The Profit Margin Structure

If you sell an item for 1m isk do you know what profits you will make and when?  And how do the cash flows compare?

Lets assume you have a business model like mine which is to Buy from Sell Orders in Jita, courier the item to a regional Trading Hub and put the item up for sale.

Step 1 - buying the item, no additional costs

Lets assume i buy the item for 750k from a Sell Order in Jita

So far so good, there are no additional costs.  The 750k is spent and the item is in my inventory.  My wealth has not changed.

Step 2 - couriering the item, first additional cost

I don't courier my items from Jita to the Trading Huh.  That is done by third party couriers.

For Courier Contracts i markup the cost by 20% and then offer a fee of 2% of this.  So, 750k is collateralised at 750 x 1.2 = 900k.  Apply the 2% fee (which is always accepted no matter how long the journey and if it is high / low / null sec).

2% fee costs 18k isk.  So my wealth is now down by 18k.

Step 3 - once it arrives at the Trading Hub put it up for sale

I am Level 5 all the relevant skills to take my tax rate to the lowest possible.

This page at Eve University takes us through all the Eve Online tax rates and their formulas.

The Broker Listing fee for me is 1.5%.

I aim to make a 25% item margin.  That is, i want the Sales Price less Cost Price to be 25% of the Sales Price.

For my 750k item, that means the Sales Price needs to be 1m isk, the cost price is 750k and so the item profit is 250k which is 25% of the Sales Price.

Therefore, the listing fee is 1.5% x 1m = 15k.

My wealth has technically risen by 250k, less the 18k courier costs and the 15k listing fee.  However, i also take a 20% provision for every item for sale which means i reduce my wealth by 200k.  Therefore, my wealth is up by 17k (=250-200-15-18).

But my cash is down by 783k.  That is important to know - in this game, as in real life, profits often come before cash.  Cash comes in through the door at the end.  There are exceptions to this where businesses charge in advance (online classifieds) or businesses that pay their suppliers after the customers pay their cash (retailers).

Step 4 - i may need to change the price due to competition coming in with a lower sales price

Take that as read, i will always ensure my item is the lowest price.

Step 5 - i sell the item and so pay transaction tax

Lets assume i did not need to change the price, i sell the item for 1m isk and pay the transaction tax of 2 (=20k isk).

Finally, cash comes in.  Profits and Cash match = 197k.

The Margin structure of all that

Sales = 1m.

Cost of purchase = 750k

Item Profit = 250k

Item Margin = 25%

Courier Fees = 18k

Listing Fees = 15k

Transaction tax = 20k

therefore, sales & distribution costs = 53k

Profit = 197k

Profit Margin = 19.7%.

What does that mean?

At its simplest this means that for every 1m sales i make 197k isk.

it also means:

if i push the margin up from 25% to 30% then the bottom line profits goes up 35%.  Let that sink in.

if i decrease the margin from 25% to 20% then the bottom line profits fall 31%.

That margin is everything.

If any of the other costs such as Courier Costs or Transaction Taxes or Listing Fees rise by 1% then the bottom line profits fall by 5%.

If i increase volumes by 10% then the bottom line rises by 10%.

Basically, if i can raise the margin then that gives me the best bang for my bucks.

Also, from a cash flow point of view - to do a 1m sale i need to spend 783k first.  I do 300bn in a month which means i have spent 235bn getting to that point.

Pearl Abyss Q4 Earnings Call

Pearl Abyss, who are the owners of CCP, had their Q4 results today. 

Full transcript of the call is at the bottom of this post.

The presentation can be found https://irsvc.teletogether.com/pearlabyss/pdf/pearlabyss2024Q4_eng.pdf?2

And, with an English translator, the call recording can be found https://irsvc.teletogether.com/pearlabyss/pearlabyss.php?c=pearlabyss&y=2745

For Eve Online, this was a record Quarter since ownership under Pearl Abyss and a record year since Pearl Abyss bought CCP.

Pearl Abyss

In Q4 Pearl Abyss made an unexpected jump in revenues to 95.7bn Won.  A rise of 13% on Q4 2023 and some 20% better than what the market expected.  The main driver here was better than expected performance at both Black Dessert and Eve Online.  Black Dessert helped by an anniversary event at the end of the year.

Operating profits therefore moved to a 2.4bn Won profit.

Net Profit than exploded to a 46.8bn Won profit in Q4 meaning for the full year whilst there will be an Operating Loss there will be a Net Profit.

This whole difference between Operating Profit and Net Profit has to have alarm bells going.  In the last 12 months Operating Profits are actually a loss of 12bn Won vs Net Profits seeing a profit of 60.9bn Won.  All down to some FX but also their Investment Company.  That implies some cracking profits being made in the Investment Company.

We will get more details on what this difference is when the Full Results are published later in the year.  Hopefully around the end of April.

Crimson Desert

This has been delayed five times since it was first announced back in 2019.  It really needs to come through to get Pearl Abyss back to profits.

Expected launch is late 2025.  That could well push out the DokeV game also.

The net effect of this on Pearl Abyss therefore is to push the Crimson Desert revenues to the right.  That means that 2025 revenues will now be lower than expected.

Eve Online

This Quarter there was no split between Eve Online and Black Dessert in the Presentation.  That was odd.  There is a new Finance Director which may have been the cause but the decision to merger the revenue streams for the Presentation is still odd.

