Commodities

Commodities are items traded at stations. Each type use one storage unit at your ship.

# Rebel Galaxy

### Pricing and availability

The base price and availability of a commodity at a particular space station depends on the economy type of the station, and to a lesser extent on the planet type of the station. All stations within a system are affected by the system type, which can render some commodities unprofitable to trade within the system due to everyone selling or everyone buying. For contraband items, the ability to buy and sell depends on the type of government. Those base prices and availabilities can be greatly affected by certain **events**.

Pricing on a given visit depends strongly on availability and demand. When you trade with a space station, you change the availability and demand for the commodities you trade. Consequently, the prices will reflect your recent trading. The more you buy of a given commodity at a station, the fewer units will be available to buy on your next trip. That in turn translates into a higher price for that commodity. Similarly, the more you sell the lower the offered prices will be the next time. Production and consumption at a station occurs while you're traveling in warp, with one "day" occurring every minute or so of warp time, so there is a disadvantage to setting up a trade route where the stations are close together.

Basic necessities like food and water are in demand almost everywhere that isn't producing them, but for other commodities traders generally should expect some challenge in finding buyers who are offering good prices. Some items might not be in demand *anywhere* in your current system, much less at a good price. If you "buy low" just because you see a bargain even though you don't have a buyer lined up, you may end up being forced to sell at a loss in order to make space in your hold for profitable items.

Trade Hubs, Criminal stations, and Diplomatic stations are supply points that rarely buy anything from you at a decent price. Trade Hubs offer a wide range of commodities at modestly reduced prices. Criminal stations specialize in supplying contraband and some of the more expensive commodities. Diplomatic stations typically offer just a few of the more expensive commodities but with better volume and pricing than you might find elsewhere. Impoverished stations usually offer a limited selection from a wide range of commodities at relatively low prices, but they also might buy a few low-cost or contraband products.

Some commodities can be obtained through mining. A few are almost always obtained through mining because they aren't produced by any station (although piracy remains an alternative source for everything).

### Contraband

Four commodities are considered *contraband*. Depending on the government type, a station may or may not allow trade in a particular contraband item. Some events will cause a station to temporarily permit trade in a contraband product that normally wouldn't be allowed there. For example, a station orbiting a planet that's experiencing a War event will have Live Organs available at a low price and a very strong demand for Bio-Waste, even if those commodities normally aren't traded at that station.

There is no penalty for having contraband in your hold while docked at any station. However, the militia forbids *transportation* of all forms of contraband. If you're caught transporting contraband, the militia will turn hostile if you don't jettison it. If you'd merely found the stuff floating in space and tractored it in, it's no big loss to jettison it. But if you're buying the contraband, you might want to invest in a Smuggler's Hold at an Outsider-run station. (In an unsurprising bit of hypocrisy, Militaristic stations are major suppliers of all types of contraband.)

Narco-Cola can be the most difficult contraband to find buyers for. Outside of huge celebration or militia embargo events, only Anarchy and Democratic stations permit trade in Narco-Cola.

### Traders

Traders met in space can often be hailed. They might be willing to sell or buy something, but what they choose to sell or buy, and how much, is up to them. The prices they offer are usually among the best to be found anywhere, but it's still possible to buy something from them that proves nearly impossible to sell at a profit in the current system.

Some players advocate jettisoning any products that you don't want the trader to offer to buy, before you initiate contact. After you've finished selling what you did want to sell, you can tractor the jettisoned products back in. A few players go beyond that by pirating the sold goods back from the trader.

### Commodity Market price display

There are two price columns shown on the Commodities Market screen at a space station. They aren't completely intuitive.

The first column, labeled "Price," is always active. It always shows the price the station will let you buy the commodity at, even though they might not actually have any stock for you to buy at the moment. The station will buy from you at a 5% discount off of that price. If you currently have stock in your ship, that discounted price is shown in the second column, "Sell Price." That seems straightforward enough.

Here's the more complicated part. The pricing applies to the goods *when you entered the market*. Stock originally from the station and stock originally from your ship are valued differently, and the pricing difference applies to the stock itself, not to the transaction. So, if you sell 10 units of something you brought into the market and buy them back in the same visit, you'll pay the same discounted amount to buy them back as you got paid for them. Similarly, if you buy 10 units of something and sell them back to the station in the same visit, you'll receive a 100% refund, even if the "Sell Price" suggests otherwise. This works entirely to your benefit, preventing you from losing money if you're dithering around about what to sell and what to buy (or if you accidentally hit the wrong key or button). Once you leave the market, even if you don't leave the station, the deal is complete and the price difference will apply the next time you enter the market.

