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TCS - "You can make easy money if you stock..."

Sometime over the last week, while tired and worn out, I forgot to switch my alts skills to the trade skills she needed to learn. Not a huge error on my part but one that somewhat amuses me. She has to go find a training school. Now it is Monday morning and like most Monday mornings when I am off of work I am restocking my markets.

I do not have as many day to day stories about my market as I used to. That is not a terrible thing. I seem to be avoiding extreme disaster. In fact, things are stable and healthy which tends not to be exciting as well. Not that I don't make mistakes. It seems that I do manage to learn from them and my new mistakes take longer to reach and bring new experiences. Plus, I've calmed down a lot once I learned that my market was not going to self destruct if I was not able to attend to every single fulfilled order the moment it went down.

Bosena has been slowly climbing over the thirty billion ISK point. I've added a few more battleships and yesterday, I was asked to toss a Sleipnir up on the market. I've dropped the number of meta modules that I carry. Some just barely move and they clutter up orders and space to sell one or two every handful of weeks.

What stocks and what people think stocks varies. I also have to accept that what sells and what people happen to want to have on hand at any given time also vary. With having both Sujarento and Bosena active I can see how different the area is from one to the other. 

For instance, in Sujarento which is deep in the Caldari Warzone, I hear complaints about the excessive number of frigates and laments for cruisers. This fascinates me because in Bosena, off in Molden Heath with Plantary Conquest frigates and destroyers move slowly while cruisers, battlecruisers, and occasionally battleships are what keep the market moving.

Large ammunition sells regularly in Molden Heath and small sits. The reverse has been happening in Sujarento. Although, Snuffbox does consume the large ammunition which is a parallel to items in Bosena that I kept stocked for 7-2. I just relist the stock or reset its timers over and over again and eventually, it is consumed.

What I find most interesting is how people tell met hat I can just stock 'this one thing' and I will make a ton of ISK. A ton of ISK. What is a TON of ISK? Sujarento is almost at six billion ISK stocked. Bosena is trying to tromp towards forty. Is that a ton? 

I compare myself to other market bloggers and I make nothing close to what they do. I also have a different method, plan, and goal. I could up my prices and make more ISK but I'd expect to see the ton reflected in my normal sales as well. Often things just don't sell and I have no idea why people assume that they will do other than the fact that they want said item or that they will buy said item. What I have made in a year and a half they make in a month or two. I've not yet come accords the magical ISK making item.

Thankfully, I enjoy my markets. Some days they are a lot of work. Sometimes I do skip stocking because I don't want to sit through another cyno cycle or make another jump. I've learned not to buy or list when tired as well. That is where a lot of dumb mistakes happen.

Could I make a third? Not really. Sujarento is suffering from a lack of orders and ISK. I refuse to sink more seed money into it so it will have to wait and grow as the ISK pours in. The other alt who is training will get there.

And so it all moves along. I'm still baffled that all of this stuff belongs to me. I don't see the stores at my personal assets or income so sometimes, as I buy five or six billion ISK worth of items to stock I'm amazed that at the end of the day it all belongs to me. It makes me smile a bit in pleasure. 

It tends to be the little things that enchant me. That may be why it is hard to explain why my methods make me as happy as they do. It may be why I don't understand the constant pressure to raise my prices or find the magical item that will make all of the ISK. I'm still amazed that its me out there, supplying the things that I am doing. Maybe one day, when I get over that bit I can start searching for that magical ISK making item.

Comments

  1. I'm glad your market in Bosena is there, it complements my own business next door. There's a little crossover but for the most part we don't sell the same things. Having a nearby source of popular items I don't stock myself brings custormers into the area and helps increase my sales.

    On the part where you say "I don't understand the constant pressure to raise my prices", I can answer that.

    They want to you raise your prices so they can go back to the price gouging they were used to getting away with before you were around. I'm surprised I don't hear that very often in Eve but I used to hear it all the time when I played WoW.

    "But you'd make so much more if you'd only raise your prices"

    No, actually I'd make far less because the ones saying that would be undercutting me 24/7 and getting the vast majority of the sales. Why should I help them make more ISK, especially if would be at the expense of my own business?

    "You should only undercut by 0.01 ISK to maximize profits"

    Yeah right, and you and all other camping no-lifers and bots wouldn't undercut me another 0.01 ISK within seconds eh?

    No thanks, I've heard that line in all it's variations a million times before. I'll stick to my strategy of reasonable prices and large undercuts with the higher volume sales and greater total profits that go with it.

    I'll take 100 sales a month at 5% profit over 1 or 2 a month at 100% every time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "I'll take 100 sales a month at 5% profit over 1 or 2 a month at 100% every time."

      i am sort of the reverse of that. But, if you have an item that only sells 1 or 2 a month it is very unlikely that the undercutters will play here.

      Likewise, if you have a 100 sales a month at 5% then the moment you raise your margins to 10% a stampede of new sellers will appear.

      Volumes vs Margins - those, to me, are the two competing factors which i watch.

      Good stuff on your market though! :)

      Delete
  2. The "one item" that would make a "ton of ISK" doesn't exist. If it would, the guy with the idea would be making the money.

    It is to be understood: "I want to buy that item, so pleeeeeease stock it"

    ReplyDelete
  3. "What I find most interesting is how people tell met hat I can just stock 'this one thing' and I will make a ton of ISK. A ton of ISK."

    Probably the same people that think they made 1b/h because they got a 500m drop in 30 minutes once.

    ReplyDelete

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