This is going to be laughably simple and to the point. If you are new to EVE' chances are you’re making some or all of your ISK by mining in highsec. No problem. Problems may arise' however' when it comes to you making the most you can possibly make off of everything you’ve gathered.

To put a finer point on it' if you’re selling raw ore or refined minerals without checking to see which will net you a larger profit' you’re shooting yourself in the foot. EVE is all about economy. If you’re only making 4/5 of the total ISK you should be earning every hour' then after five hours you’ve pretty much just wasted a full sixty minutes. Mine smart.

To start with' get yourself a spreadsheet program and learn how to use it. Excel is a good one' albeit one that costs money if you don’t already have it. Google has a free one as part of their “documents and spreadsheets” function at Gmail. Once you’ve got a spreadsheet set up' you need to enter some data.

First off' forget most off those “ore price calculators” and such that are available on the ‘net. Those tools don’t’ take your specific skills or market values into consideration.As such' they’re pretty much worthless.

Now' set up the rows and columns however you like ‘em. Feel free to switch the setup I’m going to describe if you’d like' but this serves as a fairly basic template. Label cell A1 as “name”' cell B1 as “number”' cell C1 as “buy price” and cell D1 as “total profit”. Set up a formula such that (BN) (CN) = DN.

Then go down from A2 to AN and insert the names of the ore that you commonly mine and the minerals that ore will refine into. To get an idea of how much your ore will refine into' simply select it all in game and click on “reprocess”. You will be told how many units of minerals your ore will yield' but do not go through with refining it until you’re sure what’s the best value for you. You can skip this method if you want to create elaborate formulas in your spreadsheet that take account of your Refinery Efficiency skill and the minimum refine amounts for your ore… but why bother?

Once you have the numbers you’ll be working with' you need to figure out the prices for your ore and minerals. You should perform this check every time you plan on playing the market; prices fluctuate daily and within a large range. Once you’ve checked on the prices you can get (while making sure that the buy orders you’re looking at are large enough to cover what you’re selling)' go and plug those values into column C.

You may also want to set up another couple of cells with formulas that will give you a sum total for multiple ore types that are being sold at once and the sum total for the various minerals that you’ll be selling.

Presto! Your spreadsheet will now show you what you can expect to be paid for selling your raw ore as well as what you will earn from selling your refined minerals. If you’re not smart enough to figure out which number is bigger' no guide will help you.