Science & Industry

Greetings,

I am a returning pilot and miner. As it was when I left I remain perplexed whether or not to refine my ore and sell it. I ran figures for buy orders from Jita, Dodixie checked several market indicators and I just can't see how refining the ore will yield me more isk then selling as is. I have Plagioclase/Veldspar/Omber/Scordite mainly. My skills are maxed out Refining/Refinery Efficiency/Production Efficiency all 5's...good standings as well. The numbers don't add up to refine. Would just like some fellow miner to confirm what I'm saying or am I way off?

I would be suprised if the prices at the hubs were anything but loss, since refining is free and instant and minerals are easier to haul than the ore itself. Now if you buy ore at distance from hubs, refine and then sell it you will be making profit, or even make stuff from the ore/minerals you buy cheap and sell those instead.

So as an example:100,000 Plagioclase

with 0 waste refined

76,789 Mexallon
153,578 Pyerite
76,789 Tritanium

From Eve-Central Approximate buy orders I could fill hauling to location:
Trit best buy order 5.00 isk --------------------->383,945
Pyerite 11.70 ---------------------->1,796,862.6
Mex 36.87 ------------------------>2,831,210.43

Total
--------------------------------------------------------------> =5,012,018.03


Plag 50 -------------------> 5,000,000
at worst I could just leave them at the station they are in and get about 45 isk each--->4,500,000


These are the facts. There is literally no advantage to refining all 5's refining skills at optimum facility with optimum standings.
The only thing I can possibly think of is not filling buy orders and hauling the minerals to locations where I place sell orders for higher profits.

The truth is after years away and returning I discovered millions of m3 stashed away untouched would like to start making some money would appreciate some good advice. Maybe create one big contract and sell the whole thing? Create a bid contract?

Thank you for any help.

also look at volume per day as ore it may sit a long time where as mineral it should sell quicker. remember for hauling the mineral you get will be smaller than the ore so for a given hauler capacity you can fit more value after the refine

Unfortunately you've returned at a time when mineral prices have declined sharply. Since ore prices usually lag behind the associated mineral cost you're probably seeing the short term effects of the price difference.

At the time of this post refining your ore will yield the following profit:
(based on Jita max buy price, perfect refine, perfect standings)

Veldspar : 7.49%
Scoredite: 1.69%
Pyroxeres: 5.82%
Plagioclase: 1.74%
Omber: -3.28% (yes negative, your ore is worth more!)
Kernite: -3.34%
Jaspet: 3.73%

NOTE: this does not take into account taxes as the OP already has his ore sitting in station and would pay the tax whether he sells the ore or minerals. If you're going to run out and buy ore to refine for profit you'll need to take two transactions into account.

Personally I would recommend you hold on to your ore a while longer if you can manage it. Mineral prices will probably begin to climb again here shortly. If you need the cash then you could always refine the veld, scoredite, pyro, plagioclase and sell the omber and kernite as is.

1) Someone is setting up buy orders for minerals that are just under market hub orders and make all their isk based on volume. All their profits are convenience profits where the buy orders are just high enough for people without freighters for who do not multibox. You're also taking about very small volumes. Even though its barley less then Jita when you fill up a fighter at those prices it comes out as a nice profit.

2) You're not taking into consideration volume of ore that is being bought in your system (selling 10M isk unrefined ore is not the same as selling 100M or 1000M).

If you can't mine high volumes or cannot haul high volumes of ores or minerals then yeah you're better off selling at those prices. The fellow multiboxing freighters will make a nice profit and you wont have to try hauling your industrial worth of minerals to Jita. Its a win win.