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Sunday 13 October 2019

Month end September 2019

At the end of my sixth month my wealth is 58.1bn isk.  An increase of 7.4bn isk over the month.

I also had to fund a 1.7bn Plex payment.  Hence, i likely generated profits of almost 9bn isk in September which is about 290m per day.

But lets remember that Plex is part of the costs of my game so lets just focus on the 7.4bn isk rise (i.e. the rise in wealth after paying for all costs) - this compares to the prior month of an 7.3bn isk rise.

Basically, i am on 'care and maintenance' at present.  Real life work is real busy and in my spare time i have taken to doing kaggle.com, trying out their starter competitions.

Hence, for Eve i log on once a week and go from there.

At best, if i don' log on daily i make 10bn isk sales which is about 1.5bn isk profit.


Plex

I now have 900 Plex sitting in my hanger right now - so that is another aim achieved.  I wanted to hold surplus Plex rather than have a mad panic to raise the isk and buy the Plex as the monthly deadline to extend the game time drew closer.

Given it is drawing close to the next deadline i will either use 500 of that 900 Plex to extend the game time and then rebuild the Plex levels in my inventory.



Strategy

In an ideal world there would be no change here - i (try to) stick to 45 minutes a day, perhaps a bit more at the weekends to generate the wealth.

The weekday sessions go as so:

1) reasonably late at night i will update all my orders at Dodixie and Amarr, and move the isk generated from the days sales to the Corporation account.  That all takes about 10 minutes.
2) i will consult my spreadsheet and see what items i should buy that will generate margins of at least 20% before fees and transport costs.  That all takes 10 to 20 minutes.
3) My buyer in Jita will purchase those items from Jita Sell orders and issue courier contracts to send them to my sellers in Dodixie and Amarr.  That takes 3 minutes.
4) I will then log off and come back about an hour later and normally the items have been delivered by then.  My sellers in Dodixie and Amarr will then put them up for sale in Dodixie and Amarr.  That takes 5 to 10 minutes.


. . . . . . . . but right now i log in on a saturday and go from there.


Outlook

October will be a busy month outside of Eve again - so lets aim for 7bn isk profit, same as September.

Aims for September (same as August really):
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business



Current wealth is 58.1bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 50.8bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 10.2bn ISK*
  • Plex held (900 Plex) 3.2bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 1.2 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 13.1bn ISK

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.

* 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.

Monday 9 September 2019

Month End August 2019

At the end of my fifth month my wealth is 50.7bn isk.  An increase of 7.3bn isk over the month.

I also had to fund a 1.8bn Plex payment.  Hence, i likely generated profits of almost 9bn isk in August which is about 290m per day.

But lets remember that Plex is part of the costs of my game so lets just focus on the 7.3bn isk rise (i.e. the rise in wealth after paying for all costs) - this compares to the prior month of an 16bn isk rise.

Lets not beat about the bush, August turned into a slow month.  It started off slow and then i did not log in for the final 10 days as real life took over (and i expect real life to be a dominant taker of time in September also).

Recall last month i said that one of the lessons from back in May still hold true:

1) I need to visit the game once a day to stay competitive - it only takes me 10 minutes to update my orders.  It takes another 10 to 20 minutes to decide what to buy and then a final 5 minutes to post them all when they are delivered to me.

I clearly did not follow that rule in the final 10 days and that killed my wealth generation capabilities.

It also meant that as items sold the ISK in my wallet rose and at the end of August i had 11bn ISK to invest and indeed today as i write this i have a total of 15bn ISK sitting in my wallet to invest.



Plex

I now have 700 Plex sitting in my hanger right now - so that is another aim achieved.  I wanted to hold surplus Plex rather than have a mad panic to raise the isk and buy the Plex as the monthly deadline to extend the game time drew closer.

Given it is drawing close to the next deadline i will either use 500 of that 600 Plex to extend the game time and then rebuild the Plex levels in my inventory or i will buy 100 Plex a day from now.  It will very much depend on how much spare isk i have.



