EVE New Citizens Q&A

If/when I kill a ship, what is the chance that a given module or cargo item will drop? Is it the same across the board, or is it different depending on the type of cargo? I'm trying to figure out what a good minimum ISK value for ship and cargo would be before I try to blow it up, so I at least break even.

EVE drops calculate based on each stack in the inventory, in the drone bay, and fitted modules, and to really get an idea what you're up against, you'd need both a ship scanner and a cargo scanner to see everything your target has.

Assuming you're going up against things by suicide ganking in high sec, as this is the most target rich environment, you'll want to scan using a an alt with an appropriate local ship with both ship scanners, cargo scanners, and a passive targeted.

If you have a good idea of whether you can kill the target, base it on what ship you're using to do it, and what it will cost you to lose it. There's a good Catalyst fit over in the 'Ganking Hulks' thread in the warfare and piracy section, though the fittings can be downgraded to named/lower grade blasters as your skills and budget allow. Catalysts are currently the reigning king of efficient ganking, as blasters with Null spit out a very respectable amount of DPS (even T1 with faction antimatter do quite well). Thrashers are also a good pick, though the tactics and targets there are quite different (unranked frigates idle on gates in sec low enough to get a second volley is the general rule of thumb. Up the line, fitting out a Talos with a rack of large blasters is a less efficient way to nail a more heavily tanked target.

Learning, you'll flub some ganks, so being able to afford to keep this up until you get a good feel for it is critical. If you get good at killing exhumers, look at http://hulkageddon.goonswarm.com/ for how to get paid. Specifically, http://hulkageddon5.machine9.net/?page_id=7 has a good guide on it. If you're good at picking targets, or have a buddy to work with to split the payments and assure the kills, you can make a good income doing this.

If you're referring to picking modules off kills in lowsec or null, or even salvaging, this can also earn you good money. Fly something cheap but good (Thrashers are a good starter option), or cloaky, and loot battle sites or abandoned drones. Of course, you'll need to kill people to do this, or get near people who've been killed by others, so it's a dangerous way to make a buck.