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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.