Probably Stolen how to make money comes down to one rule: buy below value and sell above it, and the skill that decides whether you actually profit is appraisal, because suppliers overstate value and a bad call on the item or on the seller is a cost you absorb yourself. Beyond the counter there are three more income lines, and every product line carries its own kind of trouble.
Probably Stolen How To Make Money: The Income Lines
- Counter trading. Buy below value, sell above it. Every trade carries your difficulty's retail markup on top of the price: 20% on Price Gouge, 15% on Mark Up, none on Thin Margins. You can also haggle a seller's price down and a buyer's price up.
- Appraisal work. Inspecting an item's details, condition, seals and markings pays you a commission, so appraisal both protects you from overpaying and puts money in the till.
- The Dumping Grounds. Dig through junk overnight and occasionally find something more valuable to resell.
- Information brokering. Suspicious customers sell price-sensitive classified information.
Overnight production is a second shift that runs while you are closed: the furnace and smelter turn scrap and broken machines into ingots, the wine fermenter turns grapes into bottles, water purification turns a shortage into a queue, and the vacuum robot cleans at night.
On the harder difficulties, appraisal is often the most reliable free income in a run because it costs nothing but time at the counter. The appraisal guide covers how the inspection work actually pays out.
What Each Product Line Costs You
| Product line | Failure mode |
|---|---|
| Weapons | Inspections |
| Chemicals | Addiction |
| Water | Liability |
| Contraband | Raids |
The safest income is the one whose failure mode you can actually pay for. The contraband and inspection page covers what a search costs when it goes wrong.
What Loses You Money
Misjudging value at the buying counter, reading the customer wrong, and contraband that gets caught and confiscated. A confiscation is the money you spent plus the profit you expected, which is why the same test applies to every income line: judge a deal by what is left over, not by the sticker price.