Science & Industry

Say i want to buy p2/p3 materials and minerals for manufacturing stuff in a low to medium scale i.e no ships etc, only modules and ammo, what kind of buy orders would be the best?

1. Do i set up region wide orders in two adjacent regions close to my base? or do i setup buy orders for 3 jumps in the popular mission hubs only? To be clear, i don't want to buy and reprocess any loot etc.

2. Is a region with a popular trade hub like amarr is worse than a region without one? My reason being buy orders could be set up for less prices in those regions without hubs.

3. What should i be looking for setting up mineral buy orders? is it better in trade hubs or any quiet regions? How can i approximate where there'll be more miners? - other than the obvious method of checking out every region that is..

4. Also can i somehow guess all this with the trading history i.e the volume traded etc found in sites like eve central etc? If so, can u guys tell me how?

5. Are the regions closes to null a good place to setup buy orders for the above?

6. for people who do this stuff, how do you collect all? run around in a freighter to each station? that seems time consuming to me..

Any help in above would be appreciated. I am not interested in re-trading those stuff. strictly manufacturing and my requirement will be very less in comparison, say a freighter full for about a week or so.

Say i want to buy p2/p3 materials and minerals for manufacturing stuff in a low to medium scale i.e no ships etc, only modules and ammo, what kind of buy orders would be the best?

Good - First tip - go to Jita, check out the prices there. If you cannot build your module for profit (looking at the sell orders for your input materials and at the buy orders for your modules) you might want to consider something else - you may still profit, but realise that your profit will be because of your trading skills, not in manufacturing.

Realise that you have in reality three different materials to look at - high end minerals (Zydrine, Megacyte, Morphite), low end minerals and PI stuff. Essentially you are looking at three different purchasing policies here.

1. Do i set up region wide orders in two adjacent regions close to my base? or do i setup buy orders for 3 jumps in the popular mission hubs only? To be clear, i don't want to buy and reprocess any loot etc.

Region wide orders are a pain especially in regions with lowsec. Having all your trit end up in lowsec is no fun.

For low end minerals - you can set up a short range buy order or multiple buy orders in mining systems. Note that I say mining. Look for places with lots of rocks, lots of miners and lots of mineral sell orders (i.e. where people are selling stuff) in my experience miners are ok to move their stuff a few jumps for a better price, especially when you are talking about freighter loads. Alternatively you could look to mission running systems, mission runners tend not to value the reprocessed junk as much as miners so you might get a nice supply there.

For high end minerals - mission hubs could help (reprocessing) , mining systems won't. You might have to end up using trade hubs to get a hold of these though or even better, try to find a steady supplier, though your volume might be a bit low for them.

PI stuff - really I don't know. I sell all my PI stuff in trade hubs and I've never had to buy it

2. Is a region with a popular trade hub like amarr is worse than a region without one? My reason being buy orders could be set up for less prices in those regions without hubs.

Trade hubs are good for getting what you cannot find elsewhere. Jita being the best - others ok. Different regions can vary substantially though so there is no hard rule on this.

3. What should i be looking for setting up mineral buy orders? is it better in trade hubs or any quiet regions? How can i approximate where there'll be more miners? - other than the obvious method of checking out every region that is..

Mostly depends on the volume you are looking at - take a look at the volume of minerals that a region uses. If you need more than 5% of that you'll probably be forced to use a trade hub.

4. Also can i somehow guess all this with the trading history i.e the volume traded etc found in sites like eve central etc? If so, can u guys tell me how?

I use the in game graphs for this - go to market details say of trit, and display market activity over the last month or three to get an idea.

5. Are the regions closes to null a good place to setup buy orders for the above?

It's not really a criteria.

6. for people who do this stuff, how do you collect all? run around in a freighter to each station? that seems time consuming to me..

AFK hauling, courier contracts or just plain patience (wait till enough stuff has accumulated somewhere to make it worth the haul).


Good luck.


(NB - the new forums are hell to format sorry about that )

AFAIK, almost all PI 'selling to buy orders' occurs in Jita (volume-wise), with small amounts in the other trade hubs (Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, a bit in Hek). Dodixie in particular seems to have had an up-tick in buy prices for PI, but still noticeable below Jita. In any case, you get your orders filled, most likely, but slowly.

If you are enterprising, you might find some folks in low-sec and set up buy orders in low-sec to satisfy their production's market. It might be worth their while to not have to haul it all out (and leave that up to you). Hard part would be identifying potential producers and not getting ganked, ofc.

As for buy order ranges, I have identified specific systems in the regions that I operate in (or have in the past) that allow me to set up range 3 and range 5 buy orders w/o any low-sec or only one or two low-sec systems. I personally avoid the trade hubs 'cause I am lazy, and if you are outside the trade hubs you do not need to beat their buy prices unless you are 'blanketed' by region-wide orders from the hub. I do have some region-wide buy orders I set up for a few specific items that I allow to trickle-collect over a long period of time. I am over-bid in a lot of systems, sometimes, but I can collect a large quantity in backwater or low-sec systems. When I have a significant volume at one location, I send a hauler, blockade runner, or freighter to pick up the goods. All these items are generally bought well below their mineral values, so worst-case I just melt em down and haul/sell the minerals.

Get your margin trading, broker relations, and accounting skills up, as well as getting your standing up at the stations you plan to base out of. That will further reduce your fees.