I recently completed the Winter Nexus challenges and claimed my Perserverence Blueprint crate. I’ve never manufactured anything before, but why not. If I understood correctly, the blueprint is only good for one production run = 1 ship output and then it self destructs or some ■■■■. Cost of input materials was only like 6M isk for a ship worth (checks evemarketbrowser) 250M isk. Bargain! Let’s do more.
Not so fast. Just looking at some of the random BPs I’ve collected, the ones that produce something of high value, also have high(er) cost of input materials. One example is the Ligature Integrated Analyzer Blueprint. Even if I fly all over bum f new eden and back to get the input components at their best possible prices, I’d probably make more isk just selling the collected components for top Z on the Jita market.
On the Perserverence, now that I have produced the ship and I kinda want to sell it rather than train into mining destroyers, I realize I could have just sold the crate for about the same price after cost of input materials.
No successful manufacturer pays retail for their materials, in game or IRL, which is what you’re doing buying them off of Jita market. A lot of manufacturing is done by people who buy materials from their corpmates. Mineral/loot buyback programs are common for Eve corporations. Set your buyback prices at 90% Jita, and you’ve automatically baked 10% profit into your product. Now you know where all those materials go that corps buy for less than Jita prices.
It is what it is. Clearly I enjoy the game based on playing now for a little over 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever trashed CCP and didn’t even mention them here. Just a question about game mechanics became whatever the f that is all in your head.
You did say that paying 6m in material cost for a ship that sells for ‘‘250m’’ is a ‘‘bargain’’. It’s why I extrapolated from there that you probably thought 1b in profits should be nothing out of the ordinary in this game.
Be that as it may. First off, your math isn’t correct. BPC for Perseverance is worth around 280m right now. Add material cost 6m (I’m going by your quote right now), 200k facility tax and you get an input cost of 286.2m. You can currently sell it in Jita for 298m. Sales and listing taxes will amount to ca 17-20m on that give or take. Which means you wouldn’t be able to sell it at Jita at that price at the moment if those are your numbers. ← this last sentence has ALL the info you need to figure out how to make profits out of manufacturing in EVE.
Perseverance is a bad example to go by though. Many guys get it for ‘free’ from the event at the moment. But that BPC is not for free. Its price tag is 280m for now. You don’t have to manufacture the hull to make 280m from it. If you want to get an idea on what profit margins on hulls are really like look into manufacturing T1 battlecruisers or battleships, for example.
And yes, BPCs (blueprint copies), have limited number of runs on them. For Perseverance BPCs it’s just 1 run, but for others there can be more. The only class of blueprints that are unlimited are originals (called BPOs).
Some (many) items can’t be built profitably, others can. The one you’ve chosen to look at is a pretty low-demand module.
It’s also a very basic item to produce, as there isn’t any need to build intermediate components.
For T1-ish items, look at things that are more of a ‘consumable’. I haven’t done manu in a hot minute, but rigs, some ammos and cap charges (sell them in faction warfare LP store stations) have traditionally been pretty decent. Other items I’d probably look at are deployables (MTU/depots/bubbles), cyno gens (industrial especially), maybe containers. T1 Ships are generally bad, T1 modules are generally bad with a handful of exceptions.
EVE’s industry and economy are different from RL, primarily because EVE does not have a concept of “used goods” (ok… except for mining and laser crystals). You can use a ship or a module for a year, repackage it and it will be just as good as newly produced one.
Modules and ships are also not consumed, so a lot of the economy is based on goods that exist forever - or until they are destroyed.
So, if you want profit, look for items with bigger turnover (items that are frequently lost) and gaps in supply.
Regarding Ligature Analyzer, it’s not profitable simply because rarely anyone uses it. Those who fly throwaway frigates and covert ops usually go for tech 2. Those who use T3 cruisers for relic hunting and want bling, go for Zeugma, which requires the same types of materials as Ligature.
Honestly, buy your BPO’s, move away from any trade hubs, use Eve Tycoon to look at prices, if you are 10+ jumps from trade hubs you can “mark up” the price (reasonably), over the hubs, you win because of time and laziness, nobody wants to jump 10+ to save a 10% mark up.
Or you can establish a market let’s say ten jumps between Jita and anywhere. Fill the markets with items that are slightly under the prices the items are sold in Jita that will create a new customer base while Jita marketeers will purchase some of your items but won’t the time in purchasing all items to move them to Jita to sell at a slightly higher price.
I use to run Cosmos sites in Friggi, getting mods like scanning equipment / harvesting was a pain because Jita was your only source, even shuttles were scarce or industrial haulers to haul loot out.
The **Mobile Tractor Unit (MTU) is the most destroyed mobile structure in EVE Online by count.
Mine, then manufacture MTU’s, sell them at the busier Mission Running Hubs.
Mission Hubs (High-Sec): Systems with many mission runners are prime targets for griefers (like Ninja Salvagers/Looters) who scan for abandoned MTUs to steal loot and bait players.
Lanngisi** is often cited as the busiest mission-running hub for Level 4s, especially for Caldari/Gallente players, with Dodixie , Amarr , Hek , and Rens
that is all in your head.