Market Discussions

Returning pilot here... I want to try something new this time and thought about getting a foot into trading because I want something relaxing and possibility to play something else while i haul **** from A to B.

In general, is it possible to make some amount of money by hauling **** with a freighter? If possible some low risk trips by transporting low value high volume pieces? Very generally, how much can I expect per trip with such items? 20, 50, 100 mil per run depending on stuff, prices and area?

How dangerous is it to haul AFK in general? When I made a break I was under the impression that you can be pretty safe in empire as long as you dont fuel your freighter with expensive stuff and dont take the most obvious routes. I probably will keep clear off Jita and haul stuff to some low populated areas.

Some hints and/or guides for trader beginners would be nice as well. I dont have a lot of money, I guess i can scrap together a billion to invest on the market but I want to start slowly and get a feel for it. I have begun training up trading skills and will play around with market orders as well, however I don't want to play 0.01 isk games. I rather have some lower but less tedious income. I guess I will mix it up with some PI and an exploration or mission run or two.

My goal is to get enough money to buy me a year worth of plex because I play kinda irregularly and can activate them whenever I feel like playing Eve. I am a total noob as far as trading is concerned and made my money via missions and exploration runs until now so I'd be glad for every tip you have.

Hm, do you fly a freighter manually then? Yeah I guess its a bad idea slowboating minutes to a gate. Are they commonly ganked even with low value goods inside?

As I have only one char and don't play that regularly, mining won't bring me any meaningless income at all.

For hauling you'd be lucky to get work more than 1m per jump. Collateral will be very high for more lucrative courier contracts. Most of the courier work involves the major trade hubs, thus avoiding Jita will be difficult.

APing is a sure fire way to die. They'll gank you even with medium value cargo, if they are bored.

A successful trader may have 10 haulers working for him full time, but not vice versa. Hauling alone is most unlikely to help you achieve your goal.

Check the "Haulers Channel", and look at public courier contracts to get an idea.

Why not just join Red Frog?

http://red-frog.org/recruit.php

Check out the site. In particular, check out the Annual Reports. You can do very well for yourself in the Frog and you can combine whatever other trading you want to. Simple.

Hauling won't bring much money in until you get a JF and start doing null/low contracts

JF costs like 8bil btw :D

The "Haulers Channel" is a great place to start out with hauling if thats what you want to do. Granted, hauling wont net you as much as shooting red crosses in missions, but it is more relaxing for some. From what I've seen in there, contracts posted run around 500k -1.2mil for freighters per jump, with around the same rates for small m3 but high value cargo. Industrial sized hauls typically net around 150-250k/jump (at least from what ive seen). Like some mentioned above though, if your wanting to haul, your going to have to visit the major trade hubs such as Jita. Also, the higher the reward for the haul, the more collateral you will need to be able to put up to take the courier contract.