I’m a pretty active trader. Here’s how my experience since the change has been:
ORDER SIZE AND RELISTING FEES
As expected, large-volume orders are punished harshly by the new relisting fees. There are two ways to adapt to this: smaller order volumes, or vastly outpricing the competition in exchange for razor-thin margins.
I chose the smaller order route. I cut my default order size dramatically (between 50% and 80%), and also am more likely to tailor it to the item in question. I lose out on some sales (as when a big buyer/seller completes my order, then buys/sells the rest of their volume to someone else), but that’s okay. I’m paying more than I used to in broker fees, but managing to stay profitable.
All in all, the new relisting fees bother me less than I thought they would.
FOUR SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
From an order management perspective, I like this change. I’m typing a lot fewer decimal places than I used to. Not a big thing, but nice.
From a price perspective, in the long term it will greatly reduce the spread between buy/sell. This is happening fastest in high-demand items at the bottom end of their significant-figure range. For instance, the spread on on warp disruption field generators has gotten pretty tight pretty fast. Before the change, sell orders ran around 1,600,000 ISK, while buy orders were nearer 1,300,000. That’s only a 300,000 difference, and now that the minimum order change is 1,000 ISK, that difference is closing fast. Buy orders are up above 1,500,000 ISK and climbing. I expect margins in items like that to all but disappear.
At the other end of the spectrum, a 9,000,000 ISK item also has a minimum order change of 1,000 ISK. The 1,000 ISK minimum increase won’t even be noticed – what hits those items harder is the relist fees.
COMPETITION
There is still plenty of hardball competition out there, particularly in some items. But I’m running into FAR fewer cases where I’m outbid every five minutes, repeatedly, for hours. Not sure if that’s evidence of bots being pushed out, or just an effect of the relisting fees. Either way, it’s an improvement. And a necessary one, to balance out the uncertainty and overall higher cost of the relisting fees.
SUMMARY
Overall, I had to significantly adjust the way I play. And in the long term, traders may find it hard to stay profitable as the buy/sell spreads shrink. But in the short term, I’m managing to stay profitable, even with higher fees and narrower margins.