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[Flying Dice]

It is also absurdly simple to generate high profits for you after the first caravan, assuming you've fixed the diplomats and merchants. Just check their requests for next visit, churn out a dozen or so of whatever the value modifier is out of a good material and put them in storage for next year. I just got ~4000 urists worth of goods for 15 pairs of trousers.

[612DwarfAvenue]

This is why, every time i start a fort, i make it a point of getting my Trade Depot's room dug out, along with some sections to the side which is where i put Craftsdwarves shops, and also digging large sections of stone that lead up to those Craftdwarves shops via stairs.

I then have my starting Noble (i have one Noble that functions as a basic Broker, Appraiser, Record Keeper, and is also the Expedition Leader, until i put migrants into those roles so i got a different Dwarf on each job) do nothing but churn out stone crafts, mugs, etc. until the first migrant wave, at which point i then take one of those migrants and have them do nothing but churn out stone crafts (and i mean nothing but eat, drink and sleep. they have no labors enabled except stonecrafting. They will make those stone crafts until the day they die participate in a !!SCIENCE experiment) instead, freeing up the Noble.

Not only does a legendary Stonecrafter churn out some damn pricey crafts, they also clear out all that excess rock that you'll have lying around.

[Sutremaine]

I made an economic mod, and a side effect of this is disabling by default all non-layer stones. Stonecrafting would use up only the layer stone that comprises my construction supplies, so instead of enabling each stone type I build a jeweler's and select what I want for cutting. The resulting cabochons are much less valuble than stone crafts and a gemcutter is of less practical value than a stonecrafter, but you're going to be drowning in the things anyway and if you do need any utility stone items such as nest boxes or pots you can get a random dwarf to make them. I tend to overlook stonecrafting in favour of carpentry.

[knutor]

Where are you guys coming up with those prices?  I've been bartering in the blind, with my cards face down.  I cannot seem to get my broker to even do her job.  She does everything but it.  Conduct Meeting, Individual Training, Sleep, Eat, you name it.. If its other than trade, she's doing it.

[Organum]

Where are you guys coming up with those prices?  I've been bartering in the blind, with my cards face down.  I cannot seem to get my broker to even do her job.  She does everything but it.  Conduct Meeting, Individual Training, Sleep, Eat, you name it.. If its other than trade, she's doing it.

Your broker has too many jobs. I usually don't have any labors enabled on my brokers.

[Flying Dice]

Where are you guys coming up with those prices?  I've been bartering in the blind, with my cards face down.  I cannot seem to get my broker to even do her job.  She does everything but it.  Conduct Meeting, Individual Training, Sleep, Eat, you name it.. If its other than trade, she's doing it.

Your broker has too many jobs. I usually don't have any labors enabled on my brokers.

Even then, they usually decide that the moment the caravan finishes unloading is the perfect time to go on break, take a nap, get a drink, etc.

Try to keep at least one backup broker on standby when a caravan is in.

[bombzero]

welcome to brokers, this is how they are, i think toady coded it that way.

[Scarpa]

If the broker won't come, they're fired and I have a new broker. Since you pretty much are dumping crap on the traders anyway after the first year it doesn't matter who is broker.

[Keldane]

In other words, if a trader says they want x dorfbucks for this item, is there a hidden value below x that they will accept?

Sometimes you can keep making the same offer and have the trader accept it. I don't recall if that's ever worked after the trader's mood starts to decrease. Certainly I've never tried selling fewer items for the same amount of goods.

I've found that this can work, but typically only if you've already flagged everything you've brought to the depot for trading. If you have more goods for them to demand from, I've found they get upset when you won't give them what they're after, but if you're lucky and you've already offered everything you have, they seem more inclined to give in.

[Dr. D]

I like to steal all the clothes off of traders and trade them their pants back.

[eataTREE]

Where are you guys coming up with those prices?  I've been bartering in the blind, with my cards face down.  I cannot seem to get my broker to even do her job.  She does everything but it.  Conduct Meeting, Individual Training, Sleep, Eat, you name it.. If its other than trade, she's doing it.

Your trader needs at least one rank in Appraiser to be able to calculate prizes, otherwise you will indeed be trading blind. Fortunately this skill trains quickly -- trade one rock mug away, then leave the trading interface, then go back in (and repeat) if you wish to power-level. Other important skills for your broker to have include Judge of Intent (tells you how the merchants are feeling) and Negotiation (gets you better deals).

Agreed with the OP that negotiations do not follow any real-world pattern of haggling. If I propose a trade, and they make a counter-offer, and I make a counter-counter-offer between my original offer and the counter-offer... their next offer should be for less, not more. I've already established that I won't pay that much for the listed goods, so why are they asking me again?

[Crossroads Inc.]

I usually have a rule of thumb that I always offer 33-50% more than what I want is worth.

If something is valued at 2000, then I'll trade junk beautiful mugs off worth 3000.

This is really the best way to go.
The more you want, the higher the profit margin is.
If you think about it, you arn't 'lossing" money, from a real world view, all trades are "free" as you send little to nothign to make trade goods.

[Murphy]

For the haggling to work as OP suggests, the prices displayed for the merchant's wares should not be the value but instead actual amounts the merchant wants, and then you might work down from these, balancing between getting a low price and not offending the merchant so much that he says "I'm only losing time with you, goodbye".

As of now, the prices displayed are the nominal value and of course every merchant wants a profit margin over them. Sometimes much, much over them.

[dizzyelk]

My initial trade will be 50% more than the items I want. If they ask for more, I'll just increase the stuff I want from them to just under my 50% profit for them, and they'll usually accept it. If they don't, I'll quit and go back in with smaller trades.

[Sutremaine]

Your trader needs at least one rank in Appraiser to be able to calculate prizes, otherwise you will indeed be trading blind.

Your broker needs one rank in Appraiser (I think it has to be non-Rusty as well). The broker dwarf and the trader dwarf might not be the same one if 'anybody can trade' is active. If you've traded at least once there'll be a dwarf in the fortress with some Appraiser XP. Find them and make them your broker and you should be able to see item prices even outside the trading screen, but you may wish to change brokers and set the depot to 'only broker may trade' just before the next caravan arrives.

Fortunately this skill trains quickly -- trade one rock mug away, then leave the trading interface, then go back in (and repeat) if you wish to power-level.

You get one chance per caravan to gain Appraiser XP, and the XP is given the first time you open the trade screen.