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[joeclark77]

Typically I buy lots of leather, because it takes a while to be killing stuff fast enough to produce your own.  And I like to have lots of leather-equipped archerdwarves.  I usually kill the elf caravans for their cloth, so I don't need to buy it.  Buy all the wood, and all the meat.  Prepared meals are fine trade goods for you to sell.  I also buy the domesticated animals, but basically just to slaughter them.  Only cats, dogs, and female poultry will be kept alive.

[Abadayos]

For me persionally I always ordermetal bars (all metals, not just weapon grade), all meats possible (in the first 1-3 years of forts life as a 'oh crap lost all my cooks/hunters/farmers/access to XYZ fort level cos of nasties), anvils to melt down, PIGS!!!! (I like to have atleast 30 female pigs and 4 males as a back up, butcher the non-gigantic/muscled ones just incase it helps with genes or whatever, more science needed).

I alsogetcloth, l;eather, thread and any medical related equipment, again for the first 1-3 years whilst I get the more important industries established.

Also I usually go for the trap component production by the 6 month mark. Preferance goes to Iron (or steel if possible to make)and melt down the basic ones made and sell the good ones to totally buy out the first 1-3 years worth of caravans (except elf wooden crap and more useless beasts along with extract barrels/toys/useless items). This boosts my fort up in value quite fast which can be a problem, however it also means hitting 200 bodies in the fort is pretty easy to do and allows you to do more fun stuff earlier. All of the metal stuff I get from humans is melted down and most of the metal stuff I get from dwarves is also melted down unless it's of really good quality or I have an immidiate use for it (weapon traps, equipping dwarves etc)

A little soemthing I also like to request is bolts. I buy ALL of them, even the gem encrusted wooden ones. If your using trap components to sell, the cost of the items means literally nothing. Granted it's pretty exploitative however 99% of my worlds are super hostile so I justify it by saying other civilizations value defenses very highly to ensure survival.

Saying all this I always spend hours hunting for good embark locations usually atleast 6x6 that is deep (100+ levels) and has 80% or more of the metals in game at reasonable quantities, coal, gypsum and either clay/sand so realistically I do not NEED to trade, it just makes the first few years easier.

[Frostea]

In Masterwork you can request items from humans, elves and drow asides from dwarves. They are all capable of bringing 'Crates' of items, found under the Miscellaneous section. Dwarves can bring crates of steel and mithril, and a variety of other useful items. This can be quite handy later on. Elves can bring crates of the various woods, and also mithril. Elves can also bring exotic pets that may include magmalings, depending on the elf civs nearby. You can command magmalings to spawn magma where they are in the Alchemist Lab (this building requires research). This eliminates the need for fuel very early on (as early as year 2 depending on the elf caravan timings).

Drow and humans tend to bring worthless things as compared to dwarves and elves, so I generally ignore them unless I want some supplemental food/drinks. Bloodsteel that drow caravan brings cannot be substituted for steel in the production of mithril so they are doubly worthless, at least from my perspective.

Note that crates of the valuable metals such as mithril and steel, along with crates of armorsets are very expensive. You'd need to produce masterful roasts or crafts made of precious metals to purchase them early on. It becomes less of an issue later, just like in vanilla, where you can simply buyout the entire caravan (bad idea for FPS).

You need to Trade Warehouse (or was that Storehouse) to unpack contents out of the crates.

[PDF urist master]

I usually buy all weapons grade metal bars, precious bars (gold, platinum, aluminum) as well as all anvils. I also buy leather and cheap bolts to support my marksdwarves.

gypsum powder if I don't have gypsum, sand bags if I don't have sand (glassmaker moods come more often than not)

In the second year, I try to get all above ground seeds from my elven and human friends, especially whip vine.
Elves are a good supply of exotic animals, which I usually buy from them (tigers, hippos, not the crappy foxes).

Humans usually have exotic weapons that are sometimes worthwhile. morningstars are much more deadly than maces, and I will usually buy some iron morningstars (or wait for goblinite). I usually buy whips, but only silver ones as they do the most damage. Human shields are also heavier than dwarven shields, which helps a little for shield bashing. shield quality and material does not affect blocking, so there's no real reason to prefer dwarven shields over human ones.

[Linkxsc]

First year ill grab some cloth and leather and as many different foods as I can. If I have any ready stuff for trade I grab any steel iron or bronze they have.

Usually I request bars. Food. Animals for the butcher. Cloth and leather. Year 2 on usually sees me buying all the caravan has to offer. Cause prepared meals are a readily renewable resource. And the caravan can fill me with all the less renewables.

[m-logik]

In addition to the standards that have already been mentioned repeatedly, I like to buy blocks from materials that I would never turn into blocks. Like native platinum and native aluminum. It's wasteful to make them yourself, but they're great to have around when a moody dwarf wants to incorporate a block in his artifact turkey leather thong.

[tussock]

The basic caravan trade game is buying stuff to turn into better stuff to sell back to them. Often as they wait.

So order gold nuggets and all their other useful ore, smelt and make goblets, profit. Order silk thread and dye, make dyed silk robes, profit. Order plump helmets, make dwarf wine roasts, profit. Also, neat trick you don't often see mentioned, order what you want to sell them next time! Because if they're bringing it in at 250% price they're also buying it at 250% price. Got a bunch of encrusted large gems lying around? Order large gems!

Once you're doing that, you can easily buy the whole caravan with your spare capacity and melt everything unexceptional. For the first couple years if you're not there yet, well, start with the cheaper stuff like wool and wood. Turn all their logs into spiked balls for them, buy the caravan with the profits. Prepare for migrant waves of 50+.

[pisskop]

bitluminous coal.
marble.

all the wood. all.   the.  wood.

Some extra weapons unless you have a handle on smithing.

Cloth bins.  cheap sheep yarn.

things that you may have issues producing yourself.  either due to tge embark situation or your experience.  like booze.

But getting the bitluminous coal and marble is good even on forts that have both, if your civ carries them.

Most of my requests are fish, dog leather, everywoodever, metal bars, tin cages, extra dogs/sheep/fowl, cheap yarn/wool/cloth, potash, metal ores/flux.  in every fort, no matter the age.

In new forts I usually ask for seeds, rope, lye,  coke, copper/bronze, flux/ore, wood (allofit),  cloth, leather, food, drink.