That said, the first analyst question addressed this and the answer was that the proportion of Revenues to each game was the same as in the last quarter.

In Q3 Revenues were 79.5bn which contained Eve 20.6 + Black Dessert 54.0 + Others 4.9.

In Q4 Revenues were 95.7 which includes others at 4.6.  To keep the same proportion therefore, Eve will be 25.1 and Black Dessert 66.0.

That means the growth on Q4 2023 was a massive 26.1% but was close to what I expected on this Blog when I wrote about the Q3 2024 result - i said i was looking for 24bn Won in Q4.

The above chart shows quarterly revenues from Eve IP (=Eve Online + Eve Echoes etc) since Pearl Abyss bought Eve.  You can clearly tell the step up in revenues during the pandemic which looked like it was rolling over during 2023.

However, 2024 has been a real boost of a year with Quarterly revenues getting back to pandemic levels, and then more.

And therefore means the 2024 revenues for Eve IP was 85.2bn Won.  Which is higher than the 2020 pandemic year where revenues got to 73.6bn Won and then fell to 72.9 in 2021, 72.5 in 2022 before rising slightly to 73.0 in 2023.

The analysts that follow the stock now feel more confidence about Eve Online for 2025 and 2026.  For 2025 analysts are now looking for 88bn and for 2926 91bn.

CEO Hilmar will have the player count details, the subs details etc.  So he will know how realistic this looks.

The question, as ever, is if CCP is now profitable.  We wont know that until we see the CCP Accounts in April 2025.

Changing currency, but in 2023 CCP made revenues of USD56m and a loss of USD16m.  Therefore, unless there has been some cost cutting i don't think CCP will be back in profits yet but it should be closer.

Comment made on Eve Online in the transcript

"In case of EVE Online, we featured two expansion packs in EVE Vanguard in 2024 and worked hard to strengthen the EVE lifecycle. In particular, we launched Revenant expansion pack in Q4 and provided a rich variety of things to enjoy to our users. Apart from this, we thoroughly prepared for new services to increase revenue."

"EVE plans to feature expansion pack and diverse content in 2025 as well. In addition, at the EVE Fan Fest in May, we plan to have diverse events and showcase our 2025 roadmap as well. We're also smoothly preparing for a new title to secure our new growth engine. First, EVE IP-based sandbox game EVE Frontier is receiving user feedback and we are refining and polishing the game. Since the game is in its last stages of completion, we will do our best so that we can have great results."

More on Pearl Abyss

The Balance Sheet looks to be in much better health for Pearl Abyss.

The Bonds have been paid off and the whole Liability side of the Balance Sheet looks in much better shape.

On the Asset side, they have these "Financial Instruments" and "Financial Assets" which i will have to look into more carefully when the full set of Accounts are released.

The transcript of the call (translated to English)

Event Date: 02/10/2025
Company Name: Pearl Abyss
Event Description:Y 2024 Earnings Call
Source: Pearl Abyss
Version: Final

For more event information and transcripts,
visit {<a href='custom:bloomberg:263750 KS Equity EVT BB-7081749-1'>263750 KS Equity EVT BB-7081749-1 &lt;GO&gt;</a>}
Y 2024 Earnings Call

Presentation

Operator:
Good morning, and good evening. Thank you all for joining the Conference Call for the Earnings Results of Pearl Abyss. This conference will start with a presentation followed by a Q&A session.

Now, we'll begin the presentation on Pearl Abyss' Fourth Quarter and Annual Earnings Results of the Fiscal Year 2024.


Kim Yoon, Investor Relations:
Greetings. I am Kim Yoon from Pearl Abyss IR Team. First of all, I express my deepest gratitude to the analysts and investors in and out of Korea for taking part in the 2024 Q4 and full-year Pearl Abyss earnings presentation despite your busy schedules.

Before elaborating on today's business results, I would like to ask for your understanding regarding the following. The financial and business results contained in today's earnings release have been prepared for the convenience of investors and is subject to change depending on the final closing of our books. In addition, the accuracy and completeness of the financial and business results in the earnings results material are not guaranteed and the Company is not obliged to give updates of the accounts given after this date. So, please take these factors into consideration.

We have here with us at the earnings presentation today, Pearl Abyss' CEO, Heo, Jin-young; CBO, Kim, Gyeong-man; and CFO, Jae-min Yoon.  We will first hear business performance presentation highlights from CFO, Jae-min Yoon and then engage in a Q&A session.


Jae-min Yoon, Chief Financial Officer:
Greetings. I am Jae-min Yoon, newly appointed CFO of Pearl Abyss. Thank you once again for taking part in our Company's earnings conference call despite your busy schedule.

I would like to touch upon 2024 Q4 and full-year major business activities and performance. Black Desert celebrated 10 years of service in 2024, and while providing more fun content through rich user events, we express our gratitude to the users who were here with the game for a long time. In particular, in June, we hosted a Banquet in Beynac, France, which is the actual Heidel City in the real world. And in December, we expanded our existing Calpheon Banquet in December to Black Desert Festa, and held the biggest-ever festival and provided a venue for celebration where all users can get together and enjoy.

