Market Discussions

After reading the topic about Escalation, I cannot make a clear idea on how introducing meta +5 items on market will affect Contract traders.

- What happened when Navy ships and Sisters probe were introduced on the market ?
- Does the market give enough hint about offers and demands (more transparency) therefore will affect their price ?

I know that a contract trader can place a WtB in any region by having only one item in a station. I suppose that this is the trick to control a market all over New Eden for Contract traders.

-Do you think introducting meta5+ items on market will make Contracts useless for your job ?

What is your opinion fellow traders ?

My pessimistic nature leads me believe that the greater information available to the masses through the market interface will lead to lowering margins. Sky is falling, woe is me etc.

That said, you're correct in that we've been through this before and some solid data should be out there. If memory serves somebody did a real good before and after analysis on Mach margins around the time of the last switch from contract to market. I'll have a rummage.

edit:
http://community.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1422502&page=1#1 - interesting perspective from when ships were moved over

Certainly, the greater information availability will probably cut margins down significantly on these modules, that being said will also increase the number of these modules being sold (Volume trading), as they become easier to access.

So the Contract system has always been less efficient compare to the Market if we consider "the speed of exchange" (What is the exact economics term ?)

Sound pretty nice for the final consumers.
It could be a way to increase the ISK sink with more taxes and fees.
I dunno. Not enough datas.

Don't get me wrong, it may well kill my business. But when a change comes along that improves eve at the cost of inconveniencing me and the small, tiny population of people in the same business, I adapt instead of taking to the forums to spell out why it shouldn't be changed merely because it inconveniences me.

My background . . . move a medium amount of faction mods on the contract system. Maybe 300/week across the trade hubs

Will contracts be useless if you can buy faction/deadspace off the market?
Yes. I think the contract market for these items will move to market interface. The market interface is much easier to use and has much larger visibility.


What are some of the side affects on faction mods?
The contract market is where smart/enterprising Eve players take advantage of Stupid/Lazy eve players. Even more so than the normal market.

1) As soon as market data is available for every faction item you can forget about "good" LP store items. If you remove the barrier of having to do your own research and know the market, then just anyone can cash in on the "good" LP store items. LP is going to be worth what is it is for ammo and not an ISK more.

2) Prices will begin to make sense (There are lots of pirate faction items that cost less than the T2 equiv despite being much better). With more visibility, I expect these inconsistencies to go away

3) Volume will increase. Now even stupider people can figure out how to buy faction items. It will be cheaper to sell (.25% brokers fee for 3 months as opposed to 1% for 2 weeks), so there will be much more for sale "on the market" in every region.

4) With the increase in volume I expect the ISK/LP floor to increase a bit. So if you are moving tens of millions of LP from running level 5s you should see an increase in exchange rate. If you are running L4s and "cherry pick" the best LP items you will see your profits decrease because everything will trade at or near the ISK/LP floor.



How can you make ISK on this change?

1) Prices are going to spike as soon as they are added to the market. Then drop off drastically. After the initial spike, LP value is going to drop below 1500 ISK/LP for even the best items. So make sure you unload them now or during the initial spike.

2) Prices for items that trade at the LP floor are going to go up (I have no feel for how much, I would guess the gallente LP floor would move from ~500 Isk/Lp to 600-700 Isk/LP as increased volume puts more pressure on LP suppliers. Consider investing in Antimatter Ammo/Navy Megathron. Similar opportunities should be available for Caldari/Amarr but I am not as familiar with their market. Minmattar LP is currently overpriced so I would avoid investing in those items.

3) Sell Faction items in non-hub regions (duh!!!)

4) Invest in the "under-priced" faction items. If it costs less than T2 trades on the market. You're probably going to be able to make a pretty penny when it moves to the market interface.



-FM