, you still need to check supply/demand and prices yourself.

Regarding missions: while you look for a good trade route always check the BB. If you stay in an area for longer you will increase faction standing and they will offer better missions. Unfortunately the map is no help when looking for good missions other than checking which (sub-)faction controls a certain system. And a small yellow globe indicating you have an active mission in a system.

Are trading commodities seperate from the bulletin board? I remember looking there and not seeing anything that looked like an offer to haul stuff. Thanks for the help!

Try checking out the Harmless Guide to the Galaxy. It is a great guide for players just starting out. Gives basic info on trading, combat and missions

If you are completely stuck and have run out of credits entirely you can always reset your save game from the main menu.
It can be a little frustrating to earn your first few credits but once you do, you can start buying ship upgrades and gaining rep with factions and you will find much more lucrative missions and trading opportunities will open up.

The trade info on the galaxy map can be a little bit misleading at the moment. Personally I prefer visiting the local systems/stations, check out the markets for myself, with a notepad (or take a screen grab) and then compare supply and demand. It shouldn't take too long for you to find a trade route that you can rinse and repeat a few times.

Good Luck..

Thanks, I'll check it out!

 

[Midgetalien]

some more useful stuff! Many thanks guys. Keep it coming

Also anyone fancy swapping tips in game drop me a PM with your in game name.

 

[bigshep]

OK, how to you find decent missions? I'm a newb that is going broke. My first hauling mission netted me 2000 credits or so. After that I saw hardly any decent missions at my start location, (Trivithick Dock in LHS 3447 System) So reading online that Everate was a great place to trade, I headed there. Looks like a little incident approaching Ackerman Market involved a 900c bounty, (I was attacked by a pirate, authority forces showed up, I killed the pirate, but ended up with a bounty on my head and destroyed?? ) which I payed left me with about 900 credits. Plus I have a paid a 400 fine for landing pad loitering in Akerman and now I'm down to 500c.

So here I am in the so-called great trading place and last night I did'nt see jack in Ackerman Market. This morning, none of the missions are acceptable cause "they don't trust me enough", hah! I figured out how to open the galaxy map. How do you analyze where the decent credit making opportunities are? Especially missions that newbs can handle. Should I go back to where I started?

Help me figure out how to make some money. What happens if you run out, are you dead in the water or can you get some credits somehow? In such a circumstance how would you reboot yourself in this game? Fortunately I have nothing invested in my ship. With the lack of guidance this seems like a serious flaw in the game. In not a wild man out there living on the edge, just trying to get started. My observation is that ED should be much more forgiving of new players than it is. But I'm not giving up yet.

Mate, you can reset anytime you like, if you are just starting out, running out of cash and have pretty much done nothing except get some fines on your head, then quit and start again. (another option would be to crash into the local star and die, you will get a new sidewinder and your 1000 credits back. If you do it after you take off from Everate then you will start back there.)

Trading is not just using the bulletin board for missions. Trading is buying stuff from A and shipping it to B and selling it in the commodity market. As Ankerman market is an agriculture station and McMahon is industrial then you buy food at Ankerman and sell it at Mcmahon and buy either crop harvesters, power generators or something like that at Mchamhon to sell back to Ankerman, even if you just buy one, you will make a profit. If you cannot afford to buy something at McMahon then just fly back to Anckerman and buy some more food to sell. Just check the bulletin boards and you may find mission that ask for you to supply something, then go pick that up. Do not pick up the missions with the hand and a cross, as they are to give something for free. When trading from A to B, you do need to write down a few prices to make sure you are ok, however buying food at an agri station and selling at an industrial one will always work. Once you have some credits then look at the missions, if you start to do a few then you reputation builds up and they give you better missions. Start off with trade runs, or pick a small bounty hunter mission where you have to go find a pirate somewhere.

Onto combat: You will get a price on your head if you FIRE FIRST. If you are interdicted by a pirate, until he hits you he is still neutral. When he hits you and goes red on your radar then you can shoot him back. Do not shoot a local ship by accident, they put a fine on you. Do not loiter in the station or land at the wrong pad. If you don't think you can land in time, leave the station and ask for docking again. if inside the station get out fast, you have 5 minutes to lift up, landing gear up, rotate to line up with slot and increase acceleration. plenty of time.

You will die a fair few times. ED has a STEEP learning curve, it is not an easy game to master. That is why your starting ship is free. you will pick it up and as it is a completely open game you will find something you like doing. I like space trucking, I like building up rep with a faction, so I am flying trade missions for various stations in the Alliance to build me overall rep with the alliance. Some like bounty hunting, actively searching points for wanted felons and turning them into space confetti and cash. Some like to play pirate and hunt out other player to extort cargo from the space truckers. Some like to explore and some do all of the above.

