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Reading the Eve Economy

Author
Radimir Dvornikov
Radikov Astrometrics and Trade
#1 - 2015-01-14 06:08:51 UTC  |  Edited by: Radimir Dvornikov
Greetings!

Today my mind was all over the economy. In terms of production, trade and consumption, everything seem simple enough: ships collect materials which is made into ships and ammo through blueprints which is then sold on markets and consumed when someone doesn't pay their sovereignty bill. Or different meta level material are found as mission rewards, on exploration sites, salvaged wrecks, planetary interaction, moon mining, awarded through loyalty points, and this is massive generalization.

The Evelopedia and Uniwiki explanations of the economy don't provide a lot sites and sources to watch how markets move and what people are buying. For the economists out there, because you guys are awesome, what are some of the tools you use to see what sells, where it sells, and keep track of demand?

I also noticed a lot of skills that deal with making contracts. How practical are they in day to day operations?

I also have no exposure to macroeconomics in Eve. Is there any place for the trading, accountant, contracting pilot in nullsec?
Celine Sophia Maricadie
Tal-Cel Industry and Salvage LLC
#2 - 2015-01-14 06:30:44 UTC
Sites you can use:

http://eve-central.com/

http://evernus.com/

http://evepraisal.com/

Really, you need to get good at reading the regional market price history window, which is in game of course.

I'm still trying to understand some of what you said in your first paragraph. Not sure why you'd bring up a sovereignty bill. That has nil to do with the Eve economy, just like my corp offices rental bills have nothing to do with the Eve economy.

One thing you'll discover is that the trade hubs are the places to go to buy pretty much anything you could want to find, and generally at better prices, although this is not an absolute, and you'll find, generally, the better priced buy orders you could want to sell to, although you are most likely leaving potential ISK on the table when you sell to an existing buy order in a trade hub. Those traders will often take their purchase and resell those items at a higher profit.

You will find that there are gold mines to sell to (and buy in) in other regional markets simply by meeting the demands locally. Many will buy on convenience and not cost, because after all, time is ISK (well to some).
Radimir Dvornikov
Radikov Astrometrics and Trade
#3 - 2015-01-14 06:58:14 UTC  |  Edited by: Radimir Dvornikov
Celine Sophia Maricadie wrote:
I'm still trying to understand some of what you said in your first paragraph. Not sure why you'd bring up a sovereignty bill. That has nil to do with the Eve economy, just like my corp offices rental bills have nothing to do with the Eve economy.


That was meant to be a joke referencing B-R5RB.

An economy deals with the production, exchange and consumption of goods. If someone buys a titan and looses it, in a war so to say, they consume it and the feeling of satisfaction they get, positive or negative, from having that titan for that time is referred to as Utility. So long as the Utility is positive for a person, the more likely they are to keep manufacturing, trading and consuming for it.

Thanks for the links to the site and app! I'll definitely spend time tomorrow finding out what I can do with them. I am feeling like a kid at a toy store.
Celine Sophia Maricadie
Tal-Cel Industry and Salvage LLC
#4 - 2015-01-14 07:14:03 UTC
Radimir Dvornikov wrote:
Celine Sophia Maricadie wrote:
I'm still trying to understand some of what you said in your first paragraph. Not sure why you'd bring up a sovereignty bill. That has nil to do with the Eve economy, just like my corp offices rental bills have nothing to do with the Eve economy.


That was meant to be a joke referencing B-R5RB.
Ah, okay. I lost it in translation Blink.
Radimir Dvornikov
Radikov Astrometrics and Trade
#5 - 2015-01-14 07:30:47 UTC  |  Edited by: Radimir Dvornikov
I am already messing around with Eve-Central. I see the advantages of selling something at a trading hub versus other stations.

That is so cool! It kind of blows my mind that this site can pull info from Tranquility.
J'Poll
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#6 - 2015-01-14 09:18:00 UTC
Radimir Dvornikov wrote:
I am already messing around with Eve-Central. I see the advantages of selling something at a trading hub versus other stations.

That is so cool! It kind of blows my mind that this site can pull info from Tranquility.


Uhm it doesnt.

EVE central depends on player interaction to be up to date.

Hence you should NEVER fully depend on EVE central, it can show outdated info. Some orders might be gone or changed and they might still show on EVE central.

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Do Little
Bluenose Trading
#7 - 2015-01-14 12:03:35 UTC
Eve Central is a superb tool for choosing where to buy your materials (Jita doesn't always have the best price). It is also the tool I use when choosing where to sell my finished goods. Because the listings are outdated using Eve Central to look for arbitrage opportunities can be very risky. You can help keep Eve Central up to date by installing EVEMon or Contribtastic.

There are station traders who do nothing except look for arbitrage opportunities between the buy and sell orders in a major trade hub and there are people who move goods between regions to take advantage of price discrepancies. Both can be risky because margins tend to be thin and the opportunity can easily disappear in the time it takes you to execute the trade. There are also scammers at work in this market - opportunities that look too good to be true generally are.

I prefer to manufacture. The in game industry tool will show you average cost of materials and average selling price for your product to decide whether it is worth further investigation. Eve Central can then be used to cost out your bill of materials and find the best market to list the finished product - a little research can greatly improve margins. You can also use mining and PI to improve margins but it is a mistake to consider materials you harvest yourself as free- there is always opportunity cost.

While Jita is usually a great place to buy it is a lousy place to sell for a small industrialist. Study the markets in Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens - you will make a lot more isk selling there. Remember that markets are local and they are volatile. Starting out you won't have the working capital to wait out the market cycles and will need to manage your orders to keep product moving but you should always check the price history tab to be sure you are selling into a rising or stable market and not trying to catch a falling knife!

A lot of people make their living selling researched BPOs or invented T2 BPCs through contracts.

Industry and invention have received major overhauls during the past 6 months. Be careful using information from older websites. Even Eve University is having trouble keeping up with the new release cycle!
Memphis Baas
#8 - 2015-01-14 13:26:32 UTC
My advice is to keep in mind the tax and the broker fees.

A difference between buy and sell orders may look like profit but won't be, when you add the tax and broker fees.