Collect a specific market item

[Meuh]

There is something that escapes me with market. I need to buy meat and bring it back to sbdy to improve my reputation. All right, let's give it a go. Problem? I find meat nowhere. I litteraly spent 2h looking for some meat and found nothing.
I remember having the same issue with mining. I was fully equipped and went mining. I would never ever find the required mineral.
As a result, I feel like this game is the biggest waste of time. I mean playing is not very productive but playing an inproductive game is like waste of time squared.
Now am I doing something wrong? Is there a method to become more efficient or is this game like total randomness and if we ask you to bring something that is because we know very well that you have less than 1% chance to find it?

[ASMR gaming]

agricultural colonies will have animal meat, synthetic meat is usually high tech stations, u can use galmap, or come join me and use our trade routes

[Meuh]

Originally posted by et_pj84:

agricultural colonies will have animal meat, synthetic meat is usually high tech stations, u can use galmap, or come join me and use our trade routes

This is exactly what I did! For 2h. None of the planets in trading routes had meat to the point I didn't understand how there could be a trading route with no goods.

[Malfeasance]

Mining is largely luck based. You have to continually probe rocks until you find minerals need/can sell for large amounts.

As for the meat thing, that does sound pretty strange. That's largely why I don't bother picking up missions like that. Odds are it's going to be off the beaten path if they are asking for it to be shipped to them though, so you might not find any on your normal routes.

[Asshat]

Check out eddb.io for working out trade routes/profits when you are set for a certain route.
Otherwise you can use elitetradingtool.co.uk to find a station that sells the commodity you want within a radius that you set for yourself.
Not many traders do well in the game without using these tools then getting used to how the different market economies integrate with each other; then they can predict where to find what they need.
Mining is a different ball game. The best and highest paying items are normally only found regularly in pristine metallic rings. These are rare by their nature, but again some searching online and on reddit will get you lists of them. E:D as a game is so much about finding out how to do the things by yourself, and I don't mean to sound condescending or patronising at all - it is just the way the game is designed to be. When you get the hang of it, these things will just be second nature to you. But don't despair dude, there is always help out there or on here :)

[DownSouth05]

Try this site

http://ed-td.space/

or this one

http://roguey.co.uk/elite-dangerous/trade-helper/

1. Got to Tools
2. Find the item you need
3. Find the system/station you are in right now
4. Click on the "find station" button
5. Check the list, you want a listing with the most reason time on it

You can also click on the station links to see what sort of system you are about to go to.

Hope this helps as the in game trade system is about as useful as combs for a bald man lol

[Asshat]

Lol! You have given me an idea for a present for my brother-in-law's next birthday in February: I think he could make good use of a comb!! Thanks Skinny ;)

[Sapyx]

Originally posted by Meuh:

Originally posted by et_pj84:

agricultural colonies will have animal meat, synthetic meat is usually high tech stations, u can use galmap, or come join me and use our trade routes

This is exactly what I did! For 2h. None of the planets in trading routes had meat to the point I didn't understand how there could be a trading route with no goods.

I'm not sure you're understanding how the trade routes map works, then. Lines connecting two systems indicate trade goods of that kind travelling between those two systems. Small dots or markers move along those lines - they indicate the direction of travel o9f those goods. Think of the dots as little spaceships, carrying the goods. So to find meat, look for lines that are radiating outwards from a star, and at least one planet around that star will be agricultural. Then use the system map to find the Agricultural station - it will almost always be the station around an Earth-like planet in that system.

[Meuh]

These are all very valuable comments. Thanks all for sharing this.
I never ever noticed that there were moving dotted points, I'll check that in a minute. Is it possible that there is no dotted line when the good is depleted?

Yesterday I finally found some meat 7 jumps away from my location; I found it by carefully checking each individual station export in the galaxy view... and there was no meat trading route at all. Actually it was not yestereday, more like very early this morning. Zombie mode on.