Commodities

This is an incomplete list of commodities and cargo items found in the game. The prices are reflective of the Common Trade Route listed. While there may be higher or lower prices in certain systems these are found to be the most profitable and most efficient based on the time it takes per run. Please take the time to profit ratio into account before posting recommendations.

Perishable - Items listed as Perishable and Highly Perishable degrade over time. If you are carrying these items you will notice a slowly decreasing bar under the icon. This shows the spoilage of one unit of cargo. When the bar reaches zero one unit will be deducted from your cargo and the bar will fill again for the next unit of cargo. During a normal run (For example New London to Denver or Kurile to Cambridge) you can expect to lose about 10 units of cargo depending on trade lane disruptions and your docking quickness. The number lost is not based on your cargo size. Losing 10 cargo out of 80 might not be worth it, but losing 10 out of 5000 is negligible.

Contraband - The items are illegal cargo to carry at any time. They are quite profitable as a smuggled good, but you will be demanded to drop your cargo and/or be fired upon if scanned.

References

Dustin Shaffer: http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/913966/23875