To Build or Buy (A T2 Story)

 I have a large supply of T2 ship hull bpcs that have been lying around in my hanger for quite a while.  Some of them are a few years old.  At the time, they weren't profitable, but things change and once again they are viable to produce.  For those of you aspiring to be T2 manufacturers, I would start with T2 modules.  The profit margins are higher, but the margin dollars aren't going to net you huge piles of ISK unless you manufacture in bulk.  So, lets just take a look at a cruiser hull.

For the sake of example:

I have a Broadsword (T2 Heavy Interdictor (H-Ictor)) BPO ME -4 / PE -4  

I have a Rupture BPO with an ME of 15.

I have ME 150 component BPOs

Without building my own components, I would be manufacturing at about a 136 million ISK loss.  This pretty typical for T2 ships.  Buying components, even when using buy orders, will just not get you where you need to be.  If you don't have T2 component blueprints that are heavily researched, I would steer away from this and stick with profitable T1 hulls.  If you do have researched component prints, keep reading.

(buying components & T1 hull)

Let's make some modifications in EVE IPH.  I am going to click the build/buy check box and see where we come out.  Now we are manufacturing at nearly a 15 million ISK profit.  Just one simple click and IPH tells me, make the damn components.  It will take some extra time to make them and as you can see the IPH is bad.  Just under 75k/hr.  When I am in full production, I want to get high profit and high ISK/hr.  Right now, I am just logging to install and complete jobs and then doing other stuff.  I sell them when they are done and then take on new projects.  For me, right now, margin ISK is more important.

(building components & T1 hull using buy orders)

You will notice that making your components is far more profitable.  You can check each component to see if it is cheaper to purchase or build them, but I'm a bit lazy so I look at the overall cost and go with those numbers.  In the example above, I also included the invention (datacores) into the cost so these are firm numbers.  

IPH is set up to draw buy order prices on materials and sell order prices on the hulls.  If I adjust IPH to give me sell order prices on materials, it will bring our profit way down.  Again, I would be manufacturing at a 18 million ISK loss.  

(building components & T1 hull using sell orders)

You can see how just a few simple decisions can determine whether or not you should take on the project.  I don't mind waiting for buy orders, but some might not want to put in the time to play the .01 ISK game with their buy orders.  

tl;dr

If you are patient, you can make ISK.  If you are not, you need to find other things to manufacture.  Pretty simple.