EVE: Merchantry & Manufacturing
So I've been getting back to manufacturing in EVE. I've learned a few things.
1) When buying BPCs, it's pretty important to keep an eye on the material efficiency. It can make the difference between a decent percentage of profit, and very little. Anyone want to buy some low ME battlecruiser BPCs? No?
2) When you're choosing things to manufacture, consider the market. There is very little point in producing Minmatar frigates in Gallente-dominated areas, even if it looks like there's a 50% profit to be made. Anyone want to buy a Rupture? How about 20 of them?
3) Sometimes, the profit margin is going to be tiny. That's ok. Lots of tiny profits add up to larger ones over time. And it's worth stepping back, sometimes, and looking at the real numbers. 4.3% profit after you take into account the cost of the BPC, the minerals, and the associated costs doesn't look like much. But 4.3% on, say, a battlecruiser costing you 29 million is almost 1.25 million. And after you do it 15 times, that's nearly 19 million ISK. There is a risk - someone with a more materially efficient blueprint, or lower broker costs, or the like, may be able to undercut you. But it's nothing like the risk of having your ship blown up in a mission.
4) Keep a close eye on your market ranges. Accidentally setting a half-decent price for Tritanium with a range of 5 jumps when you meant to offer a half-decent price in one station can result in having to do a LOT of travelling, or contracting out courier jobs. And chances are, unless you're offering a really bad price, it'll be filled almost instantly, so you don't get the chance to cancel it.
5) There's no point in hanging onto a battleship if you're not going to do anything with it. Sell it, spend the money on minerals, turn it into more money, and buy the battleship back later. The price may even have dropped, and unused ships are an opportunity cost.
As you can see from the details here, most of these are things I've been learning by making mistakes. They're all pretty obvious when you write them down, but they're not obvious when you're deep in the details of working your way through EVE's market interface, and tabbing out to a spreadsheet every ten seconds.
I have, however, turned 15 million ISK and a battleship into something just north of 120 million in stock and cash in about twelve short sessions, so I'm doing something right.
Posted by Drew Shiel at December 12, 2008 1:05 PM
