Inventory Trade Wares and Trading in general

[RevReese]

I have found next to nothing online about inventory trading so thought i would post here.
I want to get into inventory trading until i can afford a better ship (still in the good old Elite).
I know crystal mining is no longer a viable option (and i wasn't fussed on that method anyway, i would much rather trade).

For example, on one station, the trader was selling Algae Scrubbers i think it was for about 900 credits, and was marked bright green telling me it is a great price.
However, upon selecting one or more to buy, the price stayed the same, yet the colour changed to orange so apparently a bad price now.
What is going in here? How am i supposed to trade these inventory items with no idea of how to find a good price at another station? am i supposed to simply buy everything at every station trader and try to off load at every other station i visit?
I have watched a lot of videos on trading and no one covers this type of trading that i can find.

Just a little confused as i want to trade though my ship is useless for cargo trading (150m3) and by the time i have gone to another station the sale opportunity has vanished anyway and trying to get my ship's Captain to trade for me does not seem to work either, he simply takes off and sits there above the pad even though i gave him the order to go and trade manually.

I am fairly confident i have done everything correctly, though i am certainly open to suggestions.

Thank you.

[mmmcheesywaffles]

I do it all the time.

All you need to be aware of is that Trading inventory impacts on reputation. So, don't screw every credit out of every deal or you will get less offers.

Flit about but work out the minimum buying price worth paying and never pay over that unless one little loss will help sweeten a Trader for the price you want him to pay what you are about to buy in another Dock.

Trading Inventory needs YOUR presence and only YOURS. Other wares are handled the normal way.

[Oddible]

Good questions, you've got a few things sideways, will try to sort it. First, you can personally trade in a ship if you like or you can assign your AI captains to trade - the higher the skill the longer range and quicker they'll work (same with miners). It sounds like you're going to the Trader's Corner to trade, this is for niche stuff, not really for trading. Think of this like your supplies as a trader, not the wares you're going to trade. I mean, you can, but it isn't your best money maker. BTW, good that you found it. If you ever see 1-2 star pilot or management seminars in there buy them! They're rare and it helps a lot! BTW the best early money in the game can be made from picking up crates where a big battle has been and selling them to the Trader's Corner.

So you can get into the wares trading interface in one of two ways. If you're in your captain's chair and you just docked your ship there is an option "Trade" right in the middle. Otherwise, the more common way is to right click the station on the map and select Trade Offers. Note that you can't see the most recent prices a station is offering unless a) you had a ship pass by the station recently, or b) you have a satellite near that station. I usually plop sats near every station, sometimes you can get a sat to cover 3 stations.

Note, you can use the Trade filter on the map (upper right) to see who is buying / selling what. Again, prices more accurate with sat coverage. Make sure you use your long range scanner and uncover stations (question marks) to have the most options for the most lucrative trades.

Next level is assigning a captain to another ship and telling them to trade for you. Select the ship, rt-click the station you want to trade with, go to Trade Offers. Then buy something, then rt-click the station you want to sell to, select Trade with. (You can also transfer wares to your own stations this way without paying again).

Beyond that is Repeat Orders. If you see a Hull Parts factory pretty far from a wharf, you can assign a trader, give them the Repeat Orders command in the Behaviors tab (this is where you see any current assignments for a ship), and have them repeately trade Hull Parts from a factory to a Wharf. Usually pretty good trades in that early game.

All that said, your best PASSIVE income early game is to buy a small or medium miner and set them to sector automine for silicon. Drop a handful of Resource Probes on the red patches in the sector so they have improved ability to find good rocks, and just let em work! Make sure to give them a pilot seminar if you have one and fill the ship with service crew to start training them up.

[RevReese]

Thank you both for the great replies! i think part of the problem is i have watched so many guides and tips videos rather than trial and error in game and it has all bled together and ended up getting me muddled up, which is the exact opposite of what i expected!

I know i have some missions to make enough money to get a miner or trader set up fairly quickly, so that is looking like what i will end up doing for a bit, but usually i just like to trade myself to start with in X games and really take my time as it's kind of a relaxing change of pace!

I feel more confident now though so i will fire it back up and have another go.
I have a lot of satellites deployed already so that helps me see the trade offers, i think i was a bit dumb trying to send my only ship away trading just to make sure i did it right! he just hovered there while i stayed on the station and eventually i just called him back and did the trade myself only to find the opportunity was gone by the time i got my cargo of medical supplies to the destination station so i am stuck with them for now!

That is why i wanted to try and inventory trade instead! i didn't think about the reputation impact from inventory trading though, it makes sense now i think about it, i am just confused over why the colouring of the prices in the Trader's Corner do not seem to have a bearing on anything as there is no "base price" or encyclopedia entry for these items listed.

I always pick up the Piloting seminars if i see them, and i have a couple of Management seminars in my pocket too for future use.

Well, i am going to give it another go, so thanks again both of you!

[RevReese]

Thanks for the replies! must admit my mind has been blown a little by the revelation about inventory trade items colours!
I was getting mixed up as i thought green=good price and red=bad price like cargo trading.
Luckily, i have not been buying anything yet, even at green prices as i didn't know what i was looking at colour wise.

I have been keeping all the crafting stuff i find, though there does not seem to be too much i can do with it yet, but i am only a few hours in so i am sure i will be finding more stuff as time goes on and the list of things i can craft will grow (at least that is my understanding of how it works as i have not been able to craft anything yet).

So it looks like i had everything all wrong! i did not expect that orange/yellow means buy! i have seen so many videos but nobody talks about inventory trading or for that matter, what the coloured prices on the cargo trade screen mean, so i have just been going on green=good price and red=bad price and not understanding why i am struggling with not knowing if the green and red prices apply to selling or buying!

