Best way to make a lot of cash?

[Accuracy]

Are there any good and fast ways to make a lot of money in a short amount of time. 100M credits for example? Once you get a station money will start rolling in but doing 100 missions for 1 milion does not seem like a good idea.

Trading is slow and painful and mining is not profiting enough, there has to be some good way.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

I enjoy reinvesting initial mission rewards in the Skunk's upgrades whilst starting to train my Recruit Marines on easier mission targets like Balors. Captured targets can fetch a pretty penny if you were so inclined

[wwdragon]

I enjoy reinvesting initial mission rewards in the Skunk's upgrades whilst starting to train my Recruit Marines on easier mission targets like Balors. Captured targets can fetch a pretty penny if you were so inclined

Especially when they are filled with those rare reinforced metal plates which almost no one makes. >.<

With the recent patches, the best thing to do is cap it, then bring in another undamaged hauler to transfer the wares to.
Then take the wares out to a safe area and use or sell them.

Then sell the captured freighter before it even finishes repairing.

[Snafu_X3]

Piracy is almost certainly the best quick moneymaker if you don't have the rep to obtain high-paying missions. See the boarding guides in the /spoilers forum or at the wiki

HOWEVER, selling hulls isn't the only way to go about it. Check the target's inventory too; you may find something you'll want to use (expensive/rare) or something you can't get rid of

I'll do a short piracy tutorial for spoilers + wiki when I have some time to think about it..

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

It looks like you found time already, Snafu, very nice!

I've added it to the wiki's list of guides, which I'm basically only mentioning as a shameless plug for the list. hahaha

[Ezarkal]

I wrote this a while ago as answer to a similar question.

Here is perhaps the most abusive way I've ever found, except perhaps for boarding enemy capships and using the repair laser mod to sell them fullprice.

Spoiler

Show

1-Get a Police Scanner, a some decent shields (Mk 3-4 at least), a pulsed maker Mk. 1 or 2, and good manual targeting skills.
2-Fly to Maelstrom, Alpha Quadrant, Sturdy Crusader.
3-Scan the hell out of the place for crates. Loot them until you’re bored or there are none in sight. There should be loads of them. If you don't find any, keep looking.
4-Fly back to a station to sell your stuff. (Don’t forget to look for black market dealers, and watch out for police patrols.)
5-Repeat steps 2 to 4. Crates will respawn when you re-enter the zone. (Maybe you have to leave the system first, I’m not sure)

I usually use this in early games to kickstart my empire, when I’m too lazy to do it the long way. I usually make 20 to 25M credits per run.

Few tips:
-Yes, it’s a danger zone. The trick with those is damage over time only apply when you’re moving. If you stop, your shields will recharge. Only lightning will damage you if you don’t move. That way, you can survive indefinitely in this zone. (Lightnings are too frequents and powerful in FoO’s danger zones to survive this way, but in Maelstrom you should be fine.)
-Once you’ve looted a crate, destroy it. That way it won’t be detected by the long range scanner anymore.
-Beware of those crates rigged with explosives. Make sure your shields are full when you shoot them, or you can die/get severely damaged.

[mr.WHO]

I think that boarding is most profitable - However if you don't want to loose reputation with a specific faction you should go for the Assasination mission + boarding the assasination target (which usually is the generic "enemy" faction) - this combo will make that once you board you will receive the cash from assasination mission (I guess marines kill the target), but you also can sell the boarder ship for additional money.

The best place to do the assasination mission is Molten Archon as there is almost no local security (means no one will try to destroy your target during bording), especially if during campaign Hearth of Albion build the farm station in the zone with gate to OL - they offer the asasination mission almost every time you get into the zone.

The only drawback is that first you have to build your rank so that assasination target start to spawn in capship, plus you have to have some marines.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

I tought that boarding was most profitable, until I built a Hardware supplier in OL and a Construction shop in Albion, upgraded them to maximum production. Then bought a Container Rahanas and used it to remotely trade goods throughout the universe (trade agents on every single station).

[Accuracy]

Could you tell me what type of dealers am I supposed to look for to sell the looted items?

[Ezarkal]

Any type of "trader" npcs. Food merchants, black market dealer, space farmers, ship technicians, mining suppliers, equipment vendors, junk dealers... I think that's it.
You have easy access to all merchants in zone directly from the ship menu. There's a submenu for NPC communication, and a subsection for traders. They are in the same section as ship dealers and licence vendors.

Now black market dealers don't broadcast themselves in those menus unless you know how to find them. From the zone map, you can get into station info, and get a list of the personnel on station. From there, you can look for a BM dealer (or any other dealer/NPC you want).

Using these methods, you can sell your loot from your ships, without even getting close to the stations. It's a good way to avoid the local police, and to sell all you want without having to spend an hour looking around for NPCs.