Trading and system average

[arcatuseon]

I am new to the game. In this kind of games I often take a traders point of view.

And second evening of playing I came across a station with mining rush. As a result they sold metoric diamonds for ~7000. Great I thought; system average is 13.110 so there is allot of profit to be made.

The only problem is; Now I can't find anywhere that purchases for above the system average. I have found several others with mining rush, etc, so getting hold of Metoric diamonds for that price is easy.

But I am struggling to sell for above 10.000. I have not, in two evenings, encountered a single station with a price above the system average. The Red Devil pirates doesn't really like me, so I can't access their station, but I just finished a complete cicle of all the other stations in the starter system and none of them were above average on the Diamonds.

So for two evenings I have been flying around with expencive cargo I can't really shift with a decent profit.

I also have a robot that I got at a low price, and they are also still in my cargohold; without a good byer for it. And as I mentioned I just did a complete circle. Nobody with a green price for robots. Or Diamonds. Conincidence?

That makes me wonder; Is the system average not an actual average or is it more like a defined value that the goods occilate around? Is the ocilations balanced? If someone is selling low, will someone else purhcase high? It doesn't look that way.

From my tiny bit of data there seems to be bias towards "bying low". Other than the famine events, is there any events that push prices up? Is anyone else experiencing something similar? Or am I just really unlucky?

[obliviondoll]

I've found that quite often, the best way to make a profit is to sell items to traders out in space - they often pay better than the stations will.

[Neuromancer]

I would like clarification as well. I have seen similar woes of buying something that was way below system average. When I saw the item's details saying that the particular commodity was exported to <some station>, I visited that station and saw that particular station was buying it below system average. Checking out the prices from other stations that I have visited showed that they also were buying it below system average (if they bought it at all). I still made profit because the station I sold the goods to was buying higher than what I bought it for. Ultimately it is still our responsibility to make good trading decisions but it does seem to me that the tools given to us doesn't always seem to give us accurate (or near accurate) information.

[Neuromancer]

Originally posted by obliviondoll:

I've found that quite often, the best way to make a profit is to sell items to traders out in space - they often pay better than the stations will.

Being new to the game, I didn't even know that was an option. I will definitely try that out.

[Galle]

The system average is something I haven't yet figured out. It may be the genuine mean price of all stations in the system (including the pirate ones you can't access), or it may be a sort of baseline that prices trend toward over time.

If it helps, getting the right events will eventually help you offload some of those goods at high prices. Huge Celebration drives up demand for Meteoric Diamonds, and War means people wnat to buy robots for their robot armies.

[VeraelHasta]

Well I thought that system average was well, for one system. But I had problems with that too. Currently I gather 50 Tachyon Salt in one system with no way to sell it there. So I went to another one and sold it there.

Also always check News boards. If hub is about to go under siege, they pay more for some goods. Also hub already under siege can buy more but it is harder to get there without good ship.

[Edwardlloyd]

buy (!) reds, then sell for greens or (!) greens. you will eventually find a green price

[Cappyhawk]

I found that going to a different system is better than trying to find a station in the same system to sell them to.

[arcatuseon]

Originally posted by Edwardlloyd:

buy (!) reds, then sell for greens or (!) greens. you will eventually find a green price

Obvoiusly I will run into a green price eventually, but that is part of the problem. It should be as many planets with slightly green prices as there are planets with slightly red. And a few extremes to makes things interesting.

But my run trough all the stations were (!) red, red, red (!)red, red ,etc. I don't have enugh data to make any statistical backed claims, so I am asking if other experience the same thing; If they do it's tempting to call this a bug.

[Rabidnid]

Originally posted by Galle:

The system average is something I haven't yet figured out. It may be the genuine mean price of all stations in the system (including the pirate ones you can't access), or it may be a sort of baseline that prices trend toward over time.

If it helps, getting the right events will eventually help you offload some of those goods at high prices. Huge Celebration drives up demand for Meteoric Diamonds, and War means people wnat to buy robots for their robot armies.

Selling diamonds, designer clothes and Greel whisky on stations having celebrations can make you loads of money. Diamonds can go for 20K and even Whiskey can go for 10. Clothes go for 15 to 20k. You need the money to buy the stuff in the place, but you can get a return of over 100k if you are lucky.

Also note bartenders will tell you which stations are selling some things low.

Basically I buy diamonds low on mining rush stations and sell high on celebration stations.

[HerptyDerpoty]

Shouldnt really try trade till you get a jump drive.
Also +3k per diamond isnt horrid for how quickly you can do it, especially in the starter system

[Xenai]

Selling to the merchant ships in space is really the way to go if you want to make big bucks on trading, if you have only a single type of goods in your hold they will always buy that, and as far as I can tell it doesn't matter how much you have either, they will buy all of it for above-average price always. A nice way to find the merchant ships is to respond to distress calls, that way you even make some extra bucks by saving them in the process. ^^

[Rabidnid]

Originally posted by Yellow Heart:

Shouldnt really try trade till you get a jump drive.
Also +3k per diamond isnt horrid for how quickly you can do it, especially in the starter system

Yup, I paid for a barracuda and mk 2 everything before I got a jump drive just trading diamonds between rushes and celabrations.

[obliviondoll]

Originally posted by Xenai:

Selling to the merchant ships in space is really the way to go if you want to make big bucks on trading, if you have only a single type of goods in your hold they will always buy that, and as far as I can tell it doesn't matter how much you have either, they will buy all of it for above-average price always. A nice way to find the merchant ships is to respond to distress calls, that way you even make some extra bucks by saving them in the process. ^^

They used to buy it all, no matter the amount, but that got patched. Now they buy a random amount 1 - 5.