EVE New Citizens Q&A

So I'm brand new to the game. Just finished up the tutorials last night, and am working through the career agents as of now.

As of now, I'm really interested in trading, eventually getting into manufacturing later on. I'm a bit lost on how to proceed though. I did a ton of research on the game before starting up, so I already know a lot of the basics. I figure I should avoid station trading in Jita 4-4 for now. I'm guessing my best bet would be to start with buying in one region and hauling it to another region (or just setting up a courier contract) to sell.
My issue is that I'm still trying to figure out how to figure out what's worth buying/selling and what isn't. Being new, I'm having a hard time knowing what type of stuff is in demand and what isn't. On a basic level, I know that I can always work with moving ammo around to certain mission hubs, but that's really about it. I want to do the research and see what works and what doesn't, I'm just not sure HOW to do the research. I was poking around the market window last night, and it just doesn't make any sense at all to me (the graphs/tables, price history, etc.).

I am in no way asking "What items should I sell", I understand no one would want to crash their own markets by letting other traders know about it. I'm just wondering how to go about researching what's good and what isn't.

Also want to get into manufacturing at some point as well. I'll wait to at least get Production Efficiency IV. I figure I'll start with some ammo that has at least some profit return, and go from there. If anyone has any advice on this as well, that'd be awesome. Once again, just on how to break into it, not "What should I make".

I want to try to find a corp as well, to learn the ropes with. I don't think a brand new character would have an easy time getting into a trading/manufacturing corp. I could at least tackle or something for a PVP corp, but I doubt I could really offer much to an industrial one

Cross-region trading isn't a bad way to start out, you might not make bank right at the start start but keep in mind that the returns go up exponentially as you accrue capital and cargo space.

Some advice that might not be obvious to someone new; use your 2 extra character slots for no-skill alts and park them in market hubs. This will allow you to get a good idea of the typical buying/selling prices for goods in different regions.

Some good hub systems to consider...

-Jita
-Amarr
-Rens
-Dodixie
-Hek

I had figured returns wouldn't be great at the start, but that's perfectly okay. I kinda knew things would start slow and ramp up from there.
I've also put a quick spreadsheet together as well so that I can keep track of what taxes and broker fees will cost me, so hopefully I'm covered there as well. I just need to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Those experienced with this, how much info on the market graphs is important? I figure the amount being traded per day is a big one, and unfortunately that's the only part of it that really makes sense to me at a glance.

Don't ignore the other things on the graph it shows potential profits, the spread of prices , as well as amount traded. There's an explanation for it linked via the Eve Uni link above.

You'll make money, you'll lose money and if it looks too good to be true, it is.

Here's the best explanation on the Margin Scam I've been able to find: Link

=Edit: A general synopsis for the linked thread=
-Margin scammers buy out the market on an item and relist the items at a huge markup.

-They then set enticing buy orders for an ISK value far above their own sell orders. The buy order(s) however has/have a minimum amount of items set that can be sold to that order, the minimum value is set to close to the total amount in all the overpriced sell orders.

-The Margin Trading skill allows a scammer to only put ~25% of a buy order's money down, so they can put down the required escrow then transfer all that character's ISK to an alt, leaving the buy order impossible to fill because the "buyer" has no ISK.

-The scam relies on people's greed, someone looking at the market details for the 'rigged' item will see the disparity in sell orders and buy orders and try to make a quick buck. They buy out the overpriced sell orders (which makes the scammer their money) and attempt to sell to the buy order. Upon doing so, the buy order is canceled because the scammer does not have enough ISK to cover the remaining ~75% of the order. This leaves the "victim" with a bunch of overpriced goods that they will be forced to keep or sell at a loss.

Nothing to add, but a giant welcome to EVE online. Enjoy your stay!!

One thing I will say about offers you see in local chat:

Almost every sell offer in Jita is a scam. If must be up near 90% or higher.

The same is true for offers in other systems, but not as many of those are scams.

The best thing you can do is assume that they are ALL potentially a scam, and that you need to look them over extremely carefully. Get out a calculator if you have to, but NEVER rush into a purchase from another player unless you triple check it.

Even if you see buy orders for an item listed, don't think you will be able to sell it at that price. Some scams set up those buy orders as part of the scam, and you will see it evaporate when you try to sell it.

Before you deal directly with players, spend a while in the game and learn it. You can make billions of ISK without ever dealing directly with another player. Learn the market first.


P.S. There are some decent videos on Youtube about how to avoid EVE scams. I suggest watching some of them.

^^ Where there's ganking there's profit

This is all incredibly helpful guys, I really appreciate it.
I'll do some looking around tonight and start getting an idea of what gets sold and what sells where.

I figure best bet would be to start with maybe ammo or something. Start looking into what drops in what systems as well. Is there a useful resource to find what drops in what systems?

Also, the median on the market graph (the yellow dots, I think that's what they're called). I'm still trying to wrap my head around those. Everything else makes sense on the graph, but this one part is still confusing me a bit.

EDIT: Just did some more reading about the median.
So if it's closer to the bottom of the the Donchian Channel, it's a safe bet to assume that most orders filled that day were sold to buy orders. If it's closer to the top, more orders that day were bought from sell orders?

Not really, but most mods have racial profiles. Bloods drop lasers, armour mods and engineering mods for example. Really the loot drop thing is more prevalent in null sec where the loot is specific to local rats (with missions its more random). For example I used to make a fortune buying all the solace large reps in fountain. Before that i made even more buying up all the meta 4 medium lasers in period basis. There isn't nearly as much isk to be made from named mods these days though.