Selling Items in Bulk Using Mailing Lists

Selling large quantities of items on the market can be tedious and can take what seems like an eternity.  When your budget requires you to turn ISK as quickly as possible, sometimes the market fails you.  Market pvp is sometimes more demanding than actual pvp.  Playing station penny games and having to move back and forth to the market hub can be painful, but there are options!

In the not too distant past there was a mail group (in client) named 'bulk trade'.  People would join the mail list and then offer their wares, in bulk, at a fair price.  When selling in bulk, it is the general rule of thumb to sell at a lower margin than retail.  I should say it is the rule.  In real life, you can go on an Internet sellers's site and often get a price breakdown and discount per item the more you buy.  There is a vineyard where I am from that discounts wine depending on how much you buy.  For simplicity, 1-5 bottles are retail, 6-12 bottles gets you a 5% discount and 13-24 gets you a 10% discount.  

This is how many industrialists in EVE prefer to sell large amounts of manufactured goods.  It is safe. It is quicker than the market and just makes good business sense if you need to turn over ISK quickly.  Yes, you will take a deduction on the margin, but getting your ISK quicker allows you to manufacture more and the cycle continues.   

EVE's client only allows 2000 members in a mail group and the popularity of 'bulk trade' was such that the owner had to look to other avenues in order to provide their service.  In a controversial move, they decided that they would charge a fee to use the service.  I have no issue with that and it was a move that they felt would be beneficial to them.  That's the entrepreneurial spirit that drives us.  However, many people were disgruntled by the change.  Another mail group has taken it's place in the EVE client's email system.  That successor group is named 'Wholesale Trading'.  Following in the same vein as the original 'Bulk Trade' mail group, it is a natural progression to change over to it.  In my opinion, it doesn't matter to me whether its one mail group or ten.  I will join them all given the opportunity because that is how I make my ISK.  Any tool that helps me make ISK is well worth it.  

As of yet, I haven't been accepted to the Google mail group that 'Bulk Trade' evolved into, so I can't tell you how much success I have had.  If they do ever accept me, I will happily add my experiences to my blog.  If you are having a similar experience, might I suggest joining the "wholesale trading' mail group? I have had good success there, so I know it works.  It may not be as massive (yet), but give it a try.  You don't have anything to lose (it's free) and only ISK to gain.  Plus added sanity.   

You can see the forum post here: Wholesale Trading mail group 

Good Luck and as always, fly safe-ish.

The Perils of Proclaimations and Speculations

It is common, during reports of upcoming expansions (now 'patches') that items (newly introduced or buffed) will lead to a inflated market cost.  What happens, as in real life, when something is hot, people gobble up inventory and sit on them until such a time as they reach their maximum value and high demand.  I remember back when rails got buffed, people invested heavily and were rewarded when people started fitting rails to their ships.  They made a lot of ISK.  The keen-eyed observer can see those market trends, speculate on market performance and sell when demand and price are high.  There is an old adage, "You have to speculate to accumulate".  

This brings me to Kronos.  I imagine there are a bunch of people who went out on a limb and bought up or manufactured cargo rigs in preparation for a market run on them when freighters are modified for the Kronos release.  When first mentioned in the Dev Blogs, freighters were getting a nerf to their cargohold size and getting equipped with rig slots.  

After deliberation, they decided to change them to low slots.  While this is actually a lot better than rigs (you would have to destroy them to fit your logistical needs should they change), so it would be costly.  With low slots, you can customize your freighter as you see fit.  The downside is, anyone who took the risk with rigs is now probably scrambling to dump them.  

I can show you this with the use of EVE-Markets.net's graphs.

Edit: I hate retractions, but such is the activity when I give misinformation.  Pointed out by Zhilia Mann, I used the wrong graphs.  I have corrected my post to show 'capital' cargohold optimization rigs.  Coincidentally, it shows a similar bubble as the large cargohold optimization rigs...

Looking at Capital Cargohold Optimization I's 90day history, you will see a large bubble and a steady decline.  That coincides with the initial announcement of the freighter/rig modification.  Looking at the median average, there was (if my math is correct) about a 48% increase.