The pricing history graph shows the station prices over the past 15 days or so (a "day" is around one minute of warp time). A green triangle shows the highest value during that period, while a red triangle shows the lowest. A straight line shows the *current* system average, which isn't necessarily the system average on the earlier dates.

**Green prices are higher than the system average:** probably a good time to sell.

**Red prices are lower than the system average:** maybe a good time to buy.

**Item's price with (!)**: it's being affected by the current station event, shown at the left, so take advantage of this. You might just be able to buy up a few choice items before an event closes and sell them for great profit in another station.

### System Average price

Traders are cautioned not to rely too heavily on the reported "system average" price for making buy/sell decisions. The system average can differ significantly from the prices that you'll actually experience, especially for the higher-priced commodities. The wise trader will canvass their intended trade area to determine which stations offer the best prices (buy or sell) on which commodities.

The system average price is based on prices across all space stations in the game. The other systems can vary in the demand and production of some commodities. As an example, Pure Water is in very strong demand in volcanic and desert systems, and that can drive its system average price up well beyond what anyone in your current system will actually offer. Those inflated average prices can sucker the inexperienced trader into buying goods that they can't sell at a profit anywhere nearby.

A related issue is that if you're in a system with high production, and therefore low costs, for a product, you may not be able to find any place to sell it at the system average price anywhere in your system. For example, if you're in an agricultural system ("system is known for its abundant foodstuffs, but is technologically poor"), don't expect to find any stations offering the system average price for Soy Paste or Yikyak Meat. This particular issue doesn't affect the starting system, but it can become a factor once you start jumping to other systems. The sector map tells you what economic type each system is.

Station events in progress have a big effect on pricing, but you can't see what events are active outside of your current system.

Finally, the prices reported are the prices a station would offer to sell the commodity for, if it had any. You'll be offered only 95% of that price for any stock you bring in. That's not a major factor, but sometimes the difference between 1000 credits and 950 credits can matter.

### List of commodities

In the Top Sellers column, (D), (C), (I), and (TH) mean Diplomatic, Criminal, Impoverished, and Trade Hub sources respectively.

In theory, there should be a profitable trade loop from Agrarian to Mining to Manufacturing and back to Agrarian (with Nuts and Bolts). In practice, however, setting up such a loop often is impossible due to not having all three station types in the system.

### Effect of System Type on prices

The whole-system effects of the system type can be quite powerful. Traders can expect little chance of profitably trading any of the affected commodities within the system, except perhaps during an event.

Inter-system traders might observe that no system type has a special desire for luxuries. For trafficking high-value freight between systems, it might be better to stick to salt, water, and diamonds.

In the following table:

* *Food* is Soy Paste and Yikyak Meat
* *Salt* is Tachyon Salt
* *Water* is Pure Water
* *Minerals* are Metallic Ore, Obtanium, Gold Ingots, and Meteoric Diamonds
* *Luxuries* are Designer Clothes and Greel Whiskey

The danger level of a system has no effect on commodity prices. If the prices scaled with bounties and mission rewards, hauling product from the Mk2 starter system to a Mk6 system would make a trader rich fairly quickly. It also means that trading isn't of much value in the more dangerous systems, because bounties and missions pay so much more there.

### Effect of Planet Type on prices

For space stations that are orbiting a planet, the geology of the planet will affect the prices. Outpost and Guild stations aren't associated with planets, so this information doesn't apply to them.

The columns are presented in order by how common each type is. Actual distribution can vary quite a bit between individual games, but *on average* out of 16 planets you might expect 4 will be Glaciated, 4 will be Desert, 3 will be Gas GIant, and 2 will be Geometallic, with one each of Geothermal, Pelagic, and Barren. Terrestrial planets are rare and many games won't have even one of them. It's said that there's yet one more planet type, Geocrystalline, but either that type is mythical or those planets are incredibly rare.

The Economy and Planet Type effects for a given station and commodity might be opposite, in which case they'll tend to cancel each other out to some extent. One effect or the other probably will "win," but the resulting effect will be weaker than normal.

A table entry of "Volatile" indicates that the effect depends on whether that station is selling or buying. If the station is selling, they might have more stock and ask lower prices. If the station is buying, the offered prices might be increased. (As of this writing, the behavior of "volatile" combinations hasn't been verified.)