Even if you don't do "face to face" trade, you have much more things to keep in mind in the EVE auction house than in WoW.
The first difference is the existence of buy orders. When you place a buy order, the money is taken from your account and placed to the marketplace. If someone accepts your price offer, he can sell his wares instantly to you. You can of course set a sell order, when your item is put to the marketplace and the buyer can take it instantly. The system automatically match orders, so there cannot be a buy order above a sell order.
The first thing to watch is that the system will automatically try to make you accept an existing buy order, assuming that you want a fast sell:
When you try to find the "proper" price for your stuff, you can use the following tools:
The second big difference is that the marketplaces are regional. There are several regions in EVE, you can see them on your starmap. For the Caldari faction there is The Forge, The Citadel and Lonetrek. All factions have regions and you are not restricted to the regions of your faction.
Before making an important buy or sale, you should check several regions. Of course not all, not even all high-security, that would take too much travel. You should set up your residence in a system which is close to other regions. For the Caldaris, it's Jita. It's in The Forge but The Citadel and Lonetrek are both only 2 jumps away. Open your starmap and find your regions. These will be the places you'll work. If you say "I just work in Lonetrek", you are doing it wrong. You shall cover at least 2 regions, 3 is better.
Travel there with your fast ship and visit your regions. Check the prices of the items you want to buy and sell. It's easier to manage it if you put the important items to your market quickbar, so you can access their market data with a click. Get a piece of paper and write down the highest buy and lowest sell orders.
You can and shall use filters for quantity. Not for books, of course but if you trade with bulk stuff, don't get fooled by a great price with little quantity. Selling Tritanium for 10ISK would be a great business (and the screenshot would be here to ridicule the idiot who paid that money). Going 5 systems away to sell 12 (not 12.000.000) pieces of Tritanium for 10ISK would be some major idiocy. Similarly if you just sell some leftover crap, you shall not bother travelling, nor setting up a sell order, since you can have limited amount of sell and buy orders. Just accept the price or reprocess the item and sell the materials. The quantity is also a great measure of price stability. If you see lots of items sold in the 150000-160000 region and only a few over 160K, the price is somewhere there.
So you traveled the stars, found the offers of the regions. You probably saw that your books and ships sell for various prices. You might choose to accept the highest buy order or set up your own sell order in the appropriate region. Don't do it yet!
The third big difference is that in WoW the items magically transport. You can put your copper ore in the AH of Ironforge and I can buy it in Stormwind, then pick it up from my mailbox in Northrend. In EVE, the items stay where they are. To sell in Jita, you must move the item (not necessarily yourself) to Jita. The Starmap is your friend to find central regions. Selling in a dead end system probably won't find a buyer fast (unless it's underpriced). You shall also check the locations in your marketplace window. If the name of a system shows up often (like most of the orders on my screenshot is Jita), it means others picked that system and you have better chances to sell there. Not to buy of course, but hauling comes later.
Now, after moving your books to the "perfect" system, place your sell order or accept a buy. You can only accept buy orders if they are in range (green). You must travel to the buyer to accept greyed orders. Beware of quantity. If you choose to accept a buy order that wants 2 items and you carelessly sell all 3 to him, only 2 will be sold, the last one will be placed as a sell order for the same price. So you won't sell instantly, nor high. When setting up sell order, you must specify duration. The longer it is, the more likely it will find a buyer, but you can forget it and the item just sit there. A shorter order forces you to re-sell, re-evaluating the price.
You can move your ships the following way: you buy some very cheap ship, a frigate or shuttle where you are. You travel to the location to your ships, click on them, choose "make active" and fly them. Sell or reprocess the little ship that carried you here. If the ship has a number next to it, it's packaged, you must assemble it to fly. You must repackage a flying-ready ship to sell.
You sold your first books? Great, you sold items you "farmed for free". Let's do some business now! Go back to your starting star system and check the book prices there. Newbies are showered with books and they don't know what to do with them. There can be dirt-cheap books to buy, or there can be some very low buy order active. Buy the cheap and set up your own buy order which will buy you cheap books. In the buy order window you can see "range". It shows how far the buy order is active. If you set it to "3 jumps", then everyone within 3 jumps can sell you books. More morons will be reached by your order, yay! Don't! The items will not transport themselves, if your buy order is accepted 3 jumps away, you will have to go and pick them up. This can be serious inconvenience to travel several jumps for some low-price item and it can be a total disaster if your item lands on a low-security system, meaning you must travel to the land of pirates to grab it. For now, just buy the books, maybe ships from the newbies who get them on that station with no clue.
I already set up some buy orders and the ridiculously underpriced books are showering to my item hangar to be sold in Jita:
Did you train Caldari (or whatever your faction is) Industrial rank 3? Then time to go some shopping: get your Badger II (faction transport ship second class). Shop around, see the prices of all regions. Don't forget checking the price history. Since you are going to buy a ship, travel there in a frigate, you can repackage it and carry back in your industrial on the way back. If the distance between buy and sell orders is high and you aren't playing several hours a day, no need to buy now, you can set up your own buy order for 80% of the lowest sell order or something. Remember that you can set up higher range than a station for easier buy, but double-check the starmap so no low-security system is in your range.
What? No mention of relevant skills? Tomorrow. There are a lot and there are several other things about marketplace trading that you should know. For now, sell your old books and ships and get your cargo ship. If your training queue is empty, train the "trade" skill, you can't go wrong with that!
The first difference is the existence of buy orders. When you place a buy order, the money is taken from your account and placed to the marketplace. If someone accepts your price offer, he can sell his wares instantly to you. You can of course set a sell order, when your item is put to the marketplace and the buyer can take it instantly. The system automatically match orders, so there cannot be a buy order above a sell order.
