Since buying a ship doesn't cost any PF, selling one is unlikely to gain you any either. You might however give them a small boost, like 1 extra PF per 25 SP value of the ship, or be able to keep the SP and burn them as bonuses to acquisition tests (1 SP per +1 bonus to the test) to represent having quite a bit of liquid capital that they can throw at things.

"Say, Magos Verina. I've noticed your forges are capable of turning out Plasma batteries of uncommon range and accuracy, as well as what seems to be far more efficient drives."
"Your observation is correct, Lord Captain Turion. To what point do you seek this idle chatter to reach?"
"Oh, well, I was just thinking. My personnel and I recently salvaged a planet bound Lathe class cruiser, at no small expense, I might add..."
"We care little of your expenses. Come to the point."
"Quite. However, I have not the finances to tend to this treasure. I would, however, be inclined to return it to the Machine Cult for proper ministrations and restoration. All I would ask in return is time in your stardocks to undergo some refits of my drives and weapon batteries. What say you, Magos?"
"A novel proposal. This may prove of mutual benefit to yourself, Lord Captain, and my Stewardship over this fief of the Omnissiah. I shall send to you one of my assistants to work out the finer points of this commerce. Now, if you have no further business with me..."
"No, Magos Verina. No further business."
"... Then I have other matters to attend. Good day, Lord Captain."

Find someone who has something you want... In this little bit of fiction, good quality Ryza-pattern Turbo weapon Batteries and a better Plasma Drive of some sort (whether Archeotech or something else) and work out a trade. The components and labor for a salvaged ship. Sometimes it's not about the actual Acquisition test if you know your target market well enough. But, that's just me, and I think circumstances and good planning should not always fall to a dice roll.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Ultimately, if the explorers elect to simply sit and wait at a station, either through constant rerolls until they roll a 01, or using the time modifier tables listed, the PC's will get what they want. And unfortunately to GM's, narrative time is a very abstract concept. If the GM wants two hundred years to pass he can just state flatly "Two hundred years pass", without going into any detail at all about anything.

If you want to cut down on acquisitions or make acquisition rolls relevant, start putting Rogue Traders under a deadline. That new endeavor they're about to undergo? The longer they sit at port, the stronger the chance their rivals will get wise to scuttlebutt about their plans and make a move before they do. Imagine your PC's surprise when they arrive to claim a wrecked ship only to find out that Aspyce Chorda beat them to it three months ago.

And of course there are the various rules for acquisitions, including only one acquisition test on a particular item per gaming session, and penalties for multiple acquisition tests per gaming session.

And then if you wait for 200 years... "You have 463 new misfortunes that you haven't dealt with. Their deadlines have all passed and you now have a profit factor of -526."

And as you said, any GM worth the title will put some value to time. Endovors they are on will collapse, misfortunes will crop up. They will in short be forced to choose between waiting another 3 months for another attempt at buying X, or going out and increasing their profit factor and trying to get X next time they happen to be in a good location.

Starting on page 221 of Into the Storm there are rules for making multiple acquisition tests more difficult and more dangerous. After my players went after a bunch of crazy things, I started using them.

Nojo509 said:

Yeah, I think they are perhaps a bit harsh if you're just going after small things, but if you're trying to buy all kinds of rare/expensive things, then it seems appropriate. After all, if you can't get the resources together to buy that new macrocannon array, why would you suddenly have the money sitting around to buy that new command bridge instead? And if you did manage to have the money for the macrocannons, shouldn't you be tapped out for a bit?

In regards to how long it takes to replace a component. The Core book does address this.

Under extended repairs on page 228 it states that

"New components (whether to upgrade existing components or replace destroyed components) are purchased as normal, and require 1d5 additional days to install per component"

So as per RAW it looks like it takes 1d5 days to pull out on old component and stick in a new one.

Personally I think that is way to fast. I would go with 1d5 weeks for most components and 1d5 months for the bigger more complex ones.

llsoth said:

Depends. You can't just do that for yourself out somewhere in the void. You'll have to go to a shipyard and have it done and they know what they do. 1d5 days really seems too fast though, but I'd say components with the "external" trait can be installed in 1d5+2 days, since there's only minimal ripping-up-the-whole-ship involved. 1d5 weeks might be appropriate for most of the other components. If they have to replace more than one component, I wouldn't just add the time up, but simply add the minimum amount of time needed, 1week for a 1d5 weeks component, for example.

gomme said:

The last paragraph of the side bar on page 208 has the following to say on the matter:

• "The time it takes to install new Components on a starship varies depending on the facilities available. Usually, a human world with at least interplanetary space travel is required to install new Components. Such a world could install a new Component on a starship in roughly three weeks. However, a populous hive world with competent stardock could do the same task in half the time.

The rules on 228 are for extended repairs where a ship is likely already in stardock and crawling with reapir crews and servitors. If you are exchanging or upgrading Components under these circumstances, then the time is in addition to all other repairs being performed. Otherwise, if you are not undergoing extensive repairs and refit, the rules on page 208 should apply.

Of course, you might be able to squeak out a faster refit through Extended Repairs then you would otherwise, but you are going to pay for it... In a completely abstract sort of way.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Abstract payments, my favorite kind. They are very light on the bank account

Brother Praetus said:

Good to know. I missed that one, better than 1d5 days.

Ok, that's true. Haven't read that thoroughly enough. So, does upgrading a component always only take 1d5 days? So basically, the three weeks only apply to a type of component, that you didn't have on your ship before, right?