I have done something that other people have done many times
before. I have sold my first character and I am deciding how I
feel about it.
For any that do not know, you can buy and
sell characters for ISK in Eve, CCP sanctioned. There is a
whole section of the forums
called the Character Bazaar set up for this. Because Eve is
Eve and the players are abnormal this is how some people make money.
It is how other people make changes. Sometimes it is how someone finances
something or repays a debt. Some players skip the time part of skill
training and buy themselves a character that is already at their goal
point. It doesn't have to be anything magical to be brought or sold on
the bazaar This is Eve after all.
I'm attracted to things that make ISK. I'm also willing to
try most things out once or twice. Sometimes it is a no. Anything
that is grinding is a no. I missed the Faction Warfare train because I was that
disinterested in FW that the sweet, lurid call of ISK could not tempt me to
play in that part of the sandbox.
But selling characters has been something of interest. I
don't want to buy. Some of it is that I enjoy sculpting
my character myself. Their look, their name, their mistakes in
the skill plan; all of it is me. Someone elses character feels
less personal in some way. Thankfully, not everyone has my issues and
the character market is alive and well for everyone else.
Last September, on one of the power of two deals I decided to
make a six month alt. I didn't know what I'd do with her.
At the time I was interested in trying ganking or RvB and I started to
train into that. However, I lost interest and moved on to making her a jump
freighter alt. My booster business was going well and I had started to
use black frog instead of the corporate jump freighter. I thought that I
could train her into a jump freighter and move her back onto my account and one
day afford a jump freighter.
I then promptly displayed zero forethought or sense and made her
Minmatar and decided upon a Nomad because I liked the name. That made a
lot of sense to me at that time. However, a few weeks later I started
Chella on her Carrier path. Working out the skill training plans I
quickly realized that Chella would be able to fly a jump freighter. She
can already fly a freighter if I plug in the skill book. I would have the
jump skills as part of my carrier path. I did not need a dedicated jump
freighter alt and if I did it only made sense for it to be the same racial ship
as Chella so that they could share it.
Now I had an alt I didn't know what to do with.
What about selling her?
I could give it a try. I did some searches and decided that
I'd keep her a jump freighter pilot. They are useful and
someone always needs one. I figured I could make a few billion off of her
and see how I liked character trading. I know lots of people buy and sell
making their ISK with flipping. I decided to dip my toes in the market
and see how I liked it.
Skilling an account you are not doing anything with is not
hard. I made some errors along the way anyway. I have those types
of talents. The biggest mistake I made was not skilling her into implants early
on. The next time I do this it will be my first path. Second she
has some deviations that came from me not knowing what to do with her at first.
I was skilling her for sale so I wanted her to be appealing but the time frame
to be reasonable. That meant a lot of IV instead of V skills for the high
end stuff. Was the 53 days to Jump Freighter V worth the time I'd have
to pay/plex for?
It can get expensive. As I have learned with
Chella, skill books start to go up in price quickly when its ships that require
advanced spaceship command.. The money will come back when the character
sells but that has to be factored into the profit you are looking at.
Racial Freighters skillbook cost 67.5 mil. Jump Freighters
skillbook cost 90 million. The prices are all doable but it is a lot of
ISK if someone is working with a tight income and a pay off that is months down
the road. Factor in paying for the account or plex and all of these
things eat into your budget.
Also, the seller pays the transfer fee. This is 20 USD or 2
PLEX. Another factor into the end profit. What may seem like a lot
of ISK is going to be eaten up in the production cost of
the character Not being overly good at these things instead of
sitting down and working out neat equations and values I just threw myself into
it and charged ahead.
It only gets exciting when the last skill you have decided upon
needing before the character is placed on the market finishes. Until then
it is skill queue online. There is a list
of rules to read about
posting a character for sale. It is sensible stuff. NPC
corp, disclose a neg wallet, disclose kill rights, don't lie, no scams.
I used eveboard to
make a link so that potential buyers can view the skill list easier.
It also lets you show things like wallet and implants.
Then it was just research a price, home I was not screwing myself
in either direction and post. I got my first response in about an hour
and about six hours later someone offered my buy out. Maybe my price was
a bit low or maybe they just liked what they saw and no bullshitting. I
did the transfer the next day once they sent the ISK and poof, I had ISK and
they had a character.
It was rather painless.
I can't see myself flipping characters. However, when things
like the power of two pop up the discount for the 6 months is well worth
building the character. It is a time sink to do. No instant
gratification. If I was better at evaluating accounts and cleaning up
their skills and flipping it is a lot of potential ISK to be made.
I'm not that person however. My little experiment was
fun.
I then ran off and sank 400 mil into Blink to reward myself.
I like playing Blink and the money I dump into it is with full
expectation of not getting any back. However, I seem to do pretty well as
that I am up. I walked away with 840 million which was 440 million
over what I put in. That was a nice little ending to the situation.
Now we know who is to blame for Blink being down lately! :)
ReplyDeleteThe character build and flip does sound interesting. And of course if they're a useful type then you could get value out of them while they're building too. And it makes sense - someone wants instant gratification, they can pay for it. You get ISK to pew pew in.
Jomp freighters, best freighters.
ReplyDeleteKeep it like that though: it made me laugh.
Sorry to correct it but I do try. Thank you for pointing out the mistake.
DeleteQUOTE "Because Eve is Eve and the players are abnormal this is how some people make money"
ReplyDeleteQUOTE "If I was better at evaluating accounts and cleaning up their skills and flipping it is a lot of potential ISK to be made."
That is me in a nutshell, I do not like to grind for isk and this has been a very profitable way to have income over the last 6 years. Along the way I have had some characters that are quite fun to play with while I am working out the weak spots.
For me, characters are a tool just as ships and guns are.