Over 1 Trillion of Sales so far in 2021

 I just watched "My Year in Eve" which is for the first eleven months of the year.

Total ISK value of sales was over one trillion:

Frustratingly, whilst the Eve video captures all my alts (it looks like it assumes every Eve account with the same email address is linked) it does not capture my Corporation.

It is the Corporation that makes the purchases vs the alts that make the sales.

So, Sales is the only measure Eve will really show me on my business.

That all said, over 500bn of the sales have come in the last four months (August - November) which reflects the changes Eve has made.

It has been a good time so far and December will be my best month yet.  If things don't slow down too much over the holiday period then perhaps i can make more than 50bn isk this month!

First time sales from one character over 10bn isk in a day

Just thought i would mention it.

Whilst i have had a few days where sales across all my characters have been over 10bn, yesterday was the first day that one character had sales of over 10bn.

In total, my characters in Jita / Dodixie / Amarr / Rens / Hek / Tash-Murkon made total sales of 16bn isk.

A record for me.

May be a while before i see that again, the 10bn isk character generated these sales because someone came along and bought all their blueprints out.  So perhaps unlikely to happen again.

The really good news is that it was the alt in Hek, a new trade hub for me that did this.  The Hek / Rens alts are delivering the isk and was well worth starting them up.

So far December is looking ok to good.  Fingers crossed for another good month of over 20bn increase in wealth.

Month end update - November 2021

As at the end of November 2021 my wealth is 179bn ISK after paying 4.1bn to upgrade Omega for another 30 days for two accounts (i moved on of the payment dates to coincide with the other - hence 3 payments this month).  My Wealth increased by 25bn in November.

This was therefore my second best month to date and the third month in a row of increasing my wealth by over 20bn.

I had thought i would not be able to achieve this citing the tax changes back upwards and a high number of failed courier contracts in October.  To be fair, October was a 30bn increase month but 25bn is not shabby.

Things i talk about below:

 - new 1bn daily profit target

 - reminder of how i do this

 - started in manufacturing with a 1.2bn post tax profit for the month

 - put an alpha character from my third account into Tash-Murkon to see if that works as a trading character

 - put an alpha character from my third account into Delve to see if that works as a trading character

 - normal discussion on Sales in my main trading hubs of Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Rens and Hek . . . . . . it looks like i may be able to make more sales (and so profit) in Hek and Rens than in Amarr.

Sales of 206bn were a new record and the third time over 100bn - entirely driven by the new alts in Hek and Rens ramping up in their second month of omega and contributing 70bn and the Jita alt making a surprising 25bn of trading sales and also 14bn of manufacturing sales.  Of course, record sales did not make for record profits because of the upward changes in taxes.

Activity

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

In November there was ongoing focus on building up Hek and Rens both in terms of skills for the alts and items to sell + more focus on starting manufacturing + tentativly starting in Tash-Murkon the Delve.

In all, i did an average of 6.9bn sales per day.

Target 1bn profits per day after all taxes and plex costs

On the new taxation levels to make 30bn isk per month i would need to cover:

 - Plex costs of 1.4x2=2.8bn

 - 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)

 - Transaction Taxes 3.6% of sales

 

So, 30bn increase in wealth means i need to generate item profits for 50bn and assuming i make a 25% margin then sales of 200bn.  Or, in other words, daily sales of 6.7bn.

. . . . . . . . technically, i made the sales target in November but my alts in Hek and Rens are not fully skilled in Accounting and Broker Relations, so that is holding me back.  Total Transaction Fees in November came to 3.74% of sales and total Broker Fees came to 3.06%.

I am not sure on my relisting assumptions.  Whilst of course i don't change the price of everything five times a month i can stumble into some fierce competition which means many prices changes and some outright loses.

But i now am trading in the five trade hubs so the 1bn profits a day is not not impossible but still a tall order.

I had at least two days where total sales were over 10bn isk.

