Matthew
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Posted - 2005.11.18 09:23:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Xander XacXorien
I understand that there are some T1 BPO's around that are worthwhile-ish and I have some researched etc. But the return is poor to none existent either due to drops or to the fact that there are many manufacturers chasing a small market.
I'm quite happily building and selling from those low quality T1 BPO's, making a 25-30% profit margin with a significant turnover. And this is in one of the supposedly saturated markets.
Originally by: Xianthar
just a thought but the economy as set out in eve is not designed for one person to be a producer on his own
It's perfectly possible to do the T1 manufacturing process end-to-end solo, and for it to be perfectly profitable. Of course a group can be more efficient, and get higher throughput, but the solo producer can live in the T1 market. It's harder in T2 due to the longer production chain, but with the right trading and contracts, the producer can still stay solo.
Originally by: F'nog
No, the real problem is that people don't realize that time=ISK. So they price their goods at below the mineral value because they think that since they mined everything that they used to build their goods it's all free profit.
If people would realize how fallacious this is, then the T1 market would actually be profitable.
Of course, if they did that, I would't be able to hoover it all off the market for a nice cheap mineral boost 
"Cleaning" your local market can have a very beneficial effect on your sales. Especially as most sold loot drops are sold for well under mineral price. So you can buy, refine, and make something you want. With decent refine skills, it can be quite profitable to hoover up the market junk.
Originally by: Baldour Ngarr
The market IS profitable to those guys. They're making money by selling stuff, the ones who insist on valuing their time more highly, aren't doing.
The truth, as always, is a bit of both.
What F'nog is talking about is the age-old practice of producers assuming minerals they mined themselves are free to the production stage. What they fail to take into account is that they could skip the production stage altogether and just sell the minerals. So while they are making some money by selling their product below mineral cost, they could be making more money for less effort by just selling the minerals directly. In a lot of cases, they're selling themselves so short that others can buy their stuff, refine it, and make a profit. Profit the original producer could have made by selling their minerals direct in the first place.
Yes, there are some people who value their time too highly, and price themselves out of what is otherwise a very profitable market. The key thing to remember when producing is that you don't set the value of your time, the market does. And if you could be making more money in that time by doing something else, then that's the market signal that you should be doing something else.
It's the selling stage that I think a lot of producers are weakest on. I've seen many who expect to be able to churn out endless quantities at a given price and feel it's their right for it to sell. Getting out of that mentality is the first stage on the road to being a rich producer.
You can do anything. But you can't do everything. |