Smuggling Boosters—and EVE's Tiny Drug Market.

Read about smuggling in EVE Online—and how it's not the best dedicated profession.

I've been ambitiously smuggling boosters in EVE Online; 5 Billion ISK worth yesterday... ish. Now I have a lot of illegal goods to sell—and many buyers to connect with. Selling is the real challenge with space drugs.

A Small Drug Market

You'd think in a game like EVE Online there would be a big underground market. Alas, the market for boosters seems pretty small. It appears to be centered in Jita. Outside of The Forge the volume for most boosters is miniscule; Meaningless.

Barrier to Entry

As far as market segments go, boosters do have on saving grace; The barrier of entry is higher than, say, Damage Control ii's. My margins are decent—and there's not a ton of competition in the market screen. I never find people 0.01ing on cooldown.

I Smuggle Because it's Convenient.

I can't say I would ever be a dedicated booster smuggler. The idea of it is fun, but I only do it because it fits into my general speculative hauling strategies: Move tiny, high cost goods from highsec/lowsec to trade hubs. I'm already in the neighborhood so boosters are nearly free ISK.

However—if I already had my current data scraping tools, but only had 30 minutes a day for trading? I may target the booster market and do one run per day.

How to Smuggle

So how do you smuggle in EVE Online? I won't tell you; It'll be more fun once you figure it out. I will say that it's pretty simple, and although I don't understand all the mechanics of it—I've never been caught by customs because I'm pretty careful.

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Hauling Other People's Space Junk for ISK

As I write I'm casually flying my blockade runner around New Eden. Along my zig-zag route I'm grabbing trash people are selling in remote stations. Pretty glorious, huh?

Moving Junk Around

Most of it doesn't look like much by itself; I'm hauling T1 mods, ammo, gasses, a salad of scraps high and low volume. There are deadspace mods and other expensive items mixed in—but it's mostly trash salad.

Trash salad can be profitable though. I may not be flying a Leopard, but Viators are pretty quick—and I've got 13k m3 or so cargo space. I can make a lot of quick stops... and stash many things in my cargo. Why be picky? ISK is ISK!

Data Source

All the the data on these deals comes from EVE-central's trade finder tool (through my Python data scraping scripts.) That means I could drop most of them in a buy order in Jita for instant returns. Sometimes it pays to do that; Other times you can make 10x or 100x more ISK with a well placed sell order (when the first margin is low.) Cha-ching!

Barrier to Entry

The beauty is that without data tools and some experience this part of the market is both out of sight—and not attractive to other traders. There's a definite barrier to entry.

Do Your Thang!

These opportunities highlight one of the most delightful things about trading in EVE Online! If you have creativity and vision you'll not only make good ISK... but it'll happening in interesting and rewarding ways. Trading in EVE is good fun!

I'm certainly not looking for competition...my skills would make more ISK if I were station trading anyways. I'm just hoping to give you some trading ideas. Maybe you'll follow through with one of your funky station trading schemes. Maybe you'll take a new risk, or figure out a fun scamming strategy. Just don't do business as usual! 

Now fly safe... and fly weird. o7

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Over 1 Week Without EVE Online... During a Price Crash

A week without internet, a price crash, and a ton of filled buy orders. My ISK hurts. Read about it.

I moved to a new apartment recently after getting back into station trading (Jita.) The date of the move snuck up on me... then the cable installation took a week longer than expected. I had never sorted out my orders the whole time.

Price. Crash.

EVE market prices crashed... and naturally all my buy orders filled. I lost about 4 billion ISK (total worth) and my wallet was tied up in under-priced goods till I sold it off a week later—taking nearly the full loss.

A Valiant Recovery!

I was still trading with my crippled wallet during this. I had a little ISK... and my speculative hauling strategy doesn't tie up my wallet. I just ran what I had through the mill over and over. Purchase, haul, sell, and so on.

I was able to PLEX my main account at least! The ship I used: a Viator.

Stockpiling Sucks.

This isn't the first time I had an issue with stockpiling mods. A while back I tried stockpiling one item (my first attempt) and it was folded into another module. The new one was worth about 1% as much. Lost 600Mil there. Woops!

Goodbye Station Trading.