Hope it helps a bit.

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

Are trading commodities seperate from the bulletin board? I remember looking there and not seeing anything that looked like an offer to haul stuff. Thanks for the help!

Yes, they are. At most Starports and some Outposts you should see both a Bulletin Board and Commodity Market. Still plenty to trade even with 500Cr and a Sidewinder. First tip, only trade with part of your money and leave some spare (maybe leave 300 or 400 spare).

Go look for an Agriculture system, buy 1 ton of grain (~100cr) and take to a nearby Industrial system and sell on that market (~200cr). Congratulations, you just doubled your money on that trade, and you've got 600cr (up from 500cr). In a Sidewinder you have 4 tons of cargo space, so maybe buy 4 tons of Biowaste (~15cr each, so 60cr total) and take back to the Agri system (~75cr each, so 300cr total). Your 600cr is now 850cr, so this time buy 3 or 4 tons of Grain, gain 400cr (now on 1250cr), and so on.

Once you've got a bit more in the bank you can trade higher value goods, e.g. bring back Crop Harvesters (~2200cr per ton), or ship Coffee/Tea (~1400 cr per ton).

I'm probably not alone in experienced Commanders in hankering for the days of making such simple traders and building up a little nest egg. But, the principles remain the same, buy low, sell high.

You mentioned that on the Bulletin Board all the missions were not available to you due to the faction not trusting you enough. This is likely because you got a wanted status there and even once cleared the faction remembers for a while. Good news - basic commodity trading is a way of rebuilding your rep (by bringing them stuff they need), so you can improve and get access to those missions. Or just move on to another system and another faction's missions, but often to get started on a bulletin board you need to get a little bit of positive rep, through trading or maybe bounty hunting.

 

[Huntn]

Mate, you can reset anytime you like, if you are just starting out, running out of cash and have pretty much done nothing except get some fines on your head, then quit and start again. (another option would be to crash into the local star and die, you will get a new sidewinder and your 1000 credits back. If you do it after you take off from Everate then you will start back there.)

Trading is not just using the bulletin board for missions. Trading is buying stuff from A and shipping it to B and selling it in the commodity market. As Ankerman market is an agriculture station and McMahon is industrial then you buy food at Ankerman and sell it at Mcmahon and buy either crop harvesters, power generators or something like that at Mchamhon to sell back to Ankerman, even if you just buy one, you will make a profit. If you cannot afford to buy something at McMahon then just fly back to Anckerman and buy some more food to sell. Just check the bulletin boards and you may find mission that ask for you to supply something, then go pick that up. Do not pick up the missions with the hand and a cross, as they are to give something for free. When trading from A to B, you do need to write down a few prices to make sure you are ok, however buying food at an agri station and selling at an industrial one will always work. Once you have some credits then look at the missions, if you start to do a few then you reputation builds up and they give you better missions. Start off with trade runs, or pick a small bounty hunter mission where you have to go find a pirate somewhere.

Onto combat: You will get a price on your head if you FIRE FIRST. If you are interdicted by a pirate, until he hits you he is still neutral. When he hits you and goes red on your radar then you can shoot him back. Do not shoot a local ship by accident, they put a fine on you. Do not loiter in the station or land at the wrong pad. If you don't think you can land in time, leave the station and ask for docking again. if inside the station get out fast, you have 5 minutes to lift up, landing gear up, rotate to line up with slot and increase acceleration. plenty of time.

You will die a fair few times. ED has a STEEP learning curve, it is not an easy game to master. That is why your starting ship is free. you will pick it up and as it is a completely open game you will find something you like doing. I like space trucking, I like building up rep with a faction, so I am flying trade missions for various stations in the Alliance to build me overall rep with the alliance. Some like bounty hunting, actively searching points for wanted felons and turning them into space confetti and cash. Some like to play pirate and hunt out other player to extort cargo from the space truckers. Some like to explore and some do all of the above.

Hope it helps a bit.

It does, thanks! I'll look to check that route you mentioned. What about resets- do resets give you 1000c or must you kill yourself? I've died a couple of times and don't remember getting my 1000c back, my account balance seemed to be the same as it was.

Yes, they are. At most Starports and some Outposts you should see both a Bulletin Board and Commodity Market. Still plenty to trade even with 500Cr and a Sidewinder. First tip, only trade with part of your money and leave some spare (maybe leave 300 or 400 spare).

