Month end update - April 2024

I made 103bn profits in April 2024.  There was no Oz Tank Show and so no distributions were made.  Therefore my wealth rose by the 103bn to 1.471 trillion isk.

This is the first time i have made over 100bn profit in a single month.  So good news there.

Distributions

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

Watching numbers go up once i got to a trillion wealth is somewhat boring.  Hence, my wealth will barely increase and any monthly surplus will all be given away at some point.

So far i have given 260bn isk to the Oz Tank Show.

The show started in July 2023 and i have generated profits of 607bn in the July - April period and distributed 260bn.

So that leaves 347bn isk to distribute to some venture(s).

Four Omega Accounts to pay for

Keeping 4 accounts on Omega cost me 7.0bn isk in April - that is as a result of taking advantage of the Omega / Plex deals when they come along every 2 months or so.

As i write, i have bought enough Omega to see me through to August / September which comes to around 26bn isk that sits on the Balance Sheet declining by 7bn each month as it is utilised . . . . . . that is a tedious accounting point but i feel it is better than saying the cost of Omega is a cost when i bought it.

I also did a recalculation of the value of the Omega time i have and wrote it down by 3bn.  I.e. i had 36bn at the end of March, used 7bn in April and revalued it downwards by 3 bn to 26bn.

The basic numbers for April

In April i had sales of 408bn isk vs March of 393bn.  Not quite a record but is the second best.

It comes to 13.6bn sales per day.

Item profits were 147bn isk which is a healthy margin of 36% (147/408).  So, again, profitability is good.  Much better than the 25% target i set.

If i am honest, i don't quite understand why it is so good but i am confident my numbers are correct.  The system gives me my sales and all the other costs and i know the value of my wealth.  So the Item Profits number is the balancing figure.

As always, the key point here is that to grow profits i need to grow sales.  The profitability i make is good.  And i am pretty sure 36% is too good.

Taxes and Courier fees came to 37bn isk.  That takes the Trading Profits to 110bn isk and so a trading margin of 27.1% (110/408) which is better than the 15% i target.

Then add in the 7bn plex cost to Omega 4 accounts takes me to 103bn profits made in April.

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

Lets assume i only get the 25% item profit margin that i target . . . . 

To get 100bn isk of an increase in wealth before distributions i would need to make daily sales of 18bn isk.

I am pretty sure i wont get there sustanably on the current strategy so i am putting my mind to how else to earning isk.

What i am selling

The market was already picking up in March and was very strong in April.  Still feels good as i write this today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Therefore, i mostly sell Implants, Blueprints, ship equipment and some structure modules.

Implants have picked up and are doing well, notably mining related implants.  A classic sign of new or returning players.  Implants often sell by the family - in other words, the Alpha / Beta / Delta / Epsilon / Gamma / Omega implant will all sell at the same time.

Structure modules are doing better which suggests more structures are going up somewhere.  Some of the modules i make take 6-14 hours to manufacture - but my strategy works because players are isk rich but time poor in game.  They will happily pay 1.3bn for an item in Dodixie that costs 1bn to buy (from a sell order) in Jita or 800m to manufacture if it saves them a journey to Jita and/or 6 hours.

Blueprints are going ok - i mostly sell ship blueprints.  These are the slowest of all the sales i make and often get towards the end of the 90 days and so i need to update the order to ensure the item does not delist.

Ship Equipment is always a nice earner.  It has been a long time since i have sold mining equipment - the markets are on top of that.  But Armour and Shield modules are fine.  (or Armor in the game's dictionary).

In Jita i dabble in some Station Trading and also manufacturing items for sale in Jita where i am the only seller.  The Station Trading remains competitive.  I may sell an item twice before the market notices what's going on and piles in.  The Manufacturing in the few items that i do does well.

Where is it all selling?

All my 4 trading hubs saw sales rise in April.

This month Amarr was the winner with a new record for Amarr of 118bn isk which was a strong 66% rise on March (Dodixie still holds the record for the best month at 145bn isk).  A normal month for Amarr is around 70bn.

Dodixe did over 100bn as well, a rise of 9% on March.

Rens was 51bn which is about as good as it gets and flat on March and Hek bounced back to a more normal 27bn (well, normal is nearer 32bn).

My other Omega Trading Hubs were a dissappointment:

Sobaseki was 27bn which is below average and Tash Murkon was 19bn which is around avereage.  But that easily covers the cost of the Omega.

Arnon did 18bnbn which is much better than average whilst Alentene only did 6bn isk vs an average of 10bn.  Still, it cleared the Omega cost and so was worth it.

These 4 Trading Hubs literally take minutes to look after.  The real time is spent on Amarr and Dodixie, and then Jita.

Jita sales were 37bn (that's Station Trading + Manufacturing), so a bit below average.

Manufacturing

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

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

Planetary Interaction

Started this up again to remind me how it works.  Following the changes to volumes, i can keep my planets going for a long time before i need to pick anything up.  I have now remembered it is very dull.

The ultimate aim is to do this in low or null sec.

In High Sec it is like watching a tap slow dripping for all the isk it generates.

Research

I am experimenting with this to see if i can get it off the ground.  The idea comes from a video by Strange Net where he discusses how he makes money from BPOs.  It requires the use of the Contract Market which i am not a fan of.

I have kicked it off with a few researched BPOs to see if i can make this work.

Station Trading

All in Jita.  This is going ok.  Sales were 37bn which is a bit below average.

1I still really need to ramp this up but again i don't yet have a systematic way of going about it.  Similar story to Manufacturing.

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

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

Alpha Accounts

I run them slowly.  I have characters in 6 other locations but i am winding them up slowly.

Cash in Wallet

Was high at the end of the month at 165bn.  In part that is because Real Life is busy so less time to think of new items to sell.  It is also a lost opportunity to make profits.  Every 100bn isk held through the month means i miss out on around 5bn profits.

Current Wealth

Current wealth is 1.471 trillion ISK made up from:

• Plex held as an investment 0bn ISK
• Items in hanger for sale 54bn ISK
• Items in hanger for use in business 11bn ISK
• Omega brought forward 26bn ISK
• Buy orders on the market 22bn ISK
• items for sale 1.49 trillion ISK

• less a 20% provision 299bn ISK*

• ISK in wallet 165bn ISK

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

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