So, what have I been working on?
New Blueprints
I bought a few BPOs since my last major update.
I picked up the EMP L print (as mentioned in the last post) from contracts with ME/PE already done. I also grabbed a Small Ancillary Current Router I and Medium Ancillary Current Router I BPO, both from the NPC Seed in the market. There's no research on them, but they're still profitable.
Skills
In the meantime, I've been skilling (of course). I got Interplanetary Consolidation and Command Center Upgrades both up to 4, which is increasing my PI Income quite nicely. I'm still planning on a major tweak for that, but, the research and work involved to completely revamp my setup is daunting.
I also raised Mass Production up to 4 (from 2), meaning I now have 5 slots open for manufacturing. I'm working hard on keeping slots full and moving.
I'm currently working on Broker Relations, because I want to stop giving ISK away to the sky. I am going to be training Daytrading at some point, just because I need to stop moving to my sell hubs everytime someone undercuts my price. It's getting OLD!
Market Research/PVP
I'm starting to understand the way the market works a little better. Whenever I have the time, I pop over to my market hubs and drop my price to be the lowest price in the station. I can tell when someone has undercut me, even though I'm not in the same region as Amarr, because things stop selling. So, I hop over to Amarr and fix my prices, then get back to whatever else I was doing.
On that note, my new favorite people in EVE are the ones who don't understand how the market works. Here's a market rule for anyone who doesn't know it, The lowest price always wins. Always. This is like Wal*Mart, I know. However, if I'm selling the item for the lowest in the station, and you decide I'm a jerk for undercutting that other price by a penny, so you decide to buy it from them at their price, I win in two ways. First, you buy it from me because I was the lowest price. Second, I get what you wanted to pay them.
Do you see? I get more ISK, and get the sale. It's a win-win for me. So, if you're buying something and you want to spend more to honor a trader who doesn't seem to be undercutting prices, go for it, but you're rewarding the people who are undercutting the price.
Yesterday, 2 different people bought drones from me for nearly 40k each. I sold 5 drones and made more on those 5 than I would have made on 20+ at my regular price! Win for me!
Building Stuff!
Yes, the whole point of all this is to build things. So, I did what every smart EVE player does and I build a spreadsheet. It automatically tracks Broker Fee, Sales Tax, Profit, Cost, etc based on a small amount of input. Honestly, I think I'm in love with my new spreadsheet. My corp mate told me that we have very different ideas about what's sexy when I called my new spreadsheet sexy.
What's really funny is that if I showed you all my spreadsheet, you'd laugh at the obscene simplicity of it and you'd all show me 10 ways to "do it better." So, I won't show it because I don't want to get into another MIMAF-type debate. It's working for me, and I'll continue adding to it as I go.
What's really funny is that if I showed you all my spreadsheet, you'd laugh at the obscene simplicity of it and you'd all show me 10 ways to "do it better." So, I won't show it because I don't want to get into another MIMAF-type debate. It's working for me, and I'll continue adding to it as I go.
Now, what have I built?
Medium Cap Control Circuit - 25 (19 left)
Small Cap Control Circuit - 25 (17 left)
Acolyte I - 500 (455 left)
EMP L - 10,000 (Sold out!)
Hobgoblin I - 3000 (I started these over a week ago and they finally finished up) (1955 left)
Hobgoblin I - 1000 (In Production)
EMP L- 50,000 (In Production)
Small Ancillary Current Router - 20 (In Production)
Medium Cap Control Circuit - 20 (In Production) (This was a screwup on my part. I bought the mats for this and not for the Medium Ancaillary Current Router like I intended)
Profits are moving in. This budding Industry Mogul is quite happy.
Buy Orders
I mentioned in one of my last updates that I wanted to start running some Buy Orders. I don't have large, static orders up yet. But, I've begun work on buying ore directly and refining it myself. There's one MAJOR bonus to this way of working, I DON'T HAVE TO HAUL IT!
I've done this two different ways, the first time, I set up public buy orders in my refining base for Ore. The orders were filled by local miners (including my corp mate) at their own pace. I saved 623,713.41 on the Material Cost of my 1000 batch of Hobgoblins by doing it this way.
This morning, I used my relationship with a small mining corp in my home system to fill a contract. They were able to fill the ore contract on the spot. That made my day. Again, no hauling, and two minutes worth of work instead of an hour's worth of work. I think I'm going to keep working with that local corp, they're EXCELLENT to work for. By buying directly (I even gave him a tip for being so fast), I saved myself 594,205.16 on the total material cost.
In Progress Update
I was writing this while gathering the materials for the Ancillary Current Routers. The plan was to make 20 Medium and 20 Small. I messed up though and set my shopping list for 20 Medium Cap Control Circuits instead. I'm frustrated about this, but, it is what it is. I'll make 20 more, and attempt to move them quickly.
The more frustrating part, though, is that I bit off more than I could chew. I didn't have the ISK in the corp account in order to fulfill the shopping list, so I had to loan another 50M to the corp. Fortunately, someone donated 50M to the manufacturing endeavor this week, and I had forgotten to put it into the corp account. On that note:
Thank you!
First, thanks to Phandora Maren for reading and noticing that I was, in fact, flying a Bestower. Great set of eyes to notice that shadow and be able to tell what ship it was! It was in the last picture, on the bottom right. I've sent you the 10,000,000 prize!
Also big thanks to an anonymous donor (He isn't anonymous to me, but I won't publicly reveal who it was since I wasn't "authorized" to do so) for the 50,000,000 gift. As noted above, I used it to buy materials for the next round of manufacturing!
And finally, to those of you who read, I appreciate all the comments and the support on the forums. I'm having a great time learning the tricks of the trade!
As always, fly safe!
"First, you buy it from me because I was the lowest price. Second, I get what you wanted to pay them. " Wait, if I right click on the higher sell order, and select buy, the transaction goes to the lowest sell order in that station?
ReplyDeleteYes, it goes to the lowest sell order in the station, and you still pay what you intended to pay.
DeleteLike I mentioned, I actually got 38k each for 5 different drones that were listed under 10k each because 2 different people didn't know what they were doing.
interesting.
Deletewhen I encounter a 1 isk undercutter in my low traffic neck of the woods, I drastically lower my sell price to see if they still want to play that game, they usually don't.
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ReplyDeleteI've been following this blog on foot, loving it so far. You really inspire me to start something similar, always wanted to get into industry but never knew how to. Only thing I'm wondering about are the skills ( and maybe standings ) you started out with. Would be cool if you could show or tell us.
DeleteKeep up with the blog.