Pirating/looting

[TheBoogeyMan]

So is there an easy way to sell all this random crap i get from looting enemy stations? Can i build a trading post and throw all that stuff in there? Or is that not a thing?

[EzRyder]

you can sell anything in the game other than drone fighters i think
if its 'stolen cargo' you would need to go to a Smugglers Hideout to 'unbrand' it first i believe, i just space the stuff myself but ... im a miner so i earn money other ways
use caution transporting stolen or illegal goods thru occupied sectors, you can be fined and lose it - best to avoid them at all costs if your 'carrying'

[TheBoogeyMan]

So i can just build a trading post and put all my unbranded goods in there and it will sell it?

[Everything Ends]

Building a trading post and throwing all your stuff in does not work afaik.
Trading posts create when they are created a random list of goods they trade. So no luck there.
I think there's a mod in the workshop that changes that, but on default, it unfortunately does not work the way you intended.

Also, as CaptRyder wrote, you have to unbrand that stuff first before you can sell it to NPC stations. Not sure, but I think you can alternativly also directly sell to the smugglers at a big discount.

The easiest ways are probably either a high level trading system that gets you some info or looking up on the wiki/other tools, which stations buy which kind of goods and then look for those.
At least for factories, it might also work to sell the goods you got to friendly stations of the same type, since probably a lot of the inventory you got was the ressoures they need for production anyway.

[TheBoogeyMan]

Hell, its a huge pain to try and look around for what buys what. Even when i have like 100k+ in cargo of stolen goods. Shame, ill look into that mod later. But i can store my unbranded goods in my stations then yeah?

[Everything Ends]

Yea, just storing should work (I have some stuff lying in a mine somewhere).
Kind of a weird system, though.

[EzRyder]

Originally posted by TheBoogeyMan:

Hell, its a huge pain to try and look around for what buys what. Even when i have like 100k+ in cargo of stolen goods. Shame, ill look into that mod later. But i can store my unbranded goods in my stations then yeah?

yep, thats why i just space the stuff, its hard enough to do trading without taking a loss for stolen cargo
but im not a big raider/pirate or trader anyway, i just like the mining and exploring

[Lazarus Long]

Yeah, while combat is fun I don't do pirate stuff. It's way easy and more profitable to have the AI factions like you and be your customers.

[Chaoslink]

There's a trick to pirating and raiding for money that makes selling off the traded goods FAR quicker and easier. Its simple, just don't hit ALL the stations. Not all goods are worth unbranding. Some are even really valuable but aren't worth the effort to sell, so selling the stolen goods directly is preferable. That said, the best method is to selectively pirate stations. I usually just avoid trading posts and random stuff. Repair stations, shipyards, equipment docks... You hit up stations that you'll find in your friendly areas that'll always buy the goods you snatch. If the stations you raid only drop items that can be sold to those same stations in friendly areas, and those stations are common, its a quick flip.

I do make exceptions for factories with expensive goods like accelerators, but for the most part its best to just raid the stations with the goods that'll sell easy.

[FuryoftheStars]

Capturing a ship/station will also give you access to all of their cargo without the stolen branding, fyi.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by FuryoftheStars:

Capturing a ship/station will also give you access to all of their cargo without the stolen branding, fyi.

While true, it’s a decent increase in effort for potentially limited gain. If you could dismantle the entire thing in build mode for a 100% return on resources and credits as well as cargo, then I could see it being worthwhile in rare cases. Otherwise, the issue here isn’t the unbranding, it’s the selling afterwards that’s the issue.

[FuryoftheStars]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Originally posted by FuryoftheStars:

Capturing a ship/station will also give you access to all of their cargo without the stolen branding, fyi.

While true, it’s a decent increase in effort for potentially limited gain. If you could dismantle the entire thing in build mode for a 100% return on resources and credits as well as cargo, then I could see it being worthwhile in rare cases. Otherwise, the issue here isn’t the unbranding, it’s the selling afterwards that’s the issue.

After capture, use repair turrets. Then transfer all the cargo to a ship of yours (or, actually, as I don’t think it’s technically a station anymore at this point, you might be able to apply a ship design directly to it). Once done with it, scrap at scrapyard or enter build mode, ctrl-a, del for 100% of its resources. Only cost then is boarders, which you can use cloning and academy to regain cheaper.

Ultimately, though, I don’t disagree. I never got into the trading aspect of this game due to how hard it can be to find someone willing to buy (honestly, trade stations only accepting limited goods vs everything at reduced prices never made sense to me). I only included everything for completeness as there was talk about unbranding going on.