Going for Retail

I'm addicted to market trading. There are times where I realize I haven't logged on with Susan in a while, instead spending all my time on my market alts updating orders, expanding various projects, and setting up courier contracts.

I've also been poking at manufacturing things again. Sometimes, I get frustrated with how manipulated certain prices can get, vastly fluctuating  --typically going way up at the precise moment I need a large stack to restock some low-sec market somewhere.

So, for certain things, I build them myself. And for some of these items, I also do the invention and etc. A few months ago I did invention for the first time and couldn't believe how easy it was. For some reason I had it in my head that it was this huge, complicated process involving lots of pieces and parts I would have to move around. But, it's not much different then manufacturing. You get what you need, stuff it in the station, and at some allotted time later a % of blueprints pop out like magic.


One thing that I really wish they would introduce is the ability to combine blueprint copies, if they are identical ME and etc. Combining tech 2 blueprint copies, as well as the blueprint copies you buy for things in the loyalty point store could be very useful.  And it would help me declutter my hangar, especially in situations where I don't plan on building things for a little while, but are just stocking up on the copies/runs.

Look at me talking about manufacturing and being all carebear, when I'm supposed to be a dirty evil pirate. Truth be told, these days I feel more like a carebear and a pirate on the side then the other way around.



I have a couple of projects that have had changes of interest. The first was a poke at market PVP. I dropped one of my lesser trained trade alts into a hostile system and started messing with their market. (Typically, I'll buy out certain items and relist them a bit higher.)

This experiment hasn't gone so well. I only invested a few hundred million ISK, mainly to see what type of a reaction I would get. And, I didn't mark things up TOO much so as to be completely obvious.

However, it's obvious that some serious market traders live in this system and it only took about 48 hours for the items to be restocked at the lower price. And, they restocked with huge quantities, which made me feel that they were sending me a clear message -- "GET LOST."


A second project involves a bit of speculation. I've studied the cycles of certain things in certain situations, and banked on the fact that a price of a particular item is going to go up significantly over the next few months. And, slowly but surely, I've been right.

This is excellent as I've gone "all in" on this one, investing well over twenty five billion into this project. I could start selling now and make a tidy profit, but fully expect to be able to double my money at some point, so am holding out for a while. (Once in a while I'll shave off the top, if I need ISK for something else.)

This of course begs the question as to what on earth I'm going to do with fifty billion ISK once all is said and done. And the answer is probably to reinvest it in new speculative projects.

Some people only spend a little time making ISK, in order to make the minimum amount they need to keep their pvp character in ships. Other people like me, make an EVE career making ISK because somehow they've become addicted to the practice of making ISK in general --with no real need or plan on using it in any way other then to make more ISK with it.

Sometimes I wonder, "why the hell am I bothering? I could 'retire' right now and have enough ISK to buy our fleet comps for a decade. All this time I spend researching markets and romping around with trade alts --I could spend it shooting people in the face."

And then I think, "why the hell should I not market trade, even if I don't need the ISK?" After all, it's a game. You should do whatever you think is fun, even if it isn't efficient or particularly logical at the time.