Careby
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Posted - 2017.05.12 12:57:33 -
[1] - Quote
Do Little wrote:...Once you've made something, you need to pick a trade hub and sell it. Immediate sales to buy orders are convenient but not profitable (at least for the seller). You need to create a sell order and manage it. In general, the more steps in the value chain you participate in, the better your profit margins will be...
What you seem to be saying is that if you are a manufacturer, you need to also be a trader. While I agree there is often isk to be made in both roles, I find some value in figuring out exactly which "steps in the value chain" are most profitable, and even more importantly, which are most enjoyable.
A pure manufacturer would buy materials from market sell orders, and sell finished product to market buy orders. Please note that I am not suggesting pure manufacturing is the best idea for anyone, I'm only trying to separate the steps. If a manufacturer finds that materials can be obtained more cheaply by placing and managing buy orders, s/he has entered the realm of trading. Similarly, if s/he finds that more profit can be made on finished products by placing and managing sell orders, again that's trading.
Now on to the two points I want to make. First, if a manufacturing job is not profitable when buying from sell orders and selling to buy orders, and the manufacturer has to add trading to the mix in order to make a profit, then an important question arises. Is the manufacturing activity necessary or even helpful in making the profit? Maybe the manufacturing step can be skipped altogether, and those raw materials can be sold via sell orders, and the finished product can be obtained via buy orders. The manufacturer has then become a pure trader, which may be more profitable for the amount of effort spent.
The second point is enjoyment. Some players find a great deal of satisfaction in building things, and buying and selling are only a means to allow that satisfying activity to occur. Trading can be boring, and a lot of traders quickly burn out. I, for one, cannot station trade full time because I just do not enjoy it. So if manufacturing does not seem to be profitable, it may be because players find doing it worthwhile, even for little or no profit. On the other hand, lots of other players get their enjoyment from piling up profits, and are willing to focus on the activity that generates the most isk. It's all a matter of how you choose to spend your time.
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