Jet Calhoun
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Posted - 2005.10.30 19:15:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: dggeen
I find minerals to be largely untradeble as spreads are tight, and the only opportunities exist in <0.4 space, which I can't go into.
That's really not the case, both minerals being being "largely untradeable" and the "only opportunities" being in low-sec space.
Re-sell, Distribute, Haul.
That's what I do a lot of and I fair enjoy myself, strangely.
I re-sell minerals by buying low whenever I spot an opportunity, having got myself a handle on what minerals sell for what & where. I often stock up on minerals at low prices, especially if I'm passing through an area I'll go and pickup smaller loads. At the moment I'm mostly doing this by hauling myself around, but buy orders would work better I'm sure. Once I have a good quantity I usually (nowadays) create sell orders at an increased, but still fair price. Amassing quantities of cheap minerals takes capital though.
I distribute by buying low and selling to fulfill other people's buy orders. This depends on quantity and price though, so I make a judgement call when to do this. You need to check multiple regions daily as the market shifts around. However, there's more profit in setting up your own sell orders, albeit they take longer to shift.
And then of course there are buy orders themselves, but I haven't used this area too extensively yet myself.
I guess it depends if you're after a huge instant cash windfall or perhaps build up gradually. I'm buying in far greater quantities than before and this is why some aspects of the trade see less of my time as they're less profitable so I feel less worth my time. But starting off I'd often do short runs for a 100k here or there. It all added up over time, then suddenly you start to see the benefits. Money makes money in this game too 
Another sneakier idea is to equip a passive targetter and a cargo scanner. Then scan other ships to see what stuff they shift around  Recently I was flying towards a stargate to pick up some stuff I'd bought when somebody target locked me (obviously they hadn't discovered the joys of passive targeters!). I turned off the auto-pilot and let my Indy lock them back again. I then fired my cargo scanner on them in response to them locking me. As it turned out they were hauling a large quantity of NPC trade goods. So I had a look at the market in that region and spotted a somewhat long trade route using the same goods they were carrying, with no low-sec space involved. I'd never have spotted that if they hadn't either wanted to scan me or merely hoped I'd foolishly open fire on them! 
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