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Sunday 3 December 2023

Platinum Starter Pack Offer for 48 hours - great deal, 3 months Omega for free.

If like me you Plex your account and tend to take the three month Omega deal for 1200 Plex then this offer is a great deal.


The deal

Only one per account.

In the new Eden Store (accessed ingame) there is an offer for the Platinum Starter Pack.

It costs you 1501 Plex.

It gives you:
3x 30 day Omega
10x Skill Extractors
2x Multiple Pilot Training
650,000 skill points
a number of skins and suits
1x Expert 'boost' Cerebral Accelerator (this activates immediately on the character that bought the deal, +10 to all learning attributes, lasts for 10 days)


The numbers

Plex is currently selling for 5m, so the cost of the deal is 1501x5.032 = 7.553bn

costing up what i get:

  • 3 months of Omega i can get for 1200 Plex in the New Eden Store = 1200 x 5.032 = 6.038bn
  • I am ignoring the 2 months of Multiple Pilot Training because i don't normally Skill Farm
  • 10 Skill Extractors can be sold for around 400m each = 10x400 = 4bn
  • And for now lets ignore the Skill Points
  • The Skins and Suits come to a few sundry millions

So, the Deal gives me 10.2bn worth of items.

Or, put it another way, if i sold the Extractors i would get 3 months of omega for (6.038-4.0) = 2bn isk and then on top of that 2 Multiple Pilot Training Certificates and 650,000 skill points.

If i then skill farmed and assumed i would make 37.5 skill points per minute per character then i would get 37.5 x 60 x 24 x 30 x 2 = 3,240,000 skill points.  That gives me 6 skill extractors to fill (at 500,000 skill points each).  Each Skill Extractor makes a profit of around lets say 400m = 2.4bn.

and that then covers the rest of the cost of the Omega.  In other words, i get 3 months Omega for Free.

And some fancy pants suits and skins.  And 650,000 Skill Points to advance my training character.  And what ever was left from the Multiple Pilot Training certificates that i could not put into an extractor.

Friday 17 November 2023

Month end update - October 2023

I made 74bn profits in October 2023 of which 62bn was distributed on to the Oz Tank Show and the Eden Halloween give away.  Therefore, my wealth rose by 12bn isk to 1.170 trillion isk.

These days, the aim is to distribute my profits to the Oz Tank Show.  Hence, my wealth will barely increase and any monthly surplus will all be given away at some point.


Four Omega Accounts to pay for

Keeping 4 accounts on Omega cost me 8.2bn isk in October - i took part in one of the CCP deals which i detailed in this post - it was a great deal.  The 74bn isk profits comes after this 8.2bn isk cost.

I greatly suspect CCP will keep doing these Omega deals - and for me the 3 month deal is always the best.


74bn isk profits sounds great but there is a lot going on in there

Firstly, around three months ago i took part in a Omega-MCT deal which i discussed here.  Essentially, i paid 3bn isk for 3 months of multiple character skill training for all my Omega Accounts.  It was the deal of a life time.  i reckoned that would generate me 50bn profits at the time.  Infact, it generated me 41bn - looks like i did not trade in all my additional skill points.

Therefore, my normal profits were 33bn ( = 74-41) which is around 1bn per day.

Not too shabby but not the 2bn per day i was getting used to.

I find myself a little concerned, i should be doing much better in October and November feels slow also.


Also, good job in paying out 62bn isk to the Oz Tank and Eden Halloween Event

Again, there is a bit more to this.

I actually paid 67bn to the Oz Tank Show + 10bn to Golden CEO Zero Tax Market project + 5bn to Eden Trade Halloween Event.  That is 82bn paid.

However, in August and September i had accrued 10bn in each month to pay Golden CEO but he decided that he did not need his monthly 10bn until October.  Therefore, i wrote back the 20bn accrued which effectively meant my distributions in October were 82 - 20 = 62bn.

That makes the total distributions i have made to mostly the Oz Tank Show of 160bn isk in the last 4 months.

