Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Limiting losses

I logged on tonight to check the situation with my lot of items that are losing money. This is the item I bought very hastily two days ago without doing proper research, which is now selling at a loss. The price in Jita is now 4,336,637. At that price, my loss is now 19,000,000.

I figure I have 5 options.

Option 1: Keep modifying the market order and liquidate the lot in Jita. By undercutting, I may sell quickly, but I lock in my current losses, and it could get worse if I get under cut myself. This means a loss of at least 19,000,000.  Not interesting.

Option 2: modify the order back to something above my purchase price, and leave it on the market with a deadline of 3 months. I may get lucky with the demand that picks up, and my items get sold. This is wishful thinking. It's not likely to happen, as rising prices will attract more sellers, and even if it were to happen it could be a while. I'm better off converting that inventory into cash so that I can invest now and make up the loss.

Option 3: Cancel the order and write off the broker's fees. Reprocess the order and sell the minerals This isn't really an option. Reprocessing, even with my skill levels, would only net me 57,000,000. That's a loss of 130,000,000.

Option 4: Cancel the order and write off the broker's fees. Hold on to the inventory and sell if/when the price recovers. This is similar to option 2, except I lose my broker's fee. If I'm just going to sit on that inventory, I might as well leave it on the market for now.

Option 5: Cancel the order and write off the broker's fees. Resell in another system where prices are holding up This is probably my best bet. The item is selling at 4,850,000 in another region. At that price, I can break even, even with loss on the broker's fees factored in. 

Just so I don't repeat this mistake again, I actually checked the historical prices and volume.There's a bit of spike in the price at the moment. Prices have been rising for a few days, and I suspect it's due to the low number of items for sale. Number sold over the past few days would indicate that the current volume of items available may not be sufficient and the market could support another seller. Even at their lowest, prices are still better than in Jita. 

Option 5 seems to be my best bet. There's no guarantee I can sell my lot at a profit, but even in the worse case scenario, where prices drop quickly, option 5 is still the best option, ISK-wise.


1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a plan. Don't forget though sometimes you are better off selling stuff even at a loss because it frees up your cash so you can use it for something else. If you are holding on for a better price in a loosing cause you might miss a good deal later. Sounds like you are making the right decision - limiting your loss but getting out all the same.

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