EVE New Citizens Q&A

So recently I've been running plexes in Placid and trading in the LPs for Comets that I sell on the market. I know, gun running is a contemptible profession, but it's a living. Anyway, my question is this: sometimes the highest buy offer I can see will come with a warning that it is x% under regional average. Where and how do I find my higher paying customers? Also, how would I find the prices in the major trading hubs? I'm willing to travel a bit for a few extra million if there are better offers there, but I can't see them. Is it just my trading skills are weak? (They are nearly nonexistent) Or am I missing something obvious in the market UI/menus?

Keep in mind sometimes that number's a bit... off. For example, if someone has a sell order up for 27 bil, that'll throw off the regional average a bit, causing that message to pop up.

Also keep in mind that right now the margin trading scam is pretty common. One of the major things that happens because of this is that the market becomes artificially inflated and you will get the X% under regional average a lot.

If you are are serious about getting a fair price for your stuff you need to make characters in your other two slots and park them in two different places. Say, one in Jita and the other in Amarr. They are now your price checkers. That way if you are seeing something not quite right, you can log one of them in and see what's what in the other areas of New Eden.

Mr Epeen

The above poster's words are true. You'll want to determine the price, usually.
Sometimes that's not practical, though; not enough trade slots, not going to stick around, need faster turnover to regain liquid, not worth the opportunity cost, etc.

Regarding regional averages, those have to be taken in context. And the context comes from the most standard point of reference: Jita. Compare your price to what it's doing in Jita to know where it stands. Use Eve-Central, and use the advanced search. Filter by region, and choose The Forge. You might consider using Amarr instead, but Jita serves much more people, and is therefore a more appropriate frame of reference.

Regarding best prices, you have to figure out who uses the items, where, and why, as well as where it comes from. Low supply and high demand make for high prices. For example, in low- and null-sec, high end minerals don't get much use, but are more prevalent. People want to get rid of them, so they sell for cheaper. Meanwhile, it can be reliably sold in high-sec, especially Jita. The same interaction can be found in meta-4 rat drops.

I'll also advise that you set up a spreadsheet for your operation, if you aren't already. In competitive markets, things get tricky enough that you really need that kind of info log, and info-parsing. Try to set it up to compute the non-obvious data, like ROI, and profits derived from how much of the items moves per week, maybe have it automatically import a few datapoints like mineral prices.

If you can wait for the isk, place a sell order at 1 penny lower than the top sell order in the station your selling. You will not get the instant isk, as if you just filled a highest buy order, but you will make more.

Example - (im at work so these are made up numbers but will show what i mean)

Fed Navy Comet / EACH

SELL ORDERS
Highest is $10,000,000.00

BUY ORDERS
Highest is $8,500,000.00

If you use the simple sell option it will give you $8.5M per ship you sell - minus tax and broker fees. If you place a sell order though, you will be placing that order for 1 penny under 10M, per ship sold. This is the basic idea behind station trading.

If you can wait for the isk i would recommend placing sell orders for just under the price of the top line item all the time. YOU MAY HAVE TO REGULARLY UPDATE THE ORDER TO KEEP IT ON TOP but that's part of the game and necessary until you sell all your stock.

EVE-central data is updated from the cache of users, meaning that it isn't updated until someone using their software clicks on that item in-game. Since the majority of people using it are traders, the prices in Jita and and other trades hubs are pretty accurate, but you may get some funky results out in less traveled regions.

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