I made 64bn profits in May 2024. There was no Oz Tank Show and so no distributions were made. Therefore my wealth rose by the 64bn to 1.535 trillion isk.
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.
The show started in July 2023 and i have generated profits of 672bn in the July - May period and distributed 260bn.
So that leaves 411bn isk to distribute to some venture(s).
Four Omega Accounts to pay for
Keeping 4 accounts on Omega cost me 8.0bn isk in May - 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 18bn isk that sits on the Balance Sheet declining by 8bn 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.
The basic numbers for May
In May i had sales of 369bn isk vs Aprilof 408bn. So a quieter month but not too shabby.
It comes to 11.9bn sales per day.
Item profits were 102bn isk which is a margin of 28% (102/369). So, again, profitability is good. Better than the 25% target i set.
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 30bn isk. That takes the Trading Profits to 72bn isk and so a trading margin of 19.5% (72/369) which is better than the 15% i target.
Then add in the 8bn plex cost to Omega 4 accounts takes me to 64bn profits made in May.
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 sustainably on the current strategy so i am putting my mind to how else to earning isk.
What i am selling
The market is still doing ok - not the record levels i did in April but ok.
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 continue to be ok. Not selling as much as i used. Implants often sell by the family - in other words, the Alpha / Beta / Delta / Epsilon / Gamma / Omega implant will all sell at the same time. That said, in May i saw that i was selling single implants here and there more than normal.
Structure modules pulled back from the stronger levels in April. 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 did better- i mostly sell ship blueprints. Felt like players were gearing up for manufacturing.
Ship Equipment is always a nice earner but was slower in May. Mining equipment is getting too competitive now. 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?
Dodixie did the best with 88bn isk of sales closely follower by Amarr with 81bn. Amarr remains the most competitive where i find myself updating my orders the most.
That said, Amarr fell 15% on April and Dodixie fell 31%.
Rens was 67bn which is a new record and Hek was 42bn which is amongst the best it has done.
My other Omega Trading Hubs remain a disappointment:
Sobaseki was 29bn which is below average and Tash Murkon was 19bn which is around average. But that easily covers the cost of the Omega.
Arnon did 10bnbn and Alentene did 7bn, so barely covered the cost of the Plex.
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 27bn (that's Station Trading + Manufacturing), so 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 27bn which is 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 199bn. 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 1.535 trillion ISK made up from:
- Plex held as an investment 6bn ISK
- Items in hanger for sale 52bn ISK
- Items in hanger for use in business 11bn ISK
- Omega brought forward 18bn ISK
- Buy orders on the market 32bn ISK
- items for sale 1.52 trillion ISK
- less a 20% provision 304bn 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.
