Yeah, I know it's another 'useless' post about Trading stuff by me.
Here goes anyway.
Note that the prices of things in this post are not accurate!
Don't go looking for things at that price, they won't be there. (Unless Cannon decides to be funny :P)
As a Trader, I have recently realized that it is to my benefit to work out just how much profit I'm going to make on any particular run for a couple of reasons.
1. Depending on what you are moving, the profit may not be as good as you think.
2. If you know how much clear profit you are going to make, you can haggle with pirates better so that you can at least make a little from the run after being Pirated. This also helps promote RP after a fashion.
Here is the easy way to do it;
BP= buy price ( how much you bought it for )
SP= sell price ( how much you plan to sell it for )
CA= Cargo Amount ( how many items you have )
CP= Clear Profit ( how much profit you will make )
(SP - BC) X CA = Clear Profit
The above equation will tell you how much profit you will make over all.
To find out how much profit you will make per CARGO UNIT, you need to look at how many cargo spaces commodity X takes up and then divide the cost by that amount.
As an example;
Tourists take up 2 spaces each and they cost $2500, so the price per cargo unit is $1250 (2500 divide by 2).
You know that if you take Tourists to Munich, you can get $7000 each for them or $3500 per cargo unit (7000 divide by 2).
However, you have spotted GOLD at the place where you are getting Tourists.
The Gold costs $900 per unit and you can sell it for $4000 at the place where you would have sold the Tourists.
Now lets assume you are flying a BWT (Border World Transport) with an AU8 installed. That AU8 takes up 20 cargo units, so you have 3580 to carry things in.
If you take Tourists you can carry 1790 of them. Using the equation above you work out that you will make $8,055,000 clear profit.
However, if you take Gold instead, you can carry 3580 units of it. Using the equation, you work out that you will make $11,098,000 clear profit.
That is roughly 3 MILLION more credits than if you took the more expensive Tourists.
This is a good post. The maths here is pretty basic, I expect most if not all can easily understand it.
The best thing here is probably your example, showing that lesser-priced commidites can actually net better profit if you can cram more into your cargo hold.
The thing is, unless you have a laptop to run it on, you will be alt-tabbing out of the game to check it and I have been hearing that some people have actually been kicked from the server while doing this.
I have had it happen to me and I wasn't 'away' for more than a minute or so.
Also, Freelancer Companion, only shows profit per commodity, not profit per cargo unit.
I did actually work out how to do profit vs time as well a looong time ago (it may actually be somewhere on this forum, I'm not sure though), but the time taken to travel to a place may not be the same all of the time, due to tradelane disruptions, pirates and so on.
In other words, the times shown in FC are times calculated under 'perfect' conditions, so they can't really be trusted.
' Wrote:Also, Freelancer Companion, only shows profit per commodity, not profit per cargo unit.
...
In other words, the times shown in FC are times calculated under 'perfect' conditions, so they can't really be trusted.
For both of these you can edit your options in version 2.02 under "Limitations" to include your cargo hold size into the calculations. You can also edit the estimated time it takes to use a gate to a more reasonable level.
As for calculating profit... Keep roleplay in mind when doing so. Look for routes that fit your faction's roleplay (if you have one) and not to mention the InRP laws and embargoes you have to keep in mind.
Trading is complicated, which is why trade factions help. If you have a difficult time deciding where the best trade routes are, go to those who have been doing it forever, join a trade faction! [/shameless promotion]
' Wrote:For both of these you can edit your options in version 2.02 under "Limitations" to include your cargo hold size into the calculations. You can also edit the estimated time it takes to use a gate to a more reasonable level.
Trading is complicated, which is why trade factions help. If you have a difficult time deciding where the best trade routes are, go to those who have been doing it forever, join a trade faction! [/shameless promotion]
It's not so much the SIZE of the cargo hold I'm talking about, but how many cargo units one of a specific commodity takes up.
For example, one Gold takes up exactly ONE cargo unit, while one VIP needs FIVE cargo units to store.
Therefore, your Profit Per Cargo Unit, is whatever the profit made on the commodity divided by the number of cargo units the commodity in question takes up to store ONE of them.
In the case of the VIPs, that is: Profit divided by 5.
That is what Freelancer Companion DOES NOT do, show you how much profit you will make per cargo unit and as I showed in my OP, that can make a difference.
As for joining a faction, yes I agree, that is a good idea.
I often see groups of faction ship doing a run together.
It's a good way to trade and there aren't many lone Pirates out there that will make a run at a convoy of Traders.
I'm quite willing to tag along with convoys, but I'm not interested in joining a trading faction.
I'm betting my current trader has been to most places that any of the Trade Factions have been to.
Note I said 'most'. :D
' Wrote:That is what Freelancer Companion DOES NOT do, show you how much profit you will make per cargo unit and as I showed in my OP, that can make a difference.
Just gotta dig a bit. It does take into account commodity size.
' Wrote:Just gotta dig a bit. It does take into account commodity size.
^That's for VIPs from Shetland.
Ok, so the very latest version of FC does do that, you win. :P
For those who either don't have Freelancer Companion or don't want to take the chance of being booted from the server while alt-tabbed, you can use the 'formula' to work out your profit before you leave the dock.
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