There are SO MANY different posts about the SAME issue, I decided to merger them together. Hopefully the development team will see this thread and make changes to the global trading market! And with all the posts being in one place make it easier on EA team to find them all.
@davej6655 wrote:
... I stop leveling at level 10. I spent two weeks buying and selling, making plastic and seeds and selling. I expanded my storage to 240 and bought all available expansion slots, then continued expanding.
It's a very good strategy, unfortunately most players don't know to try this when they are at level 10 -- after all, building up the city itself is so easy at that point -- and by the time they find out they should have done this, it's too late. Also, once they connect their game to Facebook or Google, they cannot start over and ever hope to connect to that same social media.
If this helps resolve your issue, please click accept solution as this may help others with the same issue to find a resolution as well. XP is appreciated but not required.
@Lalenamagic wrote:
Hm, I'm at level 15 now and have about 82.000 sims in my town. Is it not too late to use your technique? And what should I do exactly?
@Lalenamagic -- Hi! The main thing is to stop adding and upgrading residential areas and focus on expansion items. By "expansion items" I mean those items needed to expand your City Storage, and the land areas of your game. Although still difficult to purchase sometimes, those expansion items are more plentiful in the Global HQ while you are at a lower level, and they become increasingly more rare as you increase your level, so don't. To make money for buying items from Global HQ, you just need to make and sell items yourself. I don't have the chart in front of me, but at any level, a person who wants to do this should craft the most complicated items available that others need in their own games. Anything from the first couple of stores should do nicely for this purpose -- be sure to mark them up to full price as you're just losing money if you discount them. Advertise something every five minutes -- don't pay extra to advertise more often -- and watch what sells and what is slow to sell. Keep making and selling the items that sell fast. Keep at least 10 slots in your City Storage open when you go looking for items to buy -- you never know when you will get lucky and manage to snag 10 of something you need in one sale -- and you don't want to get the opportunity just to find your City Storage is too full to make the purchase! At the end of any playing session, be sure to queue up a mix of materials in your factories so they are done and waiting for you when you play again.
Good luck!
If this helps resolve your issue, please click accept solution as this may help others with the same issue to find a resolution as well. XP is appreciated but not required.
@jan_mmm950 wrote:Impossible to purchase expansion items (terrain, storage). They are always gone when reaching the friend city.
Really frustrating
One technique that may or may not help you is to watch for the expansion items and click on them when you see them. When you arrive in the city and it says "sold" over the item, refresh the other player's Trade Depot a few times. Some players will decide to sell off a bunch of items -- either to raise cash or to open up space -- and they will advertise the first item they sell. Often, they will sell similar items right after the one that was already sold when you arrived, and continuously refreshing their trade depot will let you get an unadvertised special!
If this helps resolve your issue, please click accept solution as this may help others with the same issue to find a resolution as well. XP is appreciated but not required.
