Trade Log: Starting off in Regional Trading

...amn pie.. of Min..tar junk! Why does anything made in Rens break the second you leave system?! Wait, is it on now?

Oh. Well... good.

My name is Benh Thanh. I am Vehrokior. I am a slave.

Lets clear away the obvious question. Do I like being a slave? To be honest, I never really think about it. What would I do with freedom? Probably the same thing as now, but I'd worry more about a steady pay check. As a slave, my family is taken care of by the Arcani, and as long as we work, we won't starve.

The Arcanis are good people, as most Holder families go. They treat us fairly, and show us trust. They don't have to. The Khanid aren't exactly known for the good treatment of slaves. If you want to know more, ask my Master. he loves to ramble on about crap like that..

Anyway, he asked me to talk about Region Trading. I guess he wants to give away all my secrets, but slave does as slave is told.

Region trading is this:

• Buy stuff in one hub
• Move it to another
• Sell
• Repeat

Got it? Good. That's all. I've got some business to get back- What? Oh. The whole story? Do you want us to lose all our profits?! 

<static>

Ahem. My master informs me, that this is not clear enough. I apologize for my rude outburst.

Anyway.

The above is entirely true. Region trading is simply the process of moving some cheap things in one trade hub to another one where the locals will pay more for it. 

There's all sorts of complicated reasons why there is a price difference. Certain things are in more demand in some places, some things are only produced in other places. Throw hauling time for that with a bunch of other factors, and you have a five hundred page essay, which will amount to a lot of time wasted when you could have been trading for profit.

That said, there are some things you can do to make trading an easy source of income. It takes a bit of effort to set up, but after the intial set up, you can do just a little bit every day to keep a steady profit.

Obviously the more active you are, the more you'll make.

Over the next few weeks I'll be describing each of the above stages in more detail. There are other more trade centered blogs out there, but I want to give you a lazy man's guide to 'enough riches', rather than boast of my riches.

After all... it's not my money. I just spend it.

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.