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Research services
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binary cat
R-ISK
#1 - 2012-02-15 17:48:43 UTC
Hi.

I am considering to start service> renting research slots.

My corp has large fraction hisec pos close to jita and alts with 55 free research slots /lot of skils and top HW installed/.

Idea is to buy BPO from customer for NPC /or NPC-5%/ and than research as ordered.
After BPO is finished Ill contract BPO back to customers with agreed fee.

My capital is sufficent to buy also expensive BPO
Minimum research time per BPO will be one week to avoid too much micromanagement.


Questions:
Is there market for service like this?
What is reasonable price slot/month?
Any competitors active right now?
Any suggestions how to improve service?


tnx
Velicitia
XS Tech
#2 - 2012-02-15 17:56:00 UTC
1. probably
2. enough to cover operating costs, + profit
3. look at the people who simply sell researched BPO to see what they're up to.
4. don't scam Blink

One of the bitter points of a good bittervet is the realisation that all those SP don't really do much, and that the newbie is having much more fun with what little he has. - Tippia
Gar Earthbendiir
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#3 - 2012-02-15 19:19:13 UTC
So you'd be charging for the research that you do yourself and giving the researched T2 blueprints back to the customer? I think I'm reading that correctly. I guess you could use ISK as the fee or even a portion of the copies for your own use.

I'd be interested to hear more.
binary cat
R-ISK
#4 - 2012-02-15 19:29:53 UTC
My idea is

COPY
ME
PE

invettion is clickfest
Velicitia
XS Tech
#5 - 2012-02-15 20:01:47 UTC
ME/PE research -- you'll need to see what it costs to run a slot per hour. (also, add in some profit)
Copies -- use your own BPOs and sell the copies directly on contract. that is, don't make copies for someone using their BPO (I'll let you figure out why)

One of the bitter points of a good bittervet is the realisation that all those SP don't really do much, and that the newbie is having much more fun with what little he has. - Tippia
Jacob Lyon Chieve
Sanguis Mortem Industrial
#6 - 2012-02-15 20:14:30 UTC
Velicitia brings up a good point, one which concerns me.

As a new player, I see there are precisely ZERO research slots in the entire region I am in. Granted, it's HS and near Jita - I'm not complaining, just observing. So, this service interests me quite a bit. That said...

What's to stop someone from running a service like this, being paid to research a BPO up to a profitable level and then running say... 10 copies.... before handing the BPO back to the customer and selling the BPC's on an alt toon?

I know a BPC has limited runs before it goes poof, but is there a way of tracking how many copies have been made of a BPO?

Need to know how much ore to mine in order to yield a certain order of minerals? https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=67477 It will even calculate how long you can expect for it to take!
Bath Sheeba
Another Success Story
#7 - 2012-02-15 20:17:53 UTC
Jacob, there is no way to tell....

But......

You can know how long it should take to research and based on how long it takes to "research" it will tell you if they could have made copies....
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#8 - 2012-02-15 20:43:56 UTC  |  Edited by: Tau Cabalander
Jacob Lyon Chieve wrote:
As a new player, I see there are precisely ZERO research slots in the entire region I am in. Granted, it's HS and near Jita - I'm not complaining, just observing. So, this service interests me quite a bit.

For what it is worth, I research BPO for people that ask, when I have slots available.

I send EVE-mail reports whenever the status (idle, start ME, start PE, done) of a BPO I'm researching for them changes.

I own about 42 billion ISK of BPO at NPC prices, so I offer this service free to help those starting out. If I'm asked to research more costly BPO (example: I did some tier 3 BCs BPO for someone), or have to make a collateral deposit, then I do ask for a mutually agreeable compensation.

If interested, send me an EVE-mail if you want to arrange some research, and I'll let you know my lab status.

OP: You are much better off not waiting for customers, and just buying BPO, researching them, and selling them. The in-game blueprint chat channel is also useful for that (bought nearly 2b of BPO via the channel recently).
Velicitia
XS Tech
#9 - 2012-02-15 21:08:46 UTC  |  Edited by: Velicitia
well, now I feel uber poor Tau...

thanks P

@Jacob --> actually, my point was this:

generally, when doing BPO research, collateral is essentially the cost of the BPO. So, if for example I was copying a tier 3 battleship for you, off of your BPO ... I would pay you a bil ISK to handle the BPO, then sell the BPO and 10x BPC back to you for say 1.01 billion (BS BPC run approximately 1m per max run copy).