My main strategy doesn't depend on EVE patch notes (and I have A.D.D.)...so I can't be bothered to watch for market changes. My solution? Don't stockpile. I also don't like station trading... so none of that either anymore. Back to my speculative hauling yay. It's better ISK and I enjoy it more.

Thanks for the read!!

Fun story! I was a bit grumpy by it all but it got sorted out. I made my ISK back (and some.) I also learned a good lesson: Do what you love (especially if it makes you more ISK.)

Happy to be trading in EVE Online again. =)

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Viator, I Choose You!!! 1 Account Speculative Hauling

Read about my new single-account speculative hauling strategy.

Long story short: I've been very sick for a while. I haven't had the time or energy to fly 2-3 speculative hauler pilots at once. Plus the 3-4 PLEX each month became a burden.

Instead I needed a low-effort good ISK alternative. I don't mean 2 Bil isk per day, (as in my old ways) I wanted something I could pick up here and there and cover one or two PLEX casually.

Picking a Ship

So I had to pick ONE account, character, and one ship  for most of my hauls. It was between the Dramiel (fitted this way-ish) and a blockade runner (the Viator).

The Viator

I decided on the Viator. Why? Well it can do everything—and it warps around quickly. Things can get dicey in highsec (like if you don't insta dock at a hub) but if managed well they're amazing hulls.

Blockade runners aren't just great for lowsec though. They're amazing for making lots of quick stops around high security space—and are incredibly fast given their decent cargo size. (I don't like Deep Space Transports or the Orca for my kind of work. Too slow.)

Lowsec Access

I also wanted safe access to lowsec (good deals there) so the Dramiel became more of a situational ship rather than my main hauling hull. I still do use it or a Leopard—but only for very specific situations.

The Trading/Hauling Process

The actual hauling/trading part is pretty standard for me:

1. Run data scraping tools
2. Pick some good lowball sell orders
3. Check against hub prices (I like fuzzworks but an alt is optimal)
3. Buy & retrieve items
4. Sell in Jita or Amarr

Will this work for you? Probably not—unless you pull together some okay data tools. EVE-Central by itself doesn't get the job done unless you can sort and filter through it yourself. Otherwise most other trading strats will work better (and be more fun.)

This plays a lot like exploration. Fly around, not knowing what you'll find. Sometimes its good money and occasionally it's absolutely amazing (600M profit deals)!

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How I Fit a Dramiel for Hauling

Check out how I fit my Dramiels for speculative hauling!

I care about the warp speed, fast align, and cargo space. From there I have two main fitting strategies. They're similar.

Low Skill/ Highest Speed Fit

This low skill fit gets 165m3 cargo, 14 au/s ish warp, and 2sec align.

1. Get 2 sec or less warp align
• Inertial Stab ii's are fine
• Nanofiber ii's are great
2. Fit one cargo expander ii
3. Add hyperspatial rigs.

High Skill Fit

This one gives you 211m3 cargo, a little slower warp, and 2sec align.

• Two hyperspatials and an agility rig
• two cargo expanders

Mid Slots

Mids are very flexible. I go with a prop mod and cap rechargers. It could make sense to add shield extenders, shield boosters, or ewar if you want to get creative—or go into lowsec.

In highsec though the ship flies itself. I've never lost one of these in highsec.

Mods In Cargo

When I relied on one Dramiel I would carry extra cargo/agility mods. If I needed more space I would drop my align speed to 3 seconds—and take on extra booty.

I no longer micromanage Dramiel fits. I just pick the best arrangement for a pilot and fly it.

Which Fit Do I Favor?

It depends.

If the pilot is alone I want the second fit. The extra cargo can add a lot to the value of a trip. It doesn't always help—but it helps.

Alongside another hauler I almost always prefer the first fit—or a Leopard shuttle. It really depends on the data I'm looking at. If I need to do some agile hauling to speed up my Orca's route a Leopard probably won't do.

Lowsec Hauls?

I generally don't consider this for lowsec hauling—but it's fun to think about. If you only have one pilot in your hauler fleet it could make sense.

Also—you can't optimize purchases from sell orders. Get your combat pilot in this ship and kick butt while you're on the way to a purchase!