In addition, for Black Desert, we improved the game through system and convenience updates, and provided content based on user opinions, and made preparations for the next 10 years. In particular, in 2023, the final part of the Land of the Morning Light: Seoul was released and completed the Fantasy World which encompasses West and East. Also, we launched the Black Desert China that we had been preparing for a long time and achieved regional expansion. On the other hand, in December, Black Desert introduced the Kurenai class, the first in its world to use guns and provided freshness to the game.

For Console, we launched the New class Dosa, which we first introduced in PC, and implemented consistent updates. For Mobile, we had the New class Kurenai and updated Atoraxxion content where party members can cooperate and enjoy together and worked to add more fun to the game.

In case of EVE Online, we featured two expansion packs in EVE Vanguard in 2024 and worked hard to strengthen the EVE lifecycle. In particular, we launched Revenant expansion pack in Q4 and provided a rich variety of things to enjoy to our users. Apart from this, we thoroughly prepared for new services to increase revenue.

First of all, for Crimson Desert, we provided B2C hands-on demo at G-STAR in November. And in December at TGA, we disclosed new gameplay video showcasing a vast open world and announced our launching schedule. In case of blockchain-based EVE Frontier, we launched a Founder Access pack where users can experience the game in advance and based on user feedback, we are continuously upgrading the game.

Next, I will cover Company's 2024 full-year and Q4 performance. 2024 operating revenue posted KRW342.4 billion and grew 2.7% YoY, and operating loss posted KRW12.1 billion and deficit decreased YoY. Net profit posted KRW61 billion and increased 301.3% YoY. Q4 operating revenue posted KRW95.7 billion and increased 20.4% QoQ. Operating profit posted KRW2.4 billion and net profit posted KRW46.8 billion and turned to a surplus.

I will explain in more detail regarding operating revenue. In this quarter, the operating revenue from gain posted KRW91.1 billion and increased 22.3% QoQ. Other revenue posted KRW4.6 billion and decreased 8% QoQ. To break down operating revenue into different regions, it posted 18% in Korea, 30% in Asia, and 52% in NA in Europe. For the platform breakdown, it was 76% for PC, 20% for Mobile, and 4% for Consoles.

Next, I would like to walk you through operating expenses. Q4 operating expenses posted KRW93.4 billion, a 5.3% QoQ increase. In case of labor expenses, it posted KRW46.9 billion and increased 6.2% QoQ. For your reference, we have 1,306 employees as of end Q4 and there are 739 developers among them, and takes up 57% of total employees. For commissions expenses, it posted KRW18.4 billion, a 8.3% increase QoQ. In case of advertising, due to Crimson Desert marketing for events including G-STAR and TGA, it increased 32.3% QoQ and posted KRW11.8 billion.

Lastly, I will go over 2025 Q1 and 2025 full-year major highlights.

2025 Black Desert will showcase the new Hwanghae region which will connect the last 10 years and the next 10 years together and continue to make diverse attempts to strengthen PvP content. In addition, we will provide not only new content but also provide more convenience-related updates in the game and work hard to continue stable and consistent service. We plan to also strengthen communication with users. In March, we will celebrate the nine years of NA in Europe service and communicate and directly meet with users in the U.S., and provide diverse things for our users to enjoy. In addition, for Black Desert, we showcase the new Dream Horse, Voltarion, which uses lightning, and plan to add Orzekea, the last story to the co-op dungeon Atoraxxion in Q1 as well.

For Black Desert Console, we will launch PlayStation 5 and Xbox XS version in the first half of the year and provide a better experience to users. In addition, we will have a user event which will celebrate five years of Console cross-play and strengthen communication with Console users. In the Q1 update, we gave the Dream Horse to everyone in January and opened the Season Server Dream and plan to help character growth.

In case of Mobile, we plan to feature new content Nightmare Trishira which combines PvP, and PvE, and (inaudible) skills which can enable stronger attacks compared to existing skills.

EVE plans to feature expansion pack and diverse content in 2025 as well. In addition, at the EVE Fan Fest in May, we plan to have diverse events and showcase our 2025 roadmap as well. We're also smoothly preparing for a new title to secure our new growth engine. First, EVE IP-based sandbox game EVE Frontier is receiving user feedback and we are refining and polishing the game. Since the game is in its last stages of completion, we will do our best so that we can have great results.

We plan to launch Crimson Desert in Q4 of this year and we are planning diverse marketing events throughout the year starting with GDC slated for March, we will participate in many game events in the year and promote our game. In addition, we will disclose the launching dates in this process and strictly manage our schedule so that the Q4 launch will not have any issues.

It has been a long time since we first showcased Crimson Desert to the market in 2019. It was our first attempt at a high-quality open-world console market and it took more time than we had expected in the beginning. But we are confident that Crimson Desert will bring about high performance. As many people have been waiting, we will do our best until the end to achieve results that can repay your anticipation. We will look forward to your continued interest and support. Thank you very much.

With this, we will conclude the 2024 Q4 and full-year Pearl Abyss Business Results Presentation and start the Q&A session.


Questions And Answers

Operator:
Now, Q&A session will begin. (Operator Instructions)

The first question will be provided by Jingu Kim from Kiwoom Securities.  Please go ahead with your question.

Jingu Kim, Analyst:
Thank you very much for this opportunity. I am Jingu Kim from Kiwoom Securities, and I have about two large questions. First question is that in Q4, can you give us your take on the China Black Desert online contribution to revenues? And can you give us your current figures for revenues and
traffic as well?