So, from July onwards i have made profits of 206bn isk and distributed 160bn of it.  I aim to distribute all the monthly profits i make,

As i write this, i have promised another 101bn isk in November in the November Oz Tank Show.


The basic numbers

In October i had sales of 334bn isk which breaks down as 83bn isk of skill farming sales + 251bn isk of normal sales.  I would have to go back to March 2022 to see 250bn of normal sales - that indicates why i am concerned.  October should not be this slow.

Item profits were 116bn isk which again breaks down as 45bn skill farming profits + 71bn isk normal profits.  That means that my normal item profits were 28% (71/250) which are at the upper end of the normal range.  So no problems on profitability.

Taxes and Courier fees came to 34bn isk.  Then add in the 8bn plex cost to Omega 4 accounts takes me to 74bn profits made in October.

Then 62bn distributions takes me to my wealth rising 12bn isk in the month.


Skill Farming

Over 3 months i trained all the characters in my Omega accounts with the aim of harvesting the skills generated form the 2 non-jita characters in each account.

in total i harvested 41m skill points.  I paid an average of 462m isk per skill extractor and sold each large skill injector for 902m isk.

Because i was always going to omega my accounts then i don't count the cost of this omega when thinking about skill farming.


What i am selling

Same as usual - Implants, Blueprints, ship equipment.

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 wont move the dials.  That said, it is surprising how many items i can buy for 120m and sell for 220m.  At that isk level, players re-equipping don't care about spending an additional 100m isk to save time.

There is a competitor for the Blueprints in a few of my trading locations now.  Updating their prices daily.  Will be a battle of attrition.  But i can't give up and therefore it is a costly battle of attrition.

Implants are doing the best now and i often sell a family of implants at a time (i.e. the alpha, beta, delta, epilson, gamma and omega implant).


Lower than hoped sales over October

For the matter of the lower than hoped sales over October I suspect part of my problem is that i have done two things over recent months that have gone down the liquidity curve:

1) I have more focused on selling items where there is zero competition.  That tends to be the items that sell the least frequently, even by my standards.

2) I have not reviewed the market to look for new items to sell.  Therefore i have not refreshed by target sell list for too long.


Manufacturing

All but on hold for now - i don't really have enough time to devote to it.  I would love to find a system or process  that would allow me to have continuous manufacturing in place to make decent profits.


Planetary Interaction

Not gone any further and stopped the trial over the summer.

That may still work.  Profits in High-Sec are too low for me given the time required to make it all work.

Maybe low or null sec will work but that is a project for a another day.


Station Trading

All in Jita.  This is going ok though slowed down in October to 14bn.  Takes up very little time so i will stick with it for now.


Alpha Accounts

They have all now stopped trading.  Other than Arnon and Alentene, all the other locations show little promise at this stage.  I will keep them on but they will be dormant for now.


Non-Trading activities

Putting Manufacturing on hold and stopping Planetary Interaction all makes sense but is a little sad for me.  I would love to find another isk making activity that would fit into my schedule.


Current Wealth

Current wealth is 1.17 trillion ISK made up from:
  • Plex held as an investment 0bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for sale 41bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for use in business 11bn ISK
  • Omega brought forward 28bn ISK
  • Buy orders on the market 40bn ISK
  • items for sale 1.2 trillion ISK
  • less a 20% provision 244bn ISK*
  • ISK in wallet 77bn 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.

Thursday 9 November 2023

Pearl Abyss Q3 2023 results

Pearl Abyss has released its Q3 results (July - September 2023).  The webcast and link to their presentation is on their website.


Overall



Revenues were down 12.7% Q3 2023 vs Q3 2022 and up 8.3% vs Q2 2022.

A small operating profit was made though this is still down 82.5% vs Q3 2022, and at the bottom line the net profit was still down 29.6% vs Q3 2022.

Focus on the Revenues and Operating Profits - they tell the story.  The Net Profits has all sorts of things going on that don't really relate to gaming.

