I started doing Industry recently and have been enjoying the process a lot, sourcing the goods, planning out supply, finding good products to manufacture for my area (I have been manufacturing for Rens and Hek). I am only one character manufacturing currently.
However, I have not been enjoying selling the product. Even when placing items on the market at very reasonable prices, very quickly I am undercut by other sellers in a few hours, be it for high or low demand items. I really hate having to baby-sit orders and it sucks the enjoyment from Industry for me.
I wanted to know if things work differently if you’re not a solo player, how do these Industry corps work or Industry within an alliance? Are their group projects, buybacks, contracts (not an eve contract) to build X items, are there things that help alleviate this pain point I’m experiencing?
I’d be really glad to hear any insight on this topic, whether it relates to corp/alliance based stuff, avenues for solo players, or different markets, or anything related to this?
Welcome to the player driven market. There are ways to place items on the market address this and deal with it, but that’s a digression from your questions. (My “trade hub” experience is almost exclusively in the Heimatar region and Rens market, the past 8 months before my current corp as a “solo-but-not-alone” 1-character industry toon with what I consider above-average success).
It all depends on the specific corp or alliance. I can only talk from my limited nullsec experience: you’re mainly competing with all the other industrialists in the alliance/coalition market. If there are doctrines of specific ship fits, then you get the benefit of knowing that the market will contain spikes of people buying very specific items.
All that really changes IMO, is the social access to people you are able to haggle and build one-off botique contracts if you want to go that route. You can do that in high sec anyway as a solo pilot if you strive to not play alone.
Note: There is a difference in my mind between all the following: one-character industry, “solo” player (not a part of a larger corp/alliance), and playing “alone” (being anti-social and not trying to talk to others). If you’re trying to do one-character solo industry alone, you’re not going to have a great time.
It sounds to me like you might need to adjust your expectations. If you put an item on the market for a reasonable price, it should sell eventually, even if you’re undercut by your competition. It might take close to three months for your items to sell, but they should sell eventually.
In a corp or alliance, they might have a buyback program, where they’ll pay you, say, 80% Jita Buy for your goods. While that might be a lower price than you’d like, it at least provides a constant and hopefully semipermanent way of moving inventory for some consistent cash flow. Sure, you could sell your items on the market for a higher price, but that might take much longer than eating the difference and just selling it to buyback right away.
In the alliance I was in, market competition tended to be less cutthroat. The alliance controlled the market, and if you tried selling an item for an outrageous price, you could get into trouble for what they called “blue-screwing,” to put a cleaner spin on the term. The alliance expected prices to be reasonable, but even then they allowed for significant markups. And just as with other markets, sometimes it took a while for items to sell.
Don’t be disheartened when your competition undercuts you, but understand it may take quite a while for items to sell. In a corp or alliance, there are typically more opportunities to sell your items if they’re in demand, and there’s usually some sense of “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” that allows for wheeling and dealing to everyone’s benefit. There may also be greater opportunities to move your items toward industry projects for your corp or alliance.
Glad to help. One other thing I can tell you is, sometimes your “tried and true” methods for selling your items may suddenly disappear. Your corporation might have a buyback program, then suddenly say, “We don’t need your items anymore,” for whatever reason. In that case, it’s always good to cultivate other avenues for selling your goods.
If my corp buys Veldspar, let’s say, and then suddenly says they don’t need Veldspar anymore, I can still reach out to individuals in my corp to see if they’re interested. If not, I can take it to the local market and sell it there. If that doesn’t sell, for some reason, then I can put up public contracts for anyone in the area. If that doesn’t work, I can potentially find things to make with my Veldspar and sell those items.
Try to think in terms of, “If I lost this avenue of selling my goods, what would I do?” That will keep you from panicking if and when one of your avenues dries up. It might also be worth it to diversify your goods across several avenues at once to see which ones you like best, and keep the others in mind as alternatives.
All in all, you’ll likely find better success doing business with a corp and/or alliance than you will flying solo.
There are ways to place items on the market address this and deal with it, but that’s a digression from your questions. (My “trade hub” experience is almost exclusively in the Heimatar region and Rens market, the past 8 months before my current corp as a “solo-but-not-alone” 1-character industry toon with what I consider above-average success).