It's been a while since I've done a training report so here's another.
First some numbers:
12 Accounts29 Characters
26 Traders (23 active, 3 spares, all finished training trade skills)
21 (out of 23 total) Empire regions covered by traders
5 Covert Ops pilots
23 Blockade Runner pilots (3 more in training)
2 Tengu pilots
1 Recon pilot
1 Rattlesnake pilot
29 Vigil pilots =)
16 PLEX per month (12 subscriptions with 4 accounts dual training)
I work a mix of regional and station trading with a fair bit of hauling and courier contracts between regions. I'm always moving up market (dropping cheaper items and replacing them with more expensive items).
I train my traders for 305 orders with the following trade skills: Trade V, Retail V, Wholesale V, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading V, Marketing V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV (6,716,785 SP). I consider them to be "finished" training trade skills at that point.
Account 1
3 fully trained traders, all flying Blockade Runners, covering Essence, Tash-Murkon and Verge Vendor Regions. Currently finishing up training flying support skills on the last one.
Future plans: Continue training navigation, capacitor, shield and fitting skills for another week or two on the last character. Will probably start training them all into Cyno V and Covert Ops after that.
Account 2
The traders of Amarr, Dodixie and Rens. All 3 characters are finished training trade skills. Also finished training Capacitor, Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills on all 3 characters to mostly Vs and a few IVs. Two are Covert Ops pilots, all three are Blockade Runner Pilots.
Account 3
dual training activeLonetrek Regional Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Covert Ops and Blockade runner pilot. Currently training Capacitor Management V.
Jita Station Trader #2 - Finished training skills. Does nothing but trade officer/deadspace/faction mods. Not currently training.
The Bleak Lands Regional Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Blockade Runner pilot. Currently training Int/Mem flying support skills.
Future plans: Continue training support skills on The Bleak Lands trader. Once Lonetrek is finished training Capacitor Management, start training blockade runners and int/mem support skills on the Jita trader.
Account 4
dual training active
Jita Station Trader #1 - Finished training trade skills. Blockade Runner pilot. Does nothing but trade skill-books. This is the only character that still deals in very many items worth less than 20 million ISK. Currently training Int/Mem support skills.
Exploration / Scout / Scanning pilot - Flies Covert Ops (Buzzard), Recon (Falcon), Tengu and is working towards Black Ops. Has Astrometrics V, all the rest of the astrometrics skills at IV and most shield, navigation, fitting, EW and exploration skills at IV or V. I don't plan on doing any serious trading on this character. He has 29 order slots, more than enough to buy things he needs and that's it. He's about finished training Int/Mem skills (including Jump skills) and will remap Per/Wil soon to start training Missile skills, Caldari Battleships and eventually Black Ops.
Future plans: Remap Per/wil to train Caldari Battleships, Black Ops and Missile skills. Will eventually start a new character on this account.
Account 5
Dual training active
My Main - Covert Ops, Tengu, Rattlesnake pilot with all racial Battlecruiser and Destroyer skills at V. Concentrating mainly on Per/Wil combat skills, with particular focus on missile skills (nearly 12 mil SP in missiles). 125 orders, Wholesale IV, Accounting IV, Broker Relations IV, Margin Trading IV and all of the "remote order" trade skills at IV. He hasn't been involved much in trade for some time now.
Currently training Heavy Assault Missiles V
Orvolle Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Blockade Runner pilot. Nearly finished training Int/Mem support skills.
Currently training Heavy Assault Missiles V
Orvolle Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Blockade Runner pilot. Nearly finished training Int/Mem support skills.
Future plans: My main is finally nearly finished training subcap Missile skills now (nearly 12 million SP in missiles). He can use all T2 subcap launchers with IVs in missile specialization skills and Vs in all missile support skills. Remapped Int/Mem today and started training Jump skills for Black Ops (already has Minmitar Battleship V). Eventually he'll probably train Recon Cruisers, HACs, Interdictors and HICs too. I'll probably start a 3rd character on this account after the Orvolle trader finishes with Int/Mem skills..
Account 6
Hek Station Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Covert Ops and Blockade Runner pilot. Not currently training.
Jita trader #4 - Finished training Trade skills. Handles the Jita implants market and dabbles a little in other markets. Not currently training.
Devoid Trader - Finished training trade skills. Blockade Runner pilot. Currently training Int/Mem support skills.
Devoid Trader - Finished training trade skills. Blockade Runner pilot. Currently training Int/Mem support skills.
Future plans: Finish training int/mem support skills on the new trader. Once that's finished, get Blockade Runners on the Jita trader too.
accounts 7 and 9 have dual training activeAccounts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Six accounts I started just before the news about dual training broke. They're all trader / blockade runner pilots following the same training plan.
All six original characters are finished training trade skills, fly Blockade Runners and are either finished or nearly finished training flying support skills (mainly Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills).