Review of the November aims

1) Plex both the accounts - aim number one all the time - done

2) Move out of Structure Modifications market - done

3) Increase sales in Dodixie - sales fell 5%

4) Increase sales in Amarr - done

6) Increase sales in Rens - done

7) Increase sales in Hek - done

8) Try out manufacturing (this is new) - done

In all, the November aims were mostly met.  I think for December i will need to seriously ask if i can actually increase Dodixie and Amarr sales from here.

Reminder of my Current Business.

I now operate with two omega accounts (paid for with plex) with six alts.

The main Trading alts sit in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens and Hek.  Rens and Hek are newer, so ramping up.

The other two alts sit in Jita and buys from Sell Orders, has these items couriered to the alts in Dodixie / Amarr and Rens / Hek who then put them onto these markets for sale.

The Jita alts also serve to sell items that i can no longer sell in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens or Hek.

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.

For this side of my business, lets call it Merchanting or inter-regional trading, i want to generate income of 10bn isk per month after paying to Plex my account.  As i ramp up my Rens and Hek alts i would hope to see this 10bn comfortably beaten.

My business model evolves over time.  As my wealth increases i focus on higher value items.  I had evolved to only buying items in Jita for over 100m isk but this restricted the items i could sell so now i am going back to 70m isk.

Manufacturing

In November, i started down the manufacturing path.  I invested 12bn into it and made profits of 1.2bn after all taxes and costs.

So far i am manufacturing high value items in Jita that have little of no competition and then putting them up for sale in Jita.  It is opportunistic for now - the items i focus on quickly see new entrants come in and close the profit potential.

The other side of manufacturing i am looking at is if i can manufacture an item for closer to the Jita Buy price rather than the Jita Sell price.  Therefore, i will make a better margin when i sell it in Dodixie / Amarr / Rens / Hek or i can sell it for lower prices and still make my 25% target margin.

More work to do on this in December.

Tash-Murkon

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.

So i have put an alt in Tash-Murkon to see how it goes.  Will give it 3 months or so to see if i can crack it.

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.

Lets see how it goes.

Plex

I have started to invest in Plex.  Mainly picking up 2000 in November to hold for a rainy day to cover Omega costs if required.  In all i now have 4000 Plex.

My rule is to buy Plex on the day it is needed to continue with the Omega account and that i will continue to do.

That all said, i may just buy an additional 2000 Plex per month for now.

Analysis of Trading Profits

In total i made 206bn isk of sales in November which made me item profits of 53bn 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 a massive 23% in November to be the best level of sales done since, well, the last month where i did 167bn, and that comes after a decent September where i did sales of 118bn.

Over the last 12 months i have now done over 1 trillion isk of sales.

The combined efforts of Dodixie and Amarr were flat vs October with Dodixie being down 5% at 62bn and Amarr up 8% at 35bn.  Amarr remains competitive and i am finding it harder to get those sales and hold onto the 25% margins.  Dodixie is ok but harder to find new items to expand into.

The big drivers of the growth were Rens which was up 33% to 32bn and Hek which was up 68% to 38bn as these Trade Hubs ramp.

In normal trading Jita was slightly up to 25bn isk of sales but also had 14bn of manufacturing sales taking total Jita sales to 39bn, a rise of 68%.

Overall, i would say the market is buoyant, and has been improving since the end of July.

Looking forwards:

 - i would like to keep Dodixie and Amarr flat - so generating around 100bn sales and so 25bn item profits which comes down to around 15bn profits after taxes but before Omega account costs

 - i want to see if i can take Rens and Hek closer to Dodixie levels of 65bn sales rather than the Amarr level of 35bn.

 - and lets see how the new alts in Tash-Murkon and Delve do.

From these sales i made item profits of 53bn.

This therefore was an item margin of 25.7% (53/206) vs my target of 25%.

However, this includes 14bn of lower margin Manufacturing sales.  I made 12.9% margins in manufacturing - i don't mind that, it is lower risk and so the returns should be lower.  However, that means my trading margins were really 26.6%

This continues the trend of my trading margins being in the 25-27% range since April 2021 having before that been in the 28-32% range.