Strategy

No change here - i (try to) stick to 45 minutes a day, perhaps a bit more at the weekends to generate the wealth.

The weekday sessions go as so:

1) reasonably late at night i will update all my orders at Dodixie and Amarr, and move the isk generated from the days sales to the Corporation account.  That all takes about 10 minutes.
2) i will consult my spreadsheet and see what items i should buy that will generate margins of at least 20% before fees and transport costs.  That all takes 10 to 20 minutes.
3) My buyer in Jita will purchase those items from Jita Sell orders and issue courier contracts to send them to my sellers in Dodixie and Amarr.  That takes 3 minutes.
4) I will then log off and come back about an hour later and normally the items have been delivered by then.  My sellers in Dodixie and Amarr will then put them up for sale in Dodixie and Amarr.  That takes 5 to 10 minutes.


Skills


My Dodixie seller has:

Accounting - Level 5 . . . . therefore pays 2.25% sales tax
Broker Relations - Level 5 . . . . therefore pays 3.48% broker fees
Contracting Level 4
Trade - Level 5
Retail - Level 5

Wholesale - Level 4 . . . . therefore can put up to 129 items for sale

also has Marketing Level 2 though i have no idea how that helps me . . . . 


My Amarr seller has:

Accounting - Level 5 . . . . therefore pays 2.25% sales tax
Broker Relations - Level 5 . . . . therefore pays 3.5% broker fees
Contracting Level 4
Trade - Level 5
Retail - Level 5
Wholesale - Level 2 . . . . therefore can put up to 97 items for sale


Profit margin structure (changed under the new tax rates)


Given the tax rises i have increased by target profit margin - in other words, i am passing the cost of the tax rises onto the customer.

I focus on small cargo items (blueprints, implants and boosters) that sell once every 1 or 2 or 3 days and profit margins of over 22%.  It used to be 20% but the additional 2% is for the new taxes.

Profit margin.  If something costs 78 and i sell it for 100 then the profit margin 
is (100-78)/100 = 22%.  I.e. it is the profit divided by the sales price.

I find the competition in Dodixie and Amarr in these items is low, slow and rational.

Big picture - i am playing on the fact that people at Dodixie or Amarr do not want to travel 15 or 9 jumps to Jita to buy an item for a lower price.  They are willing to pay up to save time (and perhaps the risk).

Cost structure - I have 3 costs to cover:
1) Courier fees = 1.0% of the expected sales price (see below)
2) Broker fees = 3.48% of the expected sales price
3) Sales tax = 2.25% of the expected sales price

Hence, my costs are 6.73%.

So, if my target margin is 22% less the costs of 6.73% then my overall profit margin comes out at just over 15%.

In other words, for every 1bn isk of sales i make then my wealth increases by 150m isk (= 1bn x 15%).


Courier Contracts

All items i buy in Jita are couriered by third parties to Dodixie and Amarr.

I have settled on paying a fee equal to 1% of the Collateral.  In almost all cases i get the items delivered within an hour.

It might help that my cargo size rarely goes over 1000m3 and is mostly in the low hundreds m3.

Easy money for some but a great time saving for me.


Identifying items to sell

I used to look up items on Evemarketer to find items to sell.  Today, i have a spreadsheet that pulls the Sales value of items from Jita, Amarr and Dodixie so that i can readily see which items have the margins of over 20%.

Makes life easier though i still lack a daily sales volume measure which would complete the job for me.


Dodixie Seller

I have only trained up wholesale and so no change in the maximum orders i can post of 129.  These days i have around 100 sell orders posted.  Currently valued at 26.2bn isk (vs last month at 31.3bn isk).  If required, i can still skill up Tycoon to give an additional 32 order slots per level.

Going ok, will be back up to speed in September hopefully.


Amarr Seller


This is newer and currently this character has 57 items up for Sale for a total of 20.9bn isk (compares to 57 items valued at 22.0bn last month)

He can post up to 97 items right now - an increase since the end of June as i grow this Seller.

