Corporation Set Up: General Commerce and Industry

The time has come to set up a Corporation to make life easier and safer to haul items from Jita to Dodixie.

Now that the items i transport from Jita are approaching 80m isk i have decided to move to Contracts to get them couriered from Jita to Dodixie.

For those that don't know, this means contracting out to a third party to haul my items from Jita to Dodixie.  The hauler puts up collateral in isk to the level i specify  and if the hauler successfully delivers the items they are awarded the fee i offered and get their collateral back.  If the hauler fails then i get the collateral.  So, typically i set the collateral at the cost of the items +10%.

It is a lot safer and not too much cost at all.

At the moment, i am offering 1.5% of the collateral as a Reward.  With 1 day to claim plus 1 day to deliver.  So far, i get the items within an hour or so of setting up the Contract.

Maybe i should reduce the Reward to 1% - i suspect with the trade route from Jita to Amarr closed for now due to the invasion then more haulers will be focusing on the remaining Trade routes.  And my items rarely take up more than 100m3, so a small fast ship can do them very easily.

I already have an alt with no skills based in Jita - so he can have one contract running at a time.

To make this a smooth process i set up a Corporation with both my Main and Alt as members.

The Main at Dodixie will transfer surplus isk to the Corporation.  The Alt in Jita will then buy the items on behalf of the Corporation.

Therefore, neither the Main nor the Alt need ever leave their stations to conduct trading for now.

The Corporation is imaginatively called General Commerce and Industry.

Upgraded to Omega

After 2 days trading (+2 days training missions), my current wealth is 90m isk.

Seed Capital

The training missions at the start yielded me 10m isk.  That seems not to have changed from the prior two times i started in May 2013 and March 2019.

I started the training missions on Saturday night and finished them on Sunday night.

So, with that 10m isk my trading started.

The initial aims

Me initial aim is not much different from before - i want to use my tried and tested trading strategy to get to a steady state of income with minimal effort.

At that point, instead of pushing on i want to move into other parts of Eve industry to see what it is all about and if i can make it generate good isk.

Trading Strategy

Unchanged.

I will buy direct from Sell Orders in Jita, fly them to Dodixie and post them up as Sell Orders.

Whilst the amounts i buy are below 60m isk at a time, i will transport them myself on autopilot (i will need to check how much i can transport before i become a target).

I will buy slow moving (i.e. low daily sales, 1 sale a day is good for me) items what sell for very high margins.  i.e. buy for 700k in Jita and sell for 2.5m in Dodixie.

Blueprints are a great place to start.

The competition is very sleepy.  The big traders don't play here (the margins are good but at one sale a day the profits are low).  So is a great way to grow the initial capital.

From seed capital of 10m i now have 111m isk of Sell Orders up in Dodixie.

The aim is to keep as much of my isk invested on the market leaving only enough to finance the new Broker Fees to change prices.

Currently i am using 21 Sell Orders.

Alpha vs Omega

The main headwind that Alpha gave me is the limit to place 17 Sell Orders.

By Tuesday, my second day of trading, i was needing more slots so i bit the bullet and upgraded to Omega.  £9.99 spent for 30 days game time.  I am hoping that i can earn sufficient isk to Plex the account from here.  That is a key aim.

Market Changes

Two changes struck me immediately.

Firstly, there is no more 0.01 price changing.

Secondly, the broker fee on price changes is effectively at half normal broker fee rates.  I can reduce this with skills over time.

But, overall, the taxation on market orders has gone up strongly.

At some stage i will write a post on this but i will read up on the subject first to see what effect this has had.

Accounting for Wealth

I plan to use the same process i did before.

My wealth is the sum of ISK, items in cargo and the sum of all Sell Orders less a 20% provision against those Sell Orders.

This 20% provision is a conservative estimate of the price reduction and associated taxes it would take to effectively complete the Sell Orders.

I will need to review how this works out with the new Broker Fees on price changes.  But sticking to the 20% for now.

That said, i see now that EVE gives easier details on Income vs Expenditure and also i think it keeps a track of the initial cost of the Sell Orders i have up.  If that really is the case, then i can start to account for my profits much like a company does.  But i will leave that for later.

Outlook

September will be my first full month, so lets see how it goes

Aims for September:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders
2) Plex the account

Current wealth is 90m ISK made up from:

• items for sale 111m ISK
• less a 20% provision 22m ISK*
• ISK in wallet 1m 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.

Starting Again - third time

There i was, effectively out of the game with real life / work life very busy and a friend of mine whispers in my ear that he has "retarted Eve Online" and is going to focus on the Industrial side of life.

. . . . . and that was too much for me to resist.

So, lets see how this goes.

I will start again.

Spend strictly no more than 45 minutes per day.

This time i want to explore more than trading but i want trading to create the underlying the cash to be able to play for free and to explore all other expects of the economy.

Hence, i suspect trading will be the focus for a few months before i move onto other matters.

I will also doubtless need to pay for at least the first month.

Downloading the game now . . . .  .

. . . . .though maybe kickoff next weekend.

Month end September 2019

At the end of my sixth month my wealth is 58.1bn isk.  An increase of 7.4bn isk over the month.