This month, i had one courier contracts which failed and therefore i was paid the collateral.  I typically make my collateral = cost of items + 20%.  Hence, the net profit to me was 1.1bn isk which, as it turns out once taxes et all are fed in, is about the profit i would have made had i been able to sell all those items.  So, the 1.1bn is actually profit coming to me much sooner than normal had the contracts been successful and i put the items up for sale.

From this I then need to take a whole series of costs off before i get to my Business profits:

Courier Fees: i aim to pay 2% of sales value to the Courier = 2% x 206= 4.1bn

Sales tax cost me 7.7bn ISk (=3.7% of sales) - the Dodixie and Amarr characters are level 5 in Accounting, the Rens and Hek characters are building up their skills and so dilute the tax rate.

Broker Fees costs me 6.3bn (=3.1% of sales).  Now, i can break this down into the initial listing fee of 1.5% (because i am Level 5 Broker Relations on both main characters and lets to make the sums easier exclude the Rens and Hek sellers for now) 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 206= 3.1bn and so the Relisting Fee = 6.3-3.1 = 3.2bn which is1.6% of sales.

This takes my 'Business Profits' to 35.4bn isk for November vs 35.5bn in October.  This is what 20-30 minutes a day in November gave me.

So, the post-tax margin is 17.2% (35.4/206) is back down from the 20s when the tax rates were lower but remains above the 15% target.

Going forwards, the Rens and Hek alts will eventually get to top levels to minimise taxes vs the Delve and Tash-Murkon alts that still pay full tax rates and then there is the lower margin Manufacturing to come.

And then from those 'Business Profits' i buy Plex for 2.8bn isk to extend the Omega by 30 days for two accounts.  In November i also spent an additional 1.4bn to align the Omega buying day to the same for both accounts.

And finally, i spent 5.8m on Plex as an investment.

That, therefore, is the roadmap from making 206bn of sales and seeing my wealth increase by 25.4bn as a result.

Items i am selling in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens and Hek

I sell blueprints, skill books, implants and ship equipment.  Blueprints are making a come back - this may be because of school holidays and / or the end of scarcity coming.  That said the market remains slow so there are not many competitors.  For me, this was a good market in October, following on from a good market in September.

Implants are still doing ok - i am slowly expanding into more types and moving up the isk value curve.  I used to focus on implants selling for at least 150m isk but now have pulled that back to 75m.  Can be competitive at times and a very slow moving market.  I have been known to see an item not move for 90 days and so i need to repost it (i should watch for this and just change the price slightly with 2 days to go to make for lower fees).

Skill books are a low income generator for me but there are still a few nice sellers.  I suspect skills books are now my lowest income generator.

Ship Equipment is picking up again and remains a more opportunistic market for me.  If it looks like making a decent profit, i put it up for sale otherwise i leave it.

Rigidly sticking to the 25% margin target.  Courier fees and taxes take 9% of that to bring me to a theoretical 16%.

Dodixie Seller character

This remains my main character and has regained its slot as the largest seller.

I have now trained all the relevant skills to Level 5.

The skills relevant to Trading that i have are:

Accounting: Level 5; means i am charged 3.6% of the sales price on completed sale vs the normal 8%.  The base used to be 5% and i used to be able to get it down to 2.25% - so Sales Tax (Transaction Tax) has gone up.

Broker Relations: Level 5; means i am charged 1.5% to list an item for sale vs the normal 3.0%.  The base used to be 5% and i used to be able to get it down to 3% - so the Broker Listing fees have gone down.

Advanced Broker Relations: Level 5; means i can reduce the cost of changing the price of items i already have for sale.  With no skill i would be charged 1.5% to change every price.  Level 5 has brought this down to 0.30%.

Trade: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 4 per level.

