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TCS: A Month In

The weekends prove to be interesting for my market. Not for me. My Eve time was cut even shorter then normal due to over time at work. But, who cares about that? My volume turn over appears to be increasing from week to week.

My original buying started upon the concept of extending what I would buy for my own personal needs. That is my grand business model in all of its technical details. I would need ammo and I would need basic modules if I were to fit a ship. I would need drones and I might need a different size gun for another common fit. With that in mind I purchased enough for a few people (basically my corp because they asked for someone to seed the market) and let things sit to see if they sold.

A month in and they are still selling. I have not had to sink any liquid ISK into the store since the initial 4 billion. I have sunk more items into the store, buying stacks of modules from Vov’s ganks and adding items from the wormhole theft. The ISK that I gave the store from the wormhole theft was used to buy battleships that the store then sold. I’ve been keeping track of the ISK buys I have made for the store in my ‘payback’ plan. A few days ago I realized that the store is now starting to sit on a decent mound of liquid ISK.
My rough numbers. I’ve been keeping track but not in a super neat, coo, technical way.

I gave the store a total of 4 billion in liquid ISK on March 13-14th to buy the starting seeds.

One time I have had to give the store ISK to cover buy orders because I was not paying attention. I paid that ISK back.

I have given the store 1.4 billion in assets to sell for the store.

The store’s total worth is around nine billion now.

There are noticeable market lulls each week, often Monday-Wednesday. The items that sell during these times are also different to the items that sell during prime time and on the weekends.

I don't have a nice, neat arc about this. It is spread across The Coguar Store the corporation and my personal trade alt. I also have to keep reminding people that is both stock and liquid ISK and I am using it to buy more stuff for the store. I won't look to start repaying my seed money until next month.


I am up in the air about the battleships on the market. They are so very expensive in comparison to my overall worth. However, the ones that I did buy have been selling here and there. The sales have been based off of fleet ops however and not just random "yay I want this" sales. I have sold 4 in the last two weeks which is not much in the way of volume. Battleships are just not low sec fodder. However, there is some demand for them. I don't know where I stand on this topic.

Figuring out what people want and need has caused some bursts of understanding and some pits of complete confusion. Why have all of my shield extenders sold out in the last two days? As fast as I list them they sell. Yet, they did not move for a week before hand.  What does it mean? How do I plan around it? Right now it is "buy more shield extenders". I know, from experience that they are a basic rig necessity for anyone that flies shield ships. The hybrid collision accelerators were more confusing. I purchased them to list for gank fits. Someone purchased every single one of them. I got more.

With items like rigs I somewhat understand. I am listing above Jita but very much below the rest of the local sell orders. People stock up on them.


My market alts are almost fully trained for fees. One has 4 days left on accounting V and the other two both have 7 days left.  They have already finished Broker Relations V. Once done, I will start, slowly, grinding everyone up in standings to Republic Fleet. I need to stock loyalty points for Hurricane Fleet Issues so mission grinding is going to take place of station spinning until I can no longer stand it or can buy gobs and gobs of Hurricanes to take into battle. They will all learn Wholesale up to V and if I need more market orders I will move up to Tycoon.

Now it is time to start doubling up the things that fly out of the door. The goal is to manage the store without having to travel to Jita every day. I have recently, in this past week, moved to a solid every other day cycle with occasional lulls into every third day.

Things sell. Cynosural fields for example. I started with twenty. I doubled to fourty. My next purchase was around 100. I’m up to about 200 now and burning through them. To compensate for the massive number I got 400 cargo expander I’s and 100 Cargo Expander II’s and gobs of liquid ozone. I also keep handfuls of every racial frigate because people like to buy frigates + cyno + liquid ozone. Due to not having cynosural field trained beyond one they need the larger cargo holds. Due to the boys popping cynos left and right they need to replace them. I almost feel mercenary in that respect.

At the same time, buying that many cynosural fields is expensive. But they are selling so the money is not just wasted. The adjustment to assets vs liquid ISK is still very hard for me. Will the 100 salvage drones I just purchased really sell? Yes, it seems that they will.

Between stocking drones on the market and getting to work I sold almost half the stock of Valkeri IIs I put on the market before I left. My bouncers vanished over night. I am stunned by the sheer quantity of stuff people need in this game. I understood it from a basic level but only supplying myself and building the occasional thing did not prepare me for the massive, consumptive need of this game.

Who is using all of these salvage drones? Who is buying everything  I’ve been asked several times if it is the locals. My corporation, the other local corporations in the area are they the ones running me ragged?

No. People that I know make up about 40% of my total sales numbers. They often are a higher ISK value  because they tend to buy more expensive modules. T2 modules, T2 ammo, rigs, and BC+ hulls add up quickly. However, for pure volume they are not making up the bulk of my sales. I don’t know who the people that buy from me are. I have these little dreams that Bosena’s station is full to over flowing with stuff never picked up. I am stocking salvage drones because they are selling as fast as I can put them on the market but I don’t know who I am selling them to. I thought they were stupid to stock but I had a stack that I stole from someone and they vanished as soon as I put them up. They don't sell for a lot but all the sales add up. I don't scoff at a 10k profit. It is 10k I didn't have before.

Is the pull of price so strong that it is drawing people that one jump into low sec to shop? It must be. I sell a lot of T1 and meta items. I had originally assumed and purchased based off of T2 items with common T1 fits. As my sell orders opened up and I was able to stock more I started to move in T1 items and more common meta level items so that people who could not fly T2 fits would not be penalized when it came to properly fitting their ships. My shop drains of meta items. Someone out there needs stuffs.

Is my store a needed rainfall after a drought or will it become a low sec Oasis?

Comments

  1. 9B from 5.4B in your first month is impressive. Your business practices are solid and well-thought.

    You can't escape your fate: in a year you'll be bridging people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sooner, actually: Black Ops aren't that expensive.

      Delete
  2. Oh I bought all those hybrid rigs for my suicide catalysts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why they are there. I think I have all the gank fits fully available now.

      Delete
  3. I've also been dabbling in supplying a low sec hub, and it is confusing as hell. Good luck, and keep turning things over, I suppose! I haven't made as much as you, but I only started with about 200m in seed capital, but I'm up to over 600m in assets and isk.

    As long as people are blowing things up, there is money to be made.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Reading about TCS gave me the idea to start a Corporate Contract Market because a supplier was desperately needed in my Corp (I probably already said this in an earlier comment please bear with me)
    I was absolutely astounded by the amount of material that I move now. I have expanded the market about 4 or 5 times now and I have enlisted the help of other individuals here and there I cannot keep up. I sold over a billion isk gross in the first week have expanded total contracts from 75 to anywhere between 130 and 150. (mostly fully fitted ships) and last week I grossed almost 6 Bil in sales I about fell outta my chair. Watching stuff move and the amounts it moves in is mind boggling when I (as I believe were you also) was used to just taking care of my own needs instead of the needs of many many more people lol.
    So even if it was a long way of saying it "I see what you mean" lol

    ReplyDelete

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