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[Pinguinpanic]

I've done some testing with this and what the trader means is: even if you offered me all in your depot I won't be able to give my stuff. Or put otherwise: the total worth of all in your depot can't buy you the goods you want + my desired profit.

[Poindexterity]

when you're trading with the mountainhome, LAVISH them with goods.
1000 is a pittance to the queen.
 Her dining room table is worth more than that.

[Eric Blank]

when you're trading with the mountainhome, LAVISH them with goods.
1000 is a pittance to the queen.
 Her dining room table is worth more than that.

Screw that. I routinely get away with <5% profit margins just trading mechanisms, through a broker that started their career with adequate at most in any skill. The trick is to only bring a few goods at a time, each time you trade with them, so you look like a cheap bastard, and they'll buy 2000☼ worth of goods with a 50-60☼ profit margin. And when they won't accept that, I drop the roof on their heads and take their stuff.

I also only really bother to trade mechanisms... No crafts, no old clothes. The stonecrafters are busy making pots and the bone and wood carvers are employed in other fields.

[Poindexterity]

when you're trading with the mountainhome, LAVISH them with goods.
1000 is a pittance to the queen.
 Her dining room table is worth more than that.

Screw that... 
drop the roof on their heads and take their stuff.

or that way works well also.

[HiEv]

I've done some testing with this and what the trader means is: even if you offered me all in your depot I won't be able to give my stuff. Or put otherwise: the total worth of all in your depot can't buy you the goods you want + my desired profit.

You have to be careful "experimenting" with trading, because traders in Dwarf Fortress don't "haggle" like people do in real life.  Traders that have been given poor deals require greater and greater deals to overcome the "insult" of the previous poor deals.  If they're "insulted" enough they'll simply refuse any trades as being too small, even if you're offering them a treasure trove of goods for a single sock.

But seriously, you can churn out a ton of worthless rock crafts in no time that they'll take in trade for truly useful items year after year, so worrying about the profit margin is silly.  It's like trading $1,000 worth of ugly bobble-head dolls you don't want or need and can easily make more of for $500 worth of groceries, it's worth it.

I usually do a series of trades where I trade ~2000 worth of goods for ~3000 worth of my crafts, worn out clothes, and things I have too much of.  The traders are happy, and so am I (assuming my baron doesn't forbid crowns again just as the traders leave  ).

[Naryar]

Yeah I've seen this.

When caravans piss me off too much (aka doesn't accept trade) even with several thousand dwarfbuck profit, I just deconstruct the dwarven depot and steal their stuff.

[Dorfimedes]

I made the traders so happy before that they barely demanded any sort of profit thereafter. I could buy things that cost thousands of db with a profit of, like, five. It only had to be positive. Sometimes they would make counter offers but there were no repercussions to taking off the extra merchandise and forcing them to accept the old deal, they didn't seem to be angered by that. I'm beginning to suspect the broker makes a "roll" based off his skill and the mood of the traders to determine their reaction, and once you've buttered them up enough the odds they'll actually get upset are really small. Oddly enough, it seems that by giving them ludicrous profits initially, you can actually save in the long run. The AI is a little weird.

[JTTCOTE]

I made the traders so happy before that they barely demanded any sort of profit thereafter. I could buy things that cost thousands of db with a profit of, like, five. It only had to be positive. Sometimes they would make counter offers but there were no repercussions to taking off the extra merchandise and forcing them to accept the old deal, they didn't seem to be angered by that. I'm beginning to suspect the broker makes a "roll" based off his skill and the mood of the traders to determine their reaction, and once you've buttered them up enough the odds they'll actually get upset are really small. Oddly enough, it seems that by giving them ludicrous profits initially, you can actually save in the long run. The AI is a little weird.

Yeah, just exchange 5 crafts for one rope maybe 3 times and they'll accept basically no profit.

[rtg593]

Ivfind quality matters, as well. First year, all I have is low quality crap to give him, sometimes it takes over 10,000 profit for him to accept the trade, even the first go around. All masterwork stuff, I can usually get whatever I want within a couple k profit. Throw in one low quality item, he'll be demanding again.

But ya, just like the title and the message says, he can't fathom you ending up with all those items. Offering him 5k of broken furniture for 4k of diamonds isn't really a good trade

[Loud Whispers]

1. Offer significant but not large profit margin
2. THIS %"!% OFFER IS BETTER. GIMME STUFF.
3. You now know the profit margin they want.
4. Commence crappy items dump.

[Garath]

except in the first two years I'e never run out of crap to sell, usually having more than whatever I want from the caravan is worth. I really don't understand people who steal from what I see as the garbage collectors. You must be at a real low if you got to steal from the people who usually take your garbage.