There is a good chance it gets as big as the Dodixie seller.

Going well, though i will need to find new items to sell in the near future.



Checklist of the aims for August:

The main aim was to increase wealth by 10bn - that was not achieved.

Other aims for August were:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders - failed
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex - done
3) Build up the Amarr trading business - done

. . . . . . . . so, the failure to log in for the final 10 days knocked me off course a bit.


Outlook

Should be easier to do better in September.  But lets aim for 10bn increase in wealth at least, after Plex costs to finance the account, given real life will be busy anyway.

Aims for September (same as August really):
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business



Current wealth is 50.7bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 47.1bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 9.4bn ISK*
  • Plex held (700 Plex) 2.4bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 10.6bn ISK

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.

* 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.

Tuesday 20 August 2019

Wealth of 50bn isk

Half way to 100bn isk it is, wealth is now 50bn isk, though an increase of only 3.4bn on the week bringing the month-to-date rise of 6.1bn isk (or 7.9bn if we recall that i had to make the monthly payment of 1.8bn isk to plex the account).

So, the downgraded aim of 10bn rise in wealth for August still looks achievable with 10 days to go.

I have put some thought as to why August is slow (or why July was strong) and perhaps it is the school holidays causing trends to change.  Maybe other reasons, i am not yet sure.  But the 18bn isk target for August is consigned to the bin.

The other aims for August look achievable
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business




Amarr trader expanding very well

At one point during the week the Amarr trader had more up for sale than the Dodixie trader.  On good days Amarr can get to 30bn of items up for sale.  As i write it is 24bn.

There are no real differences between what i put up for sale in Dodixie and Amarr - some items sell better in one place than the other.  The main difference remains that Amarr is more competitive.


Dodixie trader not really breaking new ground

The Dodixie trader keeps going, now regularly over 30bn isk of items up for sale, currently 32bn.

One of the readers of the blog, Aardvark Cheeselog, made a good comment on getting burn out.  That resonated with me.  I was going to expand the number of items i have for sale but that means i am taking that bit longer to update prices each day and runs the risk of making each day feel like a chore.

Instead i am going to focus on finding higher priced items for sale.  Currently, i no longer sell items for less than 100m isk.  I am hoping to push that limit up whilst not sacrificing weekly wealth increase values.



Plex

I have 700 surplus Plex.  I aim to always have 500 surplus Plex to cover the account costs with out a last minute panic to buy the plex.




. . . . . yet again, i report that Manufacturing plans has got nowhere fast - lets just take that as read.  I will mention this every week as a reminder to myself.


Outlook

My hopes for August came back a bit after the first two weeks.  The aim was to be for 18bn isk increase in wealth (after paying for Plex) - but is now 10bn.

Other aims for August - all appear to be on track:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business


Current wealth is 49.6bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 56.2bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 11.2bn ISK*
  • Plex held (700 Plex) 2.5bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 2.1bn ISK

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.

* 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.

Saturday 17 August 2019

Victorieux Luxury Yacht

I have finally decided on what ship to buy for Low and Null sec.

The entire aim is to get around in Low and Null Sec to buy blueprints and implants.  Nothing else.

In the end i opted for a ship that could cloak whilst warping and perhaps has sufficient HP to withstand a lucky smart bomb attack.

I like the idea of staying cloaked for as much time as possible rather than always having to hit the cloak button.

Hence, i went for the Victorieux Luxury Yacht.  Expensive fit at about 600m isk - so a days profit currently.


[Victorieux Luxury Yacht]

Shadow Serpentis Inertial Stabilizers
Shadow Serpentis Inertial Stabilizers
Shadow Serpentis Inertial Stabilizers
Inertial Stabilizers II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints II
Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II

Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II


Align time 1.99 seconds.
Warps at 9.13 AU/s
Hit Points 13k, ehp 19k
Signature radius 199m

Probably should put something in the Mid Slot.


