Market Discussions

So, knowledgeable MD guru types, please educate me. Either my search skills suck or I'm missing something obvious. Or probably both.

All (or most, anyway) 3% hardwiring implants can be bought from various LP stores for 10.75M ISK + 10750 LP. Most of these implants sell on the market for about 20M ISK. However, there are a select group of them (10-ish) which retail for dramatically less - in the ~1M ISK range. The first few times I trolled through these I thought I hadn't hit refresh and was looking at the 1% implant prices accidentally. But lo and behold, this isn't the case.

Example: SH-603 3% small hybrid turret damage

Counter-example: MH-803 3% med hybrid turret damage

These dirt-cheap 3% implants are traded in (relatively) high volume, so there is clearly demand for them, which means that there is a large supply coming from ~somewhere~. Obviously it's not from the LP stores since they'd be selling at something like a 90% loss just from the ISK buy cost alone. And in some cases they're cheaper than the 1% version (and in all cases they're cheaper than the 2% variant, when it's even available).

What's the other source for these? Lvl3 storyline missions? Structure drops in easy missions? Massively discounted LP store somewhere? Direct conversion 1:1 from carebear tears? Do you actually buy them 20 for the price of 1 at the LP store?

Do tell, I'm curious in an idle sort of way.

there are some security missions which drops 3% implants. some of those are only L3s and dirty easy to finish.
more then that... if you don't finish them you can harvest them every day for week after the reset.

Really? Which one? Do tell.

I've done all the career agent missions several times across different characters, factions, and starter corps, both before and after the tutorial revamps about a year ago: the only implants I've ever seen are limited ocular filter and limited social adaptation chip. Searches of career agent mission rewards seem to agree. Unless they've been changed recently.

I appreciate these answers: I am aware that some security missions have structures or named NPCs which often drop 3% implants. However I have run said missions and found a 3% implant not on the list of cheap ones, so this is a bit of an unsatisfying answer. And while I hadn't considered the possibility of farming these once a day for a week: at 1-2M isk per run once per day, requiring you to undock a combat ship and slog through some NPCs to blow up a structure, this hardly seems like an efficient use of time.

I can't help but feel there's another source out there where they can be produced or farmed in bulk with relatively low effort. There's a very specific group of them, they're mostly quite useful (esp. the SH-603 implant, for new order or other gankers), and they're all about the same price.

That's exactly what mission people do. For days on end. They slog through piles of NPCs for no appreciable reward and a single one can produce more 3%s than he will ever use in his lifetime.