Using external tools to haul profitably

One way to earn InterStellar Kredits (ISK) is to haul goods from one location to another, buying low and selling high.

Eve University students can make a good income as haulers, even during wartime, by setting up a hauler alt character outside of the corporation. The EVE University library includes a recorded lesson [1] on setting up an Amarr character with a Bestower freighter with the necessary skills in less than a day.

You can establish a hauler alt of any race. However, the Amarr use a very attractive industrial ship, the Bestower, that requires a low level of skills, as follows:

- Amarr Industrial 1

- Spaceship Command 3

- Amarr Frigate 3

With this base level of skills, the Bestower will carry 4,800 m3 of cargo, without any modifications. Eventually, with maxed out skills, 4 Expanded Cargohold II mods, and 3 Cargo Optimization rigs, the Bestower will carry a whopping 24,114.9 m3. In short, with an Amarr hauler alt, you can get started quickly, and eventually end up with a very well equipped industrial ship.

I also discovered the fantastic resource for finding profitable trade routes, EVE-Central (http://eve-central.com/home/). I registered my alt hauler there and installed the market data uploader, and using this tool, I found a process that routinely makes me 300K ISK or more per trade run in high-sec space with virtually no risk:

1. Base your hauler alt in a system in high-sec with lots of stations - this does not have to be in a trade hub like Hek or Rens. I find that Reset (just a couple jumps from Aldrat) and Oppold are good for this.

2. Make sure your hauler alt has enough capital to buy trade goods in sufficient quantity. With 4 Cargo Expander IIs installed, my alt's Bestower carries 13,953 m3 (cubic meters) of cargo. For hauling consumer and industrial goods, you'll need at least 10M ISK to start carrying near-full loads. If you don't have that amount on hand, don't worry - carry partial loads and you can earn the capital over time (which is what I had to do).

3. Start the EVE-Central market uploader program, and an out-of-game web browser pointing at the EVE-Central site. Sign into EVE-Central. You'll become a master of the Alt-TAB function very soon.

4. Alt-TAB back to EVE. Open the market window, setting the search to Region.

5. Click on items that have high volumes. You want to select items that people trade in bulk which will fill your freighter hold. I look for anything that trades with volumes over 10,000 units. Some items are smaller than 1 m3, though, so for these you'll have to look for even bigger volumes. I usually click on the following things: standard hybrid charges, mineral ores, all consumer goods, all industrial goods, and livestock (under passengers). As I click on each item to get the detailed market report, I then click the "Export to File" button. This produces a file that the market uploader can use to send current data to EVE-Central. Yes, it takes a little time, as it's about 30 items, but it's worth it.

6. Alt-TAB to the EVE-Central Market Uploader program. Force a scan of your system for market data files - this will upload the most current data to EVE-Central. Eventually, the uploader program does this automatically, but you want to make sure you have added all the latest data, so it's good practice to do this.

7. Alt-TAB to your browser and the EVE-Central site. Select the trade route finder, then select a System to Region search. Enter the name of your current system plus your current region (I always stay in Metropolis). Confirm the search.

8. You'll then get a list of all available trade routes from your current system to anything in your region. It's a good idea after your first search to enter your cargo capacity and to click the "filter for security" options - you want to find routes that will fill your ship and which stay in high-sec. I look for trade runs that generate more than 300K of ISK per trip, and which are short duration. In systems with lots of stations, more times than not I find some good trade runs with 0 jumps! NOTE: be sure to check the volumes of both the seller AND the buyer before you purchase them - EVE-Central will tell you this. You don't want to buy 100,000 of an item only to find that your buyer only wants 20,000.

9. THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT. While 99% of the time I find EVE-Central to be accurate, it's always a good idea to double-check. Alt-TAB back to EVE, and confirm that the market window data is the same as the EVE-Central recommended route information. This is why you want to start in a system that is NOT a trade hub. I first tried doing this in Jita, and the market there is so volitile that between uploading market data and doing the route search it had already changed. Better to do this in nice quiet systems with some market stability.

10. If it checks out, buy the items from the station that you will haul. Warp to that station, open Items, and drag them into your ship's cargo hold. Undock, warp to the buyer destination, dock there, unload back into Items, then right-click and select SELL THIS ITEM. Check one last time that the buying price is the same as what you expected from the EVE-Central data - if it does, execute the sale. (If it doesn't, you may want to sell it anyway if it's still profitable. I use the Wallet/Transaction tab to remind myself what I bought the item for if I forget.)

11. The market window for the item you just bought and sold will now change. Click on that item, export a new file, and upload it again to EVE-Central, so that it has the most current information.

12. Go to step 7 and repeat for the next few trade runs. Every half-dozen or so trade runs, go back to step 5 to upload refreshed market data on all your target trade items.

Using this process, I can easily make 1 million ISK about every 20-30 minutes - sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. Not a bad return for something that is almost risk free. You do have to watch out for suicide gankers, of course. To minimize this risk, don't autopilot, warp to 0 between gates, and jump manually. And: insure your ship - always.

The downside to this process is that I'm now totally dependent on EVE-Central for finding good routes. Today I notice that the site is down - argh! - and I now feel paralyzed. I hope this isn't a common occurrance!

Hope you found this useful -- interested in any comments about how to make this process work better! Fly safe! o7