Retail: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 8 per level

Wholesale: Level 5 (increased by two levels in January); increases the number of items i can list by 16 per level

Marketing: Level 3 (increased by one level in January); this allows me to set up Sell Orders in stations other than the one i am in; it also allowed me to look to increase my Contracting skills which i will need to sell my BPO copies from invention

Given the level 5 Trade, level 5 Retail and level 5 wholesale, i am able to post 145 items for sale (5 + (5x4) + (5x8) + (5x16)).  With no Trading skills you can post up to 5 sell orders

I may have to train Tycoon which will give me an additional 32 slots per level.

Amarr Seller character

I have now trained all the relevant skills to Level 5.

The skills relevant to Trading that i have are:

Accounting: Level 5; means i am charged 3.6% of the sales price on completed sale vs the normal 8%.  The base used to be 5% and i used to be able to get it down to 2.25% - so Sales Tax (Transaction Tax) has gone up.

Broker Relations: Level 5; means i am charged 1.5% to list an item for sale vs the normal 3.0%.  The base used to be 5% and i used to be able to get it down to 3% - so the Broker Listing fees have gone down.

Advanced Broker Relations: Level 5; means i can reduce the cost of changing the price of items i already have for sale.  With no skill i would be charged 1.5% to change every price.  Level 5 has brought this down to 0.30%.

Trade: Level 4; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 4 per level.

Retail: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 8 per level

Wholesale: Level 4; increases the number of items i can list by 16 per level

Marketing: Level 2; this allows me to set up Sell Orders in stations other than the one i am in; i don't use this really

Given the level 4 Trade, level 5 Retail and Wholesale Level 4, i am able to post 125 items for sale (5 + (4x4) + (5x8) + (4x16).

This market is much more competitive so it is harder to find items to make a good sale - but is still very profitable.

Rens and Hek characters

I am training up the Rens and Hek characters.

In Rens:

Accounting: Level 5; means i am charged 3.6% of the sales price on completed sale vs the normal 8%.

Broker Relations: Level 5; means i am charged 1.5% to list an item for sale vs the normal 3.0%.

Advanced Broker Relations: Level 4; means the relist fee is just over 0.3%

Trade: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 4 per level.

Retail: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 8 per level

Wholesale: Level 3; increases the number of items i can list by 16 per level

Marketing: Level 2; this allows me to set up Sell Orders in stations other than the one i am in; i don't use this really

Given the level 5 Trade, level 5 Retail and level 3 Wholesale, i am able to post 113 items for sale (5 + (5x4) + (5x8) + (3x16)).

Currently the Rens alt has 44bn of items for sale vs 26bn in October and i think this can go higher.  It is already higher than Amarr which has 40bn.

In Hek:

Accounting: Level 4; means i am charged c4% of the sales price on completed sale vs the normal 8%.

Broker Relations: Level 4; means i am charged 1.6% to list an item for sale vs the normal 3.0%.

Advanced Broker Relations: Level 4; means the relist fee is just over 0.3%

Trade: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 4 per level.

Retail: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 8 per level

Marketing: Level 2; this allows me to set up Sell Orders in stations other than the one i am in; i don't use this really

Given the level 5 Trade, level 5 Retail, i am able to post 65 items for sale (5 + (5x4) + (5x8))

Currently the Hek alt has 30bn of items for sale vs 22bn in October and i think this can go higher.

Courier Contracts

Each night, i get home from work and determine what i need to sell in Dodixie and Amarr, and now Rens and Hek.  I tend to focus on one location per night unless i need to courier over 1.5bn isk of items to both locations.  So Dodixie one night, Amarr the next.  Keeps my time on Eve to a manageable 45 minutes which includes looking for potential new items to sell.

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 2 to 10bn isk of items from Jita.  The total cargo volume is 10-250m3 per shipment.  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.

Eve Economy Data Charts

Nothing, yet, todo with my Eve Business ventures but just noting that in December i set up a website site eveeconomy.com which takes the monthly economic data provided by CCP and visualises it in chart form.

Loads of charts and more i can add.

I need to work out how to render the charts faster - right now they are accessed from a google drive given that is the way i have worked out how to update multiple charts at once quickly.

Let me know what you think and what else i should add.