And I saw that in this earnings presentation, there was not a breakdown for different IPs. So, can you give us a breakdown for Black Desert and EVE? And my next question is -- simple question is about the financial profit and loss and it seems that it's KRW53 billion. So, can you give us the more detailed account for that? Thank you very much.

Unidentified Speaker:
Thank you for your question. And I think you asked about the revenues for Black Desert China. Black Desert China started official service in October of last year. And we are actually seeing the performance that that we had predicted internally. However, for Black Desert, it has been already 11 years since it was first started. So, it has been a game that was in the market for a long time. So, we can see that for the performance in China, it is not easy to have as high performance as new titles. Despite that fact, since Black Desert has been seeing great results in the global market for a long time, we are going to make sure that it takes part and settles in the China market very stably so that we can service for a long time and do our best with the publisher.

And regarding our outlook for Black Desert for 2025, because Black Desert has had our know-how for more than 10 years, we will continue our stable and consistent service.

What we have felt for the last 10 years when servicing Black Desert was that based on user communication, what was most important is to show consistent content.

For the next 10 years of service as well, we will listen carefully to the opinions of users and showcase high-quality content so that we can maintain our current revenue level.

You also asked a question about the revenue breakdown for different IPs.

Regarding the revenue breakdown for Black Desert and EVE IP, the breakdown is quite similar to our last presentation numbers.

You asked about our financial P&L and regarding our Q4 financial P&L.

According to the FX rate increase, we had some profits related to FX and we also had the reflection of the valuation gains for investment Company. So, it recorded KRW53.3 billion. For your reference, the equity valuation -- equity value of evaluation for investment Company is being done late each year. 

Let me add a little bit more color to our performance and the background behind that. Regarding our performance for Q4, we saw an increase in Black Desert online revenues and we had very good results.

Including our performance in China, we had a performance increase for all regions and after our Festa in December, we had a very strong rebound in our existing regions including North America and Europe which drove our sales or revenue increase.

And we are in the middle of Q1 I believe right now. And regarding our performance that has been reported so far, it is maintaining very good results. So, we believe that Q1 performance also will be solid.

The answers were given by our CBO, Kim Gyeong Man; CFO, Jae-min Yoon; and CEO, Heo Jin-young. We will take the next question.

Operator:
The following question will be presented by Kim Jae Yun from HSBC. Please go ahead with your question.


Kim Jae Yun, Analyst:
Thank you very much for the opportunity. I am Kim Jae Yun from HSBC and I have some questions related to Crimson Desert. You mentioned that you are going to work hard to launch your game in Q4 without any issues and engage in full-fledged marketing. So, I'm a little bit curious about whether you're going to enjoy or you're going to participate in more diverse events apart from what you had participated in for 2023 and 2024 for different global game shows around the world. So, will that be more or less similar for this year or will you participate in more types of game shows or more marketing efforts?

And my second question, your anticipated package price for Crimson Desert. We are seeing prices for AAA Global games actually go up, so can you give us your position on what you think your pricing will be? Thank you very much.

Jin-young Heo, Chief Executive Officer:
Thank you very much for your questions. And regarding Crimson Desert, we are currently ongoing with the last stage of development which is QA, and making our last preparations for launching.

In addition for successful launching, for this year, we are planning more aggressive marketing.

Starting off with the GDC in March this year, we are going to participate in a variety of game events and we're going to promote our game to users around the world. And this year, we're also going to showcase a new demo build as well.

And we are going to utilize efficiently our marketing expenses and cooperate with our partners and participate in more events so that we can promote our game to more users.

Regarding your question about the anticipated package price, we believe that Crimson Desert will actually exceed the expectations of the market and provide a game which is a game that is very applicable to the vast open world and come up with excellent results.

Regarding many years of development based on our proprietary engine, Crimson Desert has succeeded in accomplishing very high levels of action with high levels of freedom, a very dynamic combat system, and an open world that has a very high degree of completeness.

In addition, during the last two years, we had demos for our partners, various media outlets, and users, and we could find out firsthand the high level of satisfaction.

So, we believe that since our game actually befits the AAA level of quality of other similar games, we are considering a price point that is similar to the games that we believe that we are as good at or even better at.

The answer was given by our CEO, Heo Jin-young. We will take the next question.


Operator:
The following question will be presented by Kim Jinwoo from CGSI. Please go ahead with your question.


Kim Jinwoo, Analyst:
Thank you for the opportunity. I'm curious about the titles you are going to launch after Crimson Desert, so can you tell us more about that? And how many of your developers or employees are working for other titles that will come after Crimson Desert?

Jin-young Heo, Chief Executive Officer:
As we had mentioned, we are actually focusing all of our resources on the launching of Crimson Desert now. However, we are still smoothly developing DokeV with the accumulated assets that we had accumulated so far, and we are considering actually disclosing our development status in an appropriate time within this year.

And we are actually doing our best so that after we launch Crimson Desert, we can actually inject as many development manpower as possible to actually have a fast release of DokeV afterwards. So, we are making those preparations. And for Plan 8 as well, since we are focusing on Crimson Desert and DokeV, the actually showing of Plan 8 is becoming a little bit belated. However, we are going to do our best so that consecutively we can share with you our development process for Plan 8 as well.

And regarding the numbers of developers or development personnel, it's very flexible according to the degree of development of the project, so we can't give you an exact number on how many developers are working on an exact project.

