My main is a scientist, specializing in certain t2 ships and parts, as well as recycling mats for top efficiency. I used to haul for a while, then trade in other parts.

Small bits of advice:

Setup an alt in Jita, and in other hot spot trade hubs, aka Tash/Amarr, etc etc. Soon you will start to notice where the hot trade routes lay. Check in on prices as much as you can.

Do not get comfortable hauling even in highsec. Scout out your haul route ahead of time if possible, especially in low sec.

Make friends. Social engineering goes a long way in making valuable contacts. Information is king. Some of the best haulers, with the best rep, never pick up freelance contracts anymore, they deal directly with low sec pvp corps. Also the more friends u start making the more price info u can begin to gather from reliable sources. 

Which brings me to my next point, do not trust what you read in chat. There are people out there looking to manipulate the market as much as possible, despite what they say. 

A quick isk-making scheme once u have a nice hauler is to set buy orders in starter stations for trivial stuff, reprocess it and sell the minerals. For example I have strategic buy orders in 4 starting Amarr stations for the tier 1 hauler the rookies get during the tutorial. I then turn around reprocess it and triple my money by selling the ore elsewhere. This method was a lot more protfiable when agents were classified by ratings, and only certain hotpots were home to the high-skilled PVErs. You could then do the same flip with trivial loot most were too lazy to reprocess themselves.

With the right skills trading will always be more profitable than hauling in the beginning. I guess i enjoyed it more coming from a Stock Broker background. With the right skills you can reach far and wide from just sitting in one station. I do the same with research and invention (big isk maker).

Originally posted by BadSpock

It seems like there is ZERO market for an independant contractor to fill a need outside of NPC trading.

There is a huge amount amount of unmet demad, it just isn't obvious until you yourself need that one damn thing and it is 12 jumps away. I lived in a remote low sec for some time and the market there was abyssmal, I often had to supply myself hauling from high sec 10+ low sec jumps. I would obviously prefer to buy locallly, even at an premium. And situations like these can be found in high sec too.

Originally posted by BadSpock

Can you give me some more info on player contracts?

I know you have to read them carefully as to avoid scams.

But in general -

I'd be looking to find players wanting to buy goods - for example something like a million units of Tritanium.

I'd then take the contract, put up the collateral, and then have to purchase or mine myself the Tritanium and transport it to the station specified by the contract creating player?

From what I've seen though, the payout on such a contract is only a couple of million, so unless I was able to purchase the needed tritanium for significantly less, I'd make more selling to a freaking NPC station?

I'm just confused by the whole thing - it seems really, really hard to understand and make money on - yet it should be really simple?

What am I missing here?

I can sit and read a book while mining in .5-.7 space and make 8-9 million in an hour using my Retriever and selling raw ore at stations.

Do most EvE players just use alts to run stuff themselves or corp mates?

It seems like there is ZERO market for an independant contractor to fill a need outside of NPC trading.

I believe your looking at buy contracts. 

There are also transport contracts. In which someone will want 1m units of tritanium transported from Jita to Amarr for example. When you accept the contract you will need to be in Jita nad you will get the 1m units of trit aswell as paying a deposit probably worth more than the trit. 

On arival at amarr you will be able to complete the contract getting payment for the service aswell as your deposit back.

Originally posted by willo248

I believe your looking at buy contracts. 

There are also transport contracts. In which someone will want 1m units of tritanium transported from Jita to Amarr for example. When you accept the contract you will need to be in Jita nad you will get the 1m units of trit aswell as paying a deposit probably worth more than the trit. 

On arival at amarr you will be able to complete the contract getting payment for the service aswell as your deposit back.

Hmm I need to find these transport contracts...

I haven't really been able to search for them with too much success and I tried in Jita!

I was going to relocate myself to Amarr space to try a few things tonight, maybe I'll have better luck and be able to pick something up going from Forge to Domain or some such.

Originally posted by Chram

Originally posted by BadSpock

It seems like there is ZERO market for an independant contractor to fill a need outside of NPC trading.

There is a huge amount amount of unmet demad, it just isn't obvious until you yourself need that one damn thing and it is 12 jumps away. I lived in a remote low sec for some time and the market there was abyssmal, I often had to supply myself hauling from high sec 10+ low sec jumps. I would obviously prefer to buy locallly, even at an premium. And situations like these can be found in high sec too.

Sounds like once I'm ready I need to find those remote low sec stations and start pumping things like Faction Ammo and T2 tech for common Fittings into them.

Originally posted by willo248

I believe your looking at buy contracts. 

There are also transport contracts. In which someone will want 1m units of tritanium transported from Jita to Amarr for example. When you accept the contract you will need to be in Jita nad you will get the 1m units of trit aswell as paying a deposit probably worth more than the trit. 

On arival at amarr you will be able to complete the contract getting payment for the service aswell as your deposit back.

Oh, another question -

If the order is for say 1m unit of tritanium do you have to deliver it all at once?

It'd take me 4 trips to haul that much in my current Industrial.