Purely defensive options? 3 Sensor damps? Ancillary Shield Booster? Or super-cheesy warp stabs.

What Do You Think?

Leave a comment about a lowsec hauler-combat arrangement!

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The Dramiel is Awesome [Speculative Hauling]

Read about why I use dramiels for speculative hauls in highsec.

Why's the Dramiel Awesome?

• Fast warp speed
• Enough cargo
• 2 second align

You can easily get 165.8m3 cargo on this hull. It may not be as fast as the "Leopard" (a shuttle with 20 au/s warp) but it has 16x more cargo space.

Fast Warp

My Dramiels clock in at around 14 au/s with hyperspatial rigs. The hull also gets a warp acceleration boost. It's fast.

Order Scouting

The faster you get to an order, the more likely it'll actually be there. It can help to scout and buy orders even if you are picking them up in a big slow ship.

Enough Cargo

While the Leopard makes a better "order scout"—the Dramiel can carry 500M, 1B, or much more worth of goods. It's safe to do so in highsec as you'll read further down.

Now consider churning out 100M-300M+ hauler runs in a 14~ au/s ship. The profits quickly add up if you have good data.

2 Second Align

With 2 second warp align speed no one can target and point you out of a gate cloak. That makes moving around highsec very safe. Just hit your jump key and click the next gate.

It allows me to pilot 3 haulers, manage data and write/program/draw. All at once.

Dramiels Are Safe Haulers

People don't bother cargo scanning Dramiels. Not that they usually get the chance anyways. Your only real vulnerability is on the undock.

You'll be fine, but it's good to set up your insta-undocks and know how to safely re-dock.

Lowsec is a different story. Smartbombs can take you out leaving or approaching a gate... and many players can kill you without much backlash. I suggest a different hull for lowsec hauls.

Ever Use a Dramiel Like This?

Tell me in the comments!

I'm an Inter-Regional Space Yard Sale Enthusiast.

I'm an inter-regional trader in EVE Online. I don't like to use buy orders, so I don't. I only use sell orders.

You see—off in remote systems there are deadspace mods—and other expensive things—for half the normal price. There are space yard sales full of discounted goods waiting to be resold in Jita by some lucky hauler.

Moving Crap Around

This is what I do. I move people's unwanted junk around for ISK. Sometimes phenomenal ISK. Trading in New Eden isn't only about order management... and if it were I wouldn't be trading! I'd be in faction warfare.

The ISK

Right now I just PLEX one account and trade casually. Not long ago I was flipping mods with 3 accounts; A good day would be 2+ billion ISK. A great flip would mean 600M profit in 3 minutes (only 3 minutes.) I had some of those!

Your Worst Enemies

It's not automatic profit though. Every time I ran my data scraping scripts I saw scams. If you're not careful your earned profits go to some other fool! You just have to take the losses and learn. Like cards, sometimes you play optimally and still lose—but you can still come out ahead.

Your worst enemy isn't the scams though. It's you. Until you really learn how to do this it's likely you'll fly around in circles accomplishing very little. It's hard to read most situations even with good data. Even routing your ships wrong will rob you of excellence.

It's Tough.

Do you wanna do this? Probably not. As far as trading goes the barrier to entry is pretty high. Other forms of inter-regional trading are also more profitable—especially in the beginning.

You Can Try Though!

If you really want to do this start with an Atron or a Dramiel. You'll want 2 second warp alignment, and get hyperspatials in those rigs. Speed is usually worth more than cargo space. (That's especially true in the beginning.)

Then start learning how to use Google Sheets. =importHTML and =importXML are your friends. Learn how to clean it up—and grab your data from EVE-central's trade finder tool. Then learn how to read it (oh boy.)

From there you need to tirelessly improve your efficiency. Hauling, trading; Every process must be improved... and you have to do it every time you play. Deliberate practice. Invest in your ships and pilots too. Learn everything you can. Nothing will ever be good enough because this is all about incremental gains.

Don't do it for the ISK.

This is shitty ISK until you master it. Still, other inter-regional strategies are likely better money and easier to impliment. If anything learn to scrape for some other strategy (it's huge for any type of trading.)

Fly safe...fly weird. o7

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