People who own freighters would probably try to fit T2 CCO's to get the most out of the rig slots.  That one, as shown below is in the same neighborhood.  We are looking at a median average rise of about 43%.

Speculation can be highly advantages or financially devastating.  

Speculate with caution and as always, fly safe-ish.

Anchoring Your POS in High and Low Sec

The quick and dirty:  

In order to hang a high sec player owned station (pos), your corp needs to have a certain standing based on the solar systems security status.

The Details:

For example:

To hang a pos in a 0.5 system, you will need an 'unmodified' 5.0 standing with the faction who claims the solar system.  In a 0.6 system you will need a 6.0 standing.  It works the same in low sec.  In null or WH space, it doesn't matter.  You are free to hang a pos there without a standings check 

EDIT: In Cruis, standing requirements go away.  I completely forgot about the change...Sorry!  Thanks JB DeVries for your correction!

When I say 'unmodified; standing, you will have to disregard any skills you have.  Also, your corps standing is based on its membership.  You need your total unmodified average to calculate your standing.  When you open up the corp tab on your NEOCOM under standings, it will show you what your unmodified average is with all your relevant npc corp contacts/factions/etc.  If you look deeper, you can click to see composition.  This shows all the people in your corp who count towards (or against) your faction average.  

People with a 0.0 standing DO NOT count against or for your standing with that faction.  If they are .01 +/- or more, they count against you.  I am pretty sure NEW members to the corp wont effect standings for 7 days.  If you boot the members that lower your standing average, I believe it takes about two days or downtimes for the standings to reset.  Not 100% on that, its been a while since I had to hang a pos.  

If you plan to hang one pos, prior to Crius, I would hang two (for future expansion).  Once Crius hits, we might not all need as many pos's as we do now (for research).  

Don't forget strontium, fuel blocks and faction charters (for low sec and up), and as always, fly safe-ish.

Kronos Supercarrier Change and a Tip

As stated by CCP Falcon, fighter-bomber volume will be doubled.  Any fighters that are in your drone bay that overload it will cause you problems.  This means that you cannot warp or jump while the drone bay is overloaded.  Prior to the June 3rd Kronos deployment, you may want to move your drones to your cargohold.  Per the post, all drones in your drone bay (if it will become overloaded) will be moved to your cargohold.  If for some reason this doesn't happen, you will be stuck in space.  You can jettison the drones and scoop them to your cargohold.  If you have any other problems with them, put in a ticket under the 'stuck character' category.  

I find it is better to be safe, than sorry during a patch/expansion deployment.  

On a related note, set long skill queues prior to the deployment in the event that you are not able to log in.  Pretty much every update I have an issue where I can't log in to the EVE client.  Take these little preemptive actions to avoid issues and as always, fly safe-ish.

May and Beyond

Boy, May has really flown by.  We have had a productive month and the corp is growing steadily.  Our industry division is working well and I will be posting our May performance and I think I might add a few things like how I run a balanced budget.  I didn't have enough info to put one together until May is closed out.  We were only in business from the middle or March, so there isn't a lot of history to get a budget together.  Even with 2 months behind us, the numbers are still skewed towards assumptions and speculations, but it gives us a starting point for refinement.  

I'm happy to report that the blog is doing well so I will continue to do it.  It has become an important part of my role in our corp and it gives our members a resource to utilize and also how well, as a corp, we are doing. 

Perhaps my blogging experience is still sophomoric, but I enjoy doing it.  I would like to think I will get better as time goes by.  Sometimes it is tough coming up with something to discuss, but using the Dev Blogs and forum posts can get the creative juices flowing.  

I hope you will continue to follow my blog and tell your friends, corp-mates and leadership and as always, fly safe-ish.

Corporations, Relationships and Just Hanging with my Peeps

Those of you who have had a chance to be the CEO of a corporation in EVE Online know that it can be a rewarding experience.  That is when things are running like a Swiss watch.  I fear I am not alone in saying that being a CEO is a most arduous task.  One that can suck the fun right out of EVE.  Don't get me wrong, running you own corporation is great.  You have the freedom to go in any direction you want.  That's what makes EVE great.  Freedom.  On the down side, freedom is not free.  It takes a lot of time and effort to run a successful corp.  Once you move past a certain membership level, things really start to get interesting.  