And in the case of Crimson Desert, since the development is nearing its completion, we have more developing personnel that are moving to DokeV.  The answer was given by our CEO, Heo Jin-young.


Operator:
It seems that there are no other questions in the queue, so with this, we will complete our business results presentation session for 2024 Q4 and full year. Thank you very much for your participation.

Eve Excel Addin and the transformation of by Eve business

The summary of the below is that the use of the Eve Excel Addin is transforming my business activities: it is now quicker to update my orders each night; it is quicker to find new items to sell; and 4 characters are about to be freed up to do something else.

How i used to operate

Each of my 6 omega accounts has one character in Jita that buys the items from Sell Orders on the Jita market to be couriered out the other two characters that sit in Trade Hubs to put these items up as Sell Orders.

I use third party couriers.

The Daily Mechanics of all that

I had got the mechanics of this down to a fine art.  Each of the two Selling characters had the items they were selling in their quickbar and each night i would run through these items and update any where they had been undercut by competition and move any that had been sold into another folder on the quickbar.

For the items sold i would check via EveTycoon if it was profitable to buy them from Sell Orders in Jita to relist and I would also cycle through other items that i had listed in other folders on the quickbar to see if they would be profitable to be sold using EveTycoon.

The Jita Character would then buy everything in that folder to be couriered.

That all took me 45 minutes to cycle through half my business and the next night i would cycle through the the other half.

And a lot of using arrow keys and clicking.

And so it went on

How i operate now

All of that is gone.

I have a number of spreadsheets which almost all use the the Excel Addin to do all that, and more.

The "Sales Orders to update" spreadsheet: by being able to list what sell orders a character has up and by being able to compare to the minimum selling price in the Region i can now instantly get a list of sell orders that have been undercut.  I can then copy that list to the quickbar and quickly cycle through them and update the prices.

The "replace and add more" spreadsheet: by being able to list what items have been sold by my character i can determine if it is profitable to buy them again from Jita Sell Orders to sell again at the sales hub.  I can also look at a list of around 2000 items to see if it is profitable to also buy from Jita Sell Orders to sell at the sales hub.  I just keep a temporary list of items on a spreadsheet that i can then use the simple mechanic of copying from spreadsheet to Market Quickbar to allow one character in Jita to do all the buying.

The "put up the sell orders" spreadsheet: by listing what i have bought recently and increasing the purchase price by 4/3 (that gives me the sales price) i can instantly see what price i need to list an item for sale that has been couriered from Jita.

The "monitoring the skill farm" spreadsheet: for all my characters involved in skill farming i can see where all my Skill Extractors and Skill Injectors are located + therefore how many of each i have  + which skill injector Sell Orders have been undercut + last few days of Skill Injector sales + Skill queues so that i can tell who needs skills points extracted.

This means two things

Firstly, i can go through my entire business in 30-45 minutes.  It is fast and accurate.

Secondly, because i am not relying on the Quickbar in the client which is shared by characters in the same account - i don't therefore need a buyer in Jita for every account.  I just need one buyer in Jita.  Therefore, this will free up 4 high skilled characters in Jita to go elsewhere.

. . . . and i suspect they will start in the Manufacturing business.

Month end update - January 2025

I made 74bn profits in January 2025 from which i utilised 9bn of my skill farm (more of that below).  No distributions this month.  Therefore, my wealth rose by 65bn to 2.176 trillion isk.

If i just focus on the 74bn profits then this an above average month.  Real life getting in the way a bit and some serious competition coming into some of my markets.

The big news in January is that i have now covered the cost of the June 2024 Omega / MCT deal such that my skill farming is now pure profit for the next 6 months.

Distributions

These days, the aim is to distribute my profits to the Oz Tank Show or other ventures.

Nothing new in January.

So far i have given 323bn to other Eve shows:

260bn isk to the Oz Tank Show

42.5bn to The Oz Show

5bn to the podcast Declarations of War to sponsor it.

13.2bn to the Nth_Dimensional Twitch show

1.6bn to the Raff_About_It show

The Oz Tank Show started in July 2023 and i have generated profits of 1.246 trillion in the July 2023 - January 2025 period and distributed 323bn.

So that leaves 923bn isk to distribute to some venture(s).

It is early days but the Oz Show is considering having some of its tycoons sponsor a new Corporation.  Lets see.

Six Omega Accounts to pay for / Skill Farming

In June 2024 i went for the MCT / Omega deal and have now pre-funded 6 accounts (so the 4 omega accounts and 2 alpha accounts) for 12 months.

This also took me into Skill Farming for the first time.

I spent 130bn isk on all that - and so how to account for this?  Basically, i could either say that was 130bn spent in one month or i could spread the cost of the 130bn over a timeframe (which is how i have always accounted for Omega bought that lasts for longer than a month).

Accounting for the MCT / Omega Deal

I went for the option of spreading the cost of the 130bn over a time period.

The 130bn bought me a 12 month Omega for 6 of my accounts and 12 months of MCT for 2 characters per Account.

As i skill farm i will generate revenues by selling Large Skill Injectors.

The way i have decided to account for this is to:

I will hold the 130bn on by Balance Sheet and as i sell the Skill Points into the market will will reduce the 130bn by the profits made.  This will mean i will not earn any profits from my Skill Farming until the 130bn asset is exhausted.

