Many players use the market exclusively to buy ships and fittings, as well as sell their loot. The market can be used for scamming, and can often be much more profitable than other methods of scamming. The sort of scamming I am referring to isn't "officially" referred to as a scam. Many honest and high regarded players profit off of this method on a weekly basis. It takes advantage of the same tactics used in contract scams: Adding and removing zeroes.
If you've traded much, you may have noticed at one point in time that a player bought something from you off the market, but they paid a higher price than you were asking for. This is the result of the broker system in the market.
What you should know about the market:
When buying something off the market, imagine that a broker is making your purchases for you. So, let's say you want to buy a Badger. You open the market window, you bring up the list of Badgers, and you right click on the cheapest one and click "Buy this." A window pops up telling you where the badger is, the price, and the percentage above or below regional average.
Imagine that when you press "Okay" to finalize the purchase of the Badger, it's the same as calling up a broker and having him put the final purchase in for you. You tell him that you want to buy a Badger from that station for 300,000 ISK. He buys it for you, and you pay him a small fee.
Now, what happens when you accidentally right-click and buy a Badger that's accidentally 300,000,000 (300 million) ISK instead? Well, you call your broker up, you tell him the price you're willing to pay (based on the Badger you just right-clicked on), and he puts the order in.
You pay the full price, you pay your broker's fee, and you get your badger. But what actually happened? The game tried to warn you that 300 million ISK was way over regional average, but you goofed up anyway. Maybe you had your market window sorted poorly. Maybe you were in a rush. For whatever reason, you actually bought the wrong one.
The interesting thing about this whole process is that you paid the full 300 million ISK for the badger, but you actually bought it from the cheapest listed sell order at that station. The broker system in EVE will allow you to pay however much you'd like, and the money will go to the person who is currently listed cheapest.
For example: Let's say you're docked in a station. For simplicty, there are only two separate orders in that station. First, there's a Badger for 300,000 ISK. Second, there's a Badger for 300,000,000 (300 million) ISK. If you were to click and buy the one for 300 million ISK, you'd pay that price, but you'd actually fill the cheaper order. If you were to refresh the list of badgers for sale, you'd see that the 300 million ISK one is still there, and the 300,000 ISK one is gone.
So how do you benefit from this? Well, if you view the most recent Quarterly Economic Newsletter, you'll see that the following ships are most popular in game:
1. Drake
2. Hulk
3. Kestrel
4. Rifter
5. Zephyr
6. Retriever
7. Raven
8. Catalyst
9. Cormorant
10. Dominix
So what's so important about these ships? Because they are the most popular, they are bought and sold the most. These will be the primary targets for taking advantage of players through the market. First of all, any already expensive ship can be ruled out. Ships such as Drakes, Hulks, Zephyrs, Ravens, and Dominixs can be ignored completely.
That leaves us with Kestrels, Rifters, Retrievers, Catalysts, and Cormorants. These are the money makers. Not only are they constantly being bought and sold, but they are all very cheap. That means acquiring these ships will not cost you much at all.
Finding a good region is key. You want to be able to work in a place where there's less competiton, but still players buying these ships. It is also beneficial that it's in a place where players have to put in additional effort to stock the region with more of these ships. Every time you buy out a region, players either have to haul a new shipment in, or create them locally. Either way, there will be plenty of down time for any competitors that are attempting to stock the region.
The idea is very simple: Buy up a stock of these ships. Place a sell order with a large quantity of the ships 1 ISK cheaper than the cheapest for sale. At the same time, place a single unit for sale for some multiplier of the current rate. For example, if the cheapest Cormorant in that station is is 583,000 ISK, then place the expensive order as something like 550,000,000 (550 million ISK.) Note that when placing these large orders, you will pay a lot of ISK in taxes and broker fees. Make sure you're setting them for the full 3 month duration.
In many cases, you will be able to find stations that already have expensive orders placed. This means that you don't actually have to place one yourself. As long as you're selling your ships the cheapest, you will get the full payment for any player who accidentally buys the expensive order.
With a lot more effort and some ISK on hand, you can even begin to clear out entire stations of their stock, and relist them all very expensive. This will cause even more confusion for buyers, hopefully leading them to purchase the expensive ship.
Never underestimate players making mistakes. It happens all of the time. If you want to see how regularly players accidentally buy expensive ships, type in any of the ships listed above and look at the price history in Jita. Many people believe that these expensive purchases are money laundering from ISK sellers. That is rarely the case.
Players are always returning to EVE, with their market window unsorted, which can lead to this kind of mistake. A player could be tired, or in a hurry. Any number of errors might occur which will allow you to profit greatly.