I feel like such an idiot! so can someone please clarify the following:

Inventory trading, green=good sell and yellow=good buy and Cargo trading green=good buy/sell depending on if you are buying or selling and orange/red=bad buy/sell price.
Do i have that right?

Sorry for the lame questions but i am struggling with the basics of trading which is odd for me.

Thank you all for the help!

[mmmcheesywaffles]

Originally posted by Geist:

You are not. The color coding is not optimal in this case and it also was only added in the (last?) patch, before all items where all white all the time i you visited the traders. They should have added the % information to the inventory traders too.

I thought I was going mad when you mentioned this LOL
I have not tried the last patch yet and missed it in the patchnotes. I am so glad that in future I can be guided as to the optimum prices. With my memory I usually resort to a list of notes.

[mmmcheesywaffles]

As I have mentioned a few times ;P I have to re-learn games I leave unplayed for a week or two. So add in the changes of new builds and normally it is a major challenge for me with any complex game. I am left looking at the new DLC plots and ships and drooling over them.

So, for once, I will get to REALLY enjoy a change that will make a tangible difference to me.

Little tweaks like this make a real difference to the many of us with issues with what others can just take for granted.

[RevReese]

Wow, thanks for the clarification! i was thinking i had simply not noticed the colour before now, if they only recently added it, that would explain why there is nothing out there about it, even on the Wiki.
It would be great if we could have the percentages too but i guess we have to wait and see.
It is odd that the colour schemes for the two different trading types do not match each other though and causes some confusion but i think i get it now.

Sorry can we run through it once more?

Inventory Trader - Green = Good Sell Price and Gold = Good Buy Price
Cargo Trader (Buy) - Green=Good Buy Price and Gold/Red = Bad Buy Price (too high).
Cargo Trader (Sell) - Green = Good Sell Price and Gold/Red = Bad Sell Price (too low).

For now, i am going to inventory trade while building up my satellite network, and have a good indication of whether to buy or sell at each trader.

I too have to relearn games after more than a few weeks away, especially complex ones like X4 and it is frustrating to have to do so, but it is worth it when it clicks back into place.

I am looking forward to eventually crafting that Caviar though! there are a few items that i can see to craft but am missing items for.

[RevReese]

Thank you so much! that was really helpful! it is really good to see the screenshots as well.
I think i have too many satellites already, i can always move some around to other sectors so that's not too bad.
Also i didn't get the hatikvah quest yet, but i will keep an eye open for it, did the first couple of missions on a different playthrough.

I really appreciate your time to help me, thanks again, now i will put it all into practice!

[RevReese]

Originally posted by Geist:

Hatikvah Quest should be available right from the start if I remember correct. You should get a written message that will say something like "join the Hatikvah trading alliance " or something like that and then the mission should be available in your mission screen. If not fly to the sector Hatikvas Choice there you should be able to get it. First mission is to sell some meds and you get a small trading ship for it that you can keep as your payment. Its not a good ship only a courier, but its a good start.

Hmmm, i don't have it yet but i am sure i will get it at some point, the extra ship will be very welcome!

[Oddible]

Originally posted by Geist:

Don't overdo it with satelites it will slow your game down. Just place them on warfs, maintenance stations, trading stations, and some factories that build stuff that you want to trade with.

I once made the mistake to build a satelite on every station I found in the game (hundreds of them....) But that is not worth it. Just place them on important locations and buy trading licences from the factions later in the game when you get the money.

I've never experienced this. I typically have a satellite at every 1-3 stations.

[Oddible]

Now that I've read this entire thread, and re-read the title, I realize my post was mostly off topic. Crazy that with like 1000 hours in this game I've literally never done any inventory trading - though yeah, colors and everything, fully supported in the game. Probably awesome early game money since you're docked anyway and looking for seminars!

[RevReese]

That's my main reason to inventory trade until i could get a better ship to trade cargo and have the crafting and items to make a bit of cash on the side as i travel.
But for now, with such a limited cargo hold, i thought item trading would be good enough to get me started, i was simply confused by the colours!

I do have one final question though: when looking at station trade offers on the map screen, i can only see five at a maximum. Are they the most profitable wares suggested, or is it random?

[Oddible]

Originally posted by RevReese:

That's my main reason to inventory trade until i could get a better ship to trade cargo and have the crafting and items to make a bit of cash on the side as i travel.
But for now, with such a limited cargo hold, i thought item trading would be good enough to get me started, i was simply confused by the colours!

I do have one final question though: when looking at station trade offers on the map screen, i can only see five at a maximum. Are they the most profitable wares suggested, or is it random?

Yes, and the dots next to them (1,2,3) shows the volume.

[RevReese]

Thank you, that is what i thought but it is good to confirm it.
The dots took me a while to figure out but they are so useful.
Thanks again everyone and have a great weekend!

[RevReese]

Originally posted by Geist:

You can also change that in the trade filter from 1-5 offers shown. Also you can use it to filter for a specific ware, then it will only show you sell/buy offers for that items that you are interested in. For example if you want to trade energy cells and hull parts you can set it up so it only shows energy cells and hull parts and nothing else.

Also you can set it up in a way that it only shows you offers that have at least 2 or 3 dots if you only want to trade huge quantities. For example if you have an L Class trading ship that is very slow you don't want trade offers for 150 energy cells to be visible because no matter how good the price for this 150 cells is it would be a waste of time to fly there with a ship that can hold 30000 of them.

I have had a look at the filters as they are used a lot in videos i have seen but i am still very much in the experiment and see what happens phase! it does seem the more i learn about this game, the deeper level of detail there is!

I can definitely see how useful they are though.