Regional Price Differentials May 7, 2008
Posted by Wilhelm2451 in EVE Online, entertainment.trackback
As I mentioned in my post “Moving to Amarr Space,” the regional market into which I dropped was close to ideal for making money, at least at a slow pace. The competition was low, variation in pricing was huge, and buy orders were relatively scarce.
What I did not know at the time was that I was sitting close to where three regions come together. In the past, I have tended to end up right in the middle of a region, so that no matter which direction I went for 3-5 jumps I was still in the same market.
Now, however, I am one jump in one direction and three jumps in another from different regional markets.
And they are very different.
One jump away from where I am happily selling Badgers for 800K ISK a piece, the regional price drops by nearly a third.
Three jumps the other way, I would have to slice 25% off of my asking price to be competitive.
So I am looking for a good way to exploit the differential between these two markets.
While I cannot haul badgers, I could certainly buy them and fly them I suppose.
Or I could find something smaller. Something to exploit these regional differences.
And I have to keep my customers from finding out that they need only one more jump to beat my prices!
Wilhelm, you’ve found one of the finest ways to make quick profits at others’ expense. The joy of trading hubs - for a trader, anyway - is that their reputation as a place to buy things is betrayed by the market window’s regional limitation. Watching your wallet blink as people pay a 100% markup on items is beautiful, especially when your markup is STILL below the regional price in the place to which you’ve imported.
I have a rule of thumb: for each jump away from a trading hub, an item needs to be 10% cheaper for most people to go buy it. So you can price your items 10% higher in a hub than a neighbouring system, and people will still buy them, because they want convenience.
People are lazy. I know many people who just don’t buy if they’re not in Rens, Jita, or Ours (and to some extent now, Hek). I know several who will dock, set market view to station, and THEN buy. Molden Heath, the region with rusty servers, can have some amazing cheap stuff in Teon or 3 jumps out in lowsec. It’s all of 10 jumps from Rens and I can save anywhere from 5%-30% when I outfit a given ship.