Hello all, got a bit of a question for folks who enjoy playing the market in EVE. I have been starting to get into the industry side of things a bit and while I love the idea of making a station, fuel costs are clearly a big issue. Examining options it looks like an Azbel would be a solid middle ground for a station I could still rig for research and production, while having services that could attract income.
Clonebay and Market would be part of this of course, publicly open for all to use, but how could I attract you guys to use it? The region of space I am in has pretty much no trade hub (although Dodi is close, and Jita not too far) and while I don’t expect it to make bank, I would like to offset, or pay for the billions of isk a year in fuel costs.
I also have no plans on making this happen until I have a full year of fuel from the start (stations that enter low power frustrate me to no end.) But have already started the process of saving/investing to make this happen and want to research all factors to try and make things as successful as possible.
TL;DR: What’s needed in a player owned station that would get you to buy/sell there?
For a trade hub? That it’s well stocked and is secure so my stuff is safe. For a high sec Upwell market? All I want one for is offshoring so as it needs to be in a popular area (The Forge) and cost as little as possible to me.
If you think the fuel costs are high, then I don’t think you’re ready to run a trade hub. Fuel is the least of your worries when running a high sec structure. Ransoms probably start at a few bil, and I’d guess 10b for a single timer’s minimum defence fleet.
Perhaps there’s a niche in the market you can fill, but structures are two years old now and I’d be surprised if you found anywhere with zero competition and even if you start with zero competition then you’ll soon get some. Competition is good for the consumer, but not someone who can’t afford a few hundred million ISK per month for fuel.
Be willing to give me free clone & zero tax on the market if I give you a one time donation to help you with that upfront cost? You don’t want to publicly make your taxes too low or else competitors will want to take out your station but you might want to do something like I described above at least until you get settled in and the market is having some good volume.
If you start doing too well though you might still get hit by other market owners if you’re close by and taking business away from them.
I was not aware (and not surprised) of ransoms, so that’s good to learn about. As for the defense, I would be working with a smaller, but not inactive alliance if push came to shove. No way I would do this without some kind of backup.
The larger issue is that my section of high sec isn’t the most popular, which comes with the pro of having fewer conflicts and easier to stand out, but the con of attracting attention, which is the main reason for this post here, trying to figure out more of a game plan in advance. And now a new part of that is researching ransoms as a whole so thanks for that!
Thanks for the offer, but this project is still several months out at least. As it stands I could barely get it up and running, but I want to wait until I am sure it can run solid and safe which is a whole other matter. When things are starting up I will be sure to say something around here though.
That it is not a citadel. Simple. This is important in particular for selling things now that even in system asset safety costs 15% of the item value.
And of course that it is stocked like Amarr or Jita so that you can buy whatever you want there and don’t have to fly around to a dozen different places to piece a ship together and waste your entire play time on buying the ship instead of using it. In other words: Not a citadel market.
I can certainly respect that, still would like to both bring more life to my section of space and of course treat it like an investment. There isn’t a real trade hub my way NPC or POS, and its a niche I would like to try and fill.
Admittedly I suppose this is the point where I wish CCP made it possible to see when a station is gonna go offline with a click. But yea, having lost a clone of decent value myself to a POS, a year of fuel at least with planed refueling periods is a big part of it.
As a side note for anyone else planning to run a station, look into fuel costs! Even for a fully kitted out Azbel a year of fuel costs far more then the station itself. Its no wonder so many stations go low power mode.
I understand how you feel, and I believe you can succeed if you sell your stuff there for lower price and seel only what is realy used there (small hull PvP modules in FW zone, for example). But do not expect any serios trader come help seed your market if you are not is some large alliance.