Tuesday 13 August 2019

Wealth 46.2bn isk

The first two weeks in August have been slow.  Wealth rose by 2.7bn to 46.2bn isk.

I did pay a 1.8bn isk to Plex the account though, so the underlying wealth generated was 4.5bn isk - still slow compared to recent weeks.

I was aiming to increase wealth by 18bn isk in August, and that was after Plex costs.  I suspect this is looking a distant dream!

The other aims for August look achievable
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business


Ship bought for travelling in low and null sec
I have bought and equipped a ship to travel in low and null sec so that i can buy some blueprints etc.  I will post its specs in a later post.


Amarr trader expanding well

The Amarr trader is ramping up nicely.  It now has 21bn isk of items up for sale and i am now at a point where i need to find new items for sale.  The only reason it would not get as much up for sale as the Dodixie trader is that margins are not so good given a higher level of competition.


Dodixie trader plods along

The Dodixie trader keeps plodding along, now regularly over 30bn isk of items up for sale though currently only at 27bn.  May be it has plateaued but is a reminder to me that i need to put aside some time to seek out new items for sale.


Competition up

I am suspecting that the holidays are bringing back more players and so rising competition into the markets.

I am certainly having to update more orders, and i am noticing that there are more updated orders ahead of my orders than normal.

I am also having to take bigger write-downs than normal to make my sales price the best price.


Plex

I have 700 surplus Plex.  I aim to always have 500 surplus Plex to cover the account costs with out a last minute panic to buy the plex.




. . . . . yet again, i report that Manufacturing plans has got nowhere fast - lets just take that as read.


Outlook

My hopes for August are coming back a bit.  The aim was to be for 18bn isk increase in wealth (after paying for Plex) - but after nearly two weeks i am only on 2.7bn isk.  At this rate, 10bn would be a good achievement!

Other aims for August - all appear to be on track:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business


Current wealth is 46.2bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 47.8bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 9.6bn ISK*
  • Plex held (700 Plex) 2.5bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 5.5bn ISK

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.

* 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 4 August 2019

Month end update July 2019

At the end of my fourth month my wealth is 43.5bn isk.  An increase of 16.3bn isk over the month.

I also had to fund a 1.9bn Plex payment and i suspect i spent a good few hundred million isk kitting out my taxi-cepter, more on that in another post in the near future.

Hence, i likely generated profits of almost 19bn isk in June which is about 630m per day.

But lets remember that Plex is part of the costs of my game as is kitting out ships so lets just focus on the 16.3bn isk rise (i.e. the rise in wealth after paying for all costs) - this compares to the prior month of an 11bn isk rise.  So a nice improvement.


One of the lessons from back in May still hold true:

1) I need to visit the game once a day to stay competitive - it only takes me 10 minutes to update my orders.  It takes another 10 to 20 minutes to decide what to buy and then a final 5 minutes to post them all when they are delivered to me

The one other lesson i took on back in May was to keep selling the items for 70m as well as the items for 700m.  This lesson i have moved on from.  I no longer sell any items that cost less than 100m - the quantum of the profits are just too small to move the dials.  Occasionally i might spot an opportunity where something costs say 50m and there is nothing up for sale, in which case i will opportunistically put 5 up for sale.


The good news remains that i am comfortably playing one account for free and could happily play 2 accounts easily for free.  That remains the aim.



Plex

I now have 600 Plex sitting in my hanger right now - so that is another aim achieved.  I wanted to hold surplus Plex rather than have a mad panic to raise the isk and buy the Plex as the monthly deadline to extend the game time drew closer.

Given it is drawing close to the next deadline i will either use 500 of that 600 Plex to extend the game time and then rebuild the Plex levels in my inventory or i will buy 100 Plex a day from now.  It will very much depend on how much spare isk i have.



Strategy

No change here - i stick to 45 minutes a day, perhaps a bit more at the weekends to generate the wealth.