One way to help you from getting burned out is to have capable and knowledgeable directors.  Unfortunately with EVE, giving out director roles could lead to your corporations downfall.  You really have to trust someone in order to make it work.  If you don't, you are going to be running the entire corp yourself.  If you have a 60hr a week full time job like I do, it's going to drive you nuts.  I have been the CEO of 3 corporations.  In Manu Fortius, where I am a director of industry now, I am able to focus on my strengths as a micro-manager of a field that I am (at least) somewhat proficient in.  I do help out from time to time where needed, but my primary focus is industry.  

EDIT:  Reading my post for a 5th time, I realized that I might have come off as running the entire corp until I burned out.  That is not even remotely close.  War, Kasigi and Chops helped run the corp.  I was just too proud to let go of all the little things.  Those guys are some of the best leaders I have ever worked with in my 6+ years of EVE.  I just thought I should add that I am a megalomaniac. 

Many months ago, I decided that I would take a break from EVE.  The corp was all but dismantled.  The directors (Kasigi Yono and Warcalibre) approached me when I finally started logging in longer than just updating skill queues, with their leaving the corp.  I think I surprised them when I inferred that it was an amicable agreement.  I just hung around running my own industry and building up some ISK.  They had since joined a corp and there they quickly became directors.  There was an internal power struggle as the CEO was indecisive and made some strange proclamations.  They decided to leave and Kasigi became the CEO of Manu Fortius.  We are going strong now and getting stronger every day.  

I am happy where we are and I am glad we are still together.  Brings to mind St Crispan's Speech in Henry V, by William Shakespeare.  It was painted on the wall, in our barracks in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.  I read it at least once a day.  

     And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
    From this day to the ending of the world,
    But we in it shall be remembered-

    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition;
    And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
    Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Anyway, I wanted to put that out there.  We are basically a family.  We support each other.  We help when a hand is needed and we are always willing to do what needs to be done for the benefit of the corp.  If you want to be part of that, let us know.  We are a mature group of people who don't just play EVE, we work and relate with others in our corp.  War, Kasigi and I have been flying together for a few years now.  Others in our corp have been with us nearly as long.  If you are interested and feel like we would be a good fit for you, talk to us.  We are looking for members like us.  If this sounds like a good fit for you, I would wager you would be a good fit for us.  Check us out and as always, fly safe-ish.

Dev Blog: Little Things In Kronos

CCP put out a dev blog stating the small changes in Kronos.  They are mainly little fixes to address issues that players have been having and wanted addressed.  You can find that blog post here: Little Things In Kronos: The Changes and Fixes You Asked For.

Some Key Points

Added a status of reload and repair cycles on modules to give you a visual to see how long it is taking.  Helpful.  I like it.  I think PVP's will get the most of this upgrade.

Collapsing windows

Now windows will only collapse if the header is double clicked.  I've never had an issue with this, but apparently, some people have had a tough time and lost some ships because of it..

Warp Scramble in effects bar

I never noticed this (I don't get scrambled or disrupted often), but it appears that your HUD will now show you what is happening to your ship. You can CTRL-click the icon and it will target the closest enemy that is applying that effect.  

Fleet Upgrades

Coloring Your Broadcast

You can now assign colors to the different types of fleet broadcasts, allowing the logistic pilot a very handy and easily recognized.  Broadcasts are defaulted to no color, but it is an easy change.

  

Cleaning Up The Broadcast Window

Logi pilots can now clear the broadcast list of icons so when they start fighting, they have a clean area and broadcasts are relevant to the fight.

Fleet Adverts

Fleet adverts will now hold information from the last advert and populate most of the info by default.  

Lastly, double clicking the advert will join the fleet instead of going to a 'join fleet' button.