The first thing to watch is that the system will automatically try to make you accept an existing buy order, assuming that you want a fast sell:
When you try to find the "proper" price for your stuff, you can use the following tools:
- Next to the place where you can type your price there is an indicator saying "84.70% below regional average" with red letters, below it the regional average. This value can't be really off. Avoid selling for 20-50% of it and buying 120%
- The actual prices: the highest buy order is 206K, the lowest sell order is 405K. The price is somewhere between them
- Clicking the price history give you a graph how this item was sold for the previous weeks. If the price is stable, you can accept it. If it's jumpy, you can try to sell high/buy low and hope. If it's decreasing, you shall accept a lower price, if it's increasing, a higher one.
The second big difference is that the marketplaces are regional. There are several regions in EVE, you can see them on your starmap. For the Caldari faction there is The Forge, The Citadel and Lonetrek. All factions have regions and you are not restricted to the regions of your faction.
Before making an important buy or sale, you should check several regions. Of course not all, not even all high-security, that would take too much travel. You should set up your residence in a system which is close to other regions. For the Caldaris, it's Jita. It's in The Forge but The Citadel and Lonetrek are both only 2 jumps away. Open your starmap and find your regions. These will be the places you'll work. If you say "I just work in Lonetrek", you are doing it wrong. You shall cover at least 2 regions, 3 is better.
Travel there with your fast ship and visit your regions. Check the prices of the items you want to buy and sell. It's easier to manage it if you put the important items to your market quickbar, so you can access their market data with a click. Get a piece of paper and write down the highest buy and lowest sell orders.
You can and shall use filters for quantity. Not for books, of course but if you trade with bulk stuff, don't get fooled by a great price with little quantity. Selling Tritanium for 10ISK would be a great business (and the screenshot would be here to ridicule the idiot who paid that money). Going 5 systems away to sell 12 (not 12.000.000) pieces of Tritanium for 10ISK would be some major idiocy. Similarly if you just sell some leftover crap, you shall not bother travelling, nor setting up a sell order, since you can have limited amount of sell and buy orders. Just accept the price or reprocess the item and sell the materials. The quantity is also a great measure of price stability. If you see lots of items sold in the 150000-160000 region and only a few over 160K, the price is somewhere there.
So you traveled the stars, found the offers of the regions. You probably saw that your books and ships sell for various prices. You might choose to accept the highest buy order or set up your own sell order in the appropriate region. Don't do it yet!
The third big difference is that in WoW the items magically transport. You can put your copper ore in the AH of Ironforge and I can buy it in Stormwind, then pick it up from my mailbox in Northrend. In EVE, the items stay where they are. To sell in Jita, you must move the item (not necessarily yourself) to Jita. The Starmap is your friend to find central regions. Selling in a dead end system probably won't find a buyer fast (unless it's underpriced). You shall also check the locations in your marketplace window. If the name of a system shows up often (like most of the orders on my screenshot is Jita), it means others picked that system and you have better chances to sell there. Not to buy of course, but hauling comes later.
Now, after moving your books to the "perfect" system, place your sell order or accept a buy. You can only accept buy orders if they are in range (green). You must travel to the buyer to accept greyed orders. Beware of quantity. If you choose to accept a buy order that wants 2 items and you carelessly sell all 3 to him, only 2 will be sold, the last one will be placed as a sell order for the same price. So you won't sell instantly, nor high. When setting up sell order, you must specify duration. The longer it is, the more likely it will find a buyer, but you can forget it and the item just sit there. A shorter order forces you to re-sell, re-evaluating the price.
You can move your ships the following way: you buy some very cheap ship, a frigate or shuttle where you are. You travel to the location to your ships, click on them, choose "make active" and fly them. Sell or reprocess the little ship that carried you here. If the ship has a number next to it, it's packaged, you must assemble it to fly. You must repackage a flying-ready ship to sell.
You sold your first books? Great, you sold items you "farmed for free". Let's do some business now! Go back to your starting star system and check the book prices there. Newbies are showered with books and they don't know what to do with them. There can be dirt-cheap books to buy, or there can be some very low buy order active. Buy the cheap and set up your own buy order which will buy you cheap books. In the buy order window you can see "range". It shows how far the buy order is active. If you set it to "3 jumps", then everyone within 3 jumps can sell you books. More morons will be reached by your order, yay! Don't! The items will not transport themselves, if your buy order is accepted 3 jumps away, you will have to go and pick them up. This can be serious inconvenience to travel several jumps for some low-price item and it can be a total disaster if your item lands on a low-security system, meaning you must travel to the land of pirates to grab it. For now, just buy the books, maybe ships from the newbies who get them on that station with no clue.
I already set up some buy orders and the ridiculously underpriced books are showering to my item hangar to be sold in Jita:
Did you train Caldari (or whatever your faction is) Industrial rank 3? Then time to go some shopping: get your Badger II (faction transport ship second class). Shop around, see the prices of all regions. Don't forget checking the price history. Since you are going to buy a ship, travel there in a frigate, you can repackage it and carry back in your industrial on the way back. If the distance between buy and sell orders is high and you aren't playing several hours a day, no need to buy now, you can set up your own buy order for 80% of the lowest sell order or something. Remember that you can set up higher range than a station for easier buy, but double-check the starmap so no low-security system is in your range.
What? No mention of relevant skills? Tomorrow. There are a lot and there are several other things about marketplace trading that you should know. For now, sell your old books and ships and get your cargo ship. If your training queue is empty, train the "trade" skill, you can't go wrong with that!
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