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How to Make Selling Ships Profitable in Starfield
Image Source: Bethesda via Twinfinite
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Starfield
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How to Make Selling Ships Profitable in Starfield

Is it a bug? A feature? Who knows, but it's the best way to make credits off of selling ships.
Image of Brady Klinger-Meyers
Brady Klinger-Meyers
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Published: Sep 15, 2023 04:51 pm

Selling ships in Starfield isn’t the most lucrative business in the game; in fact, it’s downright pitiful. That’s like half the reason to be a space pirate! Well, we’re sick of being ripped off by ship technicians. If you are too, then we’re happy to teach you how to make selling ships far more profitable in the long run.

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How to Sell Ships for a Tidy Profit in Starfield

Before we begin, you’ll need two skills: Commerce and Targeting Control Systems. Commerce is located under the Social tree and Targeting Control Systems under Piloting. Both are on the first tier in Starfield, so if you have two points to spend, you can get them right away.

  1. Steal a ship.

    It doesn’t matter from who, but if you’d like to avoid getting a bounty, then pick up a bounty mission from a mission board. Target the engines, then board to take out the remaining crew.

  2. Register your (stolen) ship.

    Do not register your ship with a ship technician. Open your inventory, into the ship menu, and switch over to your new ship. You’ll see the option to register in the bottom-right.how to register your ship for selling in starfield

  3. Now sell your ship.

    You can now safely sell your ship to a ship technician, like the one at New Atlantis.

The trick here is that registering ships yourself only takes into account the ship’s original value, regardless of your Commerce skill. On the other hand, a technician’s registration fee increases as the value of your ship goes up, which it does naturally with the Commerce skill.

For example, I stole a ship valued at 9034 credits—without Commerce. Ship services charged me 7597 credits for registration. After spending a point in Commerce, the same ship was now worth 9936 credits, but cost 8356 credits to register. However, registering the same ship by myself, with Commerce, only cost me 7597 credits. I made 2339 credits as opposed to 1437.

See the disparity? That’s how you make selling ships more profitable in Starfield. As you invest more points into your Commerce skill, a ship’s value increases, but the registration fee stays the same, so long as you do it yourself. It still feels a tad low, but this trick at least makes being a space pirate more rewarding.

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Author
Image of Brady Klinger-Meyers
Brady Klinger-Meyers
Brady is a Freelance Writer at Twinfinite. Though he's been at the site for only a year, Brady has been covering video games, and the industry itself, for the past three years. He focuses on new releases, Diablo 4, Roblox, and every RPG he can get his hands on. When Brady isn't focused on gaming, he's toiling away on another short story.
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