Crisis of funding

Well, turns out bring branded a traitor had greater repercussions than I thought.

Put simply, the ISKredit card I was using to fund my Pilot License has expired, and I've been officially barred from space. Ordinarily, the banks on Khanid would just send me a new one. Apparently, they don't do that for traitors living in Hek.

I will eventually get a new one. Nations rarely impede banks in their business, and the wealth generated by a single capsuleer is, well, astronomical. A family member who has yet to disown me is working on a courier as we speak... but that could take a month or two.

It's not really a problem. CONCORD gives you a 4 hour grace period to purchase a PLEX from the markets. I have a few in storage*, and cashed in one.

However, it does mean I'm running low on funds. To put it in perspective, I'm down to about 100 Rifters, in wealth. That's not bad, but it's also not good. If I continue to rely on PLEX, then that will dwindle fast. If I want to keep my little organisation running, I'll need to work on funding for the next month.

This does push back the Rifter experiments, and my desire to move to cruisers. Hopefully we can get back to them at some point.

*PLEX almost always increase in price. If you're looking to take time off, or have too much cash that you don't have interest in trading, they are a good investment.

Trade Log: Planetary Interaction Part 2: The Factory Planet

So, when I took over management of the planets I decommissioned two of his Hek based colonies. They were a flawed idea, but one of them is salvageable.

The reason I chose this planet, is simply because of the tax offered by the owning corporation. Really, if you have a planet in a hub system, keep the tax low. People will flock to your planet for factory purposes, and your profit will be huge: factory planets can host many capsuleers, since they don't compete for extraction.

It's a pretty much standard factory planet. P2 materials go in, P3 comes out. Have  look below. I've annotated the factories so it's easy to see how it's set up. Not that it's complicated...

Looks pretty right? It's current set up is wildly optimistic though.

It requires 120 Mechanical Parts, and 120 Consumer Electronics per hour to run full time. From this it can produce Robotics at a rate of 36 units/hour.

At conservative market values off 55,000 ISK, that would net about 1,980,000 ISK per hour in sales. This leads to 47 million/day, and  total of 1,425,600,000 ISK/month.

Not bad, huh?

Of course that's not the reality of the situation. Import and export taxes cut heavily into this, and if you're buying raw materials from the market, you'll be working with market forces... which usually are as fickle as the sea. Or so I've heard. The sea's the big open air water tank on planets right?

So you're probably wondering, why are we starting with the final product? Surely it'd be easier just to work out what we can harvest and produce from that right?

Well, if you're a miner, then yeah, you can do that. Life is simple. Go out, get rocks, sell rocks, and money is as good as the number of rocks you get.

Planetary interaction is a bit trickier than that. You could follow that plan with raw materials, buuut, you'll be better off hunting the low grade hoodlums in Hi-sec. Hek, you'd be better of mining.

Factories are the limiting factor in P.I. You can extract all the raw material in the world, but you'll only end up with warehouses full of junk whilst your factories chew through the material. Hence, we start with the final product, and work our way back.

In this case, the final product is Robotics. Why Robotics? Because everybody uses them, from POS fuel manufacturers to those dedicated Tech 2 production guys. Markets good, volume traded is high, and high volume usually means steady price... exactly what you need when you don't want to spend to much time messing with your mud ball.

We'll start by filling up this factory planet. Is that possible? Well, I don't know yet. We need to hit the spreadsheets.

Next time we'll look at the spreadsheet I created to wrap my head around the production line, and explain the step I went through. Then you can copy it and compete with me.

Why am I doing this again?

Trade Log: Planetary Interaction Part 1: Past experience

Planets...

Damn the things. Sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold. Dust and mud everywhere. Water leaking from the sky, that can carry acid. Earthquakes knocking down buildings. Bugs.

We work so hard to make ourselves capsuleers to get away from those dirty, insect infested balls of rock, and here's my Master telling me to start 'interacting' with them.

Two things before I continue:

• The experiment went 'okay'. I managed to get a decent return on my investment, but once volume went up on an item, competition swooped in. As much as I'd like to trade this way, I don't have time to keep tabs on the price fluctuations.

If you're a full time trader, I do recommend it. If you have a boss demanding you waste time with environmentally unregulated balls, it might not be for you. Personally, I'll do it in a limited sense, but only on one or two items. As long as I make enough for 10 assault frigates a month, I'll be happy.

• I'm still a slave. 

Behnid threatened me with freedom, but he was completely unaware of the tax benefits for being a slave in the Republic and Empire. I won't bore you with the details, but lets just say slaves aren't considered taxable in the Empire, and the Republic literally throws subsidies at you to get you to revolt. Good times.

