Market Discussions

The idea stems from using an Orca for mission support. I was testing various fits on the tengu and it was great to have the orca there in mission space with all the items I needed to try. Used to swap the tengu for a destroyer at the end for salvaging.

Most corps should be able to provide similar support, thus I am not sure whether a market exists for a similar service.

The idea:

Generate a list of services (e.g. mission, incursion).
Develop an item list and a system to price them (e.g. 1.8 x Jita).
Recruit Orca pilots.
Advertise. Stress flexibility. Circulate standard item lists for services offered along with the pricing policy.
Invite bookings (need to develop a system for this). A relatively small booking fee will be charged in advance.
Equip the orca with the necessary items. Post the price list in pilot bio or elsewhere.
Customers wishing to use the fitting service pay a small fee to the pilot and get a fleet invite.
Customers wishing to buy an item pay the price and can fit for free (this is where hopefully most of the money will be made).
A flat fee may also be charged for some services.

Is this feasibe? Is there a market for it?

But if you're going to do it wrong, you might as well pay him in the process, amirite?

There is presently a market for this service in Gallente high-security space. Goons and our allies are your customer base. As most of us develop very low security statuses as a result of our suicide ganks, we lose the ability to just undock and go to the next gank; instead, we need ships to be staged for us. If you could prove yourself trustworthy, then your willingness to receive a ship from a pirate, take it to a safe spot, eject it, then warp into the belt to scoop the loot after the gank is complete, would be a service that many people would be willing to pay for. Due to the nature of global criminal countdowns, you could service multiple clients simultaneously if they staggered their ganks out a bit. This service is so in-demand that many pilots (including myself) have started up secondary accounts and purchased Orca-flying alts to do exactly this; but, not all pilots are as wealthy and you could advertise your services to those unable or unwilling to go so far as paying for an alt account. The only downside to this is that you constantly need to be aware of how many gankers are in the system or nearby, and which ones are or are not your customers, as the alliance presently offers a bounty of 250 million ISK for any Orca killmail generated in Gallente high security space.

Never thought of using one for can flipping, but using them for pirate / gank support works well as it's like having a carrier in highsec.

Can flipping though... warp in, flip can, let them leave and come back in something big enough to kill the Orca and have a buddy use maint bay to defend it?

On topic though, aside from being used as a high sec carrier, there isn't much need for something like this outside maybe your own corp. Stations are everywhere and it doesn't take long to dock and fit and in some cases people have POS access in the same system, so it works out even easier.

Credit for thinking outside the box though.

I'd be hesitant to rent orca services to an alliance that is paying bounties for orca kill mails. Do you really trust a goon not to use your cooperation to score themselves a killmail with a bounty and a funny story to go with it?