Question about buying commodities;

[Breathe42]

So i've been doing some trading, and found a mission that had me bring combat stabilisers to togher. Seems easy enough, did some research and found the ed database website, used it to find the nearest cheapest seller, it gave me CE Bootis. Alright, went there...except they had no combat stabilisers.
So that got me wondering; is the "public" station stock the same for the private group one? And also, is there a way to know if they have it in stock BEFORE i go there and waste fuel and time?

[JohnLuke]

The commodities and quantities available are the same in all play modes (open, solo, private group).

When looking for an item, I check the date of the last update from that station, as inventory can change fairly quickly. I'd rather travel a bit farther to a station that had a market update yesterday, than take a chance on a closer one where the data is 6 days old.

[Breathe42]

Ah, so that's what the little clock there means. Makes sense.
Thanks a lot!

[JohnLuke]

Glad to help

[Falcon_D]

Hello,
As JL has pointed out, the markets do change and it's a good idea to keep an eye on the date the prices were updated. Got burned before by a this.
All available commodity prices found on the internet are CMDR keyed in. When a CMDR goes to a station they voluntarily update the prices of the commodities in the station on the website of their choice. I personally use Market Connector to update the prices on eddb.io. And I can only update when docked at a station with a commodity market.

Hopefully your trades will get better with this tip about looking at pricing dates.

Have fun, fly safe. o7

[Breathe42]

Ah, thanks for the info. They sure are going well! Almost got enough to buy the Type-6.

[AJH]

A bit surprised nobody else mentioned this yet, but also check the supply number when looking for commodities. The supply is exactly what it sounds like, it is the actual number of the item at the station. Stations will spawn commodities at a rate determined by the conditions of the system they are in and the conditions of the faction owning the station. This increases the supply and people buying the commodity at the station decreases the supply.

The rule of thumb that newer data is better than older data generally holds true, but if you have a value from 6 hours ago that had a supply of 500 vs one from 7 days ago with a supply of 300,000, you'll probably have better luck at the older station since it's far more likely that someone bought up the 500 supply in the last 6 hours than people having bought 300,000 units in 7 days. It's also worth noting that supply impacts price as well. Systems with high supply will be generally cheaper and as you decrease the supply, you will see a price increase.

The opposite is true for demand. Demand is based on the system and faction controlling the station and goes up over time and is depleted by selling at the station. Prices are higher when demand is high and decrease as demand goes down.

[Serinea]

If you use the EDDB or such sites, you could look into running a program like ED Market Connector, and help feed data back into the elite dangerous data network, those prices don't update themselves, and there are eula reasons they can't do it automatically

Fly safe,
Serinea

(erm, not sure but this post reads slightly sarcastc and condescending, really not meant to be)
Edit: Do'h, didn't see Falcon's post, but still, repeated info with link can't be too bad, can it?

[Breathe42]

Thanks a lot for all of the info. You guys are great! Never seen a community so quick and responsive to questions.

I'm definitely downloading the market connector, seems like it's gonna be a great help to everyone.