Go look for an Agriculture system, buy 1 ton of grain (~100cr) and take to a nearby Industrial system and sell on that market (~200cr). Congratulations, you just doubled your money on that trade, and you've got 600cr (up from 500cr). In a Sidewinder you have 4 tons of cargo space, so maybe buy 4 tons of Biowaste (~15cr each, so 60cr total) and take back to the Agri system (~75cr each, so 300cr total). Your 600cr is now 850cr, so this time buy 3 or 4 tons of Grain, gain 400cr (now on 1250cr), and so on.

Once you've got a bit more in the bank you can trade higher value goods, e.g. bring back Crop Harvesters (~2200cr per ton), or ship Coffee/Tea (~1400 cr per ton).

I'm probably not alone in experienced Commanders in hankering for the days of making such simple traders and building up a little nest egg. But, the principles remain the same, buy low, sell high.

You mentioned that on the Bulletin Board all the missions were not available to you due to the faction not trusting you enough. This is likely because you got a wanted status there and even once cleared the faction remembers for a while. Good news - basic commodity trading is a way of rebuilding your rep (by bringing them stuff they need), so you can improve and get access to those missions. Or just move on to another system and another faction's missions, but often to get started on a bulletin board you need to get a little bit of positive rep, through trading or maybe bounty hunting.

Thanks much! More questions to follow.

 

[Huntn]

Not sure if this is still applicable, but there is a nice in system run in the Everate system (never can spell it right) Buy Tea at Ankerman market, sell at Mcmahron station (+250pt), but Crop harvesters and sell at Ankerman Market (+500 pt), or buy marine equipment (+600 pt). It is about a 5 minute trip and you get good practice at docking. I sold the basic discovery scanner on the sidewinder for more cargo space. I think I ended up with 9 cargo slots I think as i did ditch the sidewinders shields (ship was free after all and I wasn't shooting anything). The cash soon adds up, then I traded in for a hauler and had 16t of cargo. Doing the trade side missions is great and can be good profit, just remember who wants what. I normally have a pad and paper next to me to remember who wants what, tick it off when I buy it, cross it out when I sell it.

I assume I'll find McMahon in the Eravate System on the destinations page?

Looking on the commodities page trying to figure how this works. For Algae at Ackerman Station it says Sell: 39, Buy 53, Cargo column shows a dot, Demand colum is blank. Over on the right side of the screen for Algae it says exported to: Chamunda, Kremainn, Yakabugai, and Potriti. McMahon is not on the list nor do I see it for Tea. How do you figure out if McMahon wants Algae or Tea and how much they will pay for it?

For Algae, does the above mean that they will sell it to me for 39 a unit, or I have to buy it from them for 53 a unit? Then if I plan on hauling it someplace, how do I know how much they will pay for it there?

Thanks!

 

[Haileene]

Once you are really ok with trading, you might try out this tool
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=96350&highlight=

It's very useful, but absolutely not automated, so you'll have to fill out all yourself (that's the downside), but once you start to go trading off the most comander's path if you are a bit braver and try to set up a quiet place for yourself, then you'll soon discover that your place has absolutely no prices feedback from other cmder's...

Other good thing, once you have set up a good trading place, and you want to do some missions and need a very specific item, it will help you finding the right station where you need to grab it with 100% sure info as you have entered them yourself.

Have fun in trading and fly safe out there

 

[Razorwire]

I assume I'll find McMahon in the Eravate System on the destinations page?

Looking on the commodities page trying to figure how this works. For Algae at Ackerman Station it says Sell: 39, Buy 53, Cargo column shows a dot, Demand colum is blank. Over on the right side of the screen for Algae it says exported to: Chamunda, Kremainn, Yakabugai, and Potriti. McMahon is not on the list nor do I see it for Tea. How do you figure out if McMahon wants Algae or Tea and how much they will pay for it?

For Algae, does the above mean that they will sell it to me for 39 a unit, or I have to buy it from them for 53 a unit? Then if I plan on hauling it someplace, how do I know how much they will pay for it there?

Thanks!

Where a commodity has two prices, a buy and a sell, you buy from the market at the higher one. In your algae example you would pay 53 credits per unit, and the station would buy it off you for 39.

The export list shows star systems, McMahon is a port, so it won't show there.

Generally if the market shows a demand, they are buying, and if they show a supply, they are selling. The cargo column shows how many units of that commodity you have on your ship.

The only sure way to find out if the other station will buy at a profit is to fly over there and check. You are generally safe to assume that industrial stations will pay good money for food (not cartridges), as they don't produce any themselves.

Make a few notes before you leave, as you'll not be able to check your current market when you get over there, and you'll want some good to return with.