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BPO research / selling
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Vitoc Slave
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2017-04-17 18:18:53 UTC
I'd like to take advantage of my research slots, but I need a steer from people that have done "research for resale."

I'm thinking ships, capital components, or capital ships.

Is this even worth my time / effort? I plan on using an engineering complex so the system index is low.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Zarek Kree
Lunatic Legion Holdings
#2 - 2017-04-17 18:42:34 UTC
I'll be interested to see what responses you get. The only caution I would offer is to be careful researching in an EC, especially if you aren't the owner. You won't lose your BPO but you can lose the time invested in research is they stop fueling it or it gets blown up.
Piugattuk
Litla Sundlaugin
#3 - 2017-04-18 07:16:30 UTC
I'm testing the waters now, put my first fully researched bpo up for sale, no bites yet, however bpc's sell pretty well, just got to set a fair price because many bpc's are over priced for what you get many times, I would say definitely when you make bpc's put enough runs on them because they sell, 1 run bpc's I avoid, just not worth it 99% of the time I've seen, especially ships, I loath 1 Run prints, I usually go for 10 Run prints.
voetius
Grundrisse
#4 - 2017-04-18 09:20:10 UTC

I don't do it all that much myself though I know someone (since left) that did it for years. He used to do cruisers and missile packs (sets of HML, Cruise) mostly, prices held up very well. Sets of frequency crystals ( do them all large, all medium or all small, don't mix the sizes) also sell slowly but have a good price point (for large).

The BPOs for T2 components sell well as packs by race or as singles; rig BPO, sell by Large, Medium and Small (small don't really need any research), also with rigs you can skip some of the really useless ones when making a pack up, but you'll need to do some research if you don't have the in game knowledge of what "useless rig" means, also some that are useless in one size may sell well in a different size. There are lots of caveats so you need to do some digging and thinking.

All the above are assumed to be 10 / 20.

Contract history is your friend, do some research. Have a look at contracts in Jita, set the filter to BPO, then Show Info on the seller, top left, click the bars, dropdown, Show Contracts (bear in mind that serious blueprint sellers will use corporate contracts, so you need to do the same exercise on their Corporation to show contract history. Start making notes about the people who have long contract history of selling researched BPOs, their prices for sets, etc.

That's what I can think of straight away there are probably lots of other things that don't spring to mind.
Do Little
Bluenose Trading
#5 - 2017-04-18 13:30:39 UTC
I've been selling capital component BPCs as a side business for about a year and I am happy with the results. The BPOs are expensive and take 6 months to research so there is a substantial barrier to entry but they hold their value - you can always sell them at a profit. I look at my profits from selling the BPCs as interest earned from my investment in the BPO. With the most popular components I recovered the cost of BPO and research in less that a year which is pretty good ROI by anyone's standard. The less popular prints will take longer but still an excellent investment.
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#6 - 2017-04-18 18:48:34 UTC
I stopped making BPC for sale a few months ago, as the markets have become rather saturated.

There are still a few that sell well, but the number is dwindling.

Unless your BPO are 10 & 20, I wouldn't bother making BPC.

BPC kits are more niche and lower sales volume, but are - for the moment at least - still doing okay.
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#7 - 2017-04-18 19:43:13 UTC  |  Edited by: Tau Cabalander
As a follow-up:

The Rorqual changes gave a great boost to capital manufacturing.

Many BPO were purchased and researched as a result. Some by speculators in advance before the changes went live.

Then the Rorqual was nerfed, twice, and some BPOs have since been shed.

This has likely led to a lot of capital component and ships BPOs, and their copies, leading to the dwindling sales market I mentioned.

I've been seeing more and more 40 run components below 8m, which is my limit. This is also often below the cost of 8x 5 runs.
Vitoc Slave
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#8 - 2017-04-19 00:04:48 UTC
Very insightful posts. I think I'll just research the stock of prints I have now, sell them and go find something else to do for passive ISK.
Alaric Faelen
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#9 - 2017-04-29 17:08:53 UTC
I mostly got out of the BPO business some time ago when the market was loaded. Kept a few common rig BPOs but haven't kept up on the market since. Rig BPCs usually sold well for me in NPC null.