Personal Assets Box

Items within the same solar system as you will be highlighted yellow (similar to market orders) so you can see right off the bat where things are.  You can now also link the station your assets are in into chat.

Mining

Added target locked icons in the survey scanner so now you can see which asteroids are actually targeted right from the survey results.  

Kill Report filters

You can now use a keyword filter to see kill reports.  It is not a search however.  It will only filter the page.

Item Info Window Efficiency

Info Window clean up is now a bit more condensed.  They combined all the resist lines into three: Shield, Armor and Hull and now all resists are on one line for each class.  I estimate that the box is about 35% shorter then pre-Kronos patch.  

There are a few other modifications, but this is the bulk of the more useful stuff.  I'm pretty happy with it.  Now if only they address POS and Corp tab  issues, I would be more excited, but as always, fly safe-ish.

Crius POS Module Afterglow

I'll warn you right now, I am merely just speculating on the following:

The industrial changes in Crius are going to force POS owners to revisit their POS Setups.  No longer are you going to need an entire POS of labs.  This is great news as it will free up your tower's PG and CPU for other modules.  The changes to job costings and POS bonus buffs will push manufacturing and research out to the POS (unless you don't own one).  If you own a POS, there shouldn't be any reason (other than safety) to do anything in NPC stations.  It won't stop it because not everyone owns a POS, but it will change how industrialists go about their profession.  

I have never really used faction pos modules.  I wasn't a serious enough POS user to justify the added cost.  In my opinion, that is going to change for me.  Getting the most out of your modules now becomes critical to profits.  All the time bonus changes are well worth using POS modules.  The added job costings in NPC stations makes it even more alluring.  I have been watching Hyasyoda labs and while in the last 30 days, their price has remained pretty flat.  If you go back 90 days, there was some rather large fluctuations.  I believe that was before the Kronos changes were originaly announced (I don't feel like looking back at history).  I feel that the supply remained a constant and demand waned, causing a dip in prices.  I am going to wait until the dust of Crius settles and see where they finally shake out.  I think the supply will jump once POS owners don't need a whole POS dedicated to research usage.  Thats just my thoughts.  

Here is the 30 and 90 day price composites for POS modules that I made on EVE Markets website.

30 Day Average

90 Day Average

More Freighter Changes...Again.

More incoming changes from CCP.  This time it is back to the ole freighter/JF customization.

CCP Fozzie announced that their plan to add rigs to freighters has now be squashed and instead, they will be adding three low slots to allow some customization.  This covers freighters and jump freighters(JF).  There will also be some new low slot modules.  It is reported that one of the new modules will be geared towards jump fuel conservation on JF's

If you just want to focus on the maximum amount of cargohold space, three T2 cargo expanders will increase your cargohold by about 25% (standard T1 freighters) and about 2% on JF's.  

I think this is a good direction.  You can now mission-fit your freighter for whatever you want to do.  It won't be permanent as with rigs, so it gives a ton of flexibility to use a ship you can custom fit for your purpose.  All in all, I like this plan better.

Lead On

Leadership in EVE Online parallels leadership in real life.  It is often difficult for the leadership to come to an agreement or compromise.  It is the leadership's responsibility whether it be a corporation, alliance or coalition to get things done efficiently and quickly.  Sometimes, the interactions and personalities get in the way of the problems and their solutions.  Doing things in EVE is sometimes more difficult because there is a distance between parties and there (except for rare occasions) isn't a real life impact.  Sure, people might get mad and quit EVE, but their real life goes on.  In EVE, there isn't that life-altering repercussion.  Like I said, I don't mean that EVE can't impact someone's life, it is just that, no matter how big EVE is, it is still just a game.  

What we can extrapolate from real life is that leadership is still a critical component of EVE Online.  To which I will point out something from my observations (not from the corporations that I have run or have been in, but in general), across New Eden.

