10 Jul 2007

Musings of a pirate - Part 3 - Ransoms and making money.

An acquittance asked me whether I could make money pirating and if not, what could one do if high-sec was locked out?

Well, this prompted me to think; I love piracy - the thrill of the hunt and the eventual tackling of the prey. I usually kill the ship and ransom the pod but most peeps are too pissed at me to care after their lovely little ship is reduced to scrap and want to get podded. Also, I have had two suicide on me while we have been negotiating. A final 'fuck you' which I applaud.

However, I love isk too - and I decided to check out my 'loot' tin I have in one of my bases. One thing I have noticed is that even very young pilots are now packing tech II gear and some very tasty ones at that. Just cracking open the can revealed some nice goodies, all destined for the market:



This is my main haul of tech II and named modules from about five months of belt and complex piracy. This does not include the salvage components and the recycled minerals from T1 junk. I have not done any gate camping or high-sec piracy; it has all been low-sec belt and complex piracy. The can is already missing some mods - as I have already put it onto the market. It was only after a few of them where on sale that I decided it would be a good idea to take a screenshot. Not bad though, I admit - it isn't the billions that some gate camps get but not too shabby either and certainly, the sales have been keeping me in ships and mods without need to run missions.

Some of the best mods have sold for 10s of millions, enough for dozens of rifters or an assault frigate.


As you can see, my sell orders are nearly always fully stocked and even one or two 750K module is enough to supply me with a ship.

So looking at the last five months; most of my isk has come from the following sources:

80% - loot from wrecks of prey in belts.
5% - loot from wreck of prey in complexes.
5% - ransoms.
5% - ratting (mainly Domi spawns).
5% - mineral and salvage sales.

I can definitely do better with the ransoms but like I said, most peeps are not happy having their ships shot out from underneath them.