The Fine Print on Contracts

Contracts have several advantages over the market.  They are the only place you can sell researched original blueprints or blueprint copies.  You can sell rigged ships or fully fitted ships.  Kits and collections can be sold.  I used to make money selling bookmarks.  Contracts can also be set to be private, corp wide, alliance wide or Eve wide. There are a lot of possibilities with contracts which is why they are the most abused mechanism in the game.  Scammers use them extensively to con pilots out of money and items.  You need to know what you are looking at to avoid these scams.

The Contract Window
The Contract window has three tabs.

The Start Page gives you information on recent contract activity, contracts assigned to you or your corp, how many contracts you can create a the current time and any contracts that need attention.

The My Contracts tab will show you contract assigned to you and issued to you.  There are filters to help sort your contracts out.  You can drag a contract from this page to a chat window to provide people with a link to the contract.

The Available Contracts page is the giant search engine for all the contracts in the game.  The search filters at the left can help you  filter the results to find what you are looking for.  You can drag a contract from this page to a chat window to provide people with a link to the contract.

At the bottom of all three tabs is the Create Contracts button.  Another way to start the contract creation process is to right click on the selected items (it can be a group) you want to sell or courier and select the "Create Contract" option.

Types of Contract
There are three basic types of contract; Item Exchange, Auction and Courier.  We'll cover each in sequence.  First you will find the contract button on E > Business > Contracts from the neocom.  If you use contracts a lot drag the link onto the neocom for easy access.  If you want to trade something for something then you want an item exchange contract.  If you want people to bid on a item you are selling then an Auction contract is for you.  To get something moved from one place to another, use a courier contract.

Contracts can be linked in chat windows by dragging the contract from the contract summary window to the chat window.  Be aware that the text can then be edited so the text you see in local can be a complete lie. The link is a link to the contract and will show the contract itself not the contract window.

Skills
Everybody can make one contract.  To get more contracts you will need to train the Contracting skill.  If you want to make many contracts on behalf of your corp then you will need the Corporation Contracting skill.  There are no other skills that effect contracts.

Item Exchange Contracts
These are the most used and most abused contracts in the game.  I'll deal with the scams later.  Here are the steps to set up an item exchange contract. 

1.  Push the Create Contract button on the Contracts Window.
2. Ensure the Item Exchange radio button is selected as shown right.
3. Select the Availability.  If you want only a single person to access the contract then select Private and type the name into the box.  The system will pop up a selection window if there are multiple matches.  You can drag a person from chat to this name box.
4. If you are making a contract on behalf of your corp then tick the "On Behalf of..." check box.
5. Click on Next.
6. The Pick Items window will give you a pull down box to select the station.  If it is a corp contract there will also be a pull down box to select the hanger (including Deliveries hangar).  This allows you to contract things a long way from your current location.
7. Check the items you want in the contract.  These may be containers with things in them, fitted ships or just about anything in the inventory.
8. Select Next when everything is selected.
9. The Select Options screen is where you set the price.  If you are buying something you would have skipped the last step and would now put a value in the "I will Pay" box.  If you are selling something you put a value in the "I will receive" box.  Don't use the "Base Price" button.  Its estimates are never very good.
10. Set the contract duration from the pull down list.  Two weeks is the longest time period.
11. A description may help buyers choose your contract or explains something about the contract.
12. If you are buying something then you have to tell the contract what you want.  Click the "Also request items from buyer" check box.  This will give you a new panel.  Type the item you want in the "Item Type" field.  The system will prompt you for the exact name.  Then insert the quantity.
13. Click on Add Item button.  The item should go to the list under the "Item Type" field.  If there isn't anything here then it wont be on the contract.  Don't miss this step when buying or trading.  You can now add another item.
14. When done click the next button.
15. The last screen is a summary screen showing the details of the contract.  Check the details carefully.  Make sure you know what is being given and what is being received.  Check the prices are right.  Check the recipient is correct.  If you are happy with it then click "Finish" and create the contract.

