My Trade Runs (Food/Livestock) by major_pain

 Well after stumbling around for a month and going thru the whole trade school.  i decided to take a path and start grinding skill and ducats.

i choose food dealer to start.  and i have to say starting from london, and exploring as far as dublin and copenhagen i was making little to no profit as i was spending as much on provisions and vigor etc as i was making in profits.

i also was making a few mistakes on buying a few high priced items hoping to turn a huge profit, and ended up carrying them around for weeks in game time looking for the port i would take the red colored loss price least painful  lol.

then i recalled the special combos and i was getting into the cooking part a bit. i decided to make it or break it. i started doing merchant guild missions. any i could not just big ones. i got a lot of fame.  and a nice base of gold to go for my big break.

off i sailed from london full of goods. i stopped at just about every port on my way to genoa for some book i needed.   by the time i got to genoa i had made almost a million in profit and i still had a ship load of goods.   i then went and found out what each ports special goods were.  and i sailed back to london town.

this time skipping ports with no special goods no foods like ham or sausages etc.  i hit seville and was talking to someone and i asked why can i only purchase 20 chickens but i can purchase 50 poultery's?  and i was asked if i had food trading and animal trading skills..i said only food.   it was highly suggested i get animal trading to. and let me tell you animal and food and seasoning trade skills in my slots....and my profits are starting to bloom.  i have my next ship already built and it was paid for with the profits from my genoa / seville / london run. after grabbing all the special goods in the ports and only stocking water enuf to get port to port and fishing for food...  lol i am loving this game. every time i log on now i am sure to profit at least 250k just sailing locally.  if i really grind and make a london to athens mega uber grind run.  i am sure to make 1 million each way, as i process animals and trades large amounts of food port to port i level my skills of cooking to level 5 from level 2 in one round trip.  i also am a few xp points from getting into the bigger ship i bought from my first london genoa run.

and all this is possible from finishing the trade school and using the knowledge.  add some wikia and JP wiki pages to find what port sells what......and im on my way to riches and fame...

so if you have a favored trade run that makes you yoru pocket money and it is doable by someone fresh out of trade school....

please share and discuss....

i also try to pick up guild missions on my long runs or i turn multi star missions into mini special and animal trade runs as time allows for the missions.
if the missions are along the way or i may have the goods on me already and can sail backwards 2 or 3 towns for a quick 15k reward. using the bar maids to turn missions in is BRILLIANT!

im not bragging on mega awesome profits here, im not saying youll get rich quick here either. rich youll get no matter what trade you do. butter from london in a nub tub to dover and back will get you rich....in 34 years....lol

for a casual player exploring the beggining of the food / livestock trade. or for people out of london wondering what course to set....

or because i just felt like sharing my personal and profitable sail routes, im sure with my new ship ill go farther and find new and exotic ports and goods to add to my runs, but for a trader level 10 and fresh out of school and not using the guides and making my own way in the game.....

i found out that i am learning new things and shor cuts and finding great player deals in the hundreds of stalls i see along my voyages.
and i always try to bring back to london town some neat items from shopkeepers and craftsmen and sculptors and painters i run across in me trips.

and as anyone reading this who has purchased from me, i charge prices others think is crazy.  for example i sell my PO's 25k, 35 k 45k 50k  lvl 1,2,3,4 respectively.

i sell those pretty sail crests  at 1500 to 2500 over cost. NOT 200k for a 5k crest.    i sell figureheads same way 1 to 2 maybe 3 k over cost if its a new one i havent seen in english north.       shoes, gloves, items players sell cheap,   violins and skill books.   cooking books mostly, if it cost 8k to purchase i charge 10k in london stall.   10k to purchase and a loooong ways from london 15k    why you ask , i can get twice as much you say !!!!      yes i could and i could also sit there for 3 days real time waiting for someone rich enough to afford those prices from asian economy.  this is global world server with a new econ  i prefer to sell low and i sell fast. all i gotta do is dress up and play music and say a few things and prices in open chat and maybe hour later im sold out and have tells asking for more.  as i didnt ever think of using a alternate pc to run a sales storage mule toon.....   i would rather sell low make a profit and go back to training skills then sit and wait for large profits. i can make the trade run and sell again in less time then sitting waiting for HUGE RICH player to buy all my stoopidly overpriced stuff.  and i mean   stuff that costs 1k at shopkeeper  people try to sell for 150k in front of the trader.  thats just stopid. i seen stalls mimic the shopkeeper sitting next to shopkeeper......prices 10 x of shopkeeper. sewing kits  cost 2k they sell 20k or more wth is up with that?


lol so anyways if you bothered to read anything i posted....maybe something chimes with you.  like only stocking water and converting fish to food with fishing/storage convert to supplies option.  saves money, trains 2 skills low vigor output.....    things like that.  sure you can be a feather plucker....and you can be rich and buy everything you are supposed to find and you can uber level in a company with high level mates.....  but if you are a true purist r a older rpg player who enjoys playing this solo or with a few friends or family members for fun and casual social enjoyment,  then you enjoy playing like i do, with no pressure and no worries about the kiddie playground company politics, then have heart you CAN make a GOOD solid CONTINUOUS PROFIT,
just sailing around your local area using a minimum of skills and time.   repeat good, continuous and profit, not top of the investor and ingame richest guy/gal listings.  but you can using any trade skill set be it food yarn crafter, make plenty of monies to keep your ship afloat and bank enuf to replace it when its too full of holes to stay afloat.

if you are that comp type player then you didnt need to read this...  but if youre like me and just could care less what anyone else is doing save those pesky goldspammers, then please i would love to trade little tips and other things i can add on to my list of things to do on my trade runs to make more money.

like missions and trading special goods, ill even go back to a town i passed make room buy good and bring back and make a few extra ducats just because some bartender mentioned that good sells well somewhere ;)  but i always make sure i keep going forward skip no profit non profitable goods skimp on food and feed em fish, those types of things to make maximum use of my casual time....