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[GhostDwemer]

Well, obviously not to trade with elves, but in the course of training my siege engineers up to legendary, I'm generating a lot of useless (to me) inferior parts. So, I figure, why not sell 'em to my mountain homies? I get all the junk parts to the depot, where there is a huge stack of wood waiting for me, 'caused I told my mountain homies I would pay double price for it. A whole 6 dwarf bucks per log. My parts (of less than masterpiece quality) go for from 30-150 dwarf bucks. So, while training up a skill that can help defend my fort, I am making a huge profit using imported raw goods. Why did I never think of this before? Maybe all the stories I heard recently about how useless siege engines are, but I'm using going to be using just one masterwork ballista facing straight down a long, 3-wide 'dodge-this' type trap hall, for extra 'dodge-this' fun.

The drawbacks are, they weigh a ton. But they weigh less than the logs you are buying, so not really a problem. Also, you can't trade them to elves. But hey, there are other ways to use siege engine parts with elves.

[kilakan]

Spiked wooden ball traps make way better return for wood to trade good price increase, and they don't weigh anything.  And for trade goods, seige parts are sub-par, but for training a guy up sure they are good.  Personally I dump them into magma myself.

[Psieye]

Hmm see, $6 -> $30~150 is good as far as profit % goes but in terms of actual profits made it's more lucrative to go with metal crafting, cooking or textiles. Mechanisms go for the same amount as siege parts. Certainly, given your objective is to get a masterwork ballista this is a good export industry but you can't call it "the best trade good".

[synkell]

IMO , the best trade good is one where you get rid of all the excess stone in the fort. Given how many stone crafts my forts put out... It can be considered the fort's ONLY export good (^_^)

[evileeyore]

IMO , the best trade good is one where you get rid of all the excess stone in the fort. Given how many stone crafts my forts put out... It can be considered the fort's ONLY export good (^_^)

But I use that stome to build walls and outer defenses and above ground buildings and to pave the planet...

[Anathema]

Thing is you can take any raw material - wood, metal, cloth, food, whatever - get a dwarf to process it into some kind of finished good, and easily get something 20+ times more valuable. Honestly I treat caravans as more of a garbage disposal than anything else; if you have extra siege parts from levelling up your engineer, sure why not trade them away. Most forts have excessive stone to get rid of, so stonecrafting is popular. Even useful stuff like food or metal can be traded away if you're producing more than you use - caravans are an outlet for whatever you don't need, which should sell for more than enough to buy whatever they have that you find useful.

For my mature (5+ year) forts getting rid of all the excessive FPS-draining stuff produced is much more of a problem than making the caravan happy, I wind up dumping in lava or atom smashing things the caravan would love to have, simply because I produce more than they'll ever be able to carry off.

[Psieye]

Well, in mature forts there's the eternal problem of ambushes and sieges just denying you caravans at all. Therefore atomsmashing or magma become the staple methods of garbage disposal.

[Lagslayer]

For massive cash flow, get a map with sand and have a handful of magma glass furnaces alternate between "collect sand R" and "make green glass serrated disc R" and you will have more cash than you know what to do with. You will be able to buy out caravans a hundred times over.

[Brent Not Broken]

Hmm see, $6 -> $30~150 is good as far as profit % goes but in terms of actual profits made it's more lucrative to go with metal crafting, cooking or textiles. Mechanisms go for the same amount as siege parts. Certainly, given your objective is to get a masterwork ballista this is a good export industry but you can't call it "the best trade good".

There are of definitions of "best" that don't involve lucrative profit margins.

I do the OP's trick with mechanisms and crossbows in the early years of the fort, and with catapult parts later on. (Flux mechanisms are especially nice with this.) Until a migrant shows up with decent stonecrafting skill and nothing else useful he can do well, I do all my trading with the byproducts of training up useful dwarves. And the caravan helpfully clears all the subpar mechanisms and crossbows out of my stocks list.

[Triaxx2]

Plus consider this. In the average fort, wood is a renewable resource. And wooden siege parts don't require you to have a massive mining operation, nor do they require coal. (Technically magma isn't required,but what's the point of building things if you don't include magma in the plans? Really.)

[cdrcjsn]

A +wooden spiked ball+ will sell for 378. 

There are more lucrative things to make and sell than siege engine parts that are also useful in fortress defense.

[afterthought]

I think the "best" trade good, as just a pure trade good, is obsidian rock crafts:
- fit inside of bins, not heavy
- a single masterwork craft item is worth 360
- with an obsidian caster, infinite amounts of obsidian can be made at almost no risk
- legendary stonecrafters tend to be pretty common (either from moods or because they are easy to train)

Basically it's like green glass crafts, except higher value per item and you trade sand collection for obsidian casting

[SirAaronIII]

ROASTS FOREVER
A masterwork roast with the right ingredients (large stacks of food) will easily break 5000 dorfbux.

[Keldane]

I think the "best" trade good, as just a pure trade good, is obsidian rock crafts:
- fit inside of bins, not heavy
- a single masterwork craft item is worth 360
- with an obsidian caster, infinite amounts of obsidian can be made at almost no risk
- legendary stonecrafters tend to be pretty common (either from moods or because they are easy to train)

Basically it's like green glass crafts, except higher value per item and you trade sand collection for obsidian casting

I was shocked when I discovered that clay (thus, earthenware) crafts are as valuable as obsidian. Less dwarfy, of course, since magma is only necessary if you're using a magma kiln, but the value to ease of access can't be denied. Stoneware (fire clay) is even better, having a slightly higher value multiplier.

[Flying Dice]

Serrated steel disks. High-quality ones sell for 15k+ dorfbucks, they are incredibly useful both for training weaponsmiths and for fortress defense, and you can make massive amounts of them on a map with a good supply of iron and flux. I usually sell off all the no-quality and (-) and (+) ones, as even those will break 3k+ dorfbucks.