At that point, the BPO is a liability ... if you're the one who OWNS the BPO, then it's a capital asset (and part of your net worth).

edit --> been a long time since I've run Tier 3 BS BPCs off ... so 10x max run copies per month may not be possible...

One of the bitter points of a good bittervet is the realisation that all those SP don't really do much, and that the newbie is having much more fun with what little he has. - Tippia
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#10 - 2012-02-15 21:51:36 UTC
Velicitia wrote:
well, now I feel uber poor Tau...

thanks P

Of course you are über. You have more "likes" than I do Blink
Scrapyard Bob
EVE University
Ivy League
#11 - 2012-02-16 02:24:01 UTC
Velicitia's method is probably the least prone to abuse/theft.

1. Client / Researcher agree on fee schedule and research levels. This usually involves a transaction fee / install fee, plus a per-hour rate (generally based on having Metallurgy V trained).

2. Client brings BPO to agreed upon location, contracts it over at the NPC sell price to the corp doing the research.

At this point, if the deal falls through, the client still has all or most of their ISK, and the researcher is stuck with the BPO. Since almost all BPOs can be re-sold either at-cost or for a small-medium profit, neither side takes much risk.

In some cases, with more expensive BPOs or long research times, the researcher may require the client to pay for lab fees up front, or possibly the researcher will hold back 5%-20% of the BPO value as incentive for the client to accept delivery after the research is done.

3. Research happens, everyone twiddles their thumbs for a week or month.

4. Researcher contracts BPO back to client at the agreed upon price, plus research fees, minus any deposit that was required.

As for per-hour fees, hi-sec towers are running at around 380-400M per 30-days over the past 6 months (other then the Gallente ice interdiction and various other fluctuations in the market). Assuming that you can keep 50 slots busy 24x7 and you pay 400M per 30 days you get:

400M / 30 days / 24h / 50 slots = 11.1k ISK/hr as a minimum slot fee in order to to pay for fuel

Always allow for +/- 20% swings in the cost of POS fuel over the course of a year, and be slightly pessimistic as to how busy you can keep your arrays. Which means you might want to charge 15-20k ISK/hr for your lab slots, maybe even more.
Emma Royd
Maddled Gommerils
#12 - 2012-02-16 06:11:01 UTC
Bath Sheeba wrote:
Jacob, there is no way to tell....

But......

You can know how long it should take to research and based on how long it takes to "research" it will tell you if they could have made copies....



Not foolproof, but it's a good indication.


Don't forget that labs have a time multiplier of
Copy slot (0.75 job time bonus) Standard lab, or Copy slots (0.65 job time bonus) for the Advanced lab
ME slots (0.75 job time bonus)
PE slots (0.75 job time bonus)

Plus you can shave off another 5% if you've got implants.

But it's still a rough indication, and I think you've got to add a little element of *trust* Lol and as long as you get your BPO back with the copies you asked for, if they skim a little extra, then so be it. If you're that worried, your options are:
Join the empire queues.
Set a pos up.
Join a corp that lets you utilise one of theirs.
Velicitia
XS Tech
#13 - 2012-02-16 13:06:32 UTC
Tau Cabalander wrote:
Velicitia wrote:
well, now I feel uber poor Tau...

thanks P

Of course you are über. You have more "likes" than I do Blink


yeah, maybe 10-15 ... 100+ of them were from when DSQ was liking anyone and everyone on the forums Roll

One of the bitter points of a good bittervet is the realisation that all those SP don't really do much, and that the newbie is having much more fun with what little he has. - Tippia
astara989
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#14 - 2012-02-16 17:12:09 UTC
binary cat wrote:


Questions:
Is there market for service like this?
What is reasonable price slot/month?
Any competitors active right now?
Any suggestions how to improve service?


tnx


1. Yes
2. (Cost of fuel for pos per day/Number of slots on pos) + your profit =Fee.
Try looking up some of the research corps and most of them have there prices in there bio's
3.Several I can think of.
4. Get a good reputation as a trusted researcher. Make sure you have some of your own bpo's so you can utalise your POS's empty slots if you have any.
Skippermonkey
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#15 - 2012-02-17 11:31:43 UTC
Tau Cabalander wrote:
Velicitia wrote:
well, now I feel uber poor Tau...

thanks P

Of course you are über. You have more "likes" than I do Blink

I'll happily swap some 'likes' for a couple of bill

COME AT ME BRO

I'LL JUST BE DOCKED IN THIS STATION