Outlook

December will have eight aims:

1) Plex both the accounts - aim number one all the time

2) Keep sales in Dodixie flat

3) Keep sales in Amarr flat

4) Increase sales in Rens

5) Increase sales in Hek

6) Expand manufacturing beyond 14bn of sales

7) Expand into Tash-Murkon

8) Experiment with sales in Delve.

 

The daily sales in November averaged 6.9bn.

If i assume i need to make 10bn + 2.8bn income per month (=12.8bn) and i assume i can achieve 15.0% margin then i need to make monthly sales of 85bn and so daily sales of 2.8bn.

So far i have achieved this in December, January, March, April, August, September, October and November.

Current wealth is 179bn ISK made up from:

• Plex held as an investment 12bn ISK
• Items in hanger for sale 3bn ISK
• Buy orders on the market 0.0bn ISK
• items for sale 195bn ISK

• less a 20% provision 39bn ISK*

• ISK in wallet 9bn 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.

* 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.

Pricing items for sale when competing with items scattered around a region

i see this alot - the question is "what do i price my item for sale at the main regional trading station?":

below there is one item for sale in the main regional trading station for 173m but 6 jumps out there are 6 items for sale at 130m and 10 jumps out another for sale at 130m and 11 jumps out one more for sale at 172.9m.

So this is really a question as to what premium can i post in the main trading station vs 130m 6 jumps out.  will 170m or 165m or 160m or 155m be best?

Judging by the expiry time on each sale, competition is low (otherwise i would be seeing expiry times of 88 and 89 days).

Volumes are just how i like it, about 1 sold every 5-10 days.

Most of the sales are not at 130m.

So, lets think this through.  A player wants to buy this item.  They are most likely at the main trading station in the Region.  Do they jump 6 jumps to spend 130m or stay where they are any pay 172m?  Or, if i put the item up for sale at 165m would that make it even more enticing vs time spent travelling?

In Eve, when considering the value of an item to another player think also about the time another player would spend to travel to pick up an item a few 10s of millions cheaper.

So, in this case, i am pretty sure if i put the item up for sale for 165m in the main trading station then most players would not bother to make that 6 jumps to get the 130m.

Month end update - October 2021

As at the end of October 2021 my wealth is 153.6bn ISK after paying 2.8bn to upgrade Omega for another 30 days for two accounts.  My Wealth increased by 29.8bn in October.

This was therefore my best month to date, coming just after September which at that point was my best month to date.

It will be a long time, i think, before i get back to this level of monthly increase.  Two factors really helped: 1) the very low tax rate which ended towards the end of October; 2) i made 2.8bn from Courier Contracts that failed (the way the maths work on my wealth given the level at which take out the collateral is that this is the effect of me selling everything in that contract instantly).

Sales of 167.4bn were a new record and the second time over 100bn for a month with the new alts at Rens and Hek contributing 46.5bn of sales on their first Omega month vs 18.2bn as Alpha in September.

Moving out of Structure Modifications

The decision at the end of July to move out of selling structure modifications due to fierce competition is paying off and almost done.

At the end of June i firstly reduced the prices on all these items in Dodixie and Amarr back to Jita prices and then a month later i transported them all back to Jita to sell.

I estimate i took 10bn mark downs to shift them.  Most of that was in July.  Shifting then back to Jita was a big help.

I have about 3bn isk of these items left to sell.  So all but done really and i wont be talking about this anymore unless i take some last major writedowns.

Activity

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

I focused more on building up Hek and Rens both in terms of skills for the alts and items to sell

In all, i did an average of 5.4bn sales per day.

On the new taxation levels, to make 1bn profits per day after Plex costs of 2.8bn (two accounts to Omega) i would need to make 6.4bn sales per day.  That said, i now am trading in the five trade hubs so it is not impossible but still a tall order.

I had at least one day where total sales were over 10bn isk.

