EVE New Citizens Q&A

Do they exist? or does EVERYONE basically go to the main hubs for everything?

Backstory on this question: I finally finished up the SoE Epic Arc, and I am ready to select my new home for the forseeable future. After doing some looking around, I've pretty much settled on Bille, .5 in Everyshore. not that I would stick to only that system, but that would be my "home", so to speak. Where I stash all my stuff. Where I lay my head when I'm not out exploring New Eden. yadda yadda, so on and so forth.

However, I am wondering if it would be better for me to move somewhere in Sinq Laison instead. Reason being, is that as I understand it, Dodixie is the primary trade hub in the Gallente Federation. So if I want to buy and sell, will I basically be forced to go there to get what I need, or sell what I have for the best prices?

also, as I understand it, your market search is only limited to Regions, so If I am in Everyshore, I won't be able to search Dodixie for things without making a special trip to Sinq Laison.

So my question is this: Dodixie is the main trade hub, however, are there smaller, regional trade hubs that might do decent business? or will it be Dodixie or bust?

http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/EVE/EveTradeHubs.htm

That chart is from March 2012, things may have change in some minor details but I believe is somewhat accurate.

For most pilots, hubs aren't relevant concerning faction splits. A faction's corresponding hub doesn't primarily exist due to the faction split. Instead, it's more about distance.

And it's distance that will determine the viability of a region's trade hub. Is the system close to, or relatively easy-access to Jita/Amarr/Rens/Dodixie/Hek? Then the region won't have a very good trade hub, because you may as well go to one of the big systems instead.

It's out in the sticks that you'll find viable trade hubs, although it's counterbalanced by the smaller proportion of people.

Non-empire trade hubs come into their own out in Null-sec space, when it's wholly inconvenient to ship things to Jita/etc, and realistically it's just jump-freighter pilots who can do it. Where I live, in Null-sec, there's a couple viable and reliable trade hubs in my region. They rely on the persistence of logistics personnel and their jump freighters, as well as joe-average-trader, who sets up lots of buy and sell orders, as well as the population of the alliances that go through there. Those interactions and dependencies continue to hold true in low-sec, and also in high-sec, but to a lesser extent.

So you can see that it's a bit of a gradient, affected by multiple factors. It's tough to judge how 'healthy,' prosperous, or opportunity-bearing a region or system or station will be.