The weekday sessions go as so:

1) reasonably late at night i will update all my orders at Dodixie and Amarr, and move the isk generated from the days sales to the Corporation account.  That all takes about 10 minutes.
2) i will consult my spreadsheet and see what items i should buy that will generate margins of at least 20% before fees and transport costs.  That all takes 10 to 20 minutes.
3) My buyer in Jita will purchase those items from Jita Sell orders and issue courier contracts to send them to my sellers in Dodixie and Amarr.  That takes 3 minutes.
4) I will then log off and come back about an hour later and normally the items have been delivered by then.  My sellers in Dodixie and Amarr will then put them up for sale in Dodixie and Amarr.  That takes 5 to 10 minutes.


Skills (ouch, it appears that the tax changes have gone through!)


My Dodixie seller has:

Accounting - Level 5 . . . . therefore pays 2.25% sales tax
Broker Relations - Level 5 . . . . therefore pays 3.48% broker fees
Contracting Level 4
Trade - Level 5
Retail - Level 5

Wholesale - Level 4 . . . . therefore can put up to 129 items for sale

also has Marketing Level 2 though i have no idea how that helps me . . . . 


My Amarr seller has:

Accounting - Level 5 . . . . therefore pays 2.25% sales tax
Broker Relations - Level 5 . . . . therefore pays 3.5% broker fees
Contracting Level 4
Trade - Level 5
Retail - Level 5
Wholesale - Level 2 . . . . therefore can put up to 97 items for sale


Profit margin structure (changed under the new tax rates)


Given the tax rises i have increased by target profit margin - in other words, i am passing the cost of the tax rises onto the customer.

I focus on small cargo items (blueprints, implants and boosters) that sell once every 1 or 2 or 3 days and profit margins of over 22%.  It used to be 20% but the additional 2% is for the new taxes.

Profit margin.  If something costs 78 and i sell it for 100 then the profit margin
is (100-78)/100 = 22%.  I.e. it is the profit divided by the sales price.

I find the competition in Dodixie and Amarr in these items is low, slow and rational.

Big picture - i am playing on the fact that people at Dodixie or Amarr do not want to travel 15 or 9 jumps to Jita to buy an item for a lower price.  They are willing to pay up to save time (and perhaps the risk).

Cost structure - I have 3 costs to cover:
1) Courier fees = 1.0% of the expected sales price (see below)
2) Broker fees = 3.48% of the expected sales price
3) Sales tax = 2.25% of the expected sales price

Hence, my costs are 6.73%.

So, if my target margin is 22% less the costs of 6.73% then my overall profit margin comes out at just over 15%.

In other words, for every 1bn isk of sales i make then my wealth increases by 150m isk (= 1bn x 15%).


Courier Contracts

All items i buy in Jita are couriered by third parties to Dodixie and Amarr.

I have settled on paying a fee equal to 1% of the Collateral.  In almost all cases i get the items delivered within an hour.

It might help that my cargo size rarely goes over 1000m3 and is mostly in the low hundreds m3.

Easy money for some but a great time saving for me.


Identifying items to sell

I used to look up items on Evemarketer to find items to sell.  Today, i have a spreadsheet that pulls the Sales value of items from Jita, Amarr and Dodixie so that i can readily see which items have the margins of over 20%.

Makes life easier though i still lack a daily sales volume measure which would complete the job for me.


Sales made

Working backwards, if my wealth has increased by 19bn then that indicates daily profits of 630m isk (= 19/30).

Using my cost structure above then that would suggest i made sales of just over 127bn isk in June (= 19/0.15).

Hence, i am regularly making over 4bn isk of sales a day.

ISK remains my contraint to growth - i am reinvesting it all each night to put items up for sale in Dodixie and Amarr.



Dodixie Seller

I have only trained up wholesale and so no change in the maximum orders i can post of 129.  These days i have around 100 sell orders posted.  Currently valued at 31.3bn isk (vs last month at 25.3bn isk).  If required, i can still skill up Tycoon to give an additional 32 order slots per level.