During January i fully covered this 130bn.  Therefore, from here on in my Skill Farming activities will be pure profit making.  I hope to make 130bn isk over the next 6 months from all this.

This was a brilliant deal.  The bottom line is that i got 12 month Omega for free and 130bn profits.

The recent deal we saw was also good.  Given my accounts are Omege'd out to June / September i did not go for it.  I am hoping at around that time another deal will come along.

The basic numbers for January

In January i had sales of 386bn isk vs December of 516bn.  So a fall of 25%.

December was my best month ever by a long way, so 386bn in January is not too shabby.  That said, real life was getting in the way so perhaps it could have been better.  The long running average is 330bn.

This comes to average daily sales of 12.5bn isk.  In other words, each evening i expect to see across all my accounts an additional 13bn isk (less transaction taxes) sitting on the characters to be reinvested back into the markets.

Item profits were 110bn isk which is a margin of 39% (110/386).  So above the 25% target.  There will be an upwards distortion from Skill Farming in here which may actually mean that my normal business was running below 25% - that would not surprise me, there was heavy competition in places.

Taxes and Courier fees came to 37bn isk.  That takes the Trading Profits to 74bn isk and so a trading margin of 19.1% (74/386).  Above the 16% target.

Then we have 9bn Skill Farming Asset amortised to take me to 65bn profits

So an ok month.  Could have been better had real life not gotten in the way.

What is needed to get wealth to rise to 100bn in a month?

In some ways, i am there now - lets see if i can get this to work.

I would need to make daily sales of 18bn on my 25% item market - that has never happened.

Therefore, to achieve 100bn profits a month i need to do one or some of three things.

1) Increase my item margin above 25% - possible but a risk.

2) Keep on doing Skill Farming - for the next 5 months i will be earning pure profits from Skill Farming, so this will be done.

3) Expand into station trading - i sort of do that but not to any big deal.  So this is possible.

4) Expand into manufacturing - which i mean to do when i get time.  The interview with Sir SmashAlot on the Oz Show was inspirational.

My Sales Strategy

I am putting more effort into designing spreadsheets using the Eve Excel Addin to both make my online time more efficient and find those items to sell in the Regions quicker.

This is allowing me to move faster each night.  Currently, i can now see which of my trades need updated and go straight to them rather than cycle through all trades.  I can also see which sales have been made so i can see if i can replace them.  I can also see what items i can buy from Jita Sell Orders to put up for sale in the trade hubs and make my target margin.

My strategy is to Buy from Sell Orders in Jita to sell in the trading hubs in other Regions.

I don't sell consumable items such as ammunition given they tend to be high volume and very competitive.  That includes ships.

I rarely sell items used as components in manufacturing because the end buyer tends to be cost conscious (and armed with spreadsheets) and able to manufacture the items themselves if market prices are too high.

I sell items that are in low supply and sell very slowly.  These items tend to have very low competition - sellers want to get cash quickly and so don't bother in these items.  If i put an item on the market and it sells in 15 days that is fine with me.

These items also tend to be price insensitive - players will buy the item almost whatever the price.  The Buyer is much more interested in getting the item to use now rather than setting off to Jita to get it cheaper.

I sell items that are typically bought to kit a ship as a player progresses or has to replace a destroyed ship / pod.

Each month i sell 20-30% of what i had to sell at the start of the month.

I have a rule that the minimum profits have to be 100m isk.  It is no use me buying items for 5m to sell them for 15m.  The profitability may be great but that won't move the dials.  That said, it is surprising how many items i can buy for 120m from Jita Sell Orders and sell for 220m in the other trading hubs.  At that isk level, players re-equipping don't care about spending an additional 100m isk to save time.

And in the secondary trading hubs Amarr / Dodixie / Rens / Hek buyers will not travel even one jump to buy a cheaper item.

Therefore, i mostly sell Implants, Blueprints, ship equipment and some structure modules.  And more recently Large Skill Injectors.

What is selling well in January

I am seeing quite intense competition in Implants in some of my trade locations - like the competitor will reduce the price by 5-10% a shot.  And also seeing competition in Blueprints in some trade locations.

Overall, January was much like September, October and November but with the added competition from above.

Ship Equipment: doing fine over a right old range of items - afterburners, armour repairs, shield repairs, weapons are the main staples.

Blueprints: these continue to plod along and generate good income for me; mostly ship blueprints and some other capital items.  Whilst they are a nice source of income they are also the slowest sellers.  Every week i am updating a price of blueprints to prevent them getting over 90 days old on the market.

Implants: still do well though i have noticed a keen competitor or two in the main trading hubs.  My experience with Implants is that they sell by the family - i.e. the alpha / beta / delta / epsilon / gamma / omega implant all sell to the same buyer at once.  So they can be good earners when they occur.  This is definitely a slowing market for me.

Mining equipment: almost nothing sold other than a few high priced items.  The competition is all over this.

Manufacturing

I do this opportunistically and i don't keep track of it.  I don't (yet) do it systematically but i need to get a grip.  I am sure there are many items i sell in the Trade Hubs that i could manufacture in Jita and so get a better in price vs buying them from Jita Sell Orders.

But so far i manufacture items that sell for over 1bn isk.  My favourite items are where the Blueprint Original costs >10bn and there are no Copies in the Contract Market.  Sort of makes me feel i have the market to myself.