Review of the October aims

1) Plex the account - aim number one all the time - done

2) Move out of Structure Modifications market - almost done

3) Revisit the Sales strategy - ongoing

4) Increase sales in Dodixie - done

5) Increase sales in Amarr - actually, Amarr sells fell

6) Review the Trading character in Rens to determine what best to sell - done

7) Review the Trading character in Hekto determine what best to sell - done

In all, the October aims were mostly met and i am now in a situation where the November aims will start to look quite different.  More on that below.

Reminder of my Current Business.

I now operate with two omega accounts (paid for with plex) with six alts.

The main Trading alts sit in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens and Hek.  Rens and Hek are new, so ramping up.

The other two alts sit in Jita and buys from Sell Orders, has these items couriered to the alts in Dodixie / Amarr and Rens / Hek who then put them onto these markets for sale.

The Jita alts also serve to sell items that i can no longer sell in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens or Hek.  For example, the Jita alt is selling the Structural Modification items.

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.

For this side of my business, lets call it Merchanting or inter-regional trading, i want to generate income of 10bn isk per month after paying to Plex my account.  As i ramp up my Rens and Hek alts i would hope to see this 10bn comfortably beaten.

My business model evolves over time.  As my wealth increases i focus on higher value items.  I had evolved to only buying items in Jita for over 100m isk but this restricted the items i could sell so now i am going back to 70m isk.

Next Steps

In November, i aim to try out manufacturing.  Not really thought through the strategy yet but my top down thinking is that if i can manufacture items such that i can match the Buy price in Jita then my Trading operations can make more margin (vs buying from Sell orders i can now bring my input cost down to the Jita Buy order).

Alternatively, i can manufacturing in Jita and sell in Jita whilst accepting lower margins.

Lets see.

Analysis of Trading Profits

In total i made 167.4bn isk of sales in October which made me item profits of 42.8bn 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 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 a massive 42% in October to be the best level of sales done since, well, the last month where i did 118.3bn, and that comes after a decent August where i did sales of 86.4bn.

For sure, Rens and Hek ramping up was a big addition but Dodixie and Amarr still managed sales of 98bn which was a combined record.

Dodixie sales were up 37% to 65bn and Amarr sales were actually down up 11% to 32bn.

Dodixie therefore hit a new record - not sure why but trading was bouyant.

Amarr though was surprisingly poor reflecting how competitive the Amarr market is.  I need to go back to February to find sales that low when Amarr, for me, was almost half the size in terms of what i had up for sale.

Rens did 24.0bn and Hek did 22.5bn vs 10.3bn and 8.2bn respectively in September.  So fully justified on upgrading these accounts to Omega.

I also invested 2.8bn into 1000 Plex again, - i want to build up a stock of Plex for a rainy day if i hit tough times and need to Omega the accounts.  So i now have 2000 Plex tucked away = 2 months of Omege for my two accounts if required.

From these sales i made item profits of 42.8bn.

This therefore was an item margin of 25.5% (42.8/167.4) vs my target of 25%.  So, my margins remain on track.  This is calculated after the 2.8bn spent on the Plex as an investment, so they margins would have been better.

Since September 2020 the item margin range had been 28% to 32% up to April 2021 but since then as been in the 25-27% range.  Nothing to be concerned about.

This month, i had two courier contracts which failed and therefore i was paid the collateral.  I typically make my collateral = cost of items + 20%.  Hence, the net profit to me was 2.8bn isk which, as it turns out once taxes et all are fed in, is about the profit i would have made had i been able to sell all those items.  So, the 2.8bn is actually profit coming to me much sooner than normal had the contracts been successful and i put the items up for sale.

From this I then need to take a whole series of costs off before i get to my Business profits:

Courier Fees: i aim to pay 2% of sales value to the Courier = 2% x 167.4= 3.3bn

Sales tax cost me 4.5bn ISk (=2.7% of sales) - the Dodixie and Amarr characters are level 5 in Accounting, the Rens and Hek characters are building up their skills and so dilute the tax rate.  The temporary reduction in Sales Tax was a help until it ended towards the end of October.

