More actions
| Line 43: | Line 43: | ||
===Inefficient Markets=== | ===Inefficient Markets=== | ||
Eve's population and markets are huge and well-developed for a video game, but in real-world economic terms, the markets are small, fragmented, and highly inefficient (in the technical sense). They're also subject to the equivalent of massive disruption by the game developers, which you may equate to the state or to acts of God. Hauling as a career will let you exploit and correct some of those inefficiencies, and this is the basis of the station-trading profession -- so be aware of the ways in which EvE's markets fail, because that's where you'll make your money.'' | Eve's population and markets are huge and well-developed for a video game, but in real-world economic terms, the markets are small, fragmented, and highly inefficient (in the technical sense). They're also subject to the equivalent of massive disruption by the game developers, which you may equate to the state or to acts of God. Hauling as a career will let you exploit and correct some of those inefficiencies, and this is the basis of the station-trading profession -- so be aware of the ways in which EvE's markets fail, because that's where you'll make your money. Consider using external sites like [http://eve-central.com/ Eve-central], that can help you discover a lot of trading and hauling possibilities.[http://www.eve-ivy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Using_EVE-Central_to_haul_profitably]'' | ||
====Why inefficient markets are good for you==== | ====Why inefficient markets are good for you==== | ||
* Hauling is a potentially lucrative career -- bring stuff to where people will pay for it. | * Hauling is a potentially lucrative career -- bring stuff to where people will pay for it. Create markets where some things are not offered (did you know that each skillbook is seeded only in a few stations?) | ||
* Move packages for other using hauling contracts | |||
* Station Trading lets you arbitrage your time against other people's convenience -- if you have what they want, they won't care that you picked it up more cheaply last week. | * Station Trading lets you arbitrage your time against other people's convenience -- if you have what they want, they won't care that you picked it up more cheaply last week. | ||
====God made more rocks; or, why the price of tritanium crashed==== | ====God made more rocks; or, why the price of tritanium crashed==== | ||
The economics of manufacture can also be complicated by game decisions. CCP mounted a major campaign against [[macro miners]] in the winter of 2009. This would ordinarily raise mineral prices, as less is being mined. They tried to compensate by creating more veldspar rocks per belt in highsec systems, and overdid it. The price of tritanium (refined from veldspar) crashed from around 4.1ISK per unit to 2.4. Now, this demonstrates that the market will respond properly to availability -- but since developer decisions drove the price change, it also demonstrates the vulnerability of the system to external forces. | The economics of manufacture can also be complicated by game decisions. CCP mounted a major campaign against [[macro miners]] in the winter of 2009. This would ordinarily raise mineral prices, as less is being mined. They tried to compensate by creating more veldspar rocks per belt in highsec systems, and overdid it. The price of tritanium (refined from veldspar) crashed from around 4.1ISK per unit to 2.4. Now, this demonstrates that the market will respond properly to availability -- but since developer decisions drove the price change, it also demonstrates the vulnerability of the system to external forces. | ||
====Market Manipulation -- If you can't find the sucker at the poker table...==== | ====Market Manipulation -- If you can't find the sucker at the poker table...==== | ||