NOT SURE IF SRS

get that skill to 5 THEN you can start to build stuff

IMO Production efficiency V is an absolute needed skill prior to manufacturing any items other than manufacturing for personal use. That 5% extra waste in minerals is pretty much the base of all your profits ecpecially for T1 items, more so when selling in market hubs. Now if you're planning on making your profit based on selling items at an inflated price in regions / systems where the product is scarce than it shouldn't be much of an issue, but than again you're better off not manufacturing and simply buying low and selling high.

Get production Efficency to level V. Start up all your manufacturing runs. While these are manufacturing all your items use the extra days to train up all the additional skills listed. By the time the jobs are done nearly all your skills listed above would be trained, and than start selling.

I think ya mean "buy BPC".

Great guid for peps starting up nice work.

Has anyone had any luck selling items in sets?
Such as manufacturing a T1 ship along with all the weapons/modules/drones/ammo that would make up a popular fit for it, then selling the whole thing via Contract?

It's always the items you pass over or think to yourself, ".. no, those wouldn't sell.." They end up outperforming the items we spent hours researching

Another option for the newer players would be to contact a corp diplo for an area away from the hub's(while staying in high-sec) and asking if there are any mod's that they find short in their area. And you could try and set-up a market tailored to the pirate/mission/mine(ers) in the area.

Since the people looking at this might be new, and are trying to setup shop or find their niche in EVE, this could give them a chance at finding that golden item in their region... Even if they don't know what they are looking for.

PS Good thread, and I hope to see more constructive notes posted.

Nice guide, going to bookmark this and come back to it someday :).

Id be tempted to disagree with the sell in jita thing a little, for small manufacturers its often more profitable sticking a buy order in some outskirts systems (2-5 jumps, in 0.5+ space which covers some popular missions areas) for minerals. Alot of people simply melt stuff they find down and sell the minerals so this can be a very cheap way of finding them.

Once your out there producing specific ammo is nearly always 1) an easy sell and 2) a profit. Its not a massive profit but its quite nice non the less. EG, kinetic missiles will always sell in caldari space and the BPs are cheap for em

Thanks for taking the time to post the guide, and the helpful discussion that has followed. One thread that seems to be running below the surface of the discussion is what drives profitability.

The ongoing debate over whether Production Efficiency V is 'required' is a good example. PE reduces waste, which trims the bottom line and thus improves profit. However, it is possible to conduct a profitable sale with a low PE, it just means you take a lower profit, and are priced out of some compressed-margin markets.

Profit is an equation with a variety of factors, many of which can be influenced by training skills. Some factors rely on player knowledge, such as which markets and products represent good opportunities. Master industrialists are, by definition, master of both the character skills AND the player skills - or at least, more of them than the competition.

Looked at from a competitive differentiation perspective, character skills are commodities - anyone can acquire them given time. Player skills are another proposition entirely, requiring time, study, experience, and threads like this to develop.

They may sell for better prices, but you need high volume as well.
Why sell 10 mods per day at a 1mil profit each in a lvl 4 agent station when I could sell 60 at 200k profit each in a hub and not need to do the extra hauling.

You can only sell in the smaller markets effectively with high trade skills (you need to place more orders+ be able to modify them at range) as you need to spread where your orders are as well as deal with the logistics of having your wares spread across more stations to cope with the lower volumes.

As a missioner I'd by single mods (e.g. I'd just lost a drone or two due to disconnect) in station if I needed it, but I'd buy ships+ full fittings at the hub, as the savings and guaranteed stock are a huge convenience.

Not true at all. I've been helping a friend do Tech 1 Manufacturer for the past couple weeks and he only has it at 4 and he is making profit. You only look at 200 items? Keep looking.

Aluka has mentioned a few in this very thread that are indeed (still) profitable. You do not need it at 5, does it help? Of course, but telling a new player they absolutely need it at 5 to make any profit is absorb. I've been here from 2003 almost solely manufacturing/inventing/r&d so I know this like the back of my hand.

For the more serious manufacturers, it's not about the margin though. It's about profit per hour. I'm not saying that the items you're building aren't good. But the fact is that you can build ammo with a profit margin of 100% and make 500k ISK per day, and then you can build something else with a profit margin of 2% and make 10 million per day instead.

Since I am new to manufacturing (wholesale trader / reseller mostly) I would like to know if its worth the time and effort to set up a POS. If it should be in high or low sec, or wormhole space ( for safety) and how that would affect manufacturing. Basically what are the great advantages of a POS over a station since you need to pay upfront costs and fuel, and how if effects profit margin. And are reactions worth it doing?

Also what are the main mission areas that would be good to sell manufactured stuff near (even though this is more of a shipping / trading profit matter)?

Would it be more worth while set up a manufacturing in an area you wish to sell ( ship in or buy minerals or ore locally ) and eliminate the need of shipping of finished products (from jita area) to a higher profit area?

Any suggestions on making your spreadsheets which is essencial I've found? Is there someplace that you can get manufacturing minerals required list per item to copy / paste into them, or is there some manufacturing mineral checking program or something :P

I've just started manufacturing and unless you want to spend hours a day it seems to me it's best to work around a manufacturing time of a week.

I've also been scouring BPC's for good deals and they can be very profitable but they require more time also.

I think you left out a few things, like using multiple spreadsheets.

I use one to figure optimal research level.
I use another to figure profitability based on local ingredient prices, manufacturing costs, BPO costs . . . . and a few other things.

Bump for a great thread and some questions.

How often do you turn over your inventory? Do you build a days worth a sell it the next day, or do you build a few days, a week, or month and then put up a bunch of inventory?

Do you mainly sell to one hub, or do you spread it around?

I've been building a day at a time but I'm finding the selling to be a hassle each day. I think I'd like to build for a week and then put it on the market and just leave it for the week without working to change the price every half hour to undercut someone because I have to sell todays inventory to buy for tomorrow.