Sunday, March 7, 2010

Eve Online: arms dealer


In Eve Online, there's a never ending demand for stuff. Pilots need space ships, modules to fit them with, and ammunition - all the time, because ships get destroyed and ammo gets spent in an endless grind that only stops during downtime. Industrialists make a nice living based on this continuous demand, but they are not the only ones. There's also quite a bit of interregional trade going on, and for the past few weeks I have become involved in this part of Eve Online as well.

A while ago I needed a couple of 250mm Compressed Coil Guns: a type of medium sized rail guns which I often use on my mission running ships. On my way to a corp event a dozen jumps out of my home system, I crossed a region boundary, and while checking the local market prices I noticed these railguns were a lot cheaper here than in my home region. Immediately I saw an opportunity for making a profit, and so, on a whim, I became an arms dealer! In this neighbouring region, I bought almost all of these guns I could find for a very decent price, and started to sell them in my home region at a nice profit. After a while I ran out of cheap guns with prices in the neighbouring region rising as well, so I have had to travel further and further to get the guns at a worthwhile price.

Yesterday I found myself scouring through obscure systems, buying a few guns here and some there, creating a small stock to trade with, and that's when I realised this wasn't the way to go, I was wasting my time on petty trade! If I want to be a trader, even if it's a side job, I need to have ample supplies of the item I'm trying to profit off. I need more guns to sell! Yesterday evening, I decided to take my trusted Iteron transport vessel "Daf 95" to Jita and do some serious shopping there. Prices, while not as low as the initial stock I acquired in the neighbour system, are still favourable, so I stockpiled almost a thousand guns. I have since planted them here and there in regional trade hubs, spread over several regions. My prices are reasonable, but my profits still range from 50%-100% per gun if I succeed in selling them at these prices. The top left picture here shows, that this is definitely not a given.

Traveling to Jita, by the way, proved dangerous: on two occasions I was targeted by gate campers, in high sec no less. In both cases I was quick enough to get away before any of them could lock on to me. Afk travel to Jita is definitely not the way to go, that's for sure.. Jump through a gate, align to next gate, and warp away as fast as you can.

In the coming weeks it will become clear if I stand to profit from my first concerted effort at trade. It's a whole new game with new rules!

1 comment:

Gimml111 said...

Hmmm, this interests me. I've played EVE before but left thanks to me running out of money, but I've got plenty now.

I'd like to know more about becoming an arms dealer on EVE, like where would be the best place to start, what race, so on and so on. would get me back into things, Message me if you could.