The big news was the delay to the launch of Crimson Harvest.  It had been expected to launch in mid 2024, that has been pushed back to 2025.  This has surprised many people - Pearl Abyss was talking about the 2024 launch as recently as August at Gamescom.  Also, this follows on from prior delays to the game launch - so worries setting in that there is a problem.

This has pushed back other games as their developers focus on Crimson Harvest.  So DokeV now pushed back to 2026.

In all 2024 revenue hopes will likely need to be almost halved from where anyone thought they would be been before this update.

The net effect of this is that Pearl Abyss profits remain reliant on Black Desert and Eve Online and so profits will be very small, at best.  Black Desert continues to be in decline, so Pearl Abyss could see losses.

The share price fell 8% which makes it flat over a week - so the shares gave back what they had made on some more optimistic hopes from one broker.  That said, sentiment has turned negative on the shares.


What did Management say about Eve?

As usual, not much.

No hard numbers other than revenues (see below).

In the narrative they said:

"For EVE Online, we saw a slowdown in revenue in Q3 due to the base effect of the Viridian update we launched in Q2. However, we continue to see the strength of the EVE IP with new updates, and most importantly, the largest EVE Fanfest ever held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of service.

Notably, the event not only announced news about updates in the second half but also new titles in development, including EVE Vanguard and the EVE Galaxy Conquest. It was an opportunity to showcase EVE's new roadmap for the next decade, carrying on a successful legacy of 20 years in service."

"EVE will also be providing various contents to service. Most notably the new expansion pack EVE Havoc is planned to be released soon, which will support more diversified game play compared to the as-is with new story elements to add more fun to the game."

"We are also preparing for the soft launch of EVE Galaxy Quest, which we announced at Fanfest. EVE Galaxy Conquest is a casual mobile version of the EVE IP that combines exploration, diplomacy, and PvP combat. We're checking those metrics after the soft launch, with a global launch plan for sometime in 2024. Also EVE Vanguard, an FPS expansion pack designed to bring EVE from ship scale to human scale, is undergoing preparations to be made available to select users from December.

EVE Vanguard has been designed to create an organic relationship with EVE Online that goes beyond just playing an FPS game. It took the best parts of Dust 412, a different version of FPS of the EVE IP, and fixed the weak spots. And it has been designed to be both an expansion pack of EVE Online and have its own VM. We expect to see energy with EVE Online sales as well as increased sales of the EVE IP in the future."



Focusing on Eve online - the numbers

Literally, this is it:


In Q3 2023 Eve generated 16.0bn Won in revenues vs 20.2bn Won in Q2 2023 and 19.4bn Won in Q3 2022.


Focusing on Eve online - some analysis looking at the movement in Omega Accounts

Firstly, right off the bat, what we don't know is how the revenue is split between paid monthly subscriptions and other revenues such as paying for Plex, Injectors, etc.

But lets assume, for a moment, it is mostly subscription and the movement in revenues can be explained by pricing and volumes.

When thinking about is 16.0bn Won good or bad, we have to compare the prior year to get a fair comparison (i.e Q3 2022) because that irons out seasonal issues.

In Q3 2022 Eve generated 19.4bn Won.

We have to remember that in Q2 2022 CCP increased the subscription price by 30%.  Lets assume therefore that the Q3 2022 revenues had the full price rise in as does the Q3 2023.  Therefore, the difference between Q3 2023 and Q3 2022 will be currency and Omega Account numbers.

Quick check on currencies:




The average rates of Won vs USD, Euros and GBP moved +6%, -2% and -5% respectively between Q3 2022 to Q3 2023.  Lets therefore assume the overall currency effect was 0% - makes the maths easier.

Therefore, that implied that Omega Account numbers fell 17-18% between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023.  That is sort of what we estimated when we looked at the Q2 2023 numbers three months ago.

That is Omega Account numbers, not player numbers.  A player can drop Accounts or downgrade Accounts from Omega to Alpha but still remain a player in the game.


Comparing to pre-pandemic

We also know that gaming companies benefited from the covid lockdowns.  So it will be fair to compare Q3 2023 (where everyone is out of lockdown) to Q3 2019 which is the last Q3 before the pandemic.