Broker Fees costs me 5.1bn (=3.1% of sales).  Now, i can break this down into the initial listing fee of 1.0% (because i am Level 5 Broker Relations on both main characters and lets to make the sums easier exclude the Rens and Hek sellers for now) and therefore the rest is the cost of changing the price which is 0.16% a shot (i may have that 0.16% completely wrong!).

So, Listing Fee = 1.0% x 167.4= 1.7bn and so the Relisting Fee = 5.1-1.7 = 3.4bn which is 2.1% of sales.

This takes my 'Business Profits' to 32.6bn isk for October vs 24.5bn in September.  This is what 20-30 minutes a day in October gave me.

So, the post-tax margin is 19.5% (32.6/167.4) which is the one of the highest levels i have achieved.  Very much helped by the tax changes.  I expect this to fall right back towards 15% in November.  Perhaps more if i ramp up manufacturing - see below.

Fees and Taxes too up 7.7%.  That will rise in November as the higher taxes come through.

And then from those 'Business Profits' i buy Plex for 2.8bn isk to extend the Omega by 30 days for two accounts.

That, therefore, is the roadmap from making 167.4bn of sales and seeing my wealth increase by 29.8bn as a result.

Items i am selling in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens and Hek

I sell blueprints, skill books, implants and ship equipment.  Blueprints are making a come back - this may be because of school holidays and / or the end of scarcity coming.  That said the market remains slow so there are not many competitors.  For me, this was a good market in October, following on from a good market in September.

Implants are still doing ok - i am slowly expanding into more types and moving up the isk value curve.  I used to focus on implants selling for at least 150m isk but now have pulled that back to 75m.  Can be competitive at times and a very slow moving market.  I have been known to see an item not move for 90 days and so i need to repost it (i should watch for this and just change the price slightly with 2 days to go to make for lower fees).

Skill books are a low income generator for me but there are still a few nice sellers.  I suspect skills books are now my lowest income generator.

Ship Equipment is picking up again and remains a more opportunistic market for me.  If it looks like making a decent profit, i put it up for sale otherwise i leave it.

Rigidly sticking to the 25% margin target.  Courier fees and taxes used to take a whopping 8% which may rise again as the tax changes are in effect. 

Dodixie Seller character

This remains my main character and has regained its slot as the largest seller.

I have now trained all the relevant skills to Level 5.

The skills relevant to Trading that i have are:

Accounting: Level 5; means i am charged 3.6% of the sales price on completed sale vs the normal 8%.  The base used to be 5% and i used to be able to get it down to 2.25% - so Sales Tax (Transaction Tax) has gone up.

Broker Relations: Level 5; means i am charged 1.0% to list an item for sale vs the normal 3.0%.  The base used to be 5% and i used to be able to get it down to 3% - so the Broker Listing fees have gone down.

Advanced Broker Relations: Level 5; means i can reduce the cost of changing the price of items i already have for sale.  With no skill i would be charged 1.5% to change every price.  Level 5 has brought this down to 0.20%.

Trade: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 4 per level.

Retail: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 8 per level

Wholesale: Level 5 (increased by two levels in January); increases the number of items i can list by 16 per level

Marketing: Level 3 (increased by one level in January); this allows me to set up Sell Orders in stations other than the one i am in; it also allowed me to look to increase my Contracting skills which i will need to sell my BPO copies from invention

Given the level 5 Trade, level 5 Retail and level 5 wholesale, i am able to post 145 items for sale (5 + (5x4) + (5x8) + (5x16)).  With no Trading skills you can post up to 5 sell orders

I may have to train Tycoon which will give me an additional 32 slots per level.

Amarr Seller character (Tax rates quoted below not adjusted for recent changes)

I have now trained all the relevant skills to Level 5.

The skills relevant to Trading that i have are:

Accounting: Level 5; means i am charged 3.6% of the sales price on completed sale vs the normal 8%.  The base used to be 5% and i used to be able to get it down to 2.25% - so Sales Tax (Transaction Tax) has gone up.

Broker Relations: Level 5; means i am charged 1.0% to list an item for sale vs the normal 3.0%.  The base used to be 5% and i used to be able to get it down to 3% - so the Broker Listing fees have gone down.

