Timber crates: my misfortune and your guide

A commenter informed me that those who stockpiled fir, cedar and birch timbers aren't morons since they need no market to sell, they craft Calpheon Timber Crate which is a strange kind of trade item. It stacks, it has no duration, but it has origin. It costs 5 of fir, cedar and birch plywoods (about 70K opportunity cost if you sell the timber and spend the plywood processing time to make steel). A trader gives 50K for a crate in the same town.

However if you transport them far enough, you get a better price. Much better. According to the guides, the Trent-Altinova transport pay over 100K. Valencia is even further. So I started making them and now that the Valencia update is out, I delivered them. Or, that was the plan and so my misfortune and suffering started:

• You can't just fill them in a cart and offline travel, as it's forbidden with trade items.
• Warehouse transport don't go from any town to any other. Luckily I can transport with one stop: From Trent to Epheria Port for 790/crate and from there to Ancado Inner Harbor for 4100. Transporting takes about two hours with ship.
• You cannot warehouse-transport more than 100 items at once and crates don't stack during transport. I had over 700 crates.
• Both for trading prices to not be terrible and for transporting cost not be tripled, the nodes must be connected. That's a lot of nodes between Trent, Epheria and Ancado. I had to shoot down my whole Velia node farm. Which is opportunity cost and time to reconnect after crate trade is done. Also, the last nodes aren't easy to reach. I saved some future connecting by leaving Bambu Valley, Iris Canyon and Kmach Canyon forever connected to Shakatu and run their work nodes. To reach these I had to do much running and climbing. The last three (Ancado Coast, Ancado Inner Harbor) cost 2 points. You either commit these points permanently or you have to claim them every time you transport.
• You can get the "Failed to receive transport" bug and then have to wait some more.
• Even if you leave at least the Coast connected, you must get yourself there and you can't even offline travel to Valencia/Ancado as it's beyond the desert. Instead of walking trough the desert, I bought a boat and sailed from Shakatu harbor to Ancado (and explored the islands nearby).
• If you just leave an alt there, you have to wait 10 mins after log in to use trade. Also, the alt won't have high weight capacity, unless it's leveled, strength leveled and purchased weight extension.
• The "market price" at the trader decreases as you deliver more and more items. At first the Ancado trader offered me 130% (133542 silver), but it went down as shown below. It returns to 130% slowly. Except when many players are online and selling, keeping the ratio low.
• I tried Valencia, but it has 93% distance bonus against the 102% of Ancado, it doesn't worth going there.
• Even if you have a high level cart, you are limited by the weight of silver you get for the crates. No, you can't route the silvers directly to the storage like you could with a shop.

I totally wouldn't do this hassle again. However I don't have to, nor you. Here is a guide how can you make good money (50-60K profit per crate):

1. You must permanently connect the nodes. If you can't or don't want to, just forget the crates and do something else. If you plan to work in batches and connect the line every time and transport and sell at once, your head will explode. Way too much hassle!
2. Forget Epheria! 8 Contribution points to connect it to Calpheon.
3. Since your node line is permanent, you can transport any time it's available during your normal play, so it stops being a limiting factor. Move the crates on the Trent - Calpheon - Tarif - Altinova - Ancado Inner Harbor route! Check the warehouses for arrived transports (as only 100 can be en route), claim it and grab one batch randomly and send to the next stop.
4. Keep an alt and a cart in Ancado Inner Harbor. Every now and then log to that alt, wait out the 10 minutes and go shopping. Spend 1 pt on residence and keep a bed there, spend the waiting by replenishing energy for bargaining. You can also send some materials to process while waiting.
5. A lowbie alt has no chance passing the desert. But he can go by boat. There are routinely cruising ships from Altinova if you just want a one way trip. Or you can bring your own boat. The nearest warfmaster is in Shakatu Abandoned Ferry.
6. You can, and due to the high price, probably should bargain for that approximately 10% bonus. You must win a silly minigame for it which costs 5 energy each try. Remember your bed, that's where the energy comes. A crate has 30LT weight. You can't carry too much at once to the trader and you must re-bargain every time. While you can fill your cart with many, the silvers you'll get will limit you.
7. Every time you make 10M, use the currency exchange feature of the storage and buy a 10M ingot. Put it to the storage and transport to Altinova where you can pick it up without ever setting foot in the desert.

Remember, you don't have to do this, you can earn good money without making a single crate!