I started out well enough, running all the tutorial missions and getting the free ships. Then I stupidly lost my destroyer in a mission, sold my other ships to replace it, and then lost that one as well.

Since I had to start over, I thought I'd give mining a try, as even though it is boring, it seemed safer. That went slowly, but I kept at it and managed to make a little ISK, and eventually worked my way into a retriever, which cost me everything I had. I was much more productive, but within a few days I was blown up by a ganker (in high sec), and lost the ship and my pod. All I had left was a few days worth of ore I had mined before losing the ship. I know, I know, don't fly what you can't afford to lose. But moving into a mining barge as quickly as possible seemed like an intelligent decision for a miner, except in hind sight.

I decided to try a more peaceful career as a trader. I scraped together all the money I could and started looking for items I could buy cheaper and sell higher. I found that I could pretty easily make a little profit of 5 or 10%, but soon ran out of capital and order slots. The stuff that I could afford to buy was not very expensive, so even a 10% return wasn't giving me as much as I had been making mining. I decided that was just a temporary problem, and that once I accumulated more capital I would be able to make bigger trades with my limited slots for more profit. So I kept working at it, and also started moving items between stations to take advantage of price differences. I discovered Eve Central, which let me find the best deals and the best markets. I thought I had figured out how to play, and was making a more decent amount of money. Within a month I had a wallet with over 400 million in it. And then I found a trade that beat all the trades before by turning my 400 million into 500 million - 25% in one trip. If you know how this part of the story is going to end, then congratulations to you, because I did not. It turns out the 500 million buy order was a fake. When I tried to sell, the order was immediately deleted. Only then did I find out there were no other buy orders for even 10 million. After doing a little research, I found out this is a common scam made possible by the fact that the market allows orders to remain visible even after the money put up to fill them is gone. I fully accept that the loss is on me, because I stupidly overpaid for the item. But it was an expensive way to learn that the EVE markets contain fake orders. I knew I had to watch out for other players, whether in ships or on the other side of trades and contracts. I just didn't know that the market mechanism couldn't be trusted, either.

So I'm back to square one. Again. Because of repeatedly making expensive mistakes. Don't get me wrong - I am not crying about the losses. Well, I guess in a way I am, but I don't blame anyone for where I am except me, and I accept that newbies will make expensive mistakes. The question is whether this is an unusual level of stupidity, and whether I should try once more or am I likely to keep repeating my failures?