EVE New Citizens Q&A

It is essentially as you say, you place an order with a price and tell it how wide a range you want the order to be filled in, which could range from the station to the whole region. This often means having to wait until the order is filled and that can take time if there are higher priced buy orders as they will be sold to first.

I don't advise setting a buy order for a whole region as this means two things: First you may have to do a fair bit of travelling to collect all the items if it's for multiple items and secondly the region could include low sec systems, and if you're new and not aware of the sec status of the system you're heading into to collect your goods then you may well fall prey to more experienced players.

Before setting up a buy order, check the highest price buys that are effective at the range you wish to set your order for, they will be highlighted in green to show that you are within the range of that order.

Also on this specific question, I would suggest that you either...

Just sell, use simple mode, sell to someone's buy order. You get instant ISK.

or

Click the magnifying glass and view the market, look up the cheapest price offered which is at Station (ie. same station as where you are now) and set your price just a bit lower than that.

The second option will get your (slightly) more ISK but it also means your may have to wait a while for someone to buy it and you may be undercut by someone else before your stuff sells, at which point eventually the offer expires and item returns to your hangar. You may have to "babysit" your sell orders, modifying the amount to ensure that they stay on top as the cheapest item like that on the station.

In market hubs (like Jita) instant sale to open buy order is usually fine - you get perhaps 5-10% less than you might get if you babysitted a sell order. Outside market hubs, open buy orders are usually designed to vacuum up junk at way below market prices - think it as a "BUY ORDER OFFER: if you sell it to me at *this* low price, I'll come and pick it up from that far-away station where nobody usually sells or buys much of anything". Usually these orders are below the mineral value of the item if reprocessed.

If I need to dump some loot at non-hub station, I usually instead just reprocess it all to minerals and instant-sell the minerals to an open buy order. Region-wide mineral buy orders are generally still pretty close to hub prices so you get more ISK out of your stuff*.

(*this assumes you have at least some refining skills and you are not refining some expensive meta-4 module that might fetch quite a bit more than the mineral value)

So, if I'm understanding things correctly....

If I simply click sell, and put a price in I am actually setting up a sell order (?), and if the price that I specified is the lowest in the designated area, I'll go to the top (cheapest) of the sellers list (bottom window). Someone can see that list and simply buy from that list, in which case it's a done deal.

Also, if someone has a buy order set up, it may be that no--one in the area is setting their sale prices low enough to meet that buy order price. In this case no purchase will be made until someone out there sets a sale price low enough to trigger the sale. At which point the sale will happen automatically? Can we look at the list of buy orders, check the highest offer and simply sell to that person?

If you click sell, the price will default to the highest buy order price. If you put in a higher price, and don't set a duration, it won't sell. If you have a duration, you will create a sell order at that price (and be charged an additional broker fee)

If you set a lower prices than the highest buy order, the highest buy order will get the sale, at the price you set. They will have some of the money that they put in Escrow, to pay for that buy order, returned to them.


Buy orders are generally used by traders and manufacturers to gather stock from miner and mission runners who want quick isk, rather than selling it themselves over time. Often, that trader will then relist the item in a sell order for a substantially higher price.

If you set a buy order with a cost higher than the lowest sell order, it will immediately be filled (until all the units on order are bought, or the remaining price is higher than the buy order)

Likewise with a sell order that is cheaper than the highest buy order.

You'll find some people say sell low, buy high, rather than the more traditional buy low, sell high. What they're referring to, is that only the lowest sell order will be bought from. And only the highest buy order is sold to.

There are two methods of selling - one is to place a Sell Order - the other is to fill someone elses Buy Order. The Sell Order will get you more money over time - but the Buy order will get you money - NOW.


1) The things on the top half of the market window are people who have placed Sell Orders . If I am Buying - I sort these by price with the lowest price on top so that I can see what the cheapest one is - or - I sort them by jumps to see how far they are away.

2) The things on the bottom half of the window are people Buy Orders. If I am Selling something (that I want money for NOW) I sort these buy the highest to see who is offering the best price, then sort by jumps to see how far things are from me.

2) When you First click on Sell Item - you will be defaulted to the last mode you used. If it has options for the length of time for your sell order to be listed - then that is the advanced menu - and where you are placing a Sell Order.

3) If you click on Sell Item - and you get a smaller window - with the Advanced Option Button down in the lower right hand corner - then you are selling to someone elses Buy Order.


You don't buy and sell things in EVE - you place bids.

The highest Buy Order bid within range will always get the Buy.

The Lowest Sell Bid in a Station will always get the sale.

You cannot pick which lot you want to buy in the same station. If you choose a lot with a higher price - you will pay the higher price - but you will be paying it to and receive items from - the low bidder.

Once upon a time - i was selling Civilian Miners in a rookie station (this is for laughs - not a way to make money) and I had the lowest bid at like 1,000 ISK. Some smart ass had posted a bid at 1,000,000 ISK - and some 3 day old rookie ... for whatever reason clicked on his 1,000,000 order. The guy posting the million ISK bid - did not get the sale - I did but - at his 1,000,000 ISK price. Thus - I noticed I had sold a Civilian Miner for 1,000,000 ISK. I looked the guy up in people and places, did a show info on him, saw he was 3 days old - and gave him his money back. I'd not count on anyone doing that for you ...



Another thing I see now and again - is people who place sell orders for Skill Books - in NPC stations that are .01 ISK *above* the price of the NPC station. That skill book will NEVER sell. NEVER. The only way for your goods to sell if they are priced higher than other items in the same station - is if all those items sell out. NPC Stations NEVER run out of items - so that skill book someone was trying to get rid of - will NEVER sell. On the other hand - if you end up with an extra skill book (I knew this guy once who'd accidentally bought two 20,000,000 ISK skils) is to place it for sale at .01 LESS than the NPC stock - and you will get the very next sale - guaranteed. So - if you run a bunch of career agent missions ( there are 3 schools for each faction) and end up with a lot of extra skill books - that's one way to get paid for them fast. You're only problem is - if place them for sale in a Career Agent system where they are giving those skill books away - then you may not have a lot of customers looking to buy them. However - each of those schools has stations in other systems selling the same things that sell in the career agent systems.


Now ... some people will tell you not to sell to buy orders - but there is a reason for doing that. Selling to someone elses buy order - will turn your money around quickly. You can take that money - go use it to buys something else - and then sell that. Each little profit you make - gives you more money to turn right around and buy something you can make more money with.

But - if you've got a lot of stuff and really want to get a good price on it - then you want to be selling with a Sell Order - as it is worth the wait to get the extra money.

You can also be doing BOTH at the same time. Placing some of your items on Sell orders and selling others to someone's buy order. You just want to think about what you're doing and why you're doing it.

People who place buy orders are usually looking for something they need a lot of - all the time. Say they are an industrialist - and they use Isogen - they'll put up a buy order for a large amount of Isogen - and people will haul it to them and give them the Isogen for less money than the buyer would have to pay - if they made the trip and bought it from someone else, especially if they had to travel around all over the place to fill their needs. As mentioned though - if they place a range on their buy order - then they have to travel to go pick up what people have sold them. That can be a real pain in the ass so specify a minimum on your buy orders.


If you aren't in a trade hub and you want people to come buy your stuff - it really helps if you have a lot of it to sell. Post a good price on a lot of stuff - and it may take a while - but someone with a Freighter will come get it if it's worth their while. They'll also pay more if it saves them the trouble of flying all over creation fetching small packets from their buy orders.

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Wow, a huge amount of helpful info. Thanks again The the help.