Free Market release

I don't normally do posts on individual releases to the game, but this was one I had high hopes for, that came up a bit short.

By that I don't mean I'm disappointed with the release, I have my gripes, but more that I thought this would represent an opportunity I could throw money at and get a lot richer fast. I planned to exploit the PLEX to Hypercore conversion rate to buy PLEX, convert it to hypercores, and sell them for a huge markup on release, hoping that people wouldn't bother to do the maths on what they are actually worth, and keep doing it until it was no longer profitable.

For this I used the formula:

PLEX price x PLEX per core x 1.06 (broker fee + taxes at Jita)

which come out to (currently)

3,360,800 * 0.1 * 1.06 = 356,244.80 per hypercore. 

Hypercores currently sell in Jita for 354,000. Disappointing.

I did get in on release day, for about 25 mins, when the margin after everything was about 10%, and I made about 2 billion in that time, which is pretty good for half an hours work! Unfortunately real life intervened and that was all I managed. Maybe next time.

I'm thinking of trying out hosting my own raffles, to see what the margins are like, but I'm not doing that now, and I'm certainly not playing any.

The other part of the release that relate to the market are splitting out the "Market Orders" into a separate window. Not a fan, but you can snap it to the same window as the market so the effect is basically the same as previous. The only downside is you have to click the "market orders" button every time you log in. More clicks for the same functionality. I guess you could argue there's more flexibility if you have the screen real estate. Which I now do! I've finally upgraded my monitors to 24" 1080p ones, so the EVE UI scales a lot better than it did previously! You'll see from my next update that I can actually fit almost my entire spreadsheet in a single screenshot, which is a great improvement.

The other major change is to the wallet. Big, colour coded buttons for ISK, PLEX and loyalty points respectively. This seems like it's scaled to tablets, which is an odd choice. The functionality of the wallet is broken down on the left now, with much bigger clickable areas for a more modern feel. A small improvement I feel.

Lastly, the overview. This has changed to include a circle chart of your income or expenses over the month, and is colour coded, with a breakdown on the right, ISK amounts if you hover. I like this, it's nice looking, and covers a little bit of the functionality you get in your overview on EVE Mogul. It doesn't provide a huge amount of use, but if this is the start of some useful reporting I'm all for it.

In other news, the month is going pretty well earnings wise, and I continue to grind standings on my new character. I should be quite ahead of my end of year target, which is great! Watch this space.

December Update

This month has been a real return to form, with a much higher turnover and profit, things are feeling back on track. My current position:

I have 537.7Bn ISK. That's an increase of 29.9Bn over last month. I don't really know what lead to the large jump in turnover this month, I've had a bit more time to play, and I've tried a few different things, but it seems that market activity is back to normal after the end of the Chaos Era fundamentally. The introduction of the Korean client probably helps boost activity a bit as well.

I was aiming for 540Bn by the end of the year, so I've basically got a whole month to get ahead on next year which is great! I've got blueprints in research for the components required for a Raitaru, which I'm looking forward to starting producing soon. I've also started another character to dedicate entirely for Large Skill Injectors, but more on that in a future post.

I last did a trade run on Saturday, which is why I have, er 75Bn ISK lying around. Most of this will be thrown back into my usual trading when I next get chance, but I'm also going to throw my weight behind hosting some raffles when the HyperNet Relay releases on the 10th of September. Again, more on that in another post, but I reckon there'll be some serious money to be made there.

I have 4 accounts, with 11 characters dedicated to trading:

Skill Point Trader

My newest character! I've started a brand new character, who I'm going to get a very high reputation with all the main empires and the corporations who own the trade hubs, for the purpose of trading skill injectors and other high value high turnover items. I've trained Social V, and started the rep grind, but it'll take a while, doing career and then distribution missions. A slow burn character.

Jita Buyer

This is a character that sits in Jita and contracts items to my other characters. This character has little training, and mostly buys from sell orders and contracts the items to my other characters. I tend to have this character logged in to act as a real time price comparison whilst checking my other characters orders. This character also manages my long term investments, though that doesn't take much work. I am putting excess ISK into this venture, and watch delonewolf's EVE Talk to get ideas for things to invest in. Currently holding about 74.7Bn in orders and investments.

Amarr Seller

My main money maker, with ~140 Billion in active sell orders at the time of writing. Takes implants and faction/deadspace modules delivered by my Rens character and sells them in Amarr.

Dodixie Seller

Very similar to the Amarr seller, he sits in Dodixie, takes receipt of items, then set up sell orders. Currently has 80 Billion in sell orders. No news with this character.

Rens seller/Hauler

Like the other characters, this character takes items bought in Jita and sells them in Rens. Currently has  108.3 Billion ISK in active sells. He also hauls my goods from Jita to the other trade hubs in a Crane.

Hek Seller

Like the other high sec seller characters, he sits in a trade hub in Hek and sells items brought to him by the Rens seller. Currently on 68.3Bn in sell orders. Needs to pay for his own PLEX every month, which isn't too difficult.

Amarr station trader

Sits in a player owned Fortizar in Ashab, buys from buy orders and sells through sell orders with a range of 1 Jump to cover Amarr. This character trades completely different items to the rest of my characters. I gave this character 1 Billion to start with, and he's currently on 11.2 Billion.

Jita station trader

My more serious station trader. I have a character in Perimeter in a player owned Keepstar, with 0.5% broker fee that sits in one station, buys from buy orders and sells through sell orders with a reach of 1 jump.

Most of my items are bought and sold in the Jita 4-4 station. This character trades completely different items to the rest of my characters. I gave this character 10 Billion to start with, and he's currently on 60.5 Billion. I spent the time to get faction and corp standing up with this character, and this is my attempt to take station trading seriously. He also farms SP and sells injectors on the market.

Horde Seller

I've changed this character this month. Rather than shipping items from Jita I've switched to station trading in the Horde Keepstar in R10-GN. I've found it much easier to keep this character updated as a result, a good change. I set him up with 1Bn and he's currently at 4.7Bn.

Tash-Murkon Region trader

A different strategy altogether. This character sits in a player owned Fortizar in Tash-Murkon prime, and set up regional buy orders for modules, implants and drones. When a lot of orders have been filled I fly around and collect it all to sell in Tash-Murkon Prime. I set this character up with 100mil to buy his own skills and get started, after skills he had 70mil to buy items. Currently at 5.5Bn. Can fly a Crane, which speeds up my collections immeasurably.

Manufacturing Character

My latest character, pretty new. Currently has 11 building slot and 10 lab slots. Finished research on 5 structure rig blueprints and has done 2 runs on each of them, with the produce up for sale in Rens and Hek. I haven't accounted for this very well, but I bought materials for the run for about 2.1Bn and put them up for sale in the region of 3.4Bn. Pretty good return if they sell. Also has 9 structure component BPs in research. The plan will be to sell the items produced by this character in the 5 trade hubs I sell in. I'm planning to put more time and work into this character this month to work out a process.