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Friday, 25 July 2025

How close the game mechanics are to greatly expanding the financial environment such as banking and derivatives

The game mechanics today don't allow lending or shorting prices without using a trusted third party that is also willing to manually monitor it all.

But, with one small step within the contract mechanics we could be right there.


The simple change needed to set up a lending system within the contract mechanics

. . . . . basically, issuing a contract within a contract is what needs to be coded in.

OK, stick with me for these steps.

Player A wants to borrow 10 billion isk from Player B for 4 weeks and is willing to pay 1 billion isk in interest and give 12 billion in collateral.


All contracts set up by Player B (the lender):

Contract 1 = Player B buys 12 billion of items (say Plex, this is the collateral) for 10 billion isk +  Contract 2 (this is the issuing of a contact within a contract part and needs CCP to make this change to the Contract mechanics)

Contract 2 = Player B has a private sale of the items back to whoever accepted Contract 1 for 11 billion isk in 4 weeks time.  This will automatically put the items (collateral) into escrow.



So, how does this work for Player A (the borrower) if they pay the loan + interest back?

On day 1 Player A will get 10 billion isk in exchange for 12 billion Plex and will be holding Contact 2.

In 4 weeks time Player A will pay Player B 11 billion isk and get their 12 billion of Plex back.


And how does this work for Player B (the lender) if Player A pays the loan + interest?

On day 1 Player B pays 10 billion of isk and receives 12 billion of plex and Contract 2 will force that 12 billion of Plex to be put immediately into escrow.

In 4 weeks time Player B will receive 11 billion isk in exchange for the 12 billion of Plex.


So, how does this work for Player A (the borrower) if they DONT pay the loan + interest back?

On day 1 Player A will get 10 billion isk in exchange for 12 billion Plex and will be holding Contact 2.

In 4 weeks time if Player A defaults then they keep the 10 billion isk but lose their 12 billion Plex.


And how does this work for Player B (the lender) if Player A DOES NOT pay the loan + interest?

On day 1 Player B pays 10 billion of isk and receives 12 billion of plex and Contract 2 will force that 12 billion of Plex to be put immediately into escrow.

In 4 weeks time Player B will keep the 12 billion of Plex.


4 weeks is a short time, could this be set up for a longer time period?

4 weeks is the maximum time currently allowed in contracts.

The simplest way would be for CCP to add more time options in the contract mechanism.

The other way would be to issue Contract 2 within another Contract that ended in 4 weeks time.  That would increase the length of the loan to 8 weeks.  And this could keep on going for longer time periods.


The potential here is massive

I could use the same system to enter into a derivative contract.  But lets leave it at lending for now.

Saturday, 19 July 2025

A new Industry blog "Manufacturing for Wealth: An EVE Online Industrialist's Log"

We have a new Industrial Blog on the scene, started in June 2025: Manufacturing for Wealth: An EVE Online Industrialist's Log 

The author has been playing eve online for over 5 years as a solo industrialist, took a break for a few months and came back recently.

Started with one account with the 3 characters trained for industry, invention and reactions (30 slots total) + a net wealth of 66 billion isk with 23 billion isk as cash + hangers full of hauling ships + an established PI business in WH generating around 110 millions isk daily (doing P1 only) + a good library of BPOs and reaction formulas.

That PI operation would generate isk of 3.3 billion and therefore would be sufficient to omega the account.

Given the blog has only recently started we can read from the start and quickly catch up with what is being produced and why.


Tuesday, 15 July 2025

arrow keys / mouse roll to change prices

For those of us who put trades onto the market, a staple part of that operation is to change the price over time as competition comes in and undercuts us.

And therefore finding a fast and efficient process is important.  Inputting a new price is slow and prone to errors.

There are two ways to quickly change the price once the Modify Order box is opened:

1) when the curser is in the Price box, use the keyboard up/down arrow keys to change the price.  It will change the price by one tick.

2) place the mouse pointer over the price and use the mouse scroll button.  It will also change the price by one tick.  And the mouse scroll button can be rapidly scrolled to change the price by a larger amount (i.e. multiple ticks).











Thursday, 10 July 2025

Eve Business Blogs - a journey through time

Back in 2014 i listed 30 Eve Business blogs that were active that i was aware about at the time - all listed in the table below with their urls.  Back then i was looking for blogs that would discuss how the author made their isk in game.  Coming from World of Warcraft there was quite a vibrant community in discussing how they made their ingame money and Eve was no exception.

There are 4 left from that list today.  I would like to say this reflects the authors moving onto other media formats such as twitch . . . . . but, no.  This reflects an outright reduction in Business / Isk Making media content.

That said, there is one new Eve business blog i now read that are not on the list: I wanna be a Trillionaire, so frickin' bad...

