Trading? Station and mine building?

[BUG]

I read that trading was an easy way to make money. So I created my cargo ship with 1300 cargo space. Equipped it with a blue trade module. Proceeded to jump around system to system, sector to sector. After about an hour, I finally found a system with a trade route. So I load my ship up to the brink with chlorine gas. Surprise, the station that wanted the gas only wanted 170. So I continued to jump around for another hour or so just looking for another place to sell 1,100 units of gas but to no avail. Am I having a spot of bad luck or what? I eventually just dumped my cargo and went back to my fleet of mining ships as this was a way more profitable option for me.

Also if anyone that has experimented with building stations and mines, could you please comment with your experience?

[Kal]

I'm just starting my experiments with stations, but I've found cases where NPCs will send trade ships to trade with you if you're at least within an inhabited system of theirs. I found one with a massive Habitat station that buys all sorts of organic goods and decided to make this an area to build up wheat, corn, liquor, etc. as that station needs large amounts of those kinds of things. I started with a water collector and have had the NPCs docking with it to buy water. No crazy amounts of income here as it's just water, but at least I can confirm NPCs will trade.

In another galaxy i play with my brother on I have a noble metal mine that produces gold and platinum. It's within the territory of the NPC faction in the area but they have no stations in that sector and tradeships never seem to appear. It seems tied to the type of sector it is when it's generated. So most systems with claimable asteroids are pretty much a moot point unless you're manually trading. Personally I'm looking for a hands-off approach so that's not what i'm aiming for.

I'll post more of my experience with this as I continue to progress on my agricultural station empire though!

[BUG]

Thank you that's a good tip and makes alot of sense. I did not even think about keeping the current economy of a system in mind when building stations and mines.

[Just Carl]

I too would like to know. Reading here and there I was under the impression that trading was very pofitable. People were talking of numbers in the 100 millions after an hour or two of trading, but I could never figure it out. From my experiance it would seem you have to run around looking for stations selling high quantity/quality items and then find another station looking to buy said items. It seems very tedious and in need of refinment, but again don't think I'm doing it right.

[Giltirn]

Factories do not produce when you are out of sector - the entire sector is frozen in time until you go back.

[Just Carl]

Originally posted by Giltirn:

Factories do not produce when you are out of sector - the entire sector is frozen in time until you go back.

For now, but I believe I heard they plan on fixing this in the future, yes? For now though it kinda sucks :P

[Cakez]

Hi there in terms of trading routes, you can indeed make several hundred million in a short period. It's just a matter of finding the right trade.

I too made the same mistake as the op. Bought more than the buyer actually wanted because I failed to check. Ended up with like 10000 displays I hung on to for ages. Never again =)

If you're really keen on making money the best tips I can give are to sell claimable asteroids for upwards for 500k for starter money.

Then after that make those big trading routes, usually a research station is a good place to sell. If you can find some accelerator factories to buy from then you are set for life. Getting a high rarity trading module really helps with this.

[rogerDoger]

how do u own an asteoid in the first place?

[Lance Patchwork]

There is a mod that allow for OOS production, NPC wont resupply it but at least it will be producing, good for mine and such. Also what you could do is create a station or 2 in a system with other NPC station that will use your mine output, this way you dont have to hunt to sell your stuff, you will transform it yourself and then NPC will get the end product.

Im playing on a server where i have all my station ina single system ( exept mines ), i see NPC coming in and out and there is always action trying to keep the system safe, so mmost of the time i just stay there blowing stuff up wihile my station make money. Once in a while i will check my station and do a run to restock them if needed.

As for very profitable trade run, personaly i dont trade till i get at least a yellow trading system that will record the last 3 system i visite, then i simply open the menu and check all the possible trade route, it will tell me where to go to buy AND sell with price on each side. But to avoid overbuying i also go visite the buying station system first so i can know how much he wants, then i go buy it.

Sometime i can buy something at 44k and resell at 88k, grab a few hundred unit of that trade good and there you go, LOTS of money real fast real easy. Dont search yourself, get the best trading software at least yellow then start hauling.

[Cool Beans]

I've made over 1.5 billion trading.

Find a station type that is very common and buys a particular good that is expensive, next find a station that can provide large quantities of those goods. Make sure the good your transporting is not dangerous and begin hauling as much as you can at once.

A good example is Military outposts and body armor. The military outpost is prolific, you can find them in just about any civil sector somewhere in the network. They can buy body armor for up to 125,000 per, sometimes more. The factories that make body armor, or trading posts that sell it, sometimes will sell at 75,000 or less per.

at 50,000 profit per 1.5 space, even a small cargo hold will result in awesome profits.

Research stations also buy some very expensive goods.

Happy profits!

[SharxX8]

Originally posted by Adamumbambutopia:

I've made over 1.5 billion trading.

Find a station type that is very common and buys a particular good that is expensive, next find a station that can provide large quantities of those goods. Make sure the good your transporting is not dangerous and begin hauling as much as you can at once.

A good example is Military outposts and body armor. The military outpost is prolific, you can find them in just about any civil sector somewhere in the network. They can buy body armor for up to 125,000 per, sometimes more. The factories that make body armor, or trading posts that sell it, sometimes will sell at 75,000 or less per.

at 50,000 profit per 1.5 space, even a small cargo hold will result in awesome profits.

Research stations also buy some very expensive goods.

Happy profits!

This!
Basically Armor,Robots,Vehicles,Rockets, Accelerator's.... all the high profile goods.
If you know where to find and sell them you can start without a module but ideally with 3 sectors+ module.
Visit the buying station first and never take trade routes below the first 3 give or take ( not profitable enough)

[Bugs Bunny]

For trading, find anti-grav factories or processor factories... Find one that has them at a cheap price (use the trade module to see the -x% value... Aim for -50 but -20 is still good. Buy all you can... Then jump around to find a buyer. Shipyards and repar docks buy them... I made 560 million last night in 1 hour doing this.

[BUG]

Thanks for the replies guys. After some grinding last night I got myself that exceptional trade module. I will have to give this another shot.

[BUG]

I ended up selling accelerators to research labs. This was awesome and made 100 million until there were no more accelerators to be found or only super expensive ones. I got to lower some prices on accelerators by improving my relations with that particular faction. However the well quickly ran dry and the factories are a rarity for me.

Does anyone know how fast or under what circumstances a station will regenerate their commodities? This got me thinking and ultimately, I decided I want to build an Accelerator factory in the same system as a reasearch base.

[Iridius]

I make millions hopping from sector to sector looking for hostile ships, obliterating them, and selling the low grade weapons and modules they drop. I have a Naonite +Titanium ship fighting a mix of the same, so this is fairly early in the game to be making such large profits also I think. It's also a ton of fun :)

[BUG]

Iridius, I was doing this as well until I found the research lab. Now I just trade everything up.