Still, it can't be long before he's officially branded a traitor to the Empire. I may find myself in the hands of another owner, or even worse, in the heavily taxed bosom of Freedom. Don't worry, I have a plan.

Back to the mud balls though.

Before, my master engaged in Hi-sec Dirt-ball Interaction (P.I.). The profit wasn't amazing, but it was steady, and really, really, really easy money. Set up the planets, wait a week, empty what his colonial slaves had dug out of the ground, put it on market, and money happens.

The money was pretty low, and he eventually abandoned it in favour of... well, not doing it. Honestly there's not much point in maintaining harvesting planets once they're set up. They might not be the most efficient producers, but it takes about 30 mins/week to maintain, and one lazy afternoon of hauling.

He did this in Molden Heath, "modernising" production on planets there. Later, he created some factory planets in Hek, turning other peoples P.I. products into higher tier commodities. Doing this in the trade hub itself meant that finding materials was easy, and travel time between planets was very low.

On the downside, he was at the mercy of market forces, in the end, lost money on his investment. The factories went silent after a month, unused.

Well, until now...

Enjoying space again

Usually, I fly around the faction war zones.

There are a great many pilots to duel, and engagements can be, to a degree, forced into terms you desire. For example, novice complexes are secured to only frigate sized vessels.

However, since I joined Stay Frosty, and have no reason to spend my down time defending complexes, safe-guarding or capturing systems for the greater good of the Empire.This means that I have more time to simply enjoy being in low-security space.

And it is rather enjoyable.

In the last week, in among my hunts in the FW zones, I spent a lot of time exploring low-sec. That's not Exploring, meaning tracking down various relics and unguarded telecommunication hubs, but just, well, looking around.

Low-sec is peaceful.

The FW areas might be afire with the deaths of capsuleers, but just a few jumps off the beaten tracks, and you'll find areas of space almost forgotten. There are sights to see, and, maybe a little more significantly, sites to exploit.

There are a number of untapped combat anomalies floating around low security space. Serpentis criminals are in abundance in these not so well patrolled space lanes, and the peace-loving CONCORD are more than willing to pay money for their blood.

I spent a few days bombing around in a Talwar destroyer, attacking targets in both belts and curious scan sites.

The money I got was negligible compared to what my market slave brings in (I really must look into that.. I'm not sure my current lifestyle suits slave ownership), but it was most relaxing. Probably just what I needed after moving from Amarr space to throw in my lot with pirates.

That's not to say it was all hum drum, by the numbers patrolling. There are, as always, other pirates to fight!

The destroyer was lost to a Kestrel. A close fight, and one I probably should have won, if I went with the suggested fitting for the Talwar, which called for an armor plate. Put simply, his frigate was built more sturdily than my destroyer, and the difference in firepower not enough to overcome the difference in defense.

The way the fight came about is the subject of a later post, one that about hunting technique and use of the Directional scanner. There are hundreds of written works and videos about this topic already, but I'm not convinced I have to concept clearly in my head yet. I've always held that you learn best by teaching others, so, I will attempt a guide to help with my own professional development.

There is also now a raised question of income. During bust cycles of my slaves profit growth, I would supplement his investment capital with goods from the Crusade Quartermaster. This is no longer an option. I will need to think of a new supplementary income source.

Trade Log: Market Experiments

Every now and then, I like to experiment with the market.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand my master's orders... I still maintain my other business. But when those a stable, such as now, even the clink of coin flowing into the bank can become dull.

When this happens I like to fiddle with market forces and see what the results are. My goals with trading are to keep my master happily supplied with ships to blow himself up in, but since that Slicer of his hasn't gone boom yet, we have a bit of a breather.

Today's experiment: Volume increases in Hek.

Traditionally, Hek is good for it's low volume, but wide margins. There's money to be made if you're patient, and don't expect ISK to pour like a waterfall, but more like periodic geyser.

The downside to high margins is that volume of sales are low. So, the idea is simple: lower sell prices, and raise buy prices, to see if we get more product mobility. I'm going to invest a relatively small sum, and see what the results are. I'll track the progress, and see if I can update you guys on how it goes.

Theory: Decreasing the gap between Buy and Sell orders will make items sell faster.

Counter argument: Market is already balanced due to laws of supply and demand. Basically, the amount of items flowing already satisfy the people living in Metropolis... in which case, we'll see no change.

Why?: I have a soft spot for Hek. I've pretty much made all of money here, and, well, my family came from here.

End Date: 03/12/2013 (Subject to my Master's needs)

Trade Log: Hauling (Regional Trading)

The graceful art of moving stuff.