Leaders are expected to know everything and make the correct decisions.  That rarely happens as one leader doesn't necessarily have all the attributes.  That is why we have directors.  In real life, the CEO has people to help with the day-to-day tasks so he/she can focus on the big picture.  CFO's, VP's, middle-managers and supervisors are tasked with doing certain things in their area of expertise.  You can also see this in the military (speaking as a veteran).  Officers are in charge of the big picture and act in a general overseeing capacity.  Warrant officers are specialists in their field and non-commissioned officers (NCO corp) have the hands on supervision and they complete the small task stuff.  

One thing I have found is that leaders don't need to know everything (and it is uncommon to find someone who does).  What can make or break a corp is leadership from the top down.  If a leader knows a little and doesn't ask for help, he can be as destructive as someone who knows nothing.  A strong leader is for someone who recognizes the capabilities and deficiency's in not only their members, but also themselves.  Those who are too prideful to admit they lack in some aspect  will always falter or gain the resentment of all the people they are charged with.  Those who ask for help and input from those around them will have the respect of those they work with and it also makes the corporation stronger because members are more integral in the success of the corp.  There still needs to be a distinct leadership because we all know, too many chiefs and not enough indians is also crippling to production.  That's really all I wanted to say.  Oh and as always, fly safe-ish

Kronos Blockade Runner and Deep Space Transport Changes

 Kronos (and then Crius) have become large patches for the industrialist.  There are many changes, buffs and nerfs going around that mainly have to do with industrial endeavors.  Freighter and jump freighter rebalance, the addition of the Prospector, a slew of industry mechanic revamps and more make this patch extremely important.  As the title of this blog reveals, deep space transports and blockage runners are falling under the 'rebalance ax'.  

Interesting...Anyway, The Prowler (Minmitar Blockade Runner) get a few needed buffs.  It will drop the shield boost bonus for a warp speed bonus (5% per transport skill level).  The cargo bay is also getting a good-sized bump.  Without cargo rigs, with the additional low slot, you can get the cargo bay over 9k m3, allowing for an additional giant secure container (total of three).  This opens up more logistical options for wormholers and null/low sec industrialists.  With the blockade runners ability to fit a covert ops cloak, the added cargo bay size will make for less trips and hopefully less tears.  The Viator (Gallente Blockade Runner) will also get a decent alignment time reduction buff.  

CCP Fozzie had the following to say

"These ships have been largely overshadowed by Orcas and high capacity T1 haulers for heavy duty hauling, and of course they cannot compete with the amazing evasion abilities of Blockade Runners.

"So our plan for revamping them is to give them a strong and stable carrying capacity in the form of a large fleet hangar. Besides creating interesting options for group play, this fleet hangar does not pressure a pilot into fitting rigs or expanded cargoholds for max carrying capacity.

"The fleet hangar is intended to make DSTs a viable choice for many hauling situations, and allowed us to then add a series of options to the DST defensive toolbox. We know that once people start using a ship it will be inevitable that they get into bad situations with them and that it can be immensely fun gameplay to escape a dangerous situation when you have no guarantee of survival. For this purpose we have provided the Deep Space Transports with defensive tools that are much less consistent than the covert cloak on the Blockade Runners but that are powerful nonetheless.

"The key new addition is a role bonus that doubles the benefits from overheating tanking modules and propulsion modules. This means that Deep Space Transports can have obscene tanks for short periods of time and gain strong bursts of mobility, especially useful for fighting your way back to a stargate (or for playing bait).

"They are also gaining the ability to use the new Medium Micro Jump Drive modules for extra escape and bubble evasion options."

I have a DST, but I rarely use it.  They are now getting some love from CCP and I like it.  DSTs will be getting a 'fleet hanger'.  As stated, it will help the pilot to get a good cargo capacity while not wasting rigs and slots for cargo expanders.  Also getting a 2x buff when overheating might mean the difference between exploding or lasting long enough for reinforcement.  I doubt the DST could last against a sustained attack, but if traveling through Jita, it might be highly advantageous to have a strongly fitted tank.

I think the rebalance was needed, but it will be interesting to see if DSTs will become more commonplace in low security areas for if the BR will still be dominant.  Regardless, as always, fly safe-ish.

