After ragequitting when I lost my Drake, it was time to regroup and explore a less combat-oriented role in EVE. After completing a mission, you're likely to have some loot sitting around in your hanger. Instead of selling it directly, you can reprocess it into the base minerals used to create it. (You can also buy items on the market and turn them into more profitable minerals.) If you're more interested in salvaging rather than reprocessing I wrote about that earlier: Salvaging.
Making a Profit
The hard part is making a profit as some items are sold very close to the cost of the minerals. You'll end up with a 0.1% profit margin, if you're lucky. However, because there are so many items in EVE, not everyone has optimized their sell/buy orders and you can use EVE-Cost Reprocessing Calculator to figure out at which point you can profit. |
For example, I checked the market for Item X (I won't tell you because I hope to make a profit!) and the average sell order was 80,000 ISK and the average buy order was 25,000 ISK. The reprocessing calculator suggested that, based on mineral prices taken from Eve-Central, I could make sell Item X at 40,000 ISK. That means there's a gap in the buy orders: 40,000 ISK - 25,000 ISK = 15,000 ISK. I could place a buy order at 39,000 ISK and be profitable (though the profit margin would be tiny) or I could place it at 30,000 ISK. In any case, I can override the current buy orders on the market and buy up all the stock as it comes in and still make a profit. The buyers hoping for cheaper items won't even get the item because no one will sell to them when they can sell to me for a slightly higher price.
UPDATE: Beckie DeLey of Hyperfleet Industries offers another example and reason to reprocess your junk (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2879076#post2879076)
i got into [reprocessing] early when i still had only like 20mill ISK to my name. I turned it into 300m ISK fairly quick by massbuying armor and hull repairers all over Essence region, breaking them down and selling the minerals.
This assumes that the prices you're calculating with are accurate. The prices can change from the time you're buying the items to the time you're refining them. So you'll want to buy large batches as soon as you can. You can do this by setting the minimum quantity in your buy order and by limiting it to 1-3 days or 1 week. That gives you time to recalculate and see whether it's still worth buying the item.
UPDATE: Velicitia of Nex Exercitus mentioned another issue: your character's standings with the station owner, (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2879112#post2879112)
You get 5% taxes on all refining at 0.00 standings, which is reduced to 0% tax when your standings with the corporation reach (or exceed) 6.67. The connections skill also affects this.
Skills You Need
When you buy the items, you'll have to pick them up and then reprocess them. Increasing the efficiency of the reprocessing means more minerals which means more profits.
To be a pro at reprocessing items you're going to need these skills:
The last skill is very important because it affects reprocessing for modules, ships and other reprocessable equipment. It also has some secondary skills you need to train: Metallurgy (level 5) and Science (level 4) which will take a longer time.
- Refining, 2% per level reduction in refinery waste, 10% total reduction
- Refinery Efficiency, 4% per level reduction in refinery waste, 20% total reduection
- Scrapmetal Processing, 5% per level reduction in refinery waste, 25% total reduction
The last skill is very important because it affects reprocessing for modules, ships and other reprocessable equipment. It also has some secondary skills you need to train: Metallurgy (level 5) and Science (level 4) which will take a longer time.
Velicitia offered another insight into the skills you need; you'll want to train up trading skills when you're buying items to reprocess and when you're selling minerals. Trading skills help reduce broker fees and give you far more range to buy/sell items and let you place way more orders. All things that help to increase profit margins.