In Q3 2019 Eve generated 14.6bn Won.

Since then the subscription price has risen 30%.

Quick check on currencies:




The average rates of USD, Euros and GBP moved -11%, -8% and -10% respectively between Q3 2019 to Q3 2023.  Lets call it -10%.

Therefore, in constant currency the revenues from Q3 2019 to Q3 2023 fell 2% (= (16.0/14.6) x (1-10%) -1)

However, between Q3 2019 and Q3 2023 there was a 30% increase in subscription prices and therefore that indicates that Omega Account numbers fell by 24% (= (16.0/14.6) x (1-10%) x (1/(1+30%)) -1)



The complete (translated) Transcript of the webcast is below:

Sunday 29 October 2023

Becoming a trillionaire - Fanfest 2023 Talk by Eden Trade

At this year's Fanfest, Eden Trade gave a talk on how he became a trillionaire in Eve, titled "becoming a tycoon".

Well worth listening to, good slides, very open and takes 45 minutes.

The Journey started in 2019 and today Eden Trade is making 60bn isk profits per month and is aiming for 100bn per month.  He has 60 trade characters, so thats 20 accounts that be spends 40-50bn isk per month for Omega.


There are always three parts to this type of talk i enjoy

1) the strategy and the evolution of the business model from the start to today

2) the excitement of the journey as milestones are reached, the ups & downs and then the 1 trillion is hit.

3) future plans


The Strategy and Business Model

The strategy of Eden Trade is to create new market hubs in High Sec outside of the main trading hubs and to sell items that have decent daily volume.

He buys from Sell Orders in Jita, has the items couriered to his Trade locations and puts them up for sale for around a 25% market up.

He faces next to no competition and so has great sales and profit margins.

He is very open, he shows us where is trade locations are and what he typically sells (ammo is the second biggest item!, Rigs the highest, weapons in number three followed by mining equipment).

He goes through how his strategy and business model has evolved over time and a more recent inclusion of a data person will likely result in a further evolution of the business model to move away from items that don't sell.

And good slides on the lessons he has learned, how he chose the locations.

In summary, he is filling a gap in the market where demand clearly exists.  Like me, he exists because people will value their time highly and so will not make the journey to Jita to buy items if these items are available closer to them at a higher price.


The journey to becoming a trillionaire

Eden Trade takes us through 2019 to today, showing the ups and downs.  How he initially had investors that have since all been repaid.

Always exciting to listen to the point where a business model is bedded down enough to gather momentum on its own.


Eden Trade information

Eden Trade has his own youtube channel and discord server.

He is also an investor on the Oz Tank show (a show where Eve players pitch ideas, whether content of investment ideas, to trillionaires who then decide how much to contribute.

Monday 23 October 2023

Month end update - August / September 2023

Busy times, i was away for half of September.


Profits after everything including Plex

In August my profits were 39bn isk and in September my profits were also 39bn isk, after paying 8.2bn in each month to upgrade to Omega for another 30 days for four accounts.

August was a typical slow summer month where as September i was only around for half of it.

That said, October is proving to be a slow month which is surprising me.


Distributions made

From those profits i distributed a total of 55bn isk to the Oz Tank Show, making my total distributions made or due to the Oz Tank Show to 98bn isk.

At the start of October, i distributed or promised a further 77bn isk.

My aim is to distribute all the profits i make.

So, to put this in context in July onwards i have made profits of 132bn isk and distributed 98bn isk.  Then add in the 77bn distributed in October.


Total Wealth

Therefore, at the end of September my total wealth was 1.16 trillion isk.


What i am selling

Same as usual - Implants, Blueprints, ship equipment.

There is a competitor for the Blueprints in a few of my trading locations now.  Updating their prices daily.  Will be a battle of attrition.


