PI, Loot, and supporting Industry in PC9 - Questions

[Lan Man]

Hey folks - was typing this up as a set of questions for the #nullsec-chat Discord channel but realized I was covering a lot of ground that would be better addressed as a forum post. I'm in the midst of setting myself up in the PC9 pocket / NSC, and have some questions about making ISK. I'm broadly aware of how to make ISK in nullsec, but there are some particulars I would like to have in hand up front.

1) Planetary Interaction and P3/4
I've pen and paper'd out what I want to build out with max skills as a "full build" and what I can currently achieve as a "half build", optimized for higher yield planets and minimal POCO taxes. However, I'm not fully clear on what to do with the P3 and eventually P4 I would be generating.

- Are there any industry folks living in PC9 who would have a use for, and want first crack at any P# being produced by fellow Unistas in the pocket? And if so, what do they have regular need for? At the moment I'm planning to produce P3 Hermetic Membranes in the half build, ramping out to P4 Self-Harmonizing Power Cores in the full build, as both are shown to be very profitable at Dodixie per A4E PI Profitability. But I can easily tweak to something more mutually beneficial if it means steadier passive income. (Passive income being the primary reason I skilled into PI)

- If the best option is to take my PI to a trade hub instead, how often should I plan on making use of the Hauling Service / how often are they available? Is it best to stockpile P3/4 over say a month, or better to just send it and "fill in around the edges" of other scheduled hauling service runs? I'm aware that if they're taking my goods to market, they shall be cut in on the profits. I am skilled into Blockade Runners, so I do plan to be able to make runs to Dodixie myself when need and time both permit.

2) Ratting loot drops
Slightly more straightforward, I'm aware that much of the high value loot that belt rats drop is valuable because it can be reprocessed into ores. I'm not planning on skilling much into mining and industry, at least not until I take a big bite out of the pyramid skill plans, but I assume others in the uni do have better skills relevant to reprocessing and utilizing the outputs. So what's best both for me and fellow unistas in handling these drops?

E.g., should I save Warp Disruption Field Generators for fellow unistas in the pocket to have right of first refusal on? Is it best to save up a bunch and offer them up for sale/contract weekly or monthly? Or, should I plan to have them moved out of pocket to a trade hub a la my PI production?

3) Exploration loot
Exploration I am a little fuzzier on as I'm just getting my feet wet in it, and don't yet have an eye for what's valuable / not. Is there anything in these sites that I should especially hold on to to offer to unistas, or does it follow the rule of ratting loot to sell where/when/however will make you a quick pile of ISK?

Similarly, if I have little use for data cores and skillbooks, should these be put in top station's donation bin?


Thanks all,
Lan

[Koris the Second]

Hey there!

1) PI

Yes, there are industry folks in PC9 who have a use for those components. Off the top of my head I'd suggest you talk to Alphabeta Gamau and Gideon Mastracci, they both run large industrial operations and have use for those components. Another thing you may want to consider is producing Robotics, as they are needed for fuel block production and those are needed in all T2 industry as well.

Frankly, I'd never haul P3/P4 to a trade hub. One unit of P3 is 6 m³ in size (3000 ISK per unit to have it moved) and P4 is 100 m³ in size (50.000 ISK per unit to have it moved). Basically, a huge part of your profit - if not virtually all of it - would be eaten up by taxes and hauling cost. The most efficient option would be to sell it locally to other players or, if you can't find any buyers, to General Buyback. General Buyback removes a lot of hassle for you and supports E-UNI at the same time.

2) Ratting loot

As always, it depends. You can either go the easy route and just throw everything into General Buyback and make some ISK, or sell it to players who want to use/refine it. You could also refine it yourself, but I'd not recommend doing that because near-perfect/perfect refiners will have the Scrapmetal Reprocessing skill trained and will be able to reprocess modules more efficiently. Moving the modules for sale to Jita is - in my opinion - only worth it for deadspace and faction stuff, as meta modules usually have rather low margins when taking into account hauling cost and taxes.

3) Exploration loot

Everything you get from Exploration is useful for us industrailists in PC9. Tech 1 and Tech 2 salvage are turned into rigs, datacores are used for invention and those rare faction modules are used for Storyline modules. Just offer them in #buy-and-sell and you'll certainly find a buyer. Skill books on the other hand - yeah, donate them, they're way too common to be sold internally.

[Lan Man]

Wow that covers everything, thanks Koris!

Point well taken on Robotics, I’ll replan around that accordingly since it sounds like there’s a local market / need for it.

[Manny O'Kelly-Davis]

Q: No intention of hijacking the thread, but when we sell PI through the Buyback, does it go to Null if the need it? I often self-haul my T2,3, and occasional 4 that I don't use in manufacturing buying and selling anyway, but if it will help our Null team, I'll sell via Buyback exclusively.

[Arkady Marten]

Q: No intention of hijacking the thread, but when we sell PI through the Buyback, does it go to Null if the need it? I often self-haul my T2,3, and occasional 4 that I don't use in manufacturing buying and selling anyway, but if it will help our Null team, I'll sell via Buyback exclusively.

Do consider submitting your PI through Buyback if you are not selling it locally. Buyback is operating Uni-wide now, so takes in materials from all the various Uni locations, transfers items we can use in Prod to make ships for fleets, the Flight Deck contracts, strat-op reserves, etc. (and yes, sometimes materials stay right in PC9 for local builds), then sells the rest on the market. You save on hauling hours and are supporting your corp at the same time to continue offering the various Uni programmes and services.

[Manny O'Kelly-Davis]

Copy - thanks! That's how it worked in the other corp I was part of, but I wasn't sure here, so I thought I'd ask. I was one of the Industry officers there, and we always appreciated people using the buy-back service for that very reason.

[Avril Tennison]

I see most of the customs offices in PC9 are owned by "Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive". Can we get them converted to E-UNI?

[Arkady Marten]

I see most of the customs offices in PC9 are owned by "Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive". Can we get them converted to E-UNI?

As a hostile takeover: no. The corps holding POCOs tend to have the firepower backup to defend them against anybody trying to take them from them. Afaik, something had been tried in the PC9 pocket sometime in the past, and they got capitals dropped on them very quickly.