Science & Industry

1. Depends on whether or not you like mining. If not, then you can buy from the market.
2. Research the BPO (you'll need to wait for a slot in hisec) to get better material efficiency (i.e. less waste).
3. I wouldn't, at least not until you've got a handle on mfg. Starting with ammo or frigates is better.
4. That's a T2 part. You don't wanna get started on those until you're familiar with industry.
5. See 4.
6. Shuttles, frigates, ammo, Meta0 modules (though this is still probably completely saturated), cruisers, destroyers, battlecruisers, battleships, industrials, mining barges...

Pro Tip1: Use the IPH tool, period.

Pro Tip2: Check the various spreadsheets out there and learn how to build your own, import eve-central XML into it and do your own calculations. Also use the marketeer or eve-mon uploader, so u get correct/current prices and work with percentile/5% data and not average or median.

HINT: Do to some ****** implementation in the EvE-API, once u update your BPC into IPH or your assets in a spreadsheet, the API wont allow u to get a updated list within the next 6 hours. So u have to plan when to trigger your BPC/Asset updates for calculations.

bye Andy

PS: ATM Eve-central has a parsing bug if used with eve-mon, so until this is fixed i recommend using the eve-marketeer uploader.

Velicitia has some quick pointers in her post. Good info. To add onto what others have said:

1) Start with ammo; check the market for items sold in your area, spreadsheet them against your skills/corp standings, and see what makes you the most isk given your skills, station costs, and overall margins in that market.
2) Don't sell in Jita or any of the big market hubs; T1 ammo will kill you there. Journey out from your chosen hub say 8-10 jumps, check markets, repeat.
3) I have a number of alts, and all of them run L3 & L4 missions when I'm bored of FW. And I salvage everything. I make & sell T1 rigs, and make money doing it. Not hard work at all (contrary to another poster's opinion above). Ancillary Router, Salvage Tackle, certain armor and shield rigs, etc.
4) It's nice to say you can do components for T3 ships, but let's face it, that don't feed the kitty. Don't go exotic until you get a business structure in place to do so.
5) Maybe start with T1 modules that are needed for T2, get your costs to an absolute minimum, and try selling those in bulk. Since the Meta0 drop nerf people are now buying T1 parts to build T2 with.
6) Look into the skills necessary to:
a) Minimize loss on reprocessing (oops)
b) Minimize loss in manufacturing (oops)
c) Build basic T2 modules (such as T2 hardeners, for example) & T2 ammo

When you have an infrastructure in place, you might THEN (and only then) consider building components (such as Thermonuclear Triggers) for your T2 stuffs. I build a lot of my own components to save isk. (The "time is money" mantra doesn't matter to me: I play a game to relax, not grind for the almighty ISK.)

When you have an infrastructure in place where a POS becomes feasible over in-station costs, look into it. But put it in an out-of-the-way system, unless you set up a d!ckstar. But until then, take advantage of low-sec stations for research: fit a CovOps, learn the tricks for surviving in low, and move your research/copying there.

PS: my Drake BPO (that I've researched up quite nicely) makes copies that sell every time I put them up. Can't keep enough in stock. But until you have a good one and sell at a price to get people interested in the auction, don't bother.

Edit: typo fix

1) To answer your question in a word; No. Keep in mind that when you're mining, youre using time. Imagine a scenario such as this.

You're making a batch of Talos' that cost around 750 mil to make, with 24 hours production time. Those Talos' can be sold for 800 mil; so with broker fees/tax aside you make around 40 mil from that batch. You can mine the minerals, which will take you yourself, say, 3-4 weeks ( I'm being general here ). Now, you're making 40 mil profit from buying the mins, so in the, lets say, 3 weeks it takes to actually do work mining you make approximately:

40*21=840 mil

In the 3 weeks ( it would probably be more) it would take to mine the minerals, you've made 800 mil, while spending the time to mine. However, if you have a 4-5 account mining set up, that's a different story entirely.

2) I don't believe that is really a question, but I will give you some advice that has suited me well: If you can't 'pay off' that BPO within 3-4 months ( after being properly researched ) it GENERALLY isn't worth it.

3) Depends on how much market research you've done. I've made a fine profit from selling ships. I also sel components. The trick here is diversification. For instance, the trit-pyerite market right now is just plain stupid. The benefit now is that I can switch to component production that doesn't use those commodities without having to halt my production beause I chose to produce ONE type of thing. So your answer is: MARKET RESEARCH MARKET RESEARCH MARKET RESEARCH.

4) Did you find a market in which you can sell this item, and a market in which you can obtain the materials for it at a price that would make you a profit? If the answer to either of those is no, then you either need to: Do the market research or Start producing an item you know you can make a profit on.

5) See if you can buy the components from the manufacturer directly. If you can have him/her contract it to you at a station, and you haul it yourself , then you can bargain him/her for a lower price than they would offer if they buy the sell order up in a station. You'd be amazingly suprised how many minerals and commodities I get from going to the miner/ mining corp directly. They're recieving a bit less than they would normally make for convienience. This is profit for you.

6) Again, market research. I don't believe that could be stressed enough. If 'I' tell you what to make, that makes you a competator for a product I am most likely making myself. I don't like my competators, so asking on this forum will just me useless. I can tell you, however, that there are tools out there where you can plug in mineral price, as well as ME, PE, and selling price, that will give you a profit output ( you can make a spreadsheet yourself, too). Sit down for 2-3 hours and run through products to see which ones you could reasonably make a profit on. Keep in mind the market tools eve provides are invaluable as well. You want products that you can make a profit on, but also have high sales volume in your trade-hub of choice. Price stability is also important too in your risk-reward analysis.

I hope this helped!

One thing I'll add about the mining:

There's nothing wrong with mining. It's just never going to entirely satisfy your mineral requirements.

Manufacturing tends to leave you with a lot of 'dead' time. It's a lot of 'set up a job and leave it for a few days'

Fill that time with whatever you want. mining. missioning. exploration. pvp.

Just value your minerals at the same price as you buy them, for when you are pricing your goods.


And remember, if you need to move a lot of minerals or finished goods, red frog freight or similar is a good way to do so, offloading your risk onto the courier.

Don't even start your first build job until you have Production Efficiency V. You will never see any profit until then,

On common goods, you need a researched BPO to be profitable.

As far as mining to build, only do this if you are adding value to your minerals (i.e. The final product sells for more than you could have earned selling the minerals).

Use buy orders to purchase your minerals. Most common items only realize a decent profit that way.

Real profit from industry requires maximizing your production slots. Most items will see only a negligible profit per item. To actually make isk, you need to be running all your production slots, all of the time.

Training up your marketing skills will allow you to diversify your portfolio, and sell more items at once, as well as pay less it market tax.