Public contracts can be seen anywhere in Eve.  This is a great way to sell something that is rare or unusual because you are not restricted to your current region.  These contracts have no wait time on them.  You can issue a contract and have it accepted immediately which is convenient if you want to transfer something to someone else over a distance.

Contracts of all types have a limit on how many items can go into them.  To get around this, put your items into a container of some kind then contract the whole container.  The items in the container will be listed in the contract.

Items or money listed in green are things you will receive.  Items or money listed in red are things you will pay or trade to the contract maker.  Be careful to check this as many scams rely on you not knowing the difference.  The most common is the "I'm giving my money away for one trit..." scam.  The contract will really sell you one tritanium for a large sum of ISK.  The money will be in red and the item in green.

Make sure you check your prices too.  Check the number of zeros and the placement of the decimal point.  Do this for contracts you have made as well as ones you are considering taking.  Another favorite scam is the missing zero scam.  Someone will link a contract in local saying "selling 500,000 tritanium at 5 each" and when you look at the contract they will have left out a zero in the quantity or added one into the price.  

Auction Contracts
Auction contracts are for selling thing in a process where people bid against each other for the item.  You set a start price and other pilots bid steadily increasing amounts to win the contract.  This is often a good idea if you don't know the exact value of something as it will tend towards the current sale price.  You can set a buyout price which allows someone to purchase the contract outright if they meet your price.  I see no point in making the buyout "reasonable".  Put in a high value so that if you have greatly underestimated the item's value you are covered.  If you want someone to pay the buyout then make an item exchange contract.

The steps to make a Auction Contract are as follows;

1.  Push the Create Contract button on the Contracts Window.
2. Ensure the Auction radio button is selected as shown right.
3. Select the Availability.  You should not make auction contracts to a single person.  This will mean the person will never be outbid and will win with the minimum bid.  Auction contracts to your corp or alliance are ok though.
4. If you are making a contract on behalf of your corp then tick the "On Behalf of..." check box.
5. Click on Next.
6. The Pick Items window will give you a pull down box to select the station.  If it is a corp contract there will also be a pull down box to select the hanger (including Deliveries hangar).  This allows you to contract things a long way from your current location.
7. Check the items you want in the contract.  These may be containers with things in them, fitted ships or just about anything in the inventory.
8. Select Next when everything is selected.
9. The Select Options screen is where you set the price.  Set the starting bid in the first box.  You may then choose to add a buyout price.  If you leave the field as 0 then there will be no buyout price.  Don't use the "Base Price" button.  Its estimates are never very good.
10. Set the contract duration from the pull down list.  Two weeks is the longest time period.
11. A description may help buyers choose your contract or explains something about the contract.
12. When done click the next button.
13. The last screen is a summary screen showing the details of the contract.  Check the details carefully.  Check the prices are right.  Check the recipient is correct.  If you are happy with it then click "Finish" and create the contract.

Once someone bids on an auction contract, they will receive a notification when someone has outbid them.  Hopefully this encourages them to bid again.  Auctions you are bidding on appear in your journal in the "Contracts" tab.  The last day of the contract the system says that the contract has "Less than a Day" on it.  This reduces the amount of sniping that can be done as you are never sure when the contract is done.

Auction Contracts suffer the same scams and exploits as item exchange contracts.  They can also be bid on by an alt of the owner.  Don't get into bidding wars unless you really want the item.  Someone may be playing you.

One common scam for auctions is the BPO/BPC switcharoo.  They advertise that the auction is for a BPO of some value.  When you look carefully at the contract you will see that the item is actually a BPC.  They often mix BPCs in among some low value BPOs to try hide them too.

Courier Contracts
Why move stuff yourself when you can pay someone else to do it.  Consider how much money you could make in the time you took to drive your freighter to somewhere and back.  Since at the moment miners can make about 13 - 18 MISK per hour the time wasted driving the freighter is costing you.