That said, the Oz Show had a great interview with Sir SmashAlot where he talked about his manufacturing activities to the tune of making over 1 trillion profits per month!  And the author of the blog I wanna be a Trillionaire, so frickin' bad... has moved into manufacturing and is making a good job of it.

That has made me think more about giving manufacturing a shot and so i logged back into old characters to bring them into the fold and so that i can start again on manufacturing.

Planetary Interaction

For now, i have stopped trying to make this work.

Research

For now, i have stopped trying to make this work.

Station Trading

All in Jita.  And i am not focusing on this for now, so only 15bn sales.

I don't really have a process up and running that is scalable.

My idea of station trading is not buying items when they look cheap.  For me, station trading is about sticking to the slow moving items and quite often i am the only person in Jita trying to sell an item.  Almost always Selling for over 1bn isk.

What i don't do is Investing.  I.e. i don't buy an item now i think is cheap and hold onto it to sell it a few months later when the price has risen.

Alpha Accounts

I have 1 Alpha account with a character in Venal left.  All the others were upgraded to Omega last summer to start Skill Farming.

I also added another character to that account and am training it up to 5m skill points.  The idea here is to get another set of Alpha Accounts ready for Skill Farming sometime in the future if needed.

Plex

At the start of September i bought 8000 Plex at around 5.3m each.  The main reason for doing this is to have a store of plex ready in case of any deals on the NEX store that comes along.  I now have 18,300 Plex.

Items in hanger for sale

There are a number of items that i sell that can only be sourced from Regions outside of The Forge (the home of Jita).

I used to have these items couriered directly to the trading location to sell but that has proved to be tedious over time.

Therefore, i now have the items couriered to Jita and stored.  When a trade location needs one of these items to be sold i can then courier them from Jita - a much easier process to handle.

In effect this means i am couriering these items twice - once to Jita and once to the trade location.  Therefore, i add the additional courier cost to the Sale's price.

I also hold some BPOs + minerals + other items in inventory.

All that comes to around 155bn.

Furthermore, i am buying Skill Extractors all the time and i hold Large Skill Injectors for sale.  Currently, these come to around 179bn.

And finally, the old characters i logged back into came with around 110bn of items in their hangers.  I should start dealing with this to turn it into ISK.

What it means is that items in Hangers used to be 20bn but is now 444bn (this also now includes Skill Extractors and Large Skill Injectors).

Buy Orders

Buy Orders have varied over time and peaked at around 80bn as i was also buying Skill Extractors.  However, i now have enough Skill Extractors for a few months so i have slowed down and so the Buy Orders now 64bn.

Once i get a grip, Buy Orders will also increase as i ramp up the Station Trading in Jita.

Currently Buy Orders sit at 64bn which is part Skill Extractor Buy Orders and Jita Buy Orders to station trade items.

ISK

I have 133bn spare ISK kicking around.

For the last 12 months the average ISK in wallets has been over 100bn compared to around 50bn before this.

The reason for his is purely real life being busy and so not having the time to make sure everything is invested.

It feels a waste - i should have as much as i can invested.  I have Plex ready for any NES deals that come along.

2 trillion wealth

Before i got to 1 trillion wealth, 2 trillion was the next aim.

But, it just got boring watching my wealth rise so i set myself the task of giving everything above 1 trillion away.

However, my wealth is now 2 trillion despite giving away 323bn and taking a provision of 324 bn.  If neither of these things had been done then my current wealth would be 2.9 trillion isk.

Current Wealth

Current wealth is 2.176 trillion ISK made up from:

• Plex held as an investment 111bn ISK
• Items in hanger for sale 444bn ISK
• Items in hanger for use in business 11bn ISK
• Omega brought forward 0bn ISK
• Buy orders on the market 64bn ISK
• items for sale 1.77 trillion ISK

• less a 20% provision 353bn ISK*

• ISK in wallet 133bn ISK

When i add up my wealth, I don't count assets I use in the course of my business such as ships, fittings etc nor do I add back any expenses such as skills purchased etc.  The wealth I disclose is made up of items that are ISK or are in the process of being converted to ISK or are used to generate isk that can be readily resold back onto the market.  Any ships or skills or fittings etc i buy are counted as expenses in that month.  The only exception to this rule is Blueprint Originals i use for manufacturing.  They are held at cost.

* I take a 20% provision against the items I am selling.  Eve calculates wealth by adding up the value of the sell orders hence it is possible to increase your wealth by buying an item for 100m ISK and putting a sell order for 120m ISK (in this case your wealth would increase by 20m ISK).  For me, I want my wealth to be calculated at cost.  I know that the value of my sell orders will likely fall over time as I update my orders downwards as competition reduces their prices before my items are sold.  Hence the 20% provision is my best guess as to what the maximum reduction I would need to make to my sell orders as a whole before they are sold.  In an ideal world I would value my sell orders at the value which I bought the items for.

MCT deal from June 2024 - now paid off leaving 6 months pure profit to come

The June 2024 Omega and MCT Deal

Back in June 2024 i took advantage of what was a brilliant deal to buy 12 months of Omega (the game ticket to allow premium play) and 24 MCT (allows me to train the other 2 characters in an account) for all my 6 accounts.

I actually upgraded 2 of my Alpha accounts to Omega to participate further in this.