Going well, though i will need to find new items to sell in the near future.


Amarr Seller


This is newer and currently this character has 57 items up for Sale for a total of 22.0bn isk (compares to 24 items valued at 8.3bn last month)

He can post up to 97 items right now - an increase since the end of June as i grow this Seller.

The original plan was to manufacture items near Jita and courier those items to be sold in Amarr.  However, it is taking me longer than expected to get a grip of manufacturing so instead i am buying from Sell orders in Jita and couriering to Amarr to sell.

The Amarr seller started off slowly but is now doing well.  There is a good chance it gets as big as the Dodixie seller.

Going well, though i will need to find new items to sell in the near future.

The other part of this character is that he is training space flight to fly a covert interceptor into null sec to pick up cheaper blueprints to sell in Amarr and Dodixie.  That is done and i will post details in the near future.


Thank you to those who suggested fit outs for flying covert in low-sec to buy blueprints and other very small cargo space items.


Checklist of the aims for July:

The main aim was to increase wealth by 10bn - that was achieved.

Other aims for June were:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders - done
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex - done
3) Build up the Amarr trading business - done

. . . . . . . . a successful month when it comes to meeting objectives.


Outlook

It may be hard to do better in August.  But lets aim for 18bn increase in wealth at least, after Plex costs to finance the account.

Aims for August (same as July really):
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business



Current wealth is 43.5bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 48.2bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 9.6bn ISK*
  • Plex held (600 Plex) 2.3bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 2.7bn ISK

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.

* 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.

Tuesday 30 July 2019

Wealth of 42.6bn

The fourth week in July was ok and on track.  Wealth rose by 5.0bn to 42.6bn isk.  A decent week all said and done.

My July aims are all coming in ahead of expectations:
 - i am likely to increase my wealth by more than 15bn isk after all costs
 - the Dodixie trader is expanding
 - the Amarr trader is expanding
 - i have the 500 surplus Plex in he inventory.


That said, in the final few days of the month i don't expect to make any further progress.  I have a number of items up for sale that are being materially undercut by competitors and so i am likely to bite the bullet and move my sell price to the new low.

Also, i intend to buy and equip a ship to travel into low and null sec so that i can pick up some items to sell in High Sec.

That is all going to cost me several hundred million isk to do and so is likely to take up all the profits made in the final days of July.  Maybe even more.

In  situations like this i generally make sure i am the lowest sell price unless the current low is lower than Jita (in which case i consider buying that item and putting it back on to sell at a higher price) or volumes are high enough that i believe these lowly priced items will be quickly bought up.

The Amarr trader is really going for it.  It now has 14bn isk of items up for sale and i am now at a point where i need to find new items for sale.  The only reason it would not get as much up for sale as the Dodixie trader is that margins are not so good given a higher level of competition.

The Dodixie trader keeps plodding along, now regularly over 30bn isk of items up for sale.

I have 600 surplus Plex.  I aim to always have 500 surplus Plex to cover the account costs with out a last minute panic to buy the plex.

Yet again, i report that Manufacturing plans has got nowhere fast - lets just take that as read.


Outlook

I am hoping i can do better in July compared to June.  The aim was to be for 10bn isk increase in wealth (after paying for Plex) - currently i stand at 7.6bn isk therefore it feels fair to say that the 10bn target will be reached with a week to spare.

Other aims for July - all appear to be on track:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business



Current wealth is 42.5bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 47.7bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 9.5bn ISK*
  • Plex held (600 Plex) 2.2bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 2.2bn ISK

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.

* 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.

Tuesday 23 July 2019

Wealth of 37.6bn

The third week in July was ok and on track.  Wealth rose by 2.8bn to 37.6bn isk.  I took a couple of evenings off and the weekend was treated like a normal week day.

Still, i am on track to making July better than expected.  So far in July my wealth has risen by 10.4bn isk, after paying 1.9bn to extend the account by 30 days.