I also had to fund a 1.7bn Plex payment.  Hence, i likely generated profits of almost 9bn isk in September which is about 290m per day.

But lets remember that Plex is part of the costs of my game so lets just focus on the 7.4bn isk rise (i.e. the rise in wealth after paying for all costs) - this compares to the prior month of an 7.3bn isk rise.

Basically, i am on 'care and maintenance' at present.  Real life work is real busy and in my spare time i have taken to doing kaggle.com, trying out their starter competitions.

Hence, for Eve i log on once a week and go from there.

At best, if i don' log on daily i make 10bn isk sales which is about 1.5bn isk profit.


Plex

I now have 900 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 900 Plex to extend the game time and then rebuild the Plex levels in my inventory.



Strategy

In an ideal world there would be no change here - i (try to) 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.


. . . . . . . . but right now i log in on a saturday and go from there.

Outlook

October will be a busy month outside of Eve again - so lets aim for 7bn isk profit, same as September.

Aims for September (same as August 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 58.1bn ISK made up from:

• items for sale 50.8bn ISK
• less a 20% provision 10.2bn ISK*
• Plex held (900 Plex) 3.2bn ISK
• items in storage for sale 1.2 ISK
• ISK in wallet 13.1bn 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.

Month End August 2019

At the end of my fifth month my wealth is 50.7bn isk.  An increase of 7.3bn isk over the month.

I also had to fund a 1.8bn Plex payment.  Hence, i likely generated profits of almost 9bn isk in August which is about 290m per day.

But lets remember that Plex is part of the costs of my game so lets just focus on the 7.3bn isk rise (i.e. the rise in wealth after paying for all costs) - this compares to the prior month of an 16bn isk rise.

Lets not beat about the bush, August turned into a slow month.  It started off slow and then i did not log in for the final 10 days as real life took over (and i expect real life to be a dominant taker of time in September also).

Recall last month i said that 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.

I clearly did not follow that rule in the final 10 days and that killed my wealth generation capabilities.

It also meant that as items sold the ISK in my wallet rose and at the end of August i had 11bn ISK to invest and indeed today as i write this i have a total of 15bn ISK sitting in my wallet to invest.



Plex

I now have 700 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 (try to) 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

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.


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 26.2bn isk (vs last month at 31.3bn isk).  If required, i can still skill up Tycoon to give an additional 32 order slots per level.

Going ok, will be back up to speed in September hopefully.


Amarr Seller


This is newer and currently this character has 57 items up for Sale for a total of 20.9bn isk (compares to 57 items valued at 22.0bn last month)

He can post up to 97 items right now - an increase since the end of June as i grow this Seller.

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.



Checklist of the aims for August:

The main aim was to increase wealth by 10bn - that was not achieved.

Other aims for August were:
1) Continue to expand the Dodixie trader sell orders - failed
2) Plex the account and build up some surplus Plex - done
3) Build up the Amarr trading business - done

. . . . . . . . so, the failure to log in for the final 10 days knocked me off course a bit.


Outlook

Should be easier to do better in September.  But lets aim for 10bn increase in wealth at least, after Plex costs to finance the account, given real life will be busy anyway.

Aims for September (same as August 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 50.7bn ISK made up from:

• items for sale 47.1bn ISK
• less a 20% provision 9.4bn ISK*
• Plex held (700 Plex) 2.4bn ISK
• items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
• ISK in wallet 10.6bn 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wealth of 42.6bn

The fourth week in July was ok and on track.  Wealth rose by 5.0bn to 42.6bn isk.  A decent week all said and done.

My July aims are all coming in ahead of expectations:
 - i am likely to increase my wealth by more than 15bn isk after all costs
 - the Dodixie trader is expanding
 - the Amarr trader is expanding
 - i have the 500 surplus Plex in he inventory.


That said, in the final few days of the month i don't expect to make any further progress.  I have a number of items up for sale that are being materially undercut by competitors and so i am likely to bite the bullet and move my sell price to the new low.

Also, i intend to buy and equip a ship to travel into low and null sec so that i can pick up some items to sell in High Sec.

That is all going to cost me several hundred million isk to do and so is likely to take up all the profits made in the final days of July.  Maybe even more.

In  situations like this i generally make sure i am the lowest sell price unless the current low is lower than Jita (in which case i consider buying that item and putting it back on to sell at a higher price) or volumes are high enough that i believe these lowly priced items will be quickly bought up.

The Amarr trader is really going for it.  It now has 14bn 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.

The Dodixie trader keeps plodding along, now regularly over 30bn isk of items up for sale.

I have 600 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

I am hoping i can do better in July compared to June.  The aim was to be for 10bn isk increase in wealth (after paying for Plex) - currently i stand at 7.6bn isk therefore it feels fair to say that the 10bn target will be reached with a week to spare.

Other aims for July - 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 42.5bn ISK made up from:

• items for sale 47.7bn ISK
• less a 20% provision 9.5bn ISK*
• Plex held (600 Plex) 2.2bn ISK
• items in storage for sale 0.0 ISK
• ISK in wallet 2.2bn 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.