Kronos Freighter/Jump Freighter Changes

I was perusing Feedly as I always do and saw that on the Mittani there was a post about upcoming Kronos freighter/jump freighter changes.  You can read that post here: Proposed Freighter & Jump Freighter Changes in Kronos.

The good news: freighter hulls are getting rig slots.  CCP announced during their 2014 Fanfest celebration that freighters would be able to install rigs.  Freighters have massive cargoholds.  They were not able to unload and load in space (with POS modules as the exception) until recently.  Loading and unloading in space opened up all sorts of new possibilities (long on station time for mining ops everyone?).  Adding the possibilities of rigs adds to that.  You can now tank them or give them better agility.  Nothing is more boring that slow-boating freighters from system to system.  Anything that can whittle down that time is much welcomed.  Jump freighters are high value targets for pirates, so being able to add some tank to it or a better align time could make a huge difference.  With their super-high price tab, any additional help is great.   

During this Kronos 'patch' the freighters and jump freighters are getting rebalanced.  This could make for some interesting logistics.  The patch will reduce the effective hit points, agility and cargohold size, so you will need to plan your rigs to make up for the nerf, but you will need to decide what is most important to you in those three categories.

It should make for some interesting logistical changes, but as always, fly safe-ish

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.

 

Forum Surfing: T2 Manufacturing Questions

I was surfing the forums and came upon this post

OP on EVE Forums 

So, naturally I gave some input, well mostly introspective questions for the OP to ask of himself.  The OP was wondering how people make ISK doing T2 production.  It can be highly profitable if done correctly.  I make a large amount of ISK just on T2 modules.  I also have a full set of T2 component blueprint originals (Thanks Keto!).  It might take a little longer to build your own components, but in the end the ISK / hour might be lower but the end profits are much higher.  In my response to the OP, I gave him a few questions that he needs to ask himself before he can make any ISK in T2 manufacturing.

T2 production is profitable. Actually, it is highly profitable, but you must take a few things into consideration. If you haven't yet downloaded EVE ISK per Hour by Zifrian, do so immediately. It will save you time, ISK and headaches.

You can download it here: EVE IPH Forum Page

I also wrote a few blogs about using it that you can check out here

EVE IPH Part 1

EVE IPH Part 2

What you need to consider is this

*are you going to buy or build T2 construction components?

*if you buy them, are you going to be patient and put up buy orders or are you going to buy at sell order price?

*if you build them are you going to place buy orders for raw materials or pay sell order price?

*are you planning on building hulls or modules?

If you think all of these steps through, do some market research and plan ahead, you can make a decent living.

I stick with modules, but I have a surplus of ship bpc's that I am going to start building. Ships sell slower, but if done right, you can make some good ISK for a little input/effort.

Hopefully this info helps the OP and you, the reader.  That's what I am here for.

Space Trucking for Profit

Space trucking is a hybrid of station trading and hauling.  It can be pretty profitable if you are market-savy and have a few junk alts hanging around.  I did a great deal of space trucking.  I had pretty good results, but it takes a special person to move goods from stations to trade hubs, trade hubs to stations and/or trade hubs to trade hubs.  It can be boring as all hell, especially if you are doing it in a freighter.  

You don't have to have a huge stockpile of ISK to start, nor do you have to invest a lot into your logistics.  A T1 hauler with cargo expanders (and some tank modules) is plenty to move goods around.  If you are hauling massive amounts of goods, you might want to have a freighter or a max cargo fit T1 industrial.  If you want to specialist in some particular item type, you can pick an industrial with cargo holds specific to that item.  For example, if you are going to focus on planetary interaction goods, I would suggest getting an Epithal instead of a Mammoth due to the Epithal's planetary commodity bay.  Sometimes doing multiple trips in a industrial is more productive than doing one large trip in a freighter.  With freighters getting rigs very soon, you might find you are better off with a freighter.  

What I suggest is going from trade hub to trade hub (if you have a lot of time) or gathering goods at NPC mission hubs and returning the goods to the closest market hub.  An example is Auvergne to Dodixie (where Auvergne is the mission hub).  Auvergne is a Federation Intel level 4 mission hub.  Mission runners might not want to waste their time hauling goods to Dodixie and often just put up their goods in Auv. for less than what you can sell them to buy orders in Dodixie.  That is what we call a 'trade opportunity'.  