Advanced Broker Relations: Level 5; means i can reduce the cost of changing the price of items i already have for sale.  With no skill i would be charged 1.5% to change every price.  Level 5 has brought this down to 0.20%.

Trade: Level 4; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 4 per level.

Retail: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 8 per level

Wholesale: Level 2; increases the number of items i can list by 16 per level

Marketing: Level 2; this allows me to set up Sell Orders in stations other than the one i am in; i don't use this really

Given the level 4 Trade, level 5 Retail and Wholesale Level 4, i am able to post 125 items for sale (5 + (4x4) + (5x8) + (4x16).

This market is much more competitive so it is harder to find items to make a good sale - but is still very profitable.

Rens and Hek characters

I am training up the Rens and Hek characters.

In Rens:

Accounting: Level 5; means i am charged 3.6% of the sales price on completed sale vs the normal 8%.

Broker Relations: Level 4; means i am charged 1.4% to list an item for sale vs the normal 3.0%.

Advanced Broker Relations: Level 4; means the relist fee is just over 0.3%

Trade: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 4 per level.

Retail: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 8 per level

Marketing: Level 2; this allows me to set up Sell Orders in stations other than the one i am in; i don't use this really

Given the level 5 Trade, level 5 Retail, i am able to post 65 items for sale (5 + (5x4) + (5x8)).

Currently the Hek alt has 24bn of items for sale vs 10bn in September and i think this can go higher.

In Hek:

Accounting: Level 4; means i am charged c4% of the sales price on completed sale vs the normal 8%.

Broker Relations: Level 4; means i am charged 1.4% to list an item for sale vs the normal 3.0%.

Advanced Broker Relations: Level 4; means the relist fee is just over 0.3%

Trade: Level 5; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 4 per level.

Retail: Level 4; increases the number of items i can list for sale by 8 per level

Marketing: Level 2; this allows me to set up Sell Orders in stations other than the one i am in; i don't use this really

Given the level 5 Trade, level 5 Retail, i am able to post 57 items for sale (5 + (5x4) + (4x8))

Currently the Hek alt has 23bn of items for sale vs 8bn in September and i think this can go higher.

Courier Contracts

Each night, i get home from work and determine what i need to sell in Dodixie and Amarr, and now Rens and Hek.  I tend to focus on one location per night unless i need to courier over 1.5bn isk of items to both locations.  So Dodixie one night, Amarr the next.  Keeps my time on Eve to a manageable 45 minutes which includes looking for potential new items to sell.

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 2 to 8bn isk of items from Jita.  The total cargo volume is 10-250m3 per shipment.  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.

Eve Economy Data Charts

Nothing, yet, todo with my Eve Business ventures but just noting that in December i set up a website site eveeconomy.com which takes the monthly economic data provided by CCP and visualises it in chart form.

Loads of charts and more i can add.

I need to work out how to render the charts faster - right now they are accessed from a google drive given that is the way i have worked out how to update multiple charts at once quickly.

Let me know what you think and what else i should add.

Outlook

November will have seven aims:

1) Plex both the accounts - aim number one all the time

2) Move out of Structure Modifications market

3) Increase sales in Dodixie

4) Increase sales in Amarr

6) Increase sales in Rens

7) Increase sales in Hek

8) Try out manufacturing (this is new)

 

The daily sales in October averaged 5.4bn.

If i assume i need to make 10bn + 2.8bn income per month (=12.8bn) and i assume i can achieve 15.0% margin then i need to make monthly sales of 85bn and so daily sales of 2.8bn.

So far i have achieved this in December, January, March, April, August, September and October.

Current wealth is 153.6bn ISK made up from:

• Plex held as an investment 5.8bn ISK
• Items in hanger for sale 0.9bn ISK
• Buy orders on the market 0.0bn ISK
• items for sale 161.1bn ISK

• less a 20% provision 32.2bn ISK*

• ISK in wallet 18.0bn 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.

* 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.