Market Discussions

A few pointers:

1) Create a new character on your account and place him in Jita as your price checker. You can then fly around with your main and be able to rapidly compare markets with Jita prices (when you're more established you will want a second account so you can do this without logging out).

2) Reflect on the directionality of trade in eve. Raw materials flow in to Jita and finished products flow out. You want to be moving things largely in accordance with this cycle. Fly down to Amarr and check the prices of salvage, for example, and compare them to the prices in Jita. You will find that there is a margin to be worked moving salvage to Jita. Similarly, compare ship prices in Jita to Amarr and you will find that many ships are cheaper in Jita and can be profitably moved in the other direction.

3) Avoid moving low end minerals to begin with. You won't have the cargo capacity to move them in meaningful quantities.

4) Try to establish an efficient cycle whereby you have half your isk in buy orders at one end of the loop and half in sell orders at the other end. This is much better than sinking all your cash in at one end and then waiting for everything to sell at the other as you should be able to keep a constant flow of goods moving.

5) Always focus on your most profitable items. Sink as much of your capital into your best market as it will take on whatever periodic cycle you use (e.g. one cycle back and forth per day). Once you have as much of that market as you can, place any remaining isk in your next best item, and so on. Squeezing every penny you can from your best markets is important. If memory serves I only hauled about 6 different items for my first three months and about 50% of my earnings came from the top one.

A critical thing to consider is how much time you intend to devote to this business. The model I presented - running stuff from the hubs to Jita and back - is ideal if you have plenty of time to burn because you will be able to pick up high volumes of goods by focussing on the primary and secondary hubs. But if you don't want to be 0.01ing your buy and sell orders for long periods of time then you may be better off with Samroski's suggestions, which involve taking smaller quantities of items to lower level hubs where there will be less competition from other traders. You won't move as much product but you will move it with far less effort and you can expect higher margins the further down the food-chain of hubs you go because other pilots will pay premiums for convenience. If they can buy something in their mission hub for a little bit more than it would cost six jumps away in a regional hub then they will pay to save themselves the time and the more time you can save them the greater the margin you can expect. But the volumes will be lower because the lower level hubs will be less densely populated. My preference has always been for volume over margins but this has been due to my personal play style and will not suit the more casual hauler.

The basic model of hauling between one hub and Jita can be expanded easily to take in the other hubs as well, since most of the margins reflect convenience/inconvenience and I have found that if there is a margin moving something from Amarr to Jita there will be a similar or better margin moving from Rens and Dodixie as well (although lower volumes). So, if you have a few accounts you can place one character in each of Rens, Dodixie, and Amarr, all gathering the same goods from their respective regions and then periodically move whatever they have picked up on buy orders in to Jita. If your cycle/wallet can handle further expansion you can then also, once a day, send you regional hub guys just over the border into nearby regions and place regional buy orders for the same stuff (also in the hub region itself), picking up your winnings once a week or so (you will get much better margins on the regional buys but will have more hassle with the logistics). Amarr is particularly good for this as there are four other regions within a five jump radius, allowing you access to a very large chunk of space without having to move your trader very far.

I also just want to make note, there is a small but visible shortage of Haulers flying freighters.

Its not unheard of, that one can make as much as 300M isk over an 8 hour period and that's just hauling other peoples goods, if you add your own business into the mix, you can make a very feasible career.

True, however it is really handy and commendable that some people are willing to do it.

You are talking about region trading in your OP. Very important to look for high turnover items. Consider public courier contracts instead of hauling yourself but demand a good collateral.

This is generally true, but it might make sense to check for available public courier contracts when you are making a trip with some extra cargo space. Flying an empty hauler is not very profitable.

Generally true, but I am always in need of more freighter pilots. My collaterals are high, but I pay very well.

Useful idiots?

Surely its more idiotic to fly the first leg of a 60j freighter trip empty? If someone is too :lazy: to move their own stuff, and want to pay me to go somewhere I was already going anyway, then thats fine with me.

We all make our isk off what you would call "useful idiots", people who dont use buy orders, people who have not got a T2 production alt, T2 producers who sell to buy orders because :effort: to use a sell order.

(Note that I do not consider any of the above useful idiots, I call them customers )



@ OP:

Hauling can take many flavours, from buying from sell orders and selling to buy orders in the same region, in another region, interhub trading (Taking advantage of the price difference between say, Jita and Amarr), setting up a 5j range buy order, and then moving the goods into a hub (I dont recommend trying this with region buy orders to start out, even if you love space trucking, it will drive you crazy!), as well as courier contract.

Many traders dislike doing hauling, and prefer to stay where they are and reflip either region or station, but, there is not one right way to trade, and if you like space trucking, then it is perfectly fine to trade doing that.

Well as isk/hr goes those guys in pushx and frog logistics are making a killing, relative to effort. You have to remember high collateral jobs are always 2m+ per jump, and that translates to more than 120m/hr. It's even more for low and null sec contracts. The point is they are getting the risk transferred to them, but they are very good at what they do, and hardly if ever get ganked. And they take 1-2% of your revenues, not your profits. Again people that setup a logistical service at this scale cannot be called "idiots". Calling other people "idiots" without thinking from their perspective especially on an internet forum, is not an action that inspires ingenuity. Have you Leet t2 production been featured on New Eden spotlight? This post got derailed a little a bit, but a thank you should be given to the people of frog and pushx and all other services like them, that offers great convenience and at the same time making the sandbox of EVE that much better.

Please CCP let us be better than facebook, and give us a dislike button.