All 6 accounts also have 2nd characters that are finished training trade skills and in various stages of training blockade runners and int/mem support skills. All but one are following the same skill plan of training Trade skills (along with a few days worth of basic flying skills) first, then Blockade Runners and finally topping up Int/Mem support skills.
One character is following essentially the same training plan except he's training Blockade Runners and Int/Mem support skills *before Trade skills for a change.
9 of the 12 characters on these accounts are active traders, the other 3 are basically spare traders that aren't actually doing any trading right now.
My god.. That's a lot of accounts... I can't even handle a training plan for my 2 accounts with only 2 characters training, let alone all of those
ReplyDelete*tips hat* Nice
blops and cyno5....u plan on using blops to move blockade runners to and from low sec/null?
ReplyDeleteNope, I wasn't planning on that at all but now that you mention it, it might not be a bad idea.
DeleteI just really like the covert ops play style. I already have standard cov ops, bomber, blockade runner, recon and T3 pilots so black ops are next.
why i mentioned it i lived in null for a while, the alliance had cyno jammers up all the time, but covert cynos are immune so it was logical to me to train blops, and cyno covops, and jump blockade runners back and forth at will to market hauling out goodies to sell and bringing in goodies to put on market. just a thought any ways. it could just as easily apply to an isolated low sec market avoiding a lot of jumps hauling in stuff at a fraction the cost of a jf say.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how you manage your accounts/characters. I was wondering, how much planning went into these accounts?
ReplyDeleteDid it just... "happen" as a result of your growth or did you plan to have so many accounts when you started?
I ask because I'm at a point now where I could start reinvesting some of my wealth into extra accounts as a grow my trading operations. Some insight on your growth would be interesting.
I didn't plan on having this many accounts when I first started though I did figure on eventually having 2 or 3 from the beginning. It just sort grew from there with the business. Everything was planned but the plan just kept getting bigger week by week and month by month.
DeleteI started with one account. A while later I started a 2nd character on the account and then a 3rd. Then I realized I couldn't train the characters up fast enough to handle the business growth (no dual training then) so I started a 2nd account and a little later a 3rd. A few months later I started 3 more accounts and then another 6 (a couple accounts at a time every week or two for a couple months).
Then we got dual training and suddenly I could go nuts, training 2 characters on each account. I actually had to tone that down after a few months. I was sinking so much into dual training it was eating up more of my monthly income than I liked.
Right now I haven't started a new character in a few months but I still have 7 character slots open.
I use Evemon to keep track of training plans and queues. Without Evemon I'd never be able to keep up with which characters need the queue updated when. The actual training plans themselves are pretty simple, for the most part all but 2 of the characters are following the same ~12m SP plan learning trade skills, blockade runners and int/mem flight support skills.
I'm in a similar position, except I started playing at the same time dual training was introduced. So I have 4 accounts and 12 characters, 5 of which are currently dedicated traders. I like your idea of getting all traders into blockade runners, which will most likely be my next investment.
DeleteI can't imagine covering every region in the game right now, though I guess when I started I never expected to have 12 characters either. I guess in trading it is a natural progression, since extra characters is simply another investment. Thank you for the insight.
Blockade Runners really are terrific. Much better than I (and I'd imagine most players) could possibly believe until they actually get one and find out for themselves.
DeleteKnowing what I know now, I'd definitely recommend any new trader get at least one blockade runner pilot as soon as possible. With the ability to train all 3 characters on a single account it's easier and cheaper to train multiple characters up now than it was when I started.
Still don't know how you can find the time for all of them. Realistically, I only really have time for maybe 100 items, in between however many characters.
ReplyDeleteAnd theres got to be some diminishing returns will all of them isn't there? At some point, are accounts even making as much as they are costing in plex and skillbooks?
Granted, if you were a character selling empire, I can see having these holder accounts for sure. I don't know why I didn't think about setting up my 2 with a:
PVP char
Market Char
Trade char in training.
so they could always have another investment
I don't have time to work all of them all of the time. Not even close! That'd be a full-time job for several people! That's why I use a layered priority system. Certain things like posting newly acquired stock (at the same time I'll update/renew buy orders for the items being posted too) take priority over others (like updating buy orders for cheaper / lower volume items).
DeleteWith a few exceptions I don't even bother logging onto most characters until they have a couple billion in stock that needs to be gathered up and/or posted.
All of the accounts easily make more than enough to PLEX the account. Most individual characters make more than a PLEX a month even if I don't log on a character much that month.
In fact sometimes it's surprising just how much ISK I make when I haven't done much on a particular character in a while. Sometimes when margins are tight the best thing to do is just let the character (and all his orders) sit for a week or two. The no-lifers and bots get tired of perpetually cutting my orders for little or no profit, leave and I suddenly make a pile of ISK in a day or two with almost no effort required on my part.
IMO selling characters just isn't worth it. It's a long term investment for relatively small profit in the end. Investing in PLEX long term would generate a better return on investment and that's not really worth it either (except as a hedge against inflation for a player going inactive or nearly so for at least a few months).