Fast update, so here goes:

The Amarr trader is going for it.  It now has 11bn isk of items up for sale and this is on a rising trend.

The Dodixie trader keeps plodding along, now regularly over 30bn isk of items up for sale.

I often come home to 3bn isk sales made.  Lets assume i make 15% profit on that - see prior posts where i look at my target margin and take off the costs.  Therefore, daily i should be making 450m isk.  If that held then i would be making 13.5bn isk per month less the 2bn Plex costs.  I.e. monthly wealth should rise by 11.5bn isk.

I suspect i will do exactly that this month.

I now have 600 surplus Plex.  I aim to always have 500 surplus Plex to cover the account costs with out a last minute panic to buy the plex.

The 5.4bn isk in my wallet was fully invested in the market before i went to bed.  Well almost.  One of the courier contracts took a few hours to complete - so i posted just before i went to work.

Yet again, i report that Manufacturing plans has got nowhere fast.


Outlook

I am hoping i can do better in July compared to June.  The aim was to be for 10bn isk increase in wealth (after paying for Plex) - currently i stand at 7.6bn isk therefore it feels fair to say that the 10bn target will be reached with a week to spare.

Other aims for July - all appear to be on track:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business



Current wealth is 37.6bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 37.3bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 7.6bn ISK*
  • Plex held (600 Plex) 2.4bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 5.4bn ISK

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.

* 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.

Tuesday 16 July 2019

Wealth of 34.8bn

The second week in July was ok.  Wealth rose by 1.3bn to 34.8bn isk. However, that came after paying 1.9bn to Plex the account for another 30 days.  Hence, isk made in the week was really 3.2bn less the 1.9bn for the Plex.

So, halfway through the month i have made 9.5bn isk before Plex costs.  i.e. wealth has risen by 7.6bn isk in the last two weeks.  July is going better than expected.

The Amarr trader is really coming to life now.  I am finding more items that appeals to the Amarr market.  Lots of cross over with the Dodixie market though it is more competitive.  That said, i find that as long as my item is first to third on the sell order then it generally gets sold at some point given the volume activity in the market.

The Dodixie trader plods on.  Still making good isk.  I am slowly adding new items to sell as i find the,.

I now have 400 surplus Plex.  I aim to always have 500 surplus Plex to cover the account costs with out a last minute panic to buy the plex.

The 1.9bn isk in my wallet was fully invested in the market before i went to bed.

Yet again, i report that Manufacturing plans has got nowhere fast.


Outlook

I am hoping i can do better in July compared to June.  The aim was to be for 10bn isk increase in wealth (after paying for Plex) - currently i stand at 7.6bn isk therefore it feels fair to say that the 10bn target will be reached with a week to spare.

Other aims for July - all appear to be on track:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business



Current wealth is 34.8bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 39.1bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 7.8bn ISK*
  • Plex held (400 Plex) 1.6bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 1.9bn ISK

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.

* 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.

Tuesday 9 July 2019

Wealth of 33.5bn

The first week in July was perhaps my best.  Wealth rose by 6.3bn to 33.5bn isk.

Finally, my trader in Amarr has come to life and started pulling his weight.

Good week during the weekdays and weekend - that's what did it also.

I now have 600 Plex of which 500 will buy 30 days play time - that is the aim.

The 3.3bn isk in my wallet was fully invested in the market before i went to bed.

Yet again, i report that Manufacturing plans has got nowhere fast.

No change to anything else really.


Outlook

I am hoping i can do better in July compared to June.  The aim was to be for 10bn isk increase in wealth (after paying for Plex) - so far, so good.  From the 6.3bn isk increase i will need to pay out about 2bn isk for Plex for my account but i am 40% of the way there in the first week.

Other aims for July:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex.
3) Build up the Amarr trading business



Current wealth is 33.5bn ISK made up from:
  • items for sale 36.5bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 7.3bn ISK*
  • Plex held (600 Plex) 2.3bn ISK
  • items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
  • ISK in wallet 2.3bn ISK

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.

* 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.