Market Discussions

Hello! Before I begin let me first say, that this is the first Forum Post that I have made on EVE and its 3:00AM for me! (What a combination!)

So basically, just like the title says, this forum post will more or less be me asking weather or not a service like this is in demand on EVE, so here we go!

About me:
I've been playing EVE for a few months with 85% of my time playing EVE spent mining in belts and crying due to my shinny miners getting ganked, so I realized this differently was not how I wished to play the game I decided to try something new which was trading! It was a love on first sight as well as an instant success. I mainly just chill in Jita and soon plan on opening a second alt in Amarr. My fleet right now consist of 2 pilots, my Jita trader and my hauler (Which is training to become a Freighter Pilot). Unfortunately I decided to stop plexing my main and instead just reinvest the plex back into assets. (Note I've only payed 1 month of game time for all my accounts which was to activate them!) So I decided to branch into a few things, first is PI, second is Industry, and third is this Logistic Service! So that's enough about me! Now to the actual idea...

Overview:
Offer a logistic service (As in supplying that entity with he materials it need to function and buy the products that they produce) to small corps or players that need someone do their Logistics

Target Audience:
As I said in the overview ill be focusing on small corps and players, because larger corps have their own logistic services, and even if I did manage to start supplying a large corp, I could never keep up with their demand of goods, as well as the fact that i'm not comfortable flying a blockade runner out in Null

Benefits Of the Customer:
Since I already do trading, I can acquire a decent amount of goods well below their average prices and even after my mark-up they still would be saving money by going through me then doing it by them self's, also I deliver the item to the customer and pay for any unforeseen expenses (Like Goons ganking me in High-sec again....)

Benefits of Me:
First ill be making isk (Duh), also it would give me something more meaningful to do in Eve other than watch my wallet grow, and third (Which i think is most important) It will give me contact to people as well as a good reputation, so if I ever decide to expand/ start a new service, I will have customers who can vouch for me

Markups:
-When i'm selling an item to a customer, there will be a 5-20% markup based on these factors: Price of Item, Volume needed, location of where the items need to be delivered, seniority (As in how long you have been using my service for)
-When i'm buying an item from a customer I will be looking for a 2-15% below Jita price based on these factors: Trend of the item, popularity of the item, location that I need to pick it up from, and seniority

Business Plan:
I plan on using the feedback I get from you guys to post another post on the forums basically advertising my service, but if it works out then here's the plan... I plan on doing this Solo with 1-10 clients, and if it works out maybe scaling my operation to a few people, and eventually possibly more!

So yea guys! Please comment and give me your ideas on what could be improved and what needs removed/added, also it took me an hour to write this -_- Its 4:00AM now! Also sorry for any misspelling/grammatical mistakes! Im tired AF!

I second what Mephiztopheleze said, that you should focus on fun, but it doesn't mean that you have to go shoot stuff. I don't undock a whole lot, and know many others who do that same, but are still playing years later.

As for losing your mining ships, that's likely a fault in your ship/fit/behaviour/location. I don't like to recommend mining, but it could be a good excercise to find out why you were getting ganked and fix that, it may help you when you try other activities.

There are already several public logistics corps, and private ones for alliances as you mentioned. There are also a bunch of independant haulers.

Haulers Channel (channel for public couriers) https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=426750

New Evolution Express https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=426750

Push Industries https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=432719

Red Frog Freight https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=6491

What you're describing is a shopping service, rather than purely logistics, I think. I've seen public ones offered before, but they don't often stick around for long, perhaps have a search on the Sell Orders forum and see if you can find out why. I suspect it's due to lack of demand as alts are plentiful, multibuy saves a lot of effort, transport is already very cheap, and advertsing your service to reach a wide enough audience may be pretty difficult.

I think your markups are pretty optimistic considering what is already out there, for example haulers usually charge 1-2m/jump per billion of collateral in high sec (0.25-0.5% for a 25 jump trip from Jita to Rens). This doesn't include your time, but the main hubs are usually pretty well stocked and I'm not sure people really go out of their way to find these kinds of services often.

If you want to help people then I think you need to find a corp or alliance that you enjoy being in, because with most other hauling you're just going to be a faceless hauler who helps the contract issuer make ISK. You already said you're trading, if you want to haul too, then you can combine the both and trade across regions, or between hubs. Many traders start out hauling for others or themselves and progress to employing other people to do their hauling as they grow too large to move the amount of goods they're buying and selling.

Yes give it a try, don't let the clowns of the forum discourage you.

Very good for quiet moving with minimum attention.

It's really sad to see how people keep themselves out of null/low/wh only because their knowledge is based on myths rather than actual information. I'll give some insight on nullsec logistics, as I have some experience in it.

Larger groups indeed have logistics backbone. One to several dudes, who have jump freighters and cyno chains to Jita, run courier contracts for their alliance. That doesnt mean you have to compete with them to accomplish logistics. Instead, you can use that service to import goods to nullsec and make profit distributing them. This is called "seeding market" and people LOVE when local market hubs are stocked. Sometimes they can get jealous for your "insane" profits and start calling you bad words, but at the end of the day they have 3 options: wait several days for courier contract, have their own stockpiles, or to pay a markup to you. If you'll be wise in your pricing policy, they chose you. You dont have to cover 100% demand for all types of items - find your niche and serve it. Gain isk, experience and relations, go bigger when and if you feel up to it.

There are also possibilities for outbound logistics. Nullsec produces excess of ice, moongoo and some minerals. Furthermore, sometimes people move out and firesale their stuff with decent discount. Hauling it can be a little tricky, as jumpfreighter dudes will not move their cyno alts for one-time run even if it's a full freighter load (which may be not). Luckily, we have wormholes. Odds are - you can scan a wormhole chain from a given nullsec system to a highsec system within a week. Then you can haul the goods in a blockade runner or deep space transport. Flying them in deep nullsec is pretty safe if you do it properly: always use a scout, watch intel channels and be careful on weekend evenings.

Getting into nullsec sov holding alliance may seem impossible for a trader/industrialist, as they primarily recruit PVP folks and are very suspicious about spies and awoxers. But if you look closer, there are always satellite alliances around: feeder alliance ("academy"), renters ("citizens"), vassals ("pets"). They usually have blue standings and docking rights, share the same logistics services and IT infrastructure (you will need it to know doctrine fits for example). Those will be happy to accept an active new player.

That being said, I dont support the idea of moving to nullsec "from day one". It's a good thing to spend some time in highsec, learn the ropes, stash some isk and gain skill points. If during this time you find your gameplay in highsec - it's totally fine. But if you get fed up with tight competition and lack of player interaction, take a look at the other areas of space. They are absolutely not that scary as they seem. I did only lose maybe five or so ships that weren't meant to die since I began playing, and I estimate those losses at 1-2% of my current assets.