If you are planning to enter this profession, you will need every advantage you can possibly get.  This is why I suggest installing a few alts in the trade hubs.  You should have one alt in each of the stations you wish to trade to and from.  For example, I still have an alt in Dodixie, Amarr and Jita.  This way you can check for the current buy and sell price in both stations.  The worst thing you can do is trade on old/outdated information.  That is a gamble and very easy to lose.

The next thing you want to do is get your butt over to EVE Central.  You can install the Contributastic app and participate in helping gather market intelligence.  You then use the trade tools on the site to check out trade routes.  Once you know what items are being traded for a profit, you can then use your market alts to verify them BEFORE you buy the goods.  

EVE Central's Trade Route finder

You have to consider all the costs and deduct them form the item sale.  Don't forget to include tax and market fees or you could lose your margin or sell below cost.  Two things that will have a negative impact on your career and profits.  If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and as always, fly safe-ish.

Invitations

I am always looking for guest writers or full time contributors, so if you would like to throw your experiences in EVE Online, feel free to let me know.  I would be happy to work with you.  You can contact me though Google+ or by email @ toomuchbrew@gmail.com.  If you want to discuss PVP or PVE activities, or whatever floats your boat in EVE, I'm all for collaboration.  

Balanced Budgets

 EVE's economy mirrors our own real-life economy and as such, corporations really need to have a balanced budget with an eye on growth.  Having a good budget means that you, as a corp, can adjust to the changes and challenges of New Eden.   

Corps usually have a good mix of capsuleers who perform different activities.  PVE players (incursions, missions, etc) bring in taxes which are dumped off into the master wallet.  These taxes are generally used for things like office rental, skill book purchases and POS expenses.  Depending on the size of your corp, you may also use it towards a ship replacement program, new player assistance or loans.  

A fair share of corps (especially high sec industrial ones) make a fair share of ISK mining and manufacturing, so having a balanced budget (or at least some budgetary goals) is important.  If your corp is just a bunch of individuals, maybe doing some things together, but not having a real plan, budgets might not apply.  If you are getting your membership involved in projects, then a budget is a must.  It allows your members to see the goals of the corp, where the money is coming from and where it is going.  In MF, our industrial division is more of an open book.  I like to put out monthly reports and show people that yes, the money is being dumped back into the corp and not just lining the pockets of the leadership.  

Morale is a fickle beast.  If people think they are working for nothing, they lose heart and start looking elsewhere for a place where they can fit in and be valued.  This is just my take on things.  I'm working out a budget for MF right now, but I figured I would post it on my blog and maybe give some CEO's a jumping point.  Thanks for reading and as always, fly safe-ish.

EVE Droid - Android OS Character Monitor App.

EVEMon is simply the best skill monitory/training planner available..on PC, but what if you are mobile or at work?  Well there are mobile apps that allow you to check you training queues, read EVEmail and a whole slew of other things.  I have an android device.  I used to run EVE Aura, but I had to reset my phone and didn't reinstall it.  Aura is a great program (not even sure if it is still supported) and I used it all the time.  I was flicking through the app store yesterday and saw an app named EVE Droid.  To be honest, the icon popped out at me so I figured I would try it out.  I was very pleased.

EVE Droid is pretty awesome.  It was created by Alexander Hansen.  I had never heard of it and like I said, I wasn't really looking for anything, it just happened.

The API entry section is really easy and it links you to the correct pages and then installs the API easily.  Visually the app is very nice.  It is neat, cleaned and and organized. The layout is very nice.  All in all, this is one of the best character monitors I have seen.  The email part is awesome and it even tells you when your account subscription ends and how many hours played.  I am at 3225 hours..  It doesn't have all the buttons that Aura has, but I never really used them anyway.  You can do fittings and there is an item database.  I doesn't have a skill planner, but I don't remember if Aura did either.  

Anyway, check it out [get it on Google Play] and as always fly safe-ish.