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A few questions...
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Nero Synapse
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2013-05-14 00:28:18 UTC
So whilst I'm new to trading, and have been doing well so far, but I had a few simple questions for the more knowledgeable denizens of the market.

Assuming I'm in the business of buying regionally and re-selling right where I bought it...

1) is it worth it to invest in high volume, low cost, but good margin items? for example a type of T1 afterburner that might only sell for 16k, but you can buy for 4k and move alot of them? If I've got the extra isk and order slots laying around to fund such a smaller investment is it just a "why not go ahead thing"?

2) Is it generally advised to focus on a single region or if there's another nearby is it viable to most to dabble in another if the isk is availible?

3) As you increase the amount of isk you have, wh, in your opinion, is it a good time to branch out into larger investments such as battleships, faction ships/items, etc. that might not have a fast return but yield a good amount of isk.
Daniel Plain
Doomheim
#2 - 2013-05-14 00:37:32 UTC  |  Edited by: Daniel Plain
the only right answer is: maybe.

any other blanket statement is inherently flawed because the market will eventually adjust to close the gap. you will have to run the numbers yourself: turnover * per unit profit = total profit.

as a rule of thumb though, you can expect anything that is easy to figure out and execute to have low profit margins and high competition.

I should buy an Ishtar.
Nero Synapse
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#3 - 2013-05-15 02:15:21 UTC
Thanks, i appreciate the tip :)
Mu-Shi Ai
Hosono House
#4 - 2013-05-15 02:30:48 UTC  |  Edited by: Mu-Shi Ai
Nero Synapse wrote:
So whilst I'm new to trading, and have been doing well so far, but I had a few simple questions for the more knowledgeable denizens of the market.

Assuming I'm in the business of buying regionally and re-selling right where I bought it...

1) is it worth it to invest in high volume, low cost, but good margin items? for example a type of T1 afterburner that might only sell for 16k, but you can buy for 4k and move alot of them? If I've got the extra isk and order slots laying around to fund such a smaller investment is it just a "why not go ahead thing"?

2) Is it generally advised to focus on a single region or if there's another nearby is it viable to most to dabble in another if the isk is availible?

3) As you increase the amount of isk you have, wh, in your opinion, is it a good time to branch out into larger investments such as battleships, faction ships/items, etc. that might not have a fast return but yield a good amount of isk.


1) That depends entirely on how the "high volume" in question is distributed. If the item is mostly moving to buy orders, then you could be caught with a bunch of little T1 crap that you can't actually sell off in a reasonable manner. To get a rough idea of how the volume of trade is focused, look at the low and high prices over a period of time. If the average falls roughly in the middle of those two, then you're probably looking at fairly even movement in buys and sells. If it cheats toward the high figure, then the volume is more from sell orders, and if it cheats toward the low figure, the volume is more from buy orders. Ideally, you want to see that average figure more or less in the middle so you know there's two-way movement. Of course, you might prefer to deal in items that go mostly to buy orders if you're interested in shipping them to another place where they'll sell easily. It depends on what you're trying to do.

2) This question is impossible to answer "correctly." If the ISK is right, do what you've got to do. Splitting your attention could be beneficial, detrimental, or neutral, depending on how you do it, and what the numbers look like.

3) Keeping any idle cash you generate from region trading, and find yourself unable to adequately reinvest in that business, active in other more "passive" ventures is always a good thing. Try your hand at long-term commodity trading (high-volume stuff like minerals, moon goo, PI, etc). You can choose your point to buy in, and then hold the stuff until it gains enough value to sell off. This can be done fairly passively and doesn't require you to spend all day .01 ISKing anybody else. This is because hitting your chosen price is more important than being the first through the door.
Tsukino Stareine
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2013-05-15 03:36:50 UTC
There's 3 types of trade in this game (and pretty much IRL too).

1. Low margin, high movement. Very safe, extremely profitable if you have the capital to back it up. Unfortunately most likely monopolised by the bigger players already. Examples of this would be high sec ores and basic ammunition.

2. High margin, low movement. This is what's usually known as flipping. You find some high value items like rare deadspace mods, risk buying them and trying to get a mark up on what you bought it for. Exremely profitable but not very safe.

3. Niche monopolisation, you find a fairly under-represented part of the market that does have SOME movement. Buy out everything and experimentally put up sell orders at varying prices in different regions to see what people are willing to pay for. Not very many instances of this exist anymore due to the number of people doing it already.

So when it comes down to new traders, you're kind of stuck with the first 2 options and not making a huge profit.

Art of Explosions