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I have an inventory and bank full of items and I have gone back and forth between various traders... however... there are just too many traders and I have seen so many different prices.

How can I know in advance where I will get the best price for items?

Are some traders better for some and others better for others?

And next, buying - again, too many traders to know! ... I have managed to find one site/guide that lists various items, however, is there any general advice I should know?

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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

To be perfectly honest, when you get to the higher levels, energy credits become kinda a secondary thought, you'll have more than you ever really need even with just replicate-recycling stuff on your ship.

You'll be getting a lot of crap you won't be using that will still replicate for ~10K credits once you hit upper half real admiral.

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Thanks for that and I understand, but unfortunately, at the moment, I suck and need the cash/want to buy stuff! Won't down vote, and I will certainly use the replicator more when I am a higher level, but, for now, is there a guide as to what traders are best for some items (buying and selling)? –  wilhil Feb 24 '12 at 20:30
Okay, in that case, the consensus (on the STO forums) is that Federation vendors generally give the best deals (the venders you'd find in Earth Spacedock, DS9, SB24, Star Fleet Academy), Ferengi merchants (you can find a few on DS9 as well as around in Sector space) generally give the worst deals, and most of the others fall somewhere in-between. –  Tarkenfire Feb 24 '12 at 23:41
Even at the lower levels, there's very little "good" gear that can be bought for ECs. (And it'll almost certainly be obsolete within 10 levels). Dilithium is the real currency these days. –  Allen Gould May 10 '12 at 18:27
True. I never actually bought any weapons with EC...that said, never really bought much with diluth either, aside from a backup ship. Weapons are SO easy to find if you do a large amount of missions. –  Tarkenfire May 14 '12 at 16:40
There are exemptions to this. Purchasing from vendors is kind of a moot point in the upper levels because Dilithium is the primary currency. The "good" gear can be purchased on the exchange from people selling it for EC, which is extremely valuable for people who use the Mk XI Very Rare or Mk XII Very Rare weapons and consoles (such as myself, but i'm a profit hungry ferengi :P). But for vendors, you just use them to sell the bound cruft for more money than the replicators give (vendors give exactly half an item's worth to you when sold) –  Thomas W. Jun 8 '12 at 16:49
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My first thought is - you probably don't need to buy it at all.

Every tier you'll get a new batch of weapons, equipment, etc. Unless your current quest requires you to have specific commodities (which you can usually just replicate on site), or you're at the level cap and are looking for particular pieces of kit, you almost certainly are better off just working with what you have and saving the cash.

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If you're looking to get the most energy credits for your items, you should check them on the Exchange. (Like an Auction House from other games) You can drag the item in question to the search box and it'll put the entire name in the box for you. Otherwise, you can sell almost any item to the NPC shops on Deepspace 9 and get 50% of the credits the item is worth (The value on the tooltip card). All other shops in the game, and the recycler in your inventory, only give 40% but are more convenient.

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