I know there's a patch that has caused some ships to require more minerals to make - therefore buying a cruiser is cheaper than building one right now, until the surplus of speculators sells off...

But. I can't see how an Orca can be built for cheaper than buy price- not in any scenerio.

They sell for 680 mil in every major market hub, but building is 30 mil more than that (even with maxed ME, good buy prices, etc). Can anyone explain this phenom?

are you using mineral prices from trade hubs for the build price? if so that's probably where you're going wrong.
people will buy cheap minerals from the back of beyond, and hence you get ships produced that will make a profit even if they appear to be sold below cost.

Could also be because of the Orca corp hanger nerf, a lot of ppl used them as haulers that couldnt be scanned. Which you can no longer do. I now have 2 gathering dust

minerals are worth what they sell for not what you bought them for Rule 101 for all investments

however, if people are buying them for less than they're worth and producing ships with it then it's easy to see where these "below material cost" ships are coming from.

Using current Jita sell prices for minerals, the build cost for an Orca is 660m which is still below the sell price for Orcas at 680m. To say Orcas are selling for 30m more then it costs to build the ship is wrong.

Yes but it's more profitable selling parts individually than assembling them.

Hum, still those doing so are losing money so i don't find it a good explanation. Especially considering that other capital ships can be manufactured for a profit.

I think the nerf of the Orca is a reasonnable explanation. The fact that Orcas are also a typical high sec ship make them attractive for many high sec corporations, it's pretty commun to see small miners corp producing Orcas or Freighters for their own use, or to sell them. And miner corp aren't run by smart/experienced players anyway... they are mining right ?

Hum, still those doing so are losing money so i don't find it a good explanation. Especially considering that other capital ships can be manufactured for a profit.

I think the nerf of the Orca is a reasonable explanation. The fact that Orcas are also a typical high sec ship make them attractive for many high sec corporations, it's pretty common to see small miners corp producing Orcas or Freighters for their own use, or to sell them. And miner corp aren't run by smart/experienced players anyway... they are mining right ?

you're making the assumption people have perfect information about what is and isn't profitable, you also assume they have the relevant blueprints to produce these ships etc.

it might simply be quicker/easier for these people to create and sell orcas. sure a charon might make them more isk, however if they can't fly a charon from where they build it all the way to jita to sell it and then have to knock down the price so it will sell at whatever backwater system they produce their goods at...

it's not always as cut and dry as we'd like to think.

Using current Jita sell prices for minerals, the build cost for an Orca is 660m which is still below the sell price for Orcas at 680m. To say Orcas are selling for 30m more then it costs to build the ship is wrong.

The reason the ORCA market is down is actually very simple. It has already been touched on in this thread. ORCA's do not get destroyed very often. At least not compared to many other ships in game. Some ORCA;s are very old. I have had mine for almost 3 years and only paid about 400,000isk for it.

Up until retribution ORCA's were used alot for hauling expensive items. They could be loaded in the corp hanger and not ascaned, and did not drop. you could have billions in modules in your corp hanger at near zero risk to gankers. But now that has changed. Not only have the corp hangers been changed to fleet hangers, but they can now be scanned and drop loot. So many of these industrial players that used their ORCA's as their primary hauler are now selling them. Many have had them for a very long time and paid far less for them than what they are currently selling them for, they did not build them, they are not losing money. Supply is up so prices are down. Besides, the current prices are not below mineral requirements. If they were someone would buy them all and reprocess them.