For sure, we now have Twitch that has taken up the running in Eve content delivery - but, this is an interesting observation on how the delivery of content for Eve Online (and other games) has changed over time.

I will put together a new Content list at some stage that also includes Twitch and youtube but even then i suspect i will find less than 5 new authors who talk about making isk and perhaps 5 more than include it in the general shows.

Its a little bit sad - all those blogs lost in time, passed from memory to become part of the fabric of once what was.  Most of the blogs remain on the internet, so some small grain of comfort for those that want to immerse themselves in the a small piece of history.

I always wonder what happened to the authors and if their ventures in making isk in Eve helped them in their real life ambitions.

Blog

Type

Active?

1

A noob's tale in eve

General Business Blog

yes

2

A Scientist's Life in Eve

Industrial Blog

-

3

A Visit to New Eden

Trading Blog

-

4

Chasing the Black

General Business Blog

-

5

Curses!

Trading Blog

-

6

Deep in EVE

General Business Blog

-

7

EVE Altoholic

General Business Blog

-

8

Eve Bumbler

General Business Blog

-

9

Eve Mogul

General Business Blog

-

10

EVE Simplified

General Business Blog

-

11

EVE-fail

Trading & Industry Blog

-

12

Evehermit

Trading Blog

Yes

13

EvePLEX

Trading Blog

-

14

Extra-Vehicular - Lets go for a walk

General Business Blog

-

15

Foo's Eve Musings

General Business Blog

-

16

Fuzzwork Enterprises

Industrial Blog

Yes/No

17

Greedy goblin

General Business Blog

-

18

K162space

Industrial Blog

-

19

Low Sec Lifestyle

General Business Blog

-

20

Mabrick's Mumblings

General Business Blog

-

21

Manufacturing Confusion

Industrial Blog

-

22

Markets for ISK

General Business Blog

Yes

23

Merchant Monarchy

Trading Blog

-

24

Prosper: An EVE Online Tool Development Blog

Industrial Blog

-

25

Spaceships & Spreadsheets

General Business Blog

-

26

The Chronicles

General Business Blog

-

27

The Eve Industrialist

Industrial Blog

-

28

The Indecisive Noob

General Business Blog

-

29

The Lazy Pilot

Industrial Blog

-

30

EVE Plex in 21 Days

Trading Blog

-

31

tothebreach

General Business Blog

-

32

Twenty five Tons of Heavy Steel

General Business Blog

-

33

Vahrokh Vain

General Business Blog

-

34

Valkrrs Eve Industrial Journal

Industrial Blog

-

35

Yinmatook's EVE Wanderings

General Business Blog

-

36

Zero Gravity Geology

General Business Blog

-

 


Saturday, 5 July 2025

Manufacturing update - June 2025

In the month of June in Manufacturing i made sales of 12 billion isk and profits of 6.3 billion isk.

Which sounds great until i realise that much of the profits have come from a build up stock that has been put on the market to sell.

Hence, the isk on hand in my wallet is 3 billion isk.

I now have 26 billion of Sell Orders spread over Jita, Dodixie and Hek, about 1 billion isk or raw materials waiting to be put into manufacture and 5 billion of raw materials in courier contract.

So, yes, 6.3 billion of profits but it more reflects a scaling up of the business.  Lets see what selling in July from those 26 billion of Sell Orders.


Putting that altogether (numbers in brackets = last month):

Total Manufacturing Wealth = 30.0 billion (23.7)

made up of:
ISK in Wallet = 2.9 billion (17.9)
Raw Materials = 1.2 billion (0.4
Courier Contracts = 5.2 billion (5.3
Sell Orders = 25.9 billion (0)
Provision on Sell Orders = -5.2 billion (0)

Total Profits in June = movement in assets = 6.3 billion (2.7)


The Business Model

In an old account that is now omega'd i have a manufacturing character in Jita and Sales characters in Dodixie and Hek.  My Jita Character also is a Sales character.

In another account in my normal Trading business i have a manufacturing character sitting outside of High Sec in Ardar which is near Hek.

I buy all my raw materials required.

I sell my output either in Jita or courier it to be sold in Dodixie or Hek.


My Manufacturing Strategy

I go for high value items that have little competition and therefore sell slowly but at good margins.  So very similar to my Regional Trading business.

That means i don't produce the same items continuously.

My main headwind to growth is therefore speed of sale which means i am waiting for sales to happen so that i can build up my wallet to start the next high value item to go in a manufacturing slot.



Tuesday, 1 July 2025

Month end update - June 2025

I made 71bn profits in June 2025 and distributed nothing.  Therefore, my wealth rose by 71bn to 2.359 trillion isk.