My view at the time was that i could take part in this and through the skill farming from all the characters i did not need to train anymore i could pay for the cost in 6 months and then make good profits in the final 6 months.  And therefore get the 12 months of Omega for free.

The result to date (actually to mid January 2025)

The cost was 130bn isk - that was the catch, you had to have c22bn or so per account lying around.

In 6 months I have covered all the costs amd made profits of 4bn isk after all costs including taxes.  So the 130bn is now covered.  Inline with expectations.

Therefore, i have 6 more months of pure profit making to come from skill training.  Not unfair to assume i can make another 135bn in that time.

So, this deal in June got me 12 months of Omega for free and i will make total profits of 135bn.  Fantastic.

Profit vs Cash

Worth noting that i am still buying Skill Extractors to cover for the next 6 months.  Therefore, although i am in profit the net cash spent (sales less all costs) is still 181bn isk.  As is the case in real life, profit is not cash but they do converge over time.

How does this reconcile?  Well, I have 149bn of Skill Extractors in inventory and 36bn of Skill Injectors in inventory, and then the cash spent of 181bn.  Hence, 149+36-181 = 4bn profit.

The 36bn of Skill Injectors are valued at lower than the bid price of Jita - so i am comfortable there.  The 149bn of Extractors reflects the price i paid for them and they will be converted into higher value Skill Injectors anyway - so i am comfortable with the value of these.

The maximum net cash i had spent during all this was 261bn.  That reflects the 130bn initial cost and then buying Skill Extractors at good prices to get the Skill Farm flowing.

The Accounting of this all.

For the Accountants here, the below shows the Profit & Loss Account, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement of this venture.

The narrative above discussed the Balance Sheet.

Tbe Profit & Loss Statement shows 280bn of sales, 13.6bn of Gross Profits and then after Transaction Taxes and Broker Fees gives the Profits of 3.8bn.

The "Cost of Sales" is made up of isk spent on extractors and startup less items i have in inventory.  i.e. what is going on here is that if i spend 100bn on extractors but still had 80bn of them in inventory then for the purposes of this profit calculation i recognise that as 20bn spent as costs.

The Cashflow statement shows how the profits of 3.8bn ends up being cash spent of 180.6bn.  The answer is that i have spent 148bn on skill extractors that i still hold in inventory and i have 36bn of Injectors still to sell.  In the Accounting world that is known as the "movement in working capital".

Another 12 month Omega for Free + 24 month MCT - still a good deal in the New Eden Store

The same deal we saw in June 2024 which i wrote about here is back.  The bottom line is that if you are willing to commit at least 2 of your characters in an Account to skill farming with maximum skill point generation then you will get 12 month Omega for free.

Ends on 28 January.

You will need 26bn per account to get the 12 month deal (unless you already have the Plex) and then some more to buy some skill extractors.

That said, it is not as good a deal as June 2024.  The Profits have halved.  And if you only have 2 characters in an Account Skill Farming you will break even (=you get 12 month Omega for free, so that's still a good deal).  If you have 3 characters skill farming then you will get the 12 month Omega for free and make a profit of 16bn over 12 months,

So, right now in the New Eden Store you can buy 1 mth / 3 mths / 6 mths / 12 mths of Omega and enough MCT certificates to keep all your characters in the Account training over the period of the Omega you buy.

Lets do the Maths for a dedicated Skill Farming Account

The below is for a dedicated skill farming account.  Assumes going for the 12 month deal, the Plex cost 5.3m, 45 skill points per minute, cost per skill extractor 535m and cost per skill injector 830m (these are after tax numbers).

Total Set up costs 26bn, profits from buying skill extractors and selling skill injectors 42bn.  Therefore total profits 16bn which is just over 1.3bn per month.

For the June 2024 deal, the Set up costs were lower at 22bn isk because Plex was lower and the Price is Skill Injectors was higher at 900m isk vs 830 today.  Therefore, back in June 2024 the Total profits were 30bn isk which was almost 2.5bn isk per month.

If you did the 3 month deal you would make 8bn profits over all (=0.7bn per month), if you did the 6 month deal you would make 12bn profit (=1.0bn per month).

Lets do the Maths for a 2 character Skill Farming Account

The below is for a normal account where 2 characters are skill farming.  Assumes going for the 12 month deal, the Plex cost 6.3m, 45 skill points per minute, cost per skill extractor 535m and cost per skill injector 830m (these are after tax numbers).

Total Set up costs 26bn, profits from buying skill extractors and selling skill injectors 28bn.  Therefore total profits 2bn which is just over 0.2bn per month.

So, its tights.  Too tight.  If Skill Injectors move down or Skill Extractors move up then it fails.  But . . . . . . you will still end up paying a fraction for 12 month Skill Injectors vs normal.

If you did the 3 month deal you would make 8bn profits over all (=0.7bn per month), if you did the 6 month deal you would make 12bn profit (=1.0bn per month).

Omega for Free

In both cases, therefore, the Omega effectively comes for free as long as the skill farming is kept up.

In the case of the dedicated skill farming account the initial capital is paid off in just under 6 months.

In the case of the normal account the initial capital is paid off in just over 11 months.

Final Word

The maths is worse for 1 / 3 / 6 month deal.  You really need to go for the 12 month deal to get the best outcome.

For those that want to see the 3 / 6 / 12 month data in one place

(these are before tax)