I have a plan, and I need people.

[Tron93 0]

Disclaimer: I searched for rules regarding this type of content on the forum and I couldn't find anything. If this is against the rules, I sincerely apologize in advance.

 

Hello everyone,

     I have a plan. It's a very ambitions plan, and I am already anticipating the large amounts of doubt that is going to be sent my way. However, I want you to look past your doubts, and seriously consider this. Because I am serious about it. 

I want to build a trade hub.

     I am not trying to make a new Jita, Dodixie, etc. I am trying to build a smaller trade hub that specializes in Faction tech. Ships, Ammo, Implants, if its faction, we have it.

How?

     Doing incursions already pulls in serious amounts of Concord LP, there is nothing stopping us from pooling together this LP and converting it to Faction LP and then buying BPCs, Ships, Ammo, etc and then putting it all in one central location. 

Where?

     This is the part where I need your help. I don't have all of the information or answers. But collectively, we can put our knowledge together and figure out the best place to put it.

Why not just sell it at Jita?

     Because if we can construct a citadel, a significant portion of our money is going to come from the sales tax and other fees which are normally lost to NPC stations. And, if it is far enough away from Jita, we can get enough traffic to be successful. As I mentioned earlier, I am not trying to replace Jita or any of the other major trade hubs. We are just going to specialize. 

It will just get blapped by the bigger guys.

     If we don't play our cards right it most certainly will get blapped. We aren't just going to pop up a citadel, slap on a trade module, and flood the market. We don't want to step on the toes of the larger industries. We have to start small and stockpile our inventory. Because our inventory is going to be our bargaining chip. Also, consider that the large alliances can already build the things they want, T1,T2,T3. So hopefully they don't feel threatened in the first place. But this leads in to my next point.

Communication is paramount.

     Wherever we decide to set up shop, we need to talk to the locals. Reach out to them, and be upfront and honest about our intentions. We will help them in any way that we can, our goal is to safely set up so we can begin operations.

We will not absorb into the larger corps / alliances.

     This goes back to our bargaining chip. Picking sides with an alliance will only ensure our downfall, as it gives everyone else a clear image of if we are with them, or against them. Maintaining our own identity allows us to set the stage for the future, and remain as neutral as possible.

Why?

     I want to attempt to do something that can have an impact on our universe. Even if it doesn't end up being successful, I can at least look back and say that I gave it my best shot.

As a final note

     If you made it this far, understand that I know this isn't going to happen overnight and it's not going to happen within the next month. This will take time, and its going to require the collective effort of everyone who chooses to participate. There is still a lot that I don't know, and I need your help to fine tune this plan. Please, speak up if you see a reason this can't work. Then help find a way to make it work. If I can get at least 5 people to join me, we can get the ball rolling. I want to start small, with just medium sized refinery and engineering complexes building basic stuff. This is going to be an adventure for me, and I hope that it will be for you as well.

If you are interested

     Send "Matthew Throne" an in-game mail and I will refer you to a group chat were we can being fleshing out some more details.

TL;DR

     I want to build a trade hub specializing in Faction tech. As long as we play it smart, and build up slowly, we can hopefully avoid confrontation. Stockpiling our inventory in Hi-sec should allow us a bargaining chip against those that would do us harm.  

 

[Zane Chakaid 24]

A market that specializes in faction stuff won't be as popular as you think it would be.  People like one stop shopping, especially as they start making more isk.  For example, I'm not going to fly 12 jumps round trip just to save 30 mil on a nightmare (or whatever).  I'd rather just buy everything at the local trade hub, and get back into fleet.  However, if you make a market that specializes in incursion ships and mods, that would be a different story.  If I could buy everything I needed in one station, and could save more money than I would lose through travel time, then I would go there.

Second, you absolute have to be able to defend your market (whether you do it yourself, come to an arrangement with a PvP group, or hire mercs).  You might be able escape notice for a long time if you set up shop in a remote region, but if you start siphoning off business from the big boys, they will kill your structure.  In fact, there are groups who go around killing structures in highsec just to get the citadel mods, fuel, and in-production stuff that will drop.  Naturally, this poses a problem for incursions runners.  They tend to not want to be wardecable, but that will also mean that they can't participate in the fighting.  So, you'd need outside help or PvP alts to deal with the war decs.

Finally, industry and trade are pretty much a full time job.  Obviously, a lot of people dabble in industry, but their profits are reflective of their effort.  Thus, if you want to drop a structure and establish a market that brings in more than just a trickle of business, someone will need to devote a fair amount of time and effort to it (whether it's you, your partners, or the industrialists and traders you manage to attract by setting up a structure (or structures) in a good spot, with good taxes, and good bonuses).

I don't mean to be all doom and gloom though.  The recent increase to NPC taxes further incentivizes selling out of upwell structures, and many highsec PvP'ers aren't nearly as good as they think they are.  I can't remember who originally said it, but you'll lock yourself into a certain level of competency if all you do is punch down.  And those guys do a lot of punching down.