It’s 2pm, I’m at work, waiting for a person to register. The night before, I listed some new items that I had bought off the regional market. In my consuming boredom, I checked EVE Tycoon to see how my items are doing. “Oh no, I’m buried under a lot of orders, how do I get to EVE to relist?”
Ever felt like this? Panicked when realizing your listings and investments aren’t going to pay off because they aren’t moving and or buried under 0.01 listings?
The items sold. I made solid ISK. But I spent the whole workday anxious and stressed for no reason, which didn’t help with my already stressful job. That stress cost me more than relisting would ever bring me in real satisfaction.
EVE’s 24/7 market and nonstop price wars can turn passive income into constant anxiety.
Signs you are micromanaging your listings and risking your time, sanity, and ISK
- Checking prices and graphs of your listings multiple times throughout your workday or important events.
- Reacting to every change in the market, however small, and having an outsized reaction to it
- Updating multiple times a day or play session on one or more items.
The above feels like control when really the market is controlling you. Once I noticed that I was doing the above, I was able to take a calmer approach and adjust my approach.
Micromanaging your listings can also have negative effects on your profit margins. Even with the best possible skill levels, you are still dealing with taxes and fees, meaning every update is eroding your margins a little more. Before you know it, you’re suddenly working at a loss rather than a profit without realizing it.
Constantly checking graphs won’t reveal anything new. You are just watching noise and convincing yourself it’s data worth listening to. While the real-life markets are prone to shifting quickly, in EVE, the markets aren’t as minutely volatile, and that 0.01 more item isn’t going to cause the disruption you think it is going to be, and each update costs more ISK with more fees and taxes.
Additionally, constantly checking and micromanaging isn’t going to make you feel great because panic and stress over selling digital goods for no real-life value currency is not worth the therapy bills and burnout of something that brought you a lot of joy. Additionally, the more run down I get, the worse my mistakes become.
There are multiple ways to manage and still make ISK:
- Slow down and update a maximum of twice or so per play session (at the beginning/end and if you are playing for long hours, in the middle). You will have more time for your corp and alliance buddies to hang out with.
- Choose items and markets that don’t shift too frequently for your play schedule.
- Listen for signals rather than reacting to every noise. This often requires third-party tools or services (Hi) to find, but if you are serious about making ISK, then either invest in learning the tools or leaning into people already doing the work.
Ultimately, when I slowed down, I started to enjoy EVE again. I wasn’t panicked about whether my investments were going to bring returns, because I have fewer fees and taxes to worry about cutting into my margins, thus leaving me with more money, and I wasn’t rushing home worried that I would miss the market change.
I find having a strategy behind your picks is far more rewarding in terms of fun and ease of mind. I feel more comfortable about choosing items that took longer to sell, but I could predict where the market was going and could react in an ISK-positive way rather than tanking the price and my margins, and then suddenly finding myself losing my shirt.
Have a story about falling into the 0.01 ISK trap or burning yourself out over digital goods? Share it below! I’d love to hear your market PVP moments, and we can all commiserate together.
I post regularly here, but my blog at my site, Auric Quanta Strategies, gets all the market trend reports a day earlier. If you are interested in taking your EVEGuru plays to the next level, check out my trend report services page. I work with all kinds of traders and industrialists, and I’m happy to customize a package for your goals.
Fly Smart.
