I will support Corp by providing a space station

Don't think one's needed?  Reason to keep Trade Corp, Earth bound, is can't attack Earth based assets due to AG's programming.  So no defense costs!  Since Stations can't orbit Earth, Trade Corp won't use Stations.

Sounds good. It might be difficult to save auction money for original owner, so if we want to save anything for the original owner, which may be advisable, we should just keep the modules. After a certain time if they have not claimed their merchandise we can keep it or auction it at GCA preference.

I will try to throw together another set of updated ‘bylaws’, but I can’t promise it will be very good. I really hope we can get this started soon. Cpt. Dante Locke just passed a PT bank law and a PT commerce law based on this thread, so even if we never even start this thing, at least something has come of it.

Not hard at all to save the money - let a Sponsor do it.  Unless it's a massive trade between corps, any amount likely to be owed can come out of a Sponsor's petty cash the day it's required.  (Like the real world, AG has billionaires.)  Essentially, Trade Corp gives the Sponsor the money, in return for a public IOU.  

What compels the Sponsor to honor the IOU?  Nothing but their ethics and their rep with other players, especially other Sponsors..  For really complete coverage, ideally the Corp of a Sponsor will agree to cover any public debts should the Sponsor become inactive.  What happens if a major Corp goes inactive?..  Let's worry about that later ;-)

Are the any of the atmospheric harvester left I need a few ASAP and I can find some money for them

Nothing's built - have lots of slots available, but no way (yet) to convey anything to you, Odlid, etc.
(and I'm far from being the only one who can build nice stuff ;-)
Providing a platform for buying and selling stuff among players is what this other thread is all about:  http://forum.astro-galaxy.com/index.php/topic,9915.60.html

Good news is nothing in the basic list (above) takes more than 2-weeks, and most takes only days.
With Officer, it's exactly 1.5-hrs / level, but a decent "in your head" estimate is 6-days / 100-levels.

And, the list above is quite flexible - it was my first take on "stuff I wish I'd been able to buy when I started playing AG".
By all means suggest other :-)

No problem :-)

This thread was to "gauge interest".  Which appears to be minimal.  Guessing that means Trade Corp, if it happens, will be for clearing mid and high level mods among well established players.

Open issues:  Fee structure, manager wages, hours of operation, how long we're willing to pend a transaction, what to do with unclaimed merchandise, dispute resolution, penalties, treaties (eg. can someone on a KOS list trade?  if not, whose KOS list(s)?)

Commerce is not just trade but social relations, so this corporation will regulate trade and will act as an alliance between GCA member corporations. This means the KoS list comes from all KoS lists of all GCA member corporations.

In my opinion, a transaction should be pending for a maximum of 48 hours, and any unclaimed merchandise should be auctioned offon the GCA Market forum thread which will be created if it has not already.

Like both :-)  Money raised from the auction, minus a fee, will be saved for the original owner unless they're declared Inactive from AG after some very long period (maybe 3-months?), in which case the money goes to their corp at the time of the auction, or to Trade Corp's sponsors and managers by some formula TBD.

Sorry, been busy IRL..

I'm thinking a thing of convenience with no growing value, just pass thru's.  If we need some power to rank high enough for people to find and join, I'll contribute some mid-level nukes.  At worse, if stolen they could only be used once ;-)

Value shouldn't be retained - so no temptation.  We have 3 ships, all Earth bound - no drives.
"Counter" is all the regular members see. They put stuff on, they get stuff off.
"Register" has fees, payments, and collateral on it, preferably in diamonds.  Like any good cash register, it gets emptied frequently.
"Shelf" holds stuff for when the other party isn't in the same time zone, and the transaction has to be spread over a day.
(maybe Register and Shelf can be same ship in actuality - conceptually they're different)

Customers can only interact with cargo on their assigned ship (will always be Counter).
(ed. 04/11) Merchants are longtime Customers who pay for their own Member license and are never kicked (except for months inactive, or dishonest or illegal dealings).  Merchants can "rent" a corp ship for Storage if they pay for the Ship license and the ship.
(ed. 04/11) Managers can assign ships and accept members, but can't change mods or kick members.  (keeps the ships Earth Bound, and prevents a rogue Manager from kicking everyone until becoming Leader ;-)
(ed. 04/11) Sponsors can change mods and kick members.  Customers should voluntarily leave Trade Corp after their transaction is done, so Trade Corp doesn't have to buy lots of member licenses.  So getting kicked by a Sponsor should have a small penalty next time the kickee wants to join.
(ed. 04/11) Leader (AG designation) should be the alt of a Sponsor with very long and respected AG credentials, including top 20 (preferably top 10) pow Rank.  So has better things to do than cash out this convenient little public utility, and brings the heft of their reputation and corp to promote "good behavior".

Open issues:  Fee structure, manager wages, hours of operation, how long we're willing to pend a transaction, what to do with unclaimed merchandise, dispute resolution, penalties, treaties (eg. can someone on a KOS list trade?  if not, whose KOS list(s)?)

Not entirely altruistic.  I'd like more new players to stick around and spice up this game I enjoy so much.  Getting out of Sol system is a brutal grind and drives away a lot of players.  If a (relative) pittance in low level mods can get them out where it's interesting, and moving at a non-boring speed, then time well spent :-)

Also, plans change, and sometimes corps and leading players are looking for a more profitable place to dump powerful, but no longer wanted stuff.  For example, I bought the high-grade EMS for my stations at a SPQNR internal "fire sale", the week before they were slated to be sold for a loss to Earth.  What if they could have instead been sold at a markup to midlevel Sol Corp and Independents via Trade Corp?