Current Wealth

Current wealth is 1.16 trillion ISK made up from:
  • Plex held as an investment 0bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for sale 26bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for use in business 11bn ISK
  • Omega brought forward 8bn ISK
  • Buy orders on the market 51bn ISK
  • items for sale 1.2 trillion ISK
  • less a 20% provision 238bn ISK*
  • ISK in wallet 128bn ISK from which 20bn of Oz Tank distributions need to be taken off

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.

Sunday 15 October 2023

Plex / Omega deal - 3 months is great value

For the first time in a long time the 1 month Omega cost has been discounted from 500 Plex to 350 and the 3 month Omega cost also discounted from 1200 to 1050 (it had sat on a long term discount from 1500 to 1200 previously).

This deal closes on 17 October and is available on the New Eden Store.

The cost of the other Omega times had not changed from their long term discounts.

As ever, the question is what is the best deal and the answer to that really depends on how you use your ISK in the game.


The thought process for an ingame business to decide which is the best deal

For me, i operate an ingame business and so the answer is not as clear as it may first appear to be.

For example, if i chose to buy 3 month Omega for all my 4 Omega accounts i would be spending 21bn isk vs the more usual 23bn, if no discount at all is given, 29bn.  But the calculation does not stop at comparing the 21bn cost to the other costs i would have paid.

I need to ask myself what 21bn invested into my business would have done.  Maybe the answer is just to take the 1 month deal for now, who knows.

Fortunately, i can work this out by asking myself the question of what my business would need to return each month if i decided to invest in the one month Omega each month instead of taking the 3 or 6 or 12 or 24 month deals:


The key column in the table above is the last column.  This tells my what my monthly return on my business must be to do better than taking the Omega deal.  (the working process is at the bottom of this post).

The clear winner is the 3 month deal where my business would need to do better than 51% returns each month - that is unlikely to happen.


The calculation process

What i do is compare two assumptions.  Lets use an example of the 3 month Omega deal:

If i go for it then i would spend 5.1bn isk per account vs the normal cost of 7.4bn isk, so a saving of 2.2bn isk for what is a 30% discount.

However, i must also compare this to taking that 5.1bn isk, buying a one month Omega and investing the rest in the business.  Then taking buy the next month Omega the following month from the profits and so on until the end of month 3.  For this to be a better use of the isk i need to work out what the monthly return needs to be - in this case for the 3 month Omega it is 51% each month.


Thursday 24 August 2023

Month end update - July 2023

As at the end of July 2023 my wealth is 1.13 trillion ISK after paying 8.2bn to upgrade to Omega for another 30 days for four accounts.

I am an Investor on the Oz Tank and during July i distributed 42.5bn isk to projects that were presented.

Hence, in July i generated profits of 54.0bn isk and distributed 42.5bn isk, therefore my wealth rose by 11.5bn isk.

Technically, my wealth is 1.4 trillion ISK but i always take a 20% provision against Sell Orders to be conservative.  Hence i quote 1.13 trillion.

Much like June, July was was a slower month and August is shaping up to be much the same.


Quick Summary of July

A slower month vs June and much more like a summer month.  Some days did not happen and some hit the jackpot.

That said, sales actually rose 3% vs June.

But profits fell 12%.  For the first time in since November 2021 my item market was below the target 25% at 24.4%.

In the last 12 months i have made sales of 4.4 trillion isk and profits (after everything including Plex but before distributions to the Oz Tank Show) of 732bn isk having spent 84bn on Plex.

And then i distributed 43bn to the Oz Tank Show.


The next goal

For the last 9 months, my daily profits have been around 2.6 billion isk generated by daily sales of over 10bn.  From this i need to take the Plex off but i have long left the days of trying to make 10bn profits in a month and then 1bn per day.

We are onto new higher levels.

So the aspiration is now if i can make 100bn profit in a month before Plex and Distributions.  That is likely a winter aim when things rack up.  But an aim nonetheless.


Activity

I continue to come on once a day to update Sell orders and replace items sold.  About 30-45 minutes.  Getting closer to 45 minutes these days.

There are some week days where i don't log in at all if sales are low (summer can be slow) and/or real life time is tight.


