Nathan Grey
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Posted - 2006.02.13 18:24:00 -
[1]
Here's some insight into the market:
Ship sales are the driving force in the market.
Really. When someone buys a ship, they usually need to buy guns, afterburners, hardeners, repairers, ammo, launchers, and a T2 kleenex box. The cash flow for ammo, drones, and booster charges doesn't come close to the cash flow devoted to replacing or upgrading ships and modules.
If you want to get in to manufacturing, try starting with frigate construction, fitting modules (CPRs, CRs, PDUs, CoProc, RCUs), and noncombat frigate gear (reps, boosters, ABs, *MWDs). Set up shop either in the same system as other ships are being sold in, or near such a place. I used to manufacture frigates and modules in Vellaine, avg population 15 and 3j from Jita while en route to Obe, and made a reasonable profit selling frigates, cruisers, and industrials. People also bought some guns and ammo, and anything "surplus" or built in bulk I dropped in a hub. Like the pile of 500 150mm railguns that sold in Sobaseki across about two weeks.
As far as learning what people want... ask. Seriously. I started evemailing people who buy ships from me off market a quick little "thanks for shopping, what would make your shopping experience better? (stuff you can't find, too far away, don't like the price on)" message. It's cheap (100 isk, typically) and can point you in the right direction. It also gets your name out if someone wants a special order, which is vaguely helpful in the backwaters like Amarr space.
If you want to identify good things to get in to, look at the isk flow -- average items per day * average price per item. Say 22 Caracals sell at 5M in Lonetrek, and 8 Moas sell at 9M. Guess which one you want to start producing. There's also the actual profit margin involved, but that's getting more detailed than you probably are able to at this point.
Manufacturing can get you some reasonable isk, especially if you're willing to mine your own minerals (which helps INCOME but not PROFITS). Just pay attention to what you're doing and what the market's doing.
Also... don't bother with shuttles. They aren't worth building in Empire.
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Industrialist. I build it. You buy it. You break it and buy another one.
Market domination through ingue ferrogue.
(I did this and could have stopped it.) |