A lot of people want the option to buy cannonballs, planks, and bananas for gold. A lot of other people think it's a bad idea. Personally I feel it creates an imbalance between new players and veterans. I also feel the concern when I spawn a solo sloop and don't want to waste time stocking up only to have it put me at a disadvantage when something attacks.
When I start a new game, I hope for a message in a barrel that wants a crate delivered. I then grab that crate from the merchant and haul it around to all the barrels filling it before taking it to my ship and moving it all into my barrels. It saves a lot of time and still rewards the effort put into stocking your ship. I understand it's hard to come by those missions, especially the wood crate missions, so it's not a perfect plan.
The highest have seen one of these sell for was around 1800 gold. If you can purchase an empty crate of your choice from the merchant or someone at the outpost for more than they sell for, let's say 2,000 gold, you can use it to help stock your ship. They wouldn't produce a profit for people trying to buy one, fill it, and sell it. Also it wouldn't count towards commendations, and it wouldn't be something as easy as going to someone and buying supplies that just magically appear in your ship. It would still require time and effort to stock up and it would require searching barrels on outposts, islands, and even floating barrels. These crates are very useful for collecting supplies, it's just difficult finding them. If you can buy empty ones from outposts for a price higher than they sell for, stocking your ship will be much less tedious. It would help solo players or even crews starting their voyage but wouldn't help someone spawning a new ship on a random island after being sunk contesting a fort, so the crew that won the fort doesn't have to worry about a fully stocked or even reasonably stocked ship coming back for revenge right away. The losing crew would have to sail to an outpost, buy the crate, and fill it from barrels on the island before coming back to fight over the fort again.
What do you guys think? You think it would help gameplay or hurt it?