Hang around the Ebon Hawk for a bit and talk to your party members. Some of them will produce items to prepare you for upcoming missions, as noted below.
Check with those party members (and others) to see what all is available. You can talk to those party members regularly to get additional supplies, until you are carrying a set number. When you run into the limit, you can then deposit your loot in the cargo room containers and talk to your party members again to convince them to make still more goodies for you. Then, when you happen across a vendor, you can sell any excess goods and use that income to invest in other items of interest to give yourself a real boost.
Hidden names
When using the random name generator, press it enough times and you will get character names from the Homestar Runner cartoons, such as "Homsar" and "Kerreck." It might take a few tries to find these.
New Jedi Order book series reference
If you keep talking to Canderous about his past, he may mention his strange encounter with a "strange, asteroid-like ship that shot magma/fire balls before vanishing into Dark Space outside the galaxy". This is a reference to the New Jedi Order book series. The creature Canderous saw was most likely a ancient Yuhzong Vong Coralskipper.