Science & Industry

Price for raw materials is the lowest sell price in the same market hub I plan to sell my finished goods. Price I expect for finished goods is also the lowest sell price in the same place. You could use highest buy price for both of the above instead, but you need to compare the same number for each in order to see if you are making manufacturing profit.

Certainly, if you have the time you should take advantage of lower cost materials in a different region. But if you do, that is hauling profits, not manufacturing profits.

You could also mine some of the minerals too. But that is mining profits. You still need to calculate manufacturing profits based on the market price of the minerals. Then you can learn if your item is worth manufacturing, or if you would be better off selling the minerals.

For minerals I just buy them. When looking at using buy orders or just buying from sell orders I look at the spread in the price difference. You have to factor in a personal preference for how long you want to wait to actually get the materials if you use buy orders. One thing to look at is how often you can turn your production slots (hopefully always full) and how much isk you want tied up in WIP or inventory. I found starting out that with little isk I wanted to turn my buy orders quickly and also to sell stuff quickly. The velocity of my production cycle made more of a difference than an extra 1-3% on some raw material prices.

The decision is going to depend upon how much time you want to spend with it (adjusting prices), how long you want to wait to buy/sell items (raw & finished) and how much travel time you want to spend.

Having said this, I'm a T2 heavy ship producer. So I do find that for moon goo the price difference between the buy and sell orders is often very significant; totally overshadowing the mineral buy/sell spread. Moon Goo for me is where I spend my time with buy sell decisions.

Starting out you need to factor in how long do you have to wait to fill your order and could waiting for that savings slow down your production turns. Ideally you should be focusing on items where you make isk no matter how you acquire your materials; the issue then becomes how much do you make and how long does it take.

I do occasionally mine but don't factor that into costing. I always make sure I'm good on margin with the market price for the minerals.

I value anything in my possession at sell order prices.

I value other people's possessions at buy order prices.

A ship in your hangar is worth less to me than a ship in my hangar, so I will offer to buy your ship for less ISK than I'd sell the same ship for.

INB4 the "the minerals you mine yourself are free" nubbins...

I find that sourcing minerals, at a decent price, is only half the thinking.

Figure out where you are going to sell your "stuff", as better prices (thus, better profit) can often be found in secondary and/or remote hubs bordering Null, Low and Hi Sec islands even though the volume of trade is much lower (meaning, might taking you longer to sell stuff).

Balance all of that against how quickly you want to keep reinvesting your profits into more and more production.

Good time management is key.

I use different numbers for different items so I get a true cost and profit numbers. I mine my own minerals and PI items so I use the highest sell order because that is what I would have made if I sold them. For moon goo and the minerals I dont mine, I use the buy cost since that is what it cost me to buy them. I also keep these two line items (total buy cost and total sold cost) so I can see how much I am spending to make the profit and how much I could make if I did not make the item. This way I can see exactly how much profit I will make and can decide if its worth the effort or if I should just sell my materials

EDIT: By sell order, I mean the highest order I can sell at. This was written from my POV and not from the market categories.