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TCS: Being a Good Neighbor

IRL I am a terrible neighbor. I won't lie about it. I don't make eye contact. I don't want to know anything about the people around me. I'm that person. I'm not ashamed. I don't know my neighbors names. They don't know mine. I don't leave the dogs outside barking and we are quiet people.

In Eve, I'm a nosy neighbor. I am very, very bad at it. There are lots of people I've lived with and interacted with for years and I still don't know. That is probably a good thing. I don't like shooting people I am fond of and if I made friends with everyone in the region I'd be an unhappy puppy.

The market is impersonal for something so much time, energy, and focus is poured into. Yet I wonder, do I paint a bulls-eye on my market with my blog or does my market create that bulls-eye through its own existence? I suspect the latter and only my ego creates the former.

Someone is selling boosters in Bosena. They are doing so under my booster price. My boosters just sit there. It irritates me. I like for my items to sell and I have a significant amount of ISK invested in boosters. But, my items will move with the corporation on deployment. They will sell later if they don't sell now. Did I create this? Where boosters never were stocked before now they appear, competitively. I know that they sell  because the boys notice when they don't buy from me and comment.

Someone is also selling isotopes in Bosena. Lots of isotopes. Millions of units are up in some types. They are also under my price.

I noticed of late my sell orders are no longer always the cheapest in the region. They are settling down into the middle of the price list for manufactured modules. I cannot compete as the cheapest any longer in all the things. I still tend to own the meta module market and the more specialized PvP focused T2 market. But even those gaps are closing.

At the same time all of this is happening, Bosena is selling more than ever. Some of it, I believe is the large groups that have recently moved in. They buy from me. Sometimes they relist from me over in their home. Even as I even out with the high sec market the low sec market thrives. That jump into high sec is not that interesting to save 20k.

Instead of getting irritated at it all I am fascinated. Somehow, through bumbling along I have managed to push a regions price point down, force people I have never met to price under me and give me less actual work to do, and get my boys a better deal on boosters then I can offer, and I'm making ISK (which I still just reinvest).

Holy fuck. Wow. I don't think I'm just making things up.

I'd have to say that an urban renewal project, The Cougar Store is successful. I know that it brings people to the area. The killboards and the shoppers align nicely. I've watched people from fights we have been in settle into Bosena and resupply themselves. I watch people reship. I have a few regulars for items that I sell that high sec does not. My own corporation has become used to having the bulk of what they need on hand and (sometimes) notifying me when things are low or gone (kisses Robinton).

I have no idea how I got here. My words of wisdom are this. "Try it out and fuck when everyone tells you no its boring and won't work." I think that works nicely. It may be boring. It may not work. But, it also may work and probably will. The chances that you have a leaning for that type of project is huge if you want to try the project. Failure still brings with it valuable experience.

The oddest part is seeing others piggy back off of the project now that it is established. Its existence (or this blog :P) is bringing other people to list things. I'm not going to fight them for a handful of change when the rent money can keep coming in each week.

I'm a good market neighbor, I think.  I'm not going to fight these unknown people. I'm just going to be flexible around them. No one loves this market like I do. I will accept the undercutting with good grace. My neighborhood needs its utilities after all.

Comments

  1. The thing with people undercutting you on boosters and isotopes happens all the time... Everywhere.

    People use spreadsheets, databases and sites like evemarketdata looking for places with high prices and good margins. The thing is that works best when there are both buy and sell orders up in the region. So when none are listed nobody brings any in (except those of us who bring it in for other reasons) and until someone does bring some in the spreadsheet warriors don't even realize there's an opportunity there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aye. I bundle blindly in this. No spreadsheets that do fancy things.

      Delete
  2. As you said, no one loves your market like you do.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It may not be the blog. There are various EVE market tools out there which report what is selling where, in what volume, and what profit when compared to other regions. Users simply run a report from afar and move in when the profit seems worthwhile. I see it in my local region all the time. I find a product with no sell history for a year and nothing on the market. I post a few which sell for a profit. Within days there are half a dozen sell orders up from others. The boosters and Isotopes will be selling from your station because that is where the market tools have told the trader they sell from.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But but my ego!

      Ive been told to write is to shoot myself in the foot and that I should hide what I do more.

      Really, I'm ignorant of the market tools. They go beyond my level of interest vs fun with the market.

      But, love helpful comments.

      Delete
    2. Agree with Hermit, I see the same thing all the time and in all regions. I post something that according to market history has never been sold there. Usually within a few days to week suddenly there are a bunch of competitors. The good part is I usually manage to sell a bunch at much better than usual margins before the spreadsheet warriors can react and move in.

      Delete
    3. I notice the competition in certain places but not across the board unless they are trying to push the high sec market. Some of that may be because of low sec and not wishing to risk their hauling assets.

      The main areas are isotopes, ammo, and it explains the boosters which will show as a bright beacon.

      It allows me to look at manipulating them to stock things for me. Maybe my ignorance will prove useful since I don't do the market thing properly in the first place.

      Delete
  4. "It allows me to look at manipulating them to stock things for me."

    Exactly! =)

    ReplyDelete

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