Roy Haggerty
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Posted - 2003.10.08 10:38:00 -
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What the others said : yes you can make money from trading. I'm sure there are some fantastically profitable routes which allow you to make a profit of 6m per trip. However, I've never found them. Don't expect to find such routes early or easy.
Using a Bestower with expanders and carrying giant containers, I can fit in about 8,600ish units of cargo (that's 8,600 elec parts, and 4,300 robotics). Most days you can find robotics within the same region to buy at 6,500 and sell at 6,760. Sometimes, you find a sale at 7,166, but these go quickly. Elec parts are nearly always on sale for 49isk profit per piece too. This means full loads are generally between 500k and 1m Isk profits on simple short-range trades.
I suppose if someone had a fully expanded Iteron V and found one of these routes, with the best margins on robotics, then you'd be looking towards 6m per trip, but don't under any circumstances think this is normal. Most traders, I think, are content with 500,000-1m profit per run (as long as it's not too many jumps). Anything over 2m is generally pretty bloody good.
Bear in mind your investment and your time. A Bestower with 4 ABs will do a 6-jump round trip in about 30 minutes. So do the calculation of profit per hour, which is a more sensible ratio for players than profit per trip.
In terms of invesment, you need a big stake to fill your hauler with robotics (a full load for me at normal prices can be 27m Isk). Other goods are cheaper, but you'll still need more than 1m. Borrow from friends and pay them a flat rate return from your profits. That way, everyone's a winner. Be aware of risk. Yesterday, my ship was blown up by a player pirate. Fortunately, I was on a return journey, so didn't lose much. Even more fortunately, the pirate was a bit dim, and shot me in a 0.5 system. I returned and picked my containers and also the stuff he left floating in space after Concord blew him up. By the time I'd sold his modules and missiles, I'd actually made a small profit on the loss of my ship.  But this is rare. If he'd got me going the other way, I'd have been gutted.
Happy trading.
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