If EOS wants to sell weaponry, think we'd be better having them in and selling, than out
This thing is still evolving..

__
100-ACB (advanced) are completed and reserved for the transfer ship.  I'm keeping the two Factory ships that built them idle for now, while we see if there's interest in low-level mods.  However, so far the response is underwhelming  
cf. http://forum.astro-galaxy.com/index.php/topic,9938

Yes, you can rejoin Sol corp - you'll see it as an option in the Corps > Top Corps tab when you quit (or are booted for staying too long ;-) from Trade Corp.

The list above isn't definitive.  It's low level stuff that can make a big difference for beginners.  If Trade Corp takes off as we hope, you'll see Corps and major Independents selling cool stuff, that for them is excess inventory they'd previously have sold at a loss to Earth.

I'm also hoping some experienced players will put idle slots to work taking "special orders".  Anything can be made, if not by me, than by someone else - you may have noticed a bunch of "elder statesmen" in the organizational thread  

This is to gauge interest - please put down what you're interested in - level, how much, what markup you'd consider.  It's not a contract; it's to see whether we're wasting our gaming time with the legalistic wrangling in the organizational thread..

One thing we don't need to worry about - currency. 

SPQNR has 2 Stations at Earth's Moon buying and selling Diamonds at cost to the public.  As long as that continues, anyone who wants to buy something can go to the Moon and buy some diamonds, then go back to Earth and make their transaction.  The seller likewise goes to the Moon to sell diamonds and get $s. 

Only cost for using diamonds as currency is the small amount of fuel needed to get to the Moon and back 

[is there any interest among the players we hope to serve]

per the Galactic Commerce Thread http://forum.astro-galaxy.com/index.php/topic,9915.45.html

We may soon have an Earth bound corp dedicated to increasing commerce by allowing players to join temporarily, make a purchase or sale, and leave.  A few of the larger players have donated around $100m/ea to getting the ball rolling, and debate is still underway re. how exactly things will work.

Assuming we get all that figured out, is there any interest among the players we hope to serve?

To get things moving, I'm willing to dedicate up to 2 Factory ships (96-slots) to providing initial inventory.  If there's interest, I'll sell at a minimum markup of 10% of Earth sale price, to a max markup of 50%.  

If there's a lot of interest, you don't have to bid high - there'll be more production soon  If there's a lot of high bidders, I'll allocate smallest order to largest, then first come first served.  If there's not much interest, another "good idea" bites the dust  

If you want to undercut my prices, please do!  Those slots are really supposed to be building me more SLB's  

Please indicate interest below, along with your bid.

Module Type	Mark	Level	Cost	Min Sale $	Max Sale $	Utility	Days
Adv Atmospheric Harvester	AAH	32	$1,798,656	$1,978,522	$2,697,984	26 m3/hr	2.0
Adv Cargo Bay	ACB	48	$406,176	$446,794	$609,264	3,825 m3	3.0
Adv Mining Facility	AMF	48	$2,080,128	$2,288,141	$3,120,192	38 m3/hr	3.0
Atmospheric Harvester	ATH	100	$780,900	$858,990	$1,171,350	26 m3/hr	6.3
Cargo Bay	CAB	150	$189,600	$208,560	$284,400	3,825 m3	9.4
FTL Drive	FTL	50	$214,200	$235,620	$321,300	1.326 au/min	3.1
Living Quarters	LVQ	50	$210,200	$231,220	$315,300	15,900 crew	3.1
Mining Facility	MIF	150	$898,350	$988,185	$1,347,525	38 m3/hr	9.4
Science Lab	SLB	100	$917,000	$1,008,700	$1,375,500	2,575 rp/hr	6.3
Wormhole Generator	WHG	50	$901,500	$991,650	$1,352,250	14.31 ly/hr	3.1

Why have any minimum on membership time for non-sponsors?  Come in, make your trade, leave, or join and stay until your declared business (eg. selling these 16-WHG-L's at 10% markup) is done?  We need some rules for booting people if the number of folks lingering makes new member licenses expensive.  However, I'm not getting why people *have* to stay longer than they may want to?

Please consider removing the retention requirement for non-Sponsors?
Don't think it will play well with either Independents or corporates who aren't using an Alt.

Non-sponsor memberships shouldn't have to be longer than it takes to make a transaction, unless someone is a manufacturer hanging around until all inventory is sold.

Do need sanctions against a buyer who fails to pay or who shorts the payment.  Transfer Ship's log will show the "mistake", but escalating sanctions at different tiers of value and periods of delinquency (there will be actual mistakes) will be necessary to inspire confidence.

Bit of a different vision there! 

was thinking more of very temporary membership by the transacting parties - just long enough to get the transaction done,
and payment in whatever's agreeable among the parties at the time of the transaction - probably diamonds, SLB, or ACB.

The cargo log of the transfer ship keeps a record of who added and removed what.  Since the AG server automatically provides proof, no extra mechanism is needed.
Likewise, no concern about transacting parties damaging or moving the ship, since the ship has no drives, remains at Earth (where it's safe), and transacting parties are only granted cargo rights (another AG server function).

Can turn:
$50k -> 1AP
20AP -> 1QP
 1QP -> $50k (OUCH!)
 1QP ->   1AP (OUCH!)
 1QP -> 25k-RP (OUCH!)

Can't turn 1AP -> $50k

__
Get enough down on the Bylaws for others to react to?  Might not win the 100QP, but "the ball" will keep "moving forward" ?-)