When you create a Courier Contract, you ask the courier to accept a "collateral".  This is an amount of money that should cover more than the value of the goods.  I work on 130-150% of the cargo's value.  This amount is deducted from the courier's wallet when they accept the package and returned when they deliver it.  If they fail the contract somehow, the collateral goes to the contract owner in compensation for the lost cargo.  This makes Courier Contracts the only way in Eve to insure your cargo.  You should realise that people will try to gank a freighter that has more than about 4 BISK in it.  Contracts with huge collaterals should be avoided.  If you need to, split the load into smaller batches.

Obviously you got to pay the Courier.  The "Reward" is up to you.  While people wave figures like "500 KISK per Jump" that is not necessary.  I get stuff delivered from my local trade hub for 400KISK over 5 jumps.  You can get stuff moved between trade hubs very cheaply as the freighter pilots look to fill up their holds.  Consider paying a local courier to move items to a trade hub in small batches and then send a big batch between trade hubs in a freighter sized package.  Reward should be based on distance and cargo size and only a little bit on collateral.  Consider how far away from the trade routes the start and end points are.  Check what size the cargo is and whether it needs a freighter or an industrial.  Be aware that pilots won't like to transport valuable goods in industrials due to suicide gankers.  If you want your contract to happen faster then pay more for it.  

The steps to make a courier contract are;

1.  Push the Create Contract button on the Contracts Window.
2. Ensure the Courier radio button is selected as shown right.
3. Select the Availability.  If you want only a single person to access the contract then select Private and type the name into the box.  The system will pop up a selection window if there are multiple matches.  You can drag a person from chat to this name box.
4. If you are making a contract on behalf of your corp then tick the "On Behalf of..." check box.
5. Click on Next.
6. The Pick Items window will give you a pull down box to select the station.  If it is a corp contract there will also be a pull down box to select the hanger (including Deliveries hangar).  This allows you to contract things a long way from your current location.
7. Check the items you want in the contract.  These may be containers with things in them, fitted ships or just about anything in the inventory.
8. Select Next when everything is selected.
9. The Select Options screen is where you set the destination, collateral and Reward.  Type the destination system name into the box and click search.  You will get a list of stations that match the search.  Pick the desired one and select ok.
10. Set the Reward value.
11. Set the Collateral.  This should be 130-150% of the cargo's value.  Make sure you allow for the value changes due to region.  Some things are worth more in some regions than in others.
12. Set the contract Expiration from the pull down list.  This is how long the contract is offered for.  Two weeks is the longest time period.
13. Set the "Days  to Complete".  Its a good idea to give 2 days or more on freighter contracts.  This is a rough guide to how long the courier has to deliver the goods.  If after the time period listed, the contract has not been completed, then the contract owner can claim the collateral.  However a courier can deliver the goods after this time period if allowed to by the contract owner.
14. A description may help buyers choose your contract or explains something about the contract.
15. When done click the next button.
16. The last screen is a summary screen showing the details of the contract.  Check the details carefully.  Check the prices are right.  Check the recipient is correct.  If you are happy with it then click "Finish" and create the contract.

Courier contracts must go from one station to another.  Be very wary of courier contracts going to null sec.  You may discover the station wont let you dock or there is a pirate camp waiting for you at a gate. I'd avoid them altogether.  Also be wary of contracts will high collateral on them.  They are often traps.

Pro-Tip
Freighters can easily end up with billions of isk in their hold.  They have to be careful of suicide gankers scanning them and deciding its worth sacrificing multiple ships to get at the cargo.  Thus couriers appreciate it when you help them hide the cargo from pirates.  Put your shipment into a container like a general freight containers or similar.  Then put the container in the courier package.  While the courier can see the contents of the container, pirates using a cargo scanner will see only the cargo container and not anything else.  You can then note in the contract description that the cargo is unscannable and thus safer to carry.


Being a Courier
If you have a ship that can carry cargo then you can move courier contracts for some easy money.  Be very wary how much money you are putting in your ship.  If a cargo is worth more than the ships needed to blow you up then its not safe.  Also check that the contract wont take you into or through low sec.  Lastly check that you have enough cargo capacity to carry the package.  Common courier contract scams ask you to carry a package none of the freighters can carry