So a decent month.

I ended the month with a record level of Sell Orders at 2.0 trillion and buy orders of 0.1 trillion, so lets call it 2.1 trillion isk on the market.

And my plunge into manufacturing is paying off.  2.7bn isk profits in May and this month 6.2bn isk.  I will do a monthly update on manufacturing later this month.


Distribution Policy

My plan going forwards is to have 50 billion isk spare in my wallet, on top of isk in my manufacturing operation, for opportunities that come up and therefore i will distribute every surplus 50 billion - i.e. when i get to 100 billion isk in my wallet (on top of the isk in my manufacturing operations) i will distribute 50 billion.


Distributions

These days, the aim is to distribute my profits to the Oz Tank Show or other ventures that generate content in Eve Online.  Watching the numbers go up was great in the first trillion but lacks purpose onwards.

In June i did not distribute anything.  ISK in wallet = 70 billion = 67 billion normal isk + 3 billion isk in manufacturing.


So far i have given 438bn to Eve shows:

260bn isk to the Oz Tank Show

92.5bn to The Oz Show

50bn to the twitch show TheOneAndOnlySidar

20bn to the podcast Declarations of War to sponsor it.

13.2bn to the Nth_Dimensional Twitch show

1.6bn to the Raff_About_It show


The Oz Tank Show started in July 2023 and i have generated profits of 1.544 trillion in the July 2023 - June 2025 period and distributed 438bn.

So that leaves 1.1 trillion isk to distribute to some venture(s).

It is early days but the Oz Show is considering having some of its tycoons sponsor a new Corporation.  Lets see.


Skill Farming paid for 1 year of Omega across my accounts

In June 2024 i went for the MCT / Omega deal and have now pre-funded 6 accounts (so the 4 omega accounts and 2 alpha accounts) for 12 months.

This also took me into Skill Farming for the first time.

I spent 130bn isk on all that.  The way i accounted for this was to say that the 130bn isk was an asset spent to buy Omega and as i made profits from skill farming i would reduce this asset.

In other words, skill farming would not contribute to increasing my wealth until i had made 130bn isk profits.

I achieved that goal in January and therefore all skill farming profits i now make is profit towards increasing my wealth.

That said, that 12 months of free Omega is coming to an during July 2025.

I had decided a few months ago not to pursue another round of Skill Farming given i perceive that CCP is turning against this strategy and making it harder to achieve.


Six Omega Accounts to pay for

Therefore, i took advantage of the 20% plex discount and added another 12 months on all my accounts in June.

I spent 143 billion isk buying 12 months of Omega for 7 accounts and another 12 months for one of those accounts because i was too far into a bottle of red to be paying attention  (1 of these accounts is a manufacturing account which was an old account going back to 2012 that has been in alpha since around 2016).

My seven Omega accounts will come off Omega from July 2026 to September 2026 with one account going to October 2027.

Rather than being complicated and staggering the depreciation of this asset and figuring out how the extra 12 months will work - I will account for this in the normal way by saying from this month onwards (July 2025) 1/12 of the 143 billion will be recognised as a cost each month = 143/12 = 12 billion isk.

For the accountants amongst you that will mean come July 2026 i will have a number of free months of Omega to come including one account Omega all the way to October 2027!

If i did what i used to do which was to buy 3 months of Omega i would be spending 7x6.2x1200/3 = 17 billion isk a month.  So the 20% discount and 12 month purchase was a good deal.


The basic numbers for June

In June i had sales of 482bn isk vs May of 447bn.  So a rise of 8% and above my long term average of £325bn.

482bn sales is my second best ever with 516bn in December 2024 being the best.  May 2025 is now my third best month.

This comes to average daily sales of 16.1bn isk.  In other words, each evening i expect to see across all my accounts an additional 16bn isk (less transaction taxes) sitting on the characters to be reinvested back into the markets.

So, good news on Sales for May and June in 2025.

Item profits were 137bn isk which is a margin of 28% (137/482).  So above the 25% target and as ever a pleasing result.  There will be an upwards distortion from Skill Farming in here which i am sure i could work out if i had the time.

Taxes and Courier fees came to 65bn isk.  I am facing a lot more competition in Blueprints which is pushing up my broker relist fees - they are now running at 5% of sales vs 1 to 2% historically.  That takes the Trading Profits to 71bn isk and so a trading margin of 14.8% (71/482).  So below the 16% margin target which rarely happens.

That was how 482 billion isk of sales became 71 billion isk of profits.


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

In some ways, i am there now - lets see if i can get this to work.

I would need to make daily sales of 18bn on my 25% item market - that has never happened.  Therefore, to achieve 100bn profits a month i need to do one or some of three things.

