Sunday, 23 September 2012

Day 94 : Weekender Trading

I’ve a lot on in RL this week so some posts might be a little short, perhaps virtually empty, and I won’t get chance to update them till the weekend. That said, first thing Monday morning, I’m online and parked in Dodixie to check out a theory.

Sure enough, the weekenders have been on. I buy out several orders of various things. One thing here, 16 there, another 4 on top. I have quite the splurge for 5 minutes, scanning all my findings back up to eve-central.com

I then jump in my fast ship and make the 15 minute run to Jita on manual. Bear in mind here that I’m still trying to balance the cargo hold worth against the worth of tricked out Hurricanes on the Uedama gate. I’m just under what they would be worth fitted I think. I still get a rush from passing through various systems in Citadel, which is really why I make these occasional runs.

Arriving in Jita I just sell the lot. I know, I know. I need a regular system of Sell orders, not to mention Buy orders at the other end, but I’ve become strangely addicted to the running total of cash in the bank. I think its the way it counts up after you click the Wallet window open. It’s like the score at the end of a level in an arcade game. Hopefully one day I’ll get to enter my name in three characters in the high score table.

What’s the profit for this 20 minutes of work? 50 million ISK. Now, I’m no great trader but for a one off run, with a pilot with hilariously bad Caldari rep, that isn’t bad. How could it happen? My hypothesis was that people would be dumping a weekends worth of junk onto the market. Lots of people dump stuff on there after playing all weekend and there are bound to be a few mistakes, and probably a lot of lazy, quick sale, Sell orders. I’ll be back there again some Monday morning scanning Tag values but it feels like an odd start to the week. The ISK gain is great but it makes me feel guilty about not using the market more in a persistent way. I need to find a return trade route, either straight back to Dodixie or to some other location on the way home. These should be slower trading items so it might make me think more clearly about this trading lark.

I’ve been thinking about the second account a lot. I’m past the three month mark and I’ve realised that a second account wouldn’t dilute the Noob experience so much anymore, so it’s time to start writing down the reasons that I should consider a second account, beyond the fact that I love the game of course.

Reasons to get a second account #1

Caldari standings : My main is Gallente, I’ve boosted his standings to be able to get level 4 missions. The Caldari don’t like him and this situation probably won’t improve. I could station the new alt in Jita while it trained (pretty much all it would be doing at first). A few trade skills and some career missions should cut down on brokerage fees which are making a dent in every profit. On the non boring side, I could claim I have a pet squid.


NOTE ON REALISM


I may have done two runs to Jita. My notes for Monday were the equivalent of a managerial post it note reminder. Pretty damn pointless. I have a memory like a sieve and in RL can't splash out on a +4 implant.

3 comments:

  1. Buy in mission hubs, sell in trade hubs or border markets. Consider your market, Raven bots buy ammo, and the odd faction module. Where do the frigate pilots go to get their pvp fodder?

    Don't forget there are contracts for shipping goods to market. Mind the collateral.

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  2. My isk on trades was about 50% at the buying end, and 50% at the selling end with orders. Although you might not have instant wallet blinkys, it is hard to pass up half your profit by selling lazy.

    All said though, i was making a total profit on item of about 10 - 20 %. You might be making more, so the added 10% might not matter. For me I had more isk than time, so I traded in bulk.

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  3. On your sell orders be sure to select "Immediate" from the drop down box. This way you're not charged the Broker Fee, just tax.

    (even if you select an order in the market view and select Sell Item, it'll set the duration to 1-day and charge a broker fee even though the item actually sells immediately)

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