EVE General Discussion

I ran the numbers on resources to build a frigate and discovered I could make more selling the resources. I then discovered IPH and confirmed it there. I also checked some basic components and some higher end ships and got the same result.

This leads to two head-scratching questions:

1. Why are minerals and ores more expensive alone than in a final product? This is not as stupid a question as it sounds. Resources by themselves are worthless. They are only worth something because of their utility in making something else.

2. Why are manufactured goods selling at prices below their resources? This is actually a different question. How can something be cheaper than the resources required to make it when you have to buy those resources? The only way this can happen is if many people are willing to sell at a loss, which means everybody runs out of money eventually.

So, what's the story here? Why is the economy so "backwards"?

And, yeah, I'm off to mine stuff that people are buying to make other stuff at a loss. Whatever.

a. I'm seeing a good 30% in difference in profit. I'm running of a non-upgrade BPO but played those numbers a bit too and whittled a 289K loss down to $6900. Still a no-go technically and if I do all that research, I sure as hell expect profit over cost!

b. They are wrong. Before I found IPH, I set up a battery run. I now know that it is costing me 600K in lost profit. It's not about the resources being "free", it's about getting the most money out of them. Everything else is ascii.

I know that this might seem a slightly stupid question - but what would happen if the "MIMAF" crowd started selling the mins.

Would it have a major impact?

I am not good on indy and just wondered. Would the market just reach a different equilibrium?

I do understand the free miners - there is a certain amount of enjoyment just from creating something. Just curious.

It really shouldn't make much of a difference, at least not until the summer patch. MIMAF-made ships are already being melted down for their mineral content and the minerals resold at their current prices, so what they mine ends up on the market at regular prices regardless — all that has happened is that someone has made a bit of profit on their willingness to throw away value.

With the summer patch and the refining revamp, that particular adjustment method will be gone so at best people will just relist the ships and modules at their proper prices. The end result might be the same, but with specific goods rather than base minerals.

Million dollar question. You have to do the research (time/effort/maths) and work that out - nobody is going to tell you for obvious reasons.

Edit to be more useful.

Think about where you want to operate, if you want to make stuff for mission runners then look what they need. If you want to supply people who PvP then look at the mods they need. There are a lot of options. You don't have to be amazing to start out, just sensible. I started out with a goal that everything I sold would have a 10% mark up.

It wasn't great but I did ok. Look for your target markets, use tools out of game and enjoy it - don't expect billions instantly. It's a game first and everything else is a bonus.

That is actually very useful. "Purpose oriented" manufacturing. I never thought of it that way.

There are 3 ways to make a profit:

1. Sourcing the materials at a low cost (including transport and taxes)

2. Producing efficiently (zero or minimal waste)

3. Selling the products at a high price (after transport costs and taxes)


To be succesful at these you have to:

1. Be a good buyer and a good hauler (or know who can haul cheaply for you)

2. Train Material Efficiency and research BPOs, or again be a good trader so you know how/where to buy a good BPC

3. Be a good seller (and possibly a good hauler)


TL;DR to make money in manufacturing you actually need to be good at trading (and logistics)!


So my suggestion is: try intra-region trading for a month or two, then you'll know what makes sense to produce, where to buy the materials, where to sell your stuff and how to move stuff around.

Sure makes your ship hangar look good, though.

Mr Epeen

Chances are the frigates you are looking at are part of the ships given out in the newbie tutorials, which skew the market through created ships from thin air so to speak on those frigates.

I'm a MIMMAFer

Partially because I enjoy building things for my own usage.
Partially because I don't give a ****.
But mostly because Industrial tears are delicious.