Target daily sales required to achieve 2 bn profits per day

In summary, i generally need to make around 15bn sales per day assuming my item margin is 25%

As the cost of plex rises then my daily sales requirement also rises.

On the current taxation levels to make 60bn ISK per month (=2bn per day) i would need to cover:
 - Plex costs of 4 x 500 x 4.7m = 9.4bn
 - Courier costs 2% of sales (i.e. = purchase cost + collateral)
 - Broker Listing fees 1.5% of sales
 - Broker re-listing fees 0.3% of sales (lets assume all sales changed at least five times per month)
 - Transaction Taxes 3.6% of sales

That all works out at 425bn monthly sales will generate profits, after all costs including Plex, of 60bn isk. = 14.2bn daily sales.

Bottom line is that assuming i make my 25% profit margins then each 1bn of sales creates profits of 164m and these go towards buying Plex for the Omega accounts and whatever is left is reinvested in the business.


Looking at some sensitivity analysis

- if my item margins were 28% instead of 25% then i need only make 360bn isk of sales (or 12bn per day)

- if Plex rose from 4.7m to 5.0m then then i need to make 430bn isk of sales (or 14.3bn per day)



Review of the July aims

Overall, the aim was to keep sales from falling 20% - same as June

1) Plex the four omega accounts - aim number one all the time - achieved

2) Hold sales in Dodixie to down 20% - achieved, up 49%

3) Hold sales in Amarr to down 20% - missed, down 23%

4) Hold sales in Rens to down 20% - achieved, up 20%

5) Hold sales in Hek to down 20% - missed, down 27%

6) Hold sales in Sobaseki to down 20% - achieved, up 9%

7) Hold sales in Tush-Murkon Prime to down 20% - achieved, up 4%

8) Ramp up Arnon and Alentene - ongoing

9) Hold the investment and profits in Manufacturing - achieved, profits up to 1.5bn

On balance, a better month than expected for sales, weaker on margins so on balance a success.


Reminder of my Current Business.

For now 99% of what i do is inter-regional trading - buying from Sell Orders in Jita to sell elsewhere.  The rest is made up from Manufacturing and some Station Trading in Jita.

For Trading i focus on slow moving but high margin items.  That keeps me away from fierce competition and i only need to sell an item once every 10 days to make good income.  In other words, i don't really care if an item sells once every 10 or 20 days, if have many hundreds of items for sales across Eve and so each days a few items will sell and that generates all my income.

To put this in perspective.  I had Sell Orders of 1.2 trillion up at the start of July which generated sales of 394bn.  In other words, i sold between 1% to 2% of everything i had for sale every day.  That is slow and i like it.  Not for me the cut and thrust of high volume low margin world.  Slow and easy for me.  Tortoise and hare stuff.

My business model evolves over time.  As my wealth increases i focus on higher value items.  Therefore, i try also to stick to the rule of making a minimum of 100m profit per item sold.  i.e. if i buy an item for 70m then i aim to sell it for at least 170m isk.  This makes sure i don't waste my time on making low absolute profits and so preserves the 45 minute rule.

My main business is operated with four omega accounts (paid for with plex) with twelve alts.

The main Trading alts (all Omega) sit in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens and Hek.  I have also omega alts in the new Trading locations of Sobaseki (in Lonetrek), Tash-Murkon Prime (in Tash-Murkon), Arnon (in Essence) and Alentene (in Verge Vendor).

The other Omega four alts sit in Jita and buy from Sell Orders, has these items couriered to the alts in Dodixie / Amarr and Rens / Hek and Sobaseki / Tash-Murkon Pime and Arnon / Alentene who then put them onto these markets for sale.

The Jita alts also serve to sell items that i can no longer sell in my trading locations  Sort of clearance sales.

I also started in December 2021 to place alpha alts in other regions to see how it goes.  I just need two of them to demonstrate that they can combine to justify an Omega account.  Also, they need to take up very little of my time.  So far the Sobesaki / Tash-Murkon alts and Arnon / Alentene made the grade and were upgraded in two accounts.

