TCS: Expansion and Contraction

In the end I took down my office in Bosena. It was a mix of disappointment and relief. While I learned a lot about cost savings and becoming more mentally flexible in my logistics while trying to circumvent the office ISK problem, it was nice not to just pour over a hundred million ISK out the window every month as well.

I know that my logistics problem didn't make sense to some. Why not raise my prices? Why not ship this way or that? I think some of the confusion simple comes from the fact that my market is a major piece of my game but it is not my entire game. In many ways I have no single thing that I do for my game of Eve. Because my market is a piece, I must slot it in as I can depending on other priorities.

I've also learned that I can handle two markets. My abilities and understanding as to what I want to do with a market now is better. I can now paint the entire picture, not just the outline. The success of Bosena means that I can stock it about twice a week. Normally it needs a week day stocking and a weekend stocking. Learning that ebb and flow has let me managed time better. Knowing what does and does not sell allows me to invest more ISK into large groups of items.

Some things don't sell or are not worth it to sell. Some are just a pain in the butt. Missiles are a pain in the butt. They sell based off of the current missile meta. Sometimes I'm buying them constantly and sometimes they delist without a single one moving for three months. Unlike some items such as various meta 0 and meta 1 and 2 and 3 modules, I  need to keep listening missiles. After all, the goal is to be able to fit and ship as they please. I don't know if I can fix the missile problem. I doubt it.

With Bosena thriving I've been introducing a steady stream of faction and battleships to it. The battleships are still at a handful of the most common utility PvP battleships. It is a lot of ISK to tie up in hulls that may sit and sit and sit.

On the other hand, over in Sujarento I'm pondering if I should introduce battlecruisers to the market or wait. Battlecruisers in Bosena sell, steadily, but not quickly. Sujarento is in faction warfare space. Frigates and destroyers sell like crazy there. They move very slowly in Bosena. That makes me wonder if I should wait to go up in hull size in Sujarento until the rest of the market is more established. I don't know yet. The ebb and flow of ship size is very different between the two regions. Those comparisons, I'll save for later.

Another major differences is that Sijarento is only a few jumps from Jita. I expected there to be a sharper margin but in general, my pricing scene is exactly the same as it is in Bosena and I am still often at the top of the region for prices. I've seen it before in the other Mobile Market's that I've run. What it has taught me is that there is greater room in the PvP market for prices.

And even a few jumps from Jita people still go, "It's low sec" and mark up the prices until the market screams. There is more low sec competition. I was pushing against high sec in Molden Heath but the Citadel is a massively populated region and that gives everything a different feel and usage.

Plus, I'll soon have a second market alt ready to go for Sujarento (I'm now training marketing skills on my scanning alt) which will free up the orders I need. I think comparison of the two markets over the next months will be interesting.