Here's the secret. Look at your stuff. Put stuff in ship. Undock. Fly to destination. Dock. Take stuff out of your ship.

And that's it.

There are some tips though.

I rarely use industrial ships for this. Now that there are speedy industrials, it's not a terrible idea to use them, and can give you a good deal of tank.

What you deal in is usually quite mall, so the cargo capacity of a hauler isn't necessary. Gankers, pirates who prey on the humble hauler, used to be able to pop open most industrial ships without breaking a sweat. Not quite so true now, but gankers will still target you, since you're most likely to have cargo.

A fast frigate requires someone to have a ship designed for speedy locking, since they warp quite quickly, and they will also have to cargo scan you. No sense in wasting a destroyer or battle cruiser on a rookie's mission ship.

A Vigil, the Minmatar E-War ship, is usually the hauler of choice. However, gankers know this too, and will target those first. Any frigate will do though. I know of some traders that used to haul in destroyers too... no one ganks destroyers.

The speediest ship for moving around valuables is an interceptor. With this ship you'll zip across the space lanes, and outrun all but the most determined ganker.

It goes without saying that you shouldn't be asleep at the pod when you haul something valuable. Auto-piloting gives gankers an awful lot of time to peruse your ship. They'll scan you to see if you have cargo, and then blast you at their leisure. Manual piloting limits this time, and makes it less likely for you to be a target.

Also, avoid low and null security space. CONCORD won't help you out there. If you absolutely must, get a cloaked ship. Covert Ops vessels are good for this.

If, on the other hand, you find hauling too stressful (and boring), I recommend using either Push X or Red Frog on Courier contracts. I mostly deal with Push X. They are reliable, and have have a good insurance network.

When setting collateral for the contract, you might want to consider putting a small mark-up on your goods being hauled. Certainly do this for public contracts. I'm disinclined to do it for Push X though, as they're very professional about what they do. Good relationships are the foundation of any business.

The reason for the small mark up is lessening the damage to your business cycle. If you lose your valuables to a pirate, then you will have lost all that time spent buying and setting up the Courier contract. The small mark-up gives you a little bit of profit, to make up for the lost time. Don't be greedy, though. Just a little bit to pay for your time. Too much is simply unfair for your courier, and will damage your reputation.

So there you go. Get moving stuff. I've got things to do... 

Back to the markets

Good grief...

My master takes me away from the markets for a month or two, and the Hek volumes plummet. Prices are all over the place! Well, at least in what I used to trade in.

Ah well, lots of room for profit now. Perhaps there's something to be learned from this: leave your ISK fields fallow for a few weeks, and then harvest.

Station trading is order of the day. With 2 billion liquid ISK my master doesn't need, and profit margins the way they are, all I need to do is set up some Buy orders. Region trading can wait for a bit, whilst my wife gets herself set up again.

Business will be slow for a bit, but my master isn't so hell bent on blowing up what he buys anymore, so we'll be able to see some growth.

War Chest

Whilst I have been trained for combat since I underwent cloning, I am terrible at fighting.

My skills are good enough against the common pirate that manages to sneak past CONCORD, and I can even best entire fleets of these vermin. However, capsuleers are just as well trained as me, if not more so, and have a wealth of experience to call upon.

To put it bluntly, I will be killed. A lot.

Death itself does not scare me. As I am an immortal, it has become merely an inconvenient period of pain. Loss of ships does, particularly if I have no plan for income to replace them.

Enter my family's Market Slave: Benh Thanh.

A Vehrokior by birth, commerce runs deep in his blood. He has been working my family's assets for as long as I can remember, a shining example of what a slave can accomplish if given certain liberties. he has lisence to deal with the family's finances as he sees fit, either by tading or investing.

Many Holders are against this kind of freedom for a slave, but Benh has proven himself to be trustworthy for many years now, and excels at his job. Explosive implants are also remarkably cheap and easy to install.

When I was called to the Crusade, I spoke to him about what we could do to fund our war effort. He went away to research our options.

After a week, he came back with tales of Goblins, Kings and young merchants.

"I've seen what these men can do," he told me, "Give me 5 million ISK, and I'm sure I can do the same."

I granted it. He bought some training text books from the Amarr market, and set off in a Minmatar frigate. The next day, he came back with 10 million ISK. Region trading, he explained, was a relatively easy income source, and we could increase our war chest rapidly.

This will be my strategy. ISK will be generated from Trading, supplemented by rewards from the Crusades loyalty store. I will have my slave do a thorough explanation of his dealings at some point in the future.