Originally posted by AreWeLive
I believe the guy;s above me are talking about courier contracts, when you look at the contracts use the filter system to refne what your looking for, Courier contracts would be under types of contracts, like auction etc////

Huh I seem to have skipped right over those.

Figure just being a courier for a while will help me learn the lay of the land and start to get a grasp on what materials are needed where and such.

I'm in no hurry to make my billions.

"And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by"

I don't really see how you can have fun doing contracts and hauling stuff. Most of those contracts are more like scam. Like hauling shit to dangerous systems or you might end up paying more than what you will get.

If you wanna have fun and make tons of ISK you should try to start a Drug Lab and start hauling drugs for your clients. Back in the days I used to make 200m to 2b(net) a run. It was hella fun and thrillin. I used to deliver drugs in null, low and high sec w/o getting caught.

Neways if you're looking for some fun+ISK booster dealing is the thing you need. 

I can hook you up with some useful links if you want to do this send me a PM.

Fly safe o7

Originally posted by tom_gore

Originally posted by bcbully

Spock w/e you do, DO NOT afk by an asteroid belt! No matter the sector! Not even 30 secs!  Lost a weeks worth a work that way. I grabbed my chicken patties out the oven, came back and my EVE career was over :(

No. Your EVE career was over the moment you undocked something you couldn't afford to lose.

 

I could afford the destroyer, but not my high tech (i'm sure worthless) ship equipment. 

I'm just hoping that I (yet again) aren't falling prey to this romantic idea of what is possible to do in EvE and a career path I want to partake in...

And then get WTF pwnd (again) by the reality that it is a flawed game and the major focus is killing other players and the idea of helping people by supplying goods to hot zones (and sneaking past the bad guys) is just an EvE fantasy.

Originally posted by BadSpock

I'm just hoping that I (yet again) aren't falling prey to this romantic idea of what is possible to do in EvE and a career path I want to partake in...

And then get WTF pwnd (again) by the reality that it is a flawed game and the major focus is killing other players and the idea of helping people by supplying goods to hot zones (and sneaking past the bad guys) is just an EvE fantasy.

I think this can be true of any game. From what I read on forums and blogs, there are a lot of players who tend to get hyped about game features. Then, when the players actually experience the game, there is a natural letdown because the features don't meet their personal expectations. Personally I'm still wowed whenever I turn on my computer and see moving pixels, but I'm old and started playing games when text adventures were the hottest games available. So I'm easily amused and amazed.

In the case of EVE, the fact that it provides so many different ways to play is remarkable in itself. Just look at this thread. It's entirely dedicated to hauling, which is only one of the careers in EVE. Imagine if we talked about exploring? (my favorite activity) It provides an entirely different gameplay experience from hauling, yet it happens in the same universe, at the same time. We could easily have a lengthy thread dedicated to all the intracies of that exploring in high sec, low sec, and null sec. And like hauling, I might not pew pew for days when exploring, so for the pacifists out there it's an excellent career choice.

While I think most games are flawed, simply because they are inherently limited in their ability to provide everything for everyone in the exact manner that they expect, I think EVE comes as close as any MMORPG out there to provide a breadth of choices to users who are looking to fill different niches. I've been playing EVE for years now, and every time I come back after taking a break I try to do something different than I did the last time. So far I haven't run out of things to do. That's pretty cool.

Originally posted by Nevulus

Make friends. Social engineering goes a long way in making valuable contacts. Information is king. Some of the best haulers, with the best rep, never pick up freelance contracts anymore, they deal directly with low sec pvp corps. Also the more friends u start making the more price info u can begin to gather from reliable sources. 

This is very good advice.  In my experience though, low sec corps usually want a manufacturer / hauler, not really dedicated haulers.  Drones, ammo, nanite repair paste and drugs are always in demand.

Originally posted by BadSpock

Originally posted by willo248

I believe your looking at buy contracts. 

There are also transport contracts. In which someone will want 1m units of tritanium transported from Jita to Amarr for example. When you accept the contract you will need to be in Jita nad you will get the 1m units of trit aswell as paying a deposit probably worth more than the trit. 

On arival at amarr you will be able to complete the contract getting payment for the service aswell as your deposit back.

Oh, another question -

If the order is for say 1m unit of tritanium do you have to deliver it all at once?

It'd take me 4 trips to haul that much in my current Industrial.

You can do it in many trips sure.

I appreciate all the help.

I've currently found a NPC corp that offers both Security and Distribution missions for all 4 mission levels with a combination of agents in Low and High sec - so at this point while I'm getting back into the feel for things and raising some skills and certs I've been doing a mix of Sec and Dis missions to raise my standings.

Figure it's a good way to make some isk, get some more implants/skill books via LP vendor, and pass the time till I'm trained enough to start on some Low Sec (and have the isk to recoup my losses when I lose ships!)

Thanks all - but yeah, hauling wasn't cutting it... distribution missions aren't too bad in terms of time investment but the payout in lvl 2-3 is just abysmal compared to the security missions.