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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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How to become a trader?

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Bane Nahrnid
Nuclear Power inc.
#1 - 2011-10-02 13:02:11 UTC
Hello I plan on buying the game once my trial runs out but i have a question on how to become a trader. Can anyone explain the basics of what a day in the life of a trader is? Such as finding what item to buy, where to travel to to sell it from, and what are buy and sell orders?
Herping yourDerp
Tribal Liberation Force
Minmatar Republic
#2 - 2011-10-02 21:17:23 UTC
the questions you ask are part of being a trader... basically you find a place that needs a certain item, and is willing to pay a certain price, find that item for much cheaper, and transport it over and sell it for profit...
there is also speculation on items that will go up or down in price, example. people think super caps will be nerfed this winter, so Super cap modules will drop in price
then there is simple (and risky) station trading
put a buy order for an item in a busy station, then soon as someone sells it to you, sell it as the cheapest sell order, you should make some profit but there are many market wars who will undercut you
Bane Nahrnid
Nuclear Power inc.
#3 - 2011-10-02 21:34:40 UTC
Thanks, and how should i go about finding out what is in need?
Kesshisan
#4 - 2011-10-02 23:15:29 UTC
Research.

I know this is vague, but this is the real answer. What type of research you need to do depends on what you are researching and where it is being traded, as well as many other factors.
DeMichael Crimson
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#5 - 2011-10-03 02:14:30 UTC
This link should help.

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Trading


Evelopedia has lot's of other guides available.

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Guides


Good luck and welcome to Eve.

'The Plan' | California Eve Players | Proposal - The Endless Battle
pussnheels
Viziam
#6 - 2011-10-03 08:36:38 UTC
Bane Nahrnid wrote:
Hello I plan on buying the game once my trial runs out but i have a question on how to become a trader. Can anyone explain the basics of what a day in the life of a trader is? Such as finding what item to buy, where to travel to to sell it from, and what are buy and sell orders?


^poster above me has all the links you need, read those guides and start small , there some good programs around that will help you decide what to buy and where to sell like eve central and others it is all in those guides

my advice be careful , in th major tradehubs competition is fierce and as soon you get out of trial get yourself a hauler they are cheap abd easy to learn flying

Again be careful don't load your untanked hauler with millions of goods or atleast don't fly afk autopilot when you are flying from trade hub to trade hub or on the bottlenecks of EVE tradelanes

my last advice start trading in one sort of commodity ( like ammo or ccrystals à they relative cheap and easy to transport and there is always a demand for them everywhere

Overall being a trader in EVE requires you to do some proper research of what to buy and sell where and when

I do not agree with what you are saying , but i will defend to the death your right to say it...... Voltaire
J'Poll
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#7 - 2011-10-05 11:11:47 UTC
There is no way to say now how to find stuff that is in demand in any system. This is cause about 95% of the EVE market is player driven. So almost all things are sold and bought by players, in relation to this markets change (due to wars, overpopulation of places etc.)

There are 2 things that will affect market quite drastically:

1.) Large coalition SOV warfare, as these immense fleets will loose a lot of stuff which need to be replaced, so markets will act on that.

2.) More notable in empire: HULKAGEDDON. Every now and then a group of players announce Hulkageddon, which means people can suicide gank hulks (and other industry ships) for points to win really large prices. Due to this event Industry ship prices are affected and mineral prices will go up as most seasoned miners don't risk their ships during the event, which means less minerals are supplied on the market.

J'Poll

Personal channel: Crazy Dutch Guy

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Taedrin
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#8 - 2011-10-06 06:11:07 UTC
Bane Nahrnid wrote:
Thanks, and how should i go about finding out what is in need?


Get to know and love the market history tab. Both the graph and the table are valuable tools in turning a profit. You are looking for an item with a wide margin, and a high volume of items traded.
CCP Phantom
C C P
C C P Alliance
#9 - 2011-10-06 16:32:40 UTC
Hello Bane Nahrnid.

Trading can be very rewarding, both in terms of personal satisfaction as well as in terms of shiny isk. In EVE the trading business can be hard and brutal PVP, be aware of that! But your victories will taste much sweeter because of this.

You already found lots of help and advice in this thread. I also would like to point you towards the Market Discussions.

Some new traders begin with hauling items between regions, selling them with a good profit at the regional mission hub. As your investments will go up, you will find that you"ll have to use different strategies for reaping the most profit. This is why trading can be so interesting for years on.

Remember: Buy low, sell high!

CCP Phantom - Senior Community Developer
Ines Tegator
Serious Business Inc. Ltd. LLC. etc.
#10 - 2011-10-07 14:34:07 UTC  |  Edited by: Ines Tegator
There's two major types of trading- market trading and merchant trading. They are similar but with enough differences that you'll want to train different skills.

For working the market, basically just buy stuff low with buy orders and relist them higher for profit. Market research and spreadsheeting is key since you will be working on tight margins. Accounting and Broker relations are important skills, because those 1% fees cut into your margins more then you expect. You'll want to ultimately invest in all the trade skills so you don't have to fly to every station to manage all your orders.

For merchant trading, buy something at a place that it's low and then haul it to a place where you can charge more. It also takes research, and can be tougher since it often requires crossing region borders (although simply collecting cheap stuff and moving it to your local trade hub can sometimes be a profit). You're obviously going to need to invest in industrial piloting for this and spend a lot of time moving things manually, but the potential margins are higher.

In both cases, you need startup capital. Train combat for a month or two until you can fly a cruiser or BC comfortably and run l3 missions to build up some cash, then have at it.

Overhaul Dscan!
Aston Bradley
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#11 - 2011-10-08 10:12:37 UTC  |  Edited by: Aston Bradley
As a tradder you have two options :

1 ) In station trading :

+ No hauling required

+ you never have to leave the station

+ Meaning no risks to loose a ship in the process

- Requires that you check the market trend frequently

- Competitors will try to beat your prices, you must keep an eye on the sell orders all the time.

- Is more time consuming than you think


2) Hauling - trading

+ Can be very lucrative

+ Allows you to be trader without staying in a station all the time

- Can be time consuming

- The risk of loosing your cargo and ship is there

- Requires more information checking than in station tradding : Knowing that item X can be sold at +150% higher price in an other system/region is not enough. The goal isn't to make the best isks/sale ratio, but rather to achieve the higher isk/hour ratio. You hauling capacity is limited, travelling can take time, and some items can take a lot of volume in your cargo hold. When hauling, always tell yourself that you need to know how much isk per cubic meter an item is worth, how much of those cubic meters you can take in your ship, and how far you need to go. Product A with a 70% profit margin per unit sold will beat the product B with 150% if the latter requires 400% more volume. If you can sell 400% more of product A in just a 10 jumps trip, product B is not the one that will make you the best isks per hour ratio. To sum it up, it requires a lot of information digging and the in-game calculator will be your best friend.

- You can arrive to your destination only to find out that someone else beat you to it.

Either way, trading is HARD. But.... it is fun if that is what you like to do, and it will reward you with a lot of isks if you do it right.

But do understand that tradding does require you to spend time in eve. You can't just create orders, log-off, and expect isks to flow in your wallet.

[i]FiS should be the priority, but WiS should not be burried!

Don't encourage CCP to make empty promises or Incarna will happen again![/i]