One of the greatest things about using the markets in this manner is that most players do not consider it to be a scam. Even though it's just the same as listing a contract with an extra zero on the end. This is the kind of ISK earning you can do which is dishonest, but will never receive the same criticism as a typical scam.
This page last updated: 2010.02.25
If you've traded much, you may have noticed at one point in time that a player bought something from you off the market, but they paid a higher price than you were asking for. This is the result of the broker system in the market.
What you should know about the market:
When buying something off the market, imagine that a broker is making your purchases for you. So, let's say you want to buy a Badger. You open the market window, you bring up the list of Badgers, and you right click on the cheapest one and click "Buy this." A window pops up telling you where the badger is, the price, and the percentage above or below regional average.
Imagine that when you press "Okay" to finalize the purchase of the Badger, it's the same as calling up a broker and having him put the final purchase in for you. You tell him that you want to buy a Badger from that station for 300,000 ISK. He buys it for you, and you pay him a small fee.
Now, what happens when you accidentally right-click and buy a Badger that's accidentally 300,000,000 (300 million) ISK instead? Well, you call your broker up, you tell him the price you're willing to pay (based on the Badger you just right-clicked on), and he puts the order in.
You pay the full price, you pay your broker's fee, and you get your badger. But what actually happened? The game tried to warn you that 300 million ISK was way over regional average, but you goofed up anyway. Maybe you had your market window sorted poorly. Maybe you were in a rush. For whatever reason, you actually bought the wrong one.
The interesting thing about this whole process is that you paid the full 300 million ISK for the badger, but you actually bought it from the cheapest listed sell order at that station. The broker system in EVE will allow you to pay however much you'd like, and the money will go to the person who is currently listed cheapest.
For example: Let's say you're docked in a station. For simplicty, there are only two separate orders in that station. First, there's a Badger for 300,000 ISK. Second, there's a Badger for 300,000,000 (300 million) ISK. If you were to click and buy the one for 300 million ISK, you'd pay that price, but you'd actually fill the cheaper order. If you were to refresh the list of badgers for sale, you'd see that the 300 million ISK one is still there, and the 300,000 ISK one is gone.
So how do you benefit from this? Well, if you view the most recent Quarterly Economic Newsletter, you'll see that the following ships are most popular in game:
1. Drake
2. Hulk
3. Kestrel
4. Rifter
5. Zephyr
6. Retriever
7. Raven
8. Catalyst
9. Cormorant
10. Dominix
So what's so important about these ships? Because they are the most popular, they are bought and sold the most. These will be the primary targets for taking advantage of players through the market. First of all, any already expensive ship can be ruled out. Ships such as Drakes, Hulks, Zephyrs, Ravens, and Dominixs can be ignored completely.
That leaves us with Kestrels, Rifters, Retrievers, Catalysts, and Cormorants. These are the money makers. Not only are they constantly being bought and sold, but they are all very cheap. That means acquiring these ships will not cost you much at all.
Finding a good region is key. You want to be able to work in a place where there's less competiton, but still players buying these ships. It is also beneficial that it's in a place where players have to put in additional effort to stock the region with more of these ships. Every time you buy out a region, players either have to haul a new shipment in, or create them locally. Either way, there will be plenty of down time for any competitors that are attempting to stock the region.
The idea is very simple: Buy up a stock of these ships. Place a sell order with a large quantity of the ships 1 ISK cheaper than the cheapest for sale. At the same time, place a single unit for sale for some multiplier of the current rate. For example, if the cheapest Cormorant in that station is is 583,000 ISK, then place the expensive order as something like 550,000,000 (550 million ISK.) Note that when placing these large orders, you will pay a lot of ISK in taxes and broker fees. Make sure you're setting them for the full 3 month duration.
In many cases, you will be able to find stations that already have expensive orders placed. This means that you don't actually have to place one yourself. As long as you're selling your ships the cheapest, you will get the full payment for any player who accidentally buys the expensive order.
With a lot more effort and some ISK on hand, you can even begin to clear out entire stations of their stock, and relist them all very expensive. This will cause even more confusion for buyers, hopefully leading them to purchase the expensive ship.
Never underestimate players making mistakes. It happens all of the time. If you want to see how regularly players accidentally buy expensive ships, type in any of the ships listed above and look at the price history in Jita. Many people believe that these expensive purchases are money laundering from ISK sellers. That is rarely the case.
Players are always returning to EVE, with their market window unsorted, which can lead to this kind of mistake. A player could be tired, or in a hurry. Any number of errors might occur which will allow you to profit greatly.
One of the greatest things about using the markets in this manner is that most players do not consider it to be a scam. Even though it's just the same as listing a contract with an extra zero on the end. This is the kind of ISK earning you can do which is dishonest, but will never receive the same criticism as a typical scam.
This page last updated: 2010.02.25