Market Discussions

Some of the P0 items are rarer to obtain on planets since the planets do not produce them in grand numbers.

Felsic Magma and Reactive Gas are prime examples of "rare" items (based upon high sec planets). Also, these two items are only found on specific planets (lava and gas). Carbon Compounds are quite common and found across numerous planets in grand numbers. Thus a hot spot of Felsic Magma may produce less than a typical deposit of Carbon Compounds.

Overall, the basic principle of supply and demand is quite active with planet mining.

So if you set-up your planet for a few days, sometimes you rather extract a large amount of common product for a meager profit per item (and thus a good chunk of ISK for selling the lot) over extracting a meager amount of rare product for a high profit per item (and possibly making less over time overall).

Hope this helps a bit.

Well one aspect you would need to look at is what would that silicon be further used to create since planetary interaction is a tiered building process. Since it can be used (in part) to create Microfiber Shielding, Miniature Electronics, or Silicate Glass, would there be any profit in creating those items? Are those items worth more or less if they are used in the next step of the potential chain of planetary goods? That is, which item has more value -the forty units of silicon (plus the forty units of oxidizing compound required to make silicate glass) versus the five units of silicate glass created? Could those forty units of oxidizing compound be used in a different manufacturing schematic to create something even more valuable than silicate glass? Would silicate glass be worth more or less as a finished, sellable product, or used in another schematic to create something even more profitable? Once you figured these numbers, ratio the profits back to that pure piece of felsic magma and see which item would generate the most profit along the whole chain. Do not forget to include the export and import taxes of products being moved around since the further up the chain you go with products, the more products you will need from other planets.

After all this, subtly determine the whims of the market and see that even if something appears profitable, how quickly you could get value for what you own.

Sorry there is no tried and true answer - even I try to figure this stuff out and get frustrated.

Bob's absolutely right but I think it's also more complex than that. There's so much speculation that some of the commodities have been over-bought by people wanting to sell quickly. If you bought say, Biocells, hoping the price would skyrocket but so did everyone else, you may be willing to relinquish your position now rather than hope for an increase later.

I think most speculation-minded people were expecting planet goo to surge with this expansion. I suspect anything that's actually stayed low or gone down has been over-bought and people are dumping their stock.

ah... the great PI gold rush, as newbies went to planets to start mining market warriors went to jita, making 1000% profit on items.