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[FantasticDorf]

Inefficient or inaccessible items to produce, leather is near the top of that list and i usually destroy the bins afterwards since its such a great material.

To produce the same amount of leather goods a year to fashionably clothe dwarves when pig-tail supplies are stretched, id have to slaughter many tens of valuable animals that grow slowish due to the 1 hide 1 animal clause. This is less of a problem with globular skin modding, but still it would be nicer if it made more sense.

[Eric Blank]

Personally usually ask for raw resources that my site/civ doesn't provide but they do have. Often varieties of garden plants and seeds I don't have, sand if my embark doesn't provide it, raw glass gems to occupy the jewelers, ores if I need them. But my biggest import is usually leather and cloth, my own animals not providing the amount of leather I want and extra cloth to bolster my clothiers' supply. I don't import a lot of finished goods, but crutches, splints, backpacks and quivers, as well as written books, I do import.

[RLS0812]

Written books can be "borrowed" for free from unoccupied monasteries ... each dwarf can usually precure one per exploration if the site has any.

[Eniteris]

Huh, didn't realize that ore weight would be such an issue; I request ores because no matter how many bars I request they usually bring way too few. 4 bars per ore gives me net more bars than requesting the bars themselves.

Other than that, lye because it's a pain to make (mostly the bucket > barrel transfer step). Granted, instruments are also a pain to make, but I haven't used them much.

[muldrake]

Huh, didn't realize that ore weight would be such an issue; I request ores because no matter how many bars I request they usually bring way too few. 4 bars per ore gives me net more bars than requesting the bars themselves.

I don't think it should currently be much of an issue with dwarven caravans, but smaller caravans like human/elf/goblin if you've turned on diplomats for them and can make trade agreements, might not be able to fulfill them all.  Caravans are apparently smaller or larger (in terms of number of wagons and pack animals) depending on how happy/angry the civilization is with you.

[anewaname]

What everyone else mentioned, but also all types of wood, all types of eggs, all cloths from the humans, and sometimes gypsum powder.

[muldrake]

What everyone else mentioned, but also all types of wood, all types of eggs, all cloths from the humans, and sometimes gypsum powder.

Usually in your first year you'll notice what you don't have when you try to do normal-ish things like building a hospital, tavern, living quarters, feeding dwarves, keeping them drunk enough to function, etc.  Usually this is just a couple weird things you can request, but if there are more I just scribble them down on paper.  I also usually ignore the export requests from the diplomat.  I look at them, but it seems nine times out of ten all the requests are either junk I'm not going to bother making at all or stuff I'd never export.  On the rare occasion they ask for something I already make, especially with quality characteristics, I do go into high production of that item so I can just dump any non-masterwork items on the Mountainhomes.

The problem with those requests is the bonus on the items they requested is pretty weaksauce and rarely compensates for the loss from just not selling high value items, like literally any kind of gem-encrusted masterwork furniture, if you are averse to the "spiked balls free money lmao" exploit.  Low quality weapons and armor are always a good trade good unless they're made out of a metal you're short on.  This means you can spew out enormous amounts of both and just keep the best for yourself.

I also do buy cloth but rarely request it because it's absurdly expensive.  However, having a functioning textile industry is a huge nuisance and it's sometimes worth paying more just not to have to do it.  I almost never buy out the entire caravan's cloth though, even when I didn't request it.

[Kasmodahn]

Hey,
I tend to ask for a moderate amount of food i can't produce,
The most precious gems available
Blocks and raw stone for moods (mostly aluminum, platinum or silver as i don't like gold)
Wood - as much as possible
Raw glass for my jeweler to train
Lye, as I'm too lazy to produce and regulate the amount of soap by myself
Coal as long as i still have to set up my magma forge
Silver bars for war hammers and statues ( i like to role play a bit with my hospital so i make everything out of silver in there, down to the chains/tables/mechanisms of the traction banks)
Steel for the armory - or iron and flux stone to produce it by myself
Dye (can't have enough of that, because my PC is not good enough to have a proper mill set up, and grinding flour/dye in a quern does take its time)
Did i mention wood? cause i like clear glass as well, so ash needs to be made^^
Actually i buy cages and order them sometimes as they are nicely melted down to tin, lead and zinc which i can use to make chests and cabinets for the bedrooms or glaze pottery if no fireclay is available

Occasionally i restock on seed or cloth if i run out of them (what mostly happens in the early days) or trousers, Ts etc. till my clothiers is doing his job (i wait for my first miller or farmer to have his/her strange mood so that i can avoid a named legendary sock -.-' )
Oh and i buy sand.... tons of sand... they are pretty pots of glass once the magma kiln is working so you don't need to get that wood to make barrels and it is a free bag you do not have to tailor. Also they keep bad thoughts away cause my Ds can craft.

[muldrake]

Oh and i buy sand.... tons of sand... they are pretty pots of glass once the magma kiln is working so you don't need to get that wood to make barrels and it is a free bag you do not have to tailor. Also they keep bad thoughts away cause my Ds can craft.

I generally buy out all the cheap heavy stuff unless I'm in some kind of FPS hell and don't want more objects.  I always bump up important seeds a notch or two, to guarantee at least some arrive, but 10 is as good as 100.  Similarly, I often buy out the entirety of the edibles, but I rarely max the trade agreement.  Just what the dwarven caravan brings is usually enough to last a year or more.

[Rafal99]

steel bars
pig iron bars
iron bars
iron anvils (to smelt, this is a cheap way to get more bars)
steel anvils (same)
Bitumous coal if I´m low on wood.

Same for me. There is never enough steel and iron for all the armor I want to make.

Other items I ask for are:
weapons and armor (hoping they bring steel stuff)
previous metals and gems (so I can buff value of artifacts or other decorated items)
thread, cloth and dye (low priority, although there is never enough)

As for items I actually buy, I buy all food items, but don't ask for them, because they always bring enough that I can barely process them before next caravan comes.
Also all metal cages, toys etc. that can be melted into metals.

Generally my trading strategy is: export renewables (prepared food, bone crafts, etc), buy what is limited on my site.

[Haytrid]

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Strange_mood

I request anything on that page I don't think I'll accumulate within the first year.  Scrambling for materials for moods at the final hour is never fun.