1) Increase my item margin above 25% - possible but a risk.

2) Keep on doing Skill Farming - for the next 2 months i will be earning pure profits from Skill Farming, so this will be done.

3) Expand into station trading - i sort of do that but not to any big deal.  So this is possible.

4) Expand into manufacturing - which i am now giving a real shot.  The interview with Sir SmashAlot on the Oz Show was inspirational.  As was an old youtube series Building my Industrial Empire.


My Sales Strategy

I have redesigned how i operate each evening now that i use the Eve Excel Addin fully within my business.

it takes 10 minutes to go through my trading locations to work out what needs to be bought from Jita to be sold and also what Sell Orders need to be updated.

It takes 10 minutes to buy the items from Jita and set up courier contracts and adjust all the noted Sell Orders.

And then 5 minutes to put the couriered items up for Sale when they arrive later.

What used to take 45 minutes now takes 20-25 minutes.

And then once a weak i do a deeper dive into each trading location to see what new items i can sell.  That can take a full 20 minutes.


My overall strategy remains 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.

These items also tend to be price insensitive - players will buy the item almost whatever the price.  The Buyer is much more interested in getting the item to use now rather than setting off to Jita to get it cheaper.

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 20-30% 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.  For example, i can post an item for sale in the main Rens Trading up for 300m, and even if one jump away the same item is for sale for 250m the item in the main Trading Hub will still be the item sold.

Also, i recently moved to only selling items that sell over at least 500 million isk.

Therefore, i mostly sell Implants, Blueprints, ship equipment and some structure modules.  And more recently Large Skill Injectors.


What is selling well in June

Amarr for the third month in a row is the best sales location, followed by Dodixie then Rens and Hek.  So a traditional order.

Dodixie had a welcome pick up after a few months be being quiet.

Whilst Blueprints remain hyper competitive other items seem to have less competition.

Hence, in June sales were good in Implants, ship equipment and i am now selling mining equipment for the first time in a long time (May was also good).


Manufacturing

The Oz Show had a great interview with Sir SmashAlot where he talked about his manufacturing activities to the tune of making over 1 trillion profits per month!

And the author of the blog I wanna be a Trillionaire, so frickin' bad... has moved into manufacturing and is making a good job of it.

And going back a few years there was a great youtube series Building my Industrial Empire (who is now back).

Early days, i am making some profits and will update this blog as i go.

Ideally, i want to create a process that i can scale.


Planetary Interaction

I have re-started this.  18 planets for now, set to staggered 14 day cycles.  During July / August i plan to redesign all this and perhaps move out of High Sec.


Research

For now, i have stopped trying to make this work.


Station Trading

All in Jita.  I focused a bit more on it and made sales of 30bn isk which is inline with the long term average.

I don't really have a process up and running that is scalable.

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 have 1 Alpha account with a character in Venal left.  All the others were upgraded to Omega last summer to start Skill Farming.


Old Accounts

This is my third outing in Eve Online.  I still have the characters of the prior two attempts and i have resurrected them all.  One account is Omega and does manufacturing the rest remain as Alpha for now.


Plex

I bad 18,300 Plex at the end of May and spent all of that buying 12 months of Omega across all my Omega accounts (and another 12 months on one account because i was too far into a bottle of red wine to notice).  So i have around 260 Plex left.  Thinking about whether or not to rebuild.


Items in hanger for sale

There are a number of items that i sell that can only be sourced from Regions outside of The Forge (the home of Jita).

To make my life easier, i buy them from their home bases and have them couriered to Jita to be stored ready to be couriered to their final sale destination.

Also, given i am skill farming i have a number of Skill Extractors and Large Skill Injectors sitting in hangers waiting to be used / sold.

In all, some 408bn isk of items.


Buy Orders

Buy Orders have varied over time and peaked at around and are just off the high at 104bn.  Whilst i am not focusing on Station Trading in Jita i am taking more opportunities in all this,

Once i get a grip, Buy Orders will also increase as i ramp up the Station Trading in Jita.


ISK

I have 71bn spare ISK kicking around.

For the last 12 months the average ISK in wallets has been over 100bn compared to around 50bn before this.

The reason for his is purely real life being busy and so not having the time to make sure everything is invested.

That said, i now have a new distribution policy where i will distribute all blocks of 50 billion isk above 50 billion + manufacturing isk in my wallet.


Current Wealth

Current wealth is 2.359 trillion ISK made up from:
  • Plex held as an investment 2bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for sale 408bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for use in business 11bn ISK
  • Omega brought forward 143bn ISK
  • Buy orders on the market 104bn ISK
  • items for sale 2.03 trillion ISK
  • less a 20% provision 406bn ISK*
  • ISK in wallet 71bn 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.