As of this post I have learned a lot about production and sales though trial and error. As I couldn't be bothered to buy and read an industry guide.
Some of the things I've learned so far in a nutshell:
-It is possible to crash the Jita market by yourself (more on that later)
-Sigals with cargo extenders can be volleyed by a destroyer in a 1.0 system
-It's impossible to find an open research slot in highsec
-The more you undercut Jita market pvp'rs by the less likely they will try to .99 isk you
-Managing goods in multiple regions is a brutal hassle without jump clones and the proper skills
Now in depth:
Crashing the market:
After my first few batches of guns were made I had enough minerals to run off 300 auto cannons in one go. So I threw the minerals in the oven and watched as the mechanical arms assembled and packaged my deadly trade goods. So with 300 brand new 220 vulcan auto cannons wrapped up with warping paper and a bow in my sigals cargo hold, I undocked from my base in Osmeden and set course to Jita. After dodging a few cargo scanning pirates I arrived in the biggest trade hub in all of new eden and had the deck manager unload my cargo and prep if for sale.
I examined the market on my pda found the lowest price to be 110,000 isk per gun so thinking I'd under cut them by quite some margin to move the weapons quickly I listed mine at 105,000 isk per weapon. Over then next few hours I noticed a few of my guns sold, but I was quickly replaced as the lowest price by a Jita pvp'r whos' guns were listed at 104,999.99 isk. Angered that my customers were so fickle and were flocking to him I thought I'd teach them a lesson, that I was the cheapest seller by listing mine far lower at 100,000 isk. After selling a few more guns bringing my total left on market somewhere below 200 (from the original 300). I once more watched with distain as my patrons ran to another market pvp'r selling them for 99,999.99. That trend kept up for a day or two until I had sold all my guns, with the final gun selling at 65,000 isk a mere 5,000 isk more then it costs me to make one.
I had single handedly brought the price of 220 vulcan auto cannons from 110,000 isk to 65,000 isk. It took about a week for the price to recover afterwords so I have to figure out the best amount of guns to sell at one time so as to avoid this again.
Sigals are squishy:
So it was my second trip to Jita with a batch of 75 guns and sometimes a capsuleer must leave their pod to attend to things on the ship. So I had to leave the controls of the ship for a moment. Well in Jita and the surrounding systems that is far too long. Just as I was out of the pod and toweled off to go take care of business I heard over comes that we were being targeted. I raced back to my pod and dived in just as the first volley rocked the ship. Shields collapsed and armor already had been compromised in several areas of the ship. Standing in my pod as the pod goo rushed in around me I tried to get info on our situation. System diagnostics flashed through my mind shields at 0%, armor at 15...0% structure 0% *YOU HAVE LOST CONTROL OF THE SHIP... POD EJECTING*. Out of instinct I warped to a planet to regain my senses. I later found I had been killed by a lone thrasher pilot who had inflicted 500 damage to my sigal and destroyed it, recovering 47 guns and making millions in profit.
Research is rarer then Morphite:
No exciting story here... I traveled through 4 regions and checked every system every station.... not a single research slot. I have resigned myself to use un-researched bpos until I can afford a pos and research them there.
The .99 isk'ers the scum of Jita:
Again no story just some experience as I sold my items I at first tried to play the .99 isk game, but soon found I didn't have the time to do it. I learned that the more I dropped my price from the .99'rs the less they pursed my nook in the market.
Chewing more then you can bite..... or is it the other way? :
Probably the biggest mistake in life is biting off more then you can chew. I definitely did that when I came up with the brilliant idea of selling my goods in multiple regions. After several hundred jumps to different regions to change prices I gave up and consolidated all my guns to Jita. After a bit of thinking I came to the conclusion I'm sure most industrialists do. When I'm a bit more skilled up and have some more faction standing I'm going to position jump clones on the intersection of regions so I can jump to one every day and change the prices for several regions with 4 or so jumps.
In final words I've built up quite a mineral store so far and will soon be expanding into other weapon systems aside from 220 vulcans.
I also reached my first economic milestone of 20m isk, next one at 50m here I come
Please feel free to add any market advice you have... also please come to Jita and buy my guns :)
Damn that was like a post and a half.
Please feel free to add any market advice you have... also please come to Jita and buy my guns :)
Damn that was like a post and a half.
