Discounts for stations or traders
A smalltalking NPC can offer a discount at their station, which offers higher profit margins if taken advantage of.
After successfully smalltalking an NPC Trader (e.g. Black Marketeer, Arms Dealer or Mechanic; Recruitment Officers too), they may offer a choice of station or personal discounts. Station discounts from smalltalk apply on top of any other discounts, such as via Standings (Reputation) or those found outside stations whilst investigating station i-points or other areas. Therefore they can all be stacked up to gain a higher profit margin than would otherwise be available.
Station discounts do not apply to shipyards as they don't produce anything other than ships. However they do apply to any other station's products. Shipyards will only usefully provide comissions (ie 'sell us that <ware>' at a bonus rate, rather than 'buy this <ware> from me' at a discount)
(This may need to be investigated: does a ship dealer apply a discount to components or drones ordered with a ship? - Snafu)
Solomon Short wrote:
"The Station discounts/commissions apply to all relevant trades with that station for duration.
You can also keep wandering around (&/or visit other docks on the station) to find more opportunities to unlock them, stacking them up.
So if you pick which stations you seek them on (I believe they're usually for station the NPC you game with is on) you can hope to apply them to expensive wares (which can be handy when you've got discounts on station building supplies)."