The other regions so far are: Placid; Citadel and Khanid.  And i am in an NPC station in Delve and Outer Ring.  I have started in Venal.

I am struggling to make the Low Sec locations work.


What do i sell?

I sell blueprints, skill books, implants and ship equipment.

I am trialling selling structures like jump gates, stations, station modules and other infrastructure items.  This is doing better than i expected.


What was selling in July?

Implants, structures and ship equipment did well.  Blueprints picked up a bit.

There is still a Blueprint competitor in Dodixie and Amarr who i am fighting.  They seem to be on 24/7.

Implants are still doing well and tend to be the most competitive - i am slowly expanding into more types and moving up the ISK value curve.  And rolling them out to all my Trade Hubs.  They don't sell quickly but when they do i tend to get a whole family sold at a time (alpha, beta, delta, epsilon, gamma, omega).  Again, that's how i like it.  A 1-5 billion or so of investment can take 30 days to sell.

Ship equipment is a staple revenue stream for me.  Especially Vorton items.  and Deadspace items.

Mining equipment is making a comeback of sorts but is competitive.

Skill books are now my lowest income generator - very few sales now.  Barely happening at all.


Jita

I do station trading in Jita (that is - put Buy Orders up in Jita and then when those Buy Orders are executed i then put the item up for Sale in Jita at a higher price).  I stick to the slow moving items again.  That said, i don't actually know how much this earns me but i know it is getting better.  The margins are huge.  I am buying items for 500m and selling them for 1bn.

Also, in JIta, i manufacture items and sell them in the Jita market.


Manufacturing

I am now twelve months into my Manufacturing project.  It remains slow and i need to up my game (i know, i said that before).

In July i made 7bn of sales generating an item profit of 1.9bn and so after taxes a profit of 1.5bn.

Still not great.  I need to put more time into this and think it through more.


Other High Sec Trading Locations

I don't want to spend all my time on Eve doing Regional Trading (buying from one region, mainly Jita, to sell to another) but i do want to see if i can find really low competition but stable revenue streams of trading.

The current alpha account regions so far are: Placid; Citadel and Khanid.  And i am in an NPC station in Delve, Outer Ring and now Venal.

My alts in Arnon and Alentene were upgraded to Omega during January.

In these alpha accounts i am winding them down.  I don't want to convert anymore to Omega.


Delve

I want to experiment with selling in null/low Sec.  Hence, i have found an NPC station in Delve and started experimenting with items to sell.

It is not going well - sometimes threatens to improve but then fall back again.

As with my other alpha accounts i am letting it wither away on the vine.

I am rethinking how to make low/null sec work.


Plex

I am aim to store up to 6 months of Omega for each of the Omega accounts which would mean buying 12000 Plex (= 6 x 4 x 500).

That said, CCP are changing their attitude to Omega prices and there is a permanent sale on that gives a discount to the Plex required for longer periods of Omega purchases.

Given my sale at the start of June i currently hold none.  When the price falls back to around 4.6m i will start to rebuild stocks.


Analysis of Trading Profits

In total i made 394bn ISK of sales in July which made me item profits of 96bn ISK.

(item profit is the simply difference between sales done vs costs spent buying products, so before fees and taxes.  Because i don't yet invest in items other than Plex i don't make any allowance for items still in stock - in part because i don't track the cost per item spent).

Overall, sales rose by 3% in July mainly due to Dodixie sales rising 49% to 120bn isk.

Amarr sales fell 23% and Hek sales fell 27%.  Whilst Rens rose 20% and the other stations rose under 10%.

Sobaseki at 41b overtook Hek to become the fourth best station after Dodixie, Amarr and Rens.  I did not expect that but this was mainly due to Hek declining 27%.  Even Jita did better than Hek in July.


Sobaseki + Tash murkon did 59bn whilst Arnon + Alentene did 29bn.  So both of these Omega accounts are more than justifying themselves.

The item profits of 96bn was an item margin of 24.4% (96/394) vs my target of 25%.  That was the first time since March 2022 that the item margin fell below 25%.  The miss was due to competitors putting up items for sale at much lower prices and me responding aggressively.  It is dangerous to allow a competitor a foothold into my markets.

From this I then need to take a whole series of costs off before i get to my Business profits (and notice how they are more related to Sales rather than costs):

Courier Fees: i aim to pay 2% of sales value to the Courier = 7.9bn

Sales tax cost me 13.0bn ISk (=3.3% of sales) - the Dodixie, Amarr, Rens, Hek Sobaseki, Tash-Murkon, Arnon and Alentene and Jita characters are level 5 in Accounting (=sales tax of 3.6%); and of course all the alpha alt accounts are only Level 1 (=sales tax of 8%).  Not sure why the tax rate is below the base.

Broker Fees costs me 12.5bn (=3.7% of sales, Dodixie is more competitive so i was changing prices more often).  Now, i can break this down into the initial listing fee of 1.5% (because i am Level 5 Broker Relations on all Omega characters and lets to make the sums easier and include all the alpha alts) and therefore the rest is the cost of changing the price which is 0.30% a shot (i may have that 0.30% completely wrong!).

So, Listing Fee = 1.5% x 394= 5.9bn and so the Relisting Fee = 12.5-5.9 = 6.6bn which is 1.7% of sales.  That shows that i do change prices quite often, bias to Amarr, Jita and now Dodixie.

Manufacturing Job Cost fees were 0.4bn - shows how little i did.

This takes my 'Business Profits' fell to 62bn ISK for July vs 74bn in June.  This is what 30-40 minutes a day in July gave me.

So, the post-tax margin is 15.8% (62/394) and so i achieved the 15% target.

The omega charge was then 8.2bn for July.

And, finally, i paid over 42.5bn to the Oz Tank show for projects i agreed to contribute to.

That, therefore, is the road map from 394bn sales to 12bn increase in wealth.


Courier Contracts

Each night, i get home from work and determine what i need to sell in all the locations.

The time is taken changing prices were necessary (especially Amarr given it is competitive and increasingly Dodixie) and then figuring out what to sell with the ISK made from the prior 24 hours sales.

I have a list of items that feature regularly and i add to this list as time goes by.  So is a case of checking Jita prices vs current location prices.

The Rens, Hek, Sobaseki, Tash Murkon, Arnon and Alenetene markets take less than 2 minutes each to check.

To look up prices in Eve I am using Eve Tycoon which seems to have more of the latest items in its market browser.  I used to use evemarketer but i just got used to Eve Tycoon.

Each night i courier about 10 to 50bn ISK of items from Jita.  Used to be 2-10bn but things are better these days and i have more items up for sale.  The total cargo volume is 10-250m3 per shipment though more recently often over 10,000m3.  So small but valuable items.  But this allows the couriers to use small, fast ships with much less chance of being ganked.  So there is always someone willing to pick up the contract quickly.

I pay a generous 1.5 to 2.0% of collateral as fees.  I am more interested in getting my items onto the market quickly than penny pinching on distribution costs.


Outlook

August will have the same ten conservative aims - summer can be slow.  Hence, the aims will be:

1) Plex the four omega accounts - aim number one all the time

2) Hold sales in Dodixie to down 20%

3) Hold sales in Amarr to down 20%

4) Hold sales in Rens to down 20%

5) Hold sales in Hek to down 20%

6) Hold sales in Sobaseki to down 20%

7) Hold sales in Tush-Murkon Prime to down 20%

8) Ramp up Arnon and Alentene

9) Hold the investment and profits in Manufacturing
 

The daily sales in June averaged 12.7bn.

Current wealth is 1.13 trillion ISK made up from:
  • Plex held as an investment 0bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for sale 24bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for use in business 11bn ISK
  • Omega brought forward 25bn ISK
  • Buy orders on the market 65bn ISK
  • items for sale 1.2 trillion ISK
  • less a 20% provision 240bn ISK*
  • ISK in wallet 94bn ISK from which 42.5bn of Oz Tank distributions need to be taken off

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.