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The Citadel - Is it actually viable?

Author
Bear Templar
TEMPLAR.
The Initiative.
#1 - 2011-12-27 22:47:08 UTC
The Citadel - is it actually viable to manufacture and trade, not en masse, but to a decent degree? Or, because people are never too far away from Jita, it doesn't see the traffic that makes it worthwhile?

Has anyone made a living of the folks that make The Citadel home; or have you moved in search of greener pastures?


I ask because my corp mates, and even I occasionally, mission from Irjunen and I'd like to be able to join in with them whilst still able to deal with my manufacturing and trading within the region.


If a fish weighs 1 Kilogram plus half its own weight, how much does it weigh? (It's not 1.5kg btw)

Tekota
The Freighter Factory
#2 - 2011-12-28 08:13:09 UTC
Don't see why not - Motsu used to be a rather large mini hub, if that's not an oxymoron, before the agent changes and I suspect it still retains some worthwhile traffic.
TheSmokingHertog
Julia's Interstellar Trade Emperium
#3 - 2011-12-28 09:41:38 UTC
Due to the demographics of the EVE landscape, I would suggest that with availability comes business. As seen in the now not longer produced QEN reports off CCP, the population of EVE is concentrated in the north of high sec. So, bring the right goods for the right price to a good spot in the Citadel, and you could make a nice profit.

"Dogma is kind of like quantum physics, observing the dogma state will change it." ~ CCP Prism X

"Schrödinger's Missile. I dig it." ~ Makari Aeron

-= "Brain in a Box on Singularity" - April 2015 =-

Dane El
Negative Density
#4 - 2011-12-28 12:01:04 UTC
I've been amazed at the premium price people will pay to avoid going even 2 jumps to a trade hub. Put the products where players use them and you'll get sales.
Steve Ronuken
Fuzzwork Enterprises
Vote Steve Ronuken for CSM
#5 - 2011-12-28 14:31:36 UTC
Dane El wrote:
I've been amazed at the premium price people will pay to avoid going even 2 jumps to a trade hub. Put the products where players use them and you'll get sales.



This is how I make most of my money Big smile

Not the cheapest in the region. just in the 'mission hub'

Woo! CSM XI!

Fuzzwork Enterprises

Twitter: @fuzzysteve on Twitter

Roguehalo
Roguehalo Ship Brokers
#6 - 2011-12-28 15:01:27 UTC
if you have max trade skills it's irrelevant which station you trade from.

I think I used to trade from inoue cos there was a level 4 agent there where my pimped out mission running boat was unlikely to get ganked (it never was even tho it was worth about 6b)
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#7 - 2011-12-28 21:21:21 UTC  |  Edited by: Krixtal Icefluxor
Roguehalo wrote:
I think I used to trade from inoue cos there was a level 4 agent there where my pimped out mission running boat was unlikely to get ganked (it never was even tho it was worth about 6b)


You do realize that with that statement in Public Forum, there are now about 1,000 Goons running Locater Agents on you...............

Not really thinking there were you?

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882

Tanith YarnDemon
Hypernet Inc.
Umbrella Chemical Inc
#8 - 2011-12-29 00:12:51 UTC
Krixtal Icefluxor wrote:
Roguehalo wrote:
I think I used to trade from inoue cos there was a level 4 agent there where my pimped out mission running boat was unlikely to get ganked (it never was even tho it was worth about 6b)


You do realize that with that statement in Public Forum, there are now about 1,000 Goons running Locater Agents on you...............

Not really thinking there were you?


So you're saying, if I post with a thousand alts that I've flown pimped out missionships in random systems... goons will be busy for months?

Even if it wasn't roguehalo(whom I very much doubt would let himself get ganked in anything he couldn't easily replace), the word was is quite different from am.
Pinkfluff
Lone Wolf Supply Co.
#9 - 2011-12-29 04:07:17 UTC
Steve Ronuken wrote:
Dane El wrote:
I've been amazed at the premium price people will pay to avoid going even 2 jumps to a trade hub. Put the products where players use them and you'll get sales.



This is how I make most of my money Big smile


Me too. Fewer competitors undercutting your orders by a penny in outlying areas too.
Gei'neille
Paragon Group
#10 - 2011-12-29 04:11:19 UTC
I've seen some decent trading in the Citadel. If anything, with the right skills you can maximize profit by buying lower cost items and shipping them into a major trade hub
Sizeof Void
Ninja Suicide Squadron
#11 - 2012-01-01 13:44:49 UTC
Dane El wrote:
I've been amazed at the premium price people will pay to avoid going even 2 jumps to a trade hub. Put the products where players use them and you'll get sales.

This is more or less correct. It really depends on the item you want to sell and the demographics of the usual players in the target system.

For small ticket items, most players are not willing to even fly to another station in the same system to save a few thousand ISK. For larger ticket items, saving a few hundred million ISK is usually worth a few jumps, except for the uber-rich. But, as a general rule, players are lazy and don't want to waste time running around to save a few ISK (unlike RL).

I commonly make a nice profit on items sold in systems surrounding (ie. 1-2 jumps) major trade hubs. I purchase the items from the hub, set up a courier contract to move the items to the neighboring (well-populated) systems, and jack the price up by at least 100% (yeah, 100% - not a typo). Easy peasy.

And, as Pinkfluff stated, unlike the hub, there will generally be fewer competitors playing the 0.01 ISK game with your sell orders at outlying systems, which saves you time and hassle. Set the order for 90 days, and forget about it.

Note: I used to manufacture items, too, but buying from the hub is more convenient. Occasionally, I'll start a price war at the hub to aggresively push the price down further, before buying up the stock to ship out. Standard operating procedure, I think, for many traders.
Marsan
#12 - 2012-01-02 20:14:55 UTC  |  Edited by: Marsan
The ways I've made money outside the trade hubs are:

1) Buy orders in mission hubs. Mission runners often just hit sell, and you can buy at 1/3 to 1/2 the normal price. Also there are a lot of modules that drop a lot that are worthless on the market, but have an average price less than what you get by breaking them down.

2) Find mission hubs and figure what they are buying in the various mission hubs. Ammo, and drones are always in demand.

3) Find the entrances to low sec that are commonly used. Put sell order in the bordering areas.

4) Look for story line agents. Figure out the commonly require items to complete the mission. Place buy orders for the rewards.

5) Often times mission runners end up need an indy for a mission or moving their stuff. Sell them indys, and buy up their used indys.

6) People need skill books all the time. If you've got the spare isk by a number of the more commonly used books that are fairly pricey. Put these in mission hubs, and low/null sec entrance systems.

7) Find any commonly used research agents. Place buy orders for their datacores.

Former forum cheerleader CCP, now just a grumpy small portion of the community.

Kara Books
Deal with IT.
#13 - 2012-01-04 03:08:31 UTC
I said YES!
Scrapyard Bob
EVE University
Ivy League
#14 - 2012-01-04 17:37:54 UTC
Dane El wrote:
I've been amazed at the premium price people will pay to avoid going even 2 jumps to a trade hub. Put the products where players use them and you'll get sales.


It's part of the magic of EVE's economy since it has no magic mailboxes and multiple-market regions, items acquire value as they move closer to the buyer.

The main advantage of selling outside the market hub (if you can identify a clientele and location) is that you don't have to play the 0.01 ISK game. The main disadvantage is that, except for consumables (drones, ammo), sales will be a lot slower then the market hub unless the Incursion Circus comes to town. If you want to reliably turn over 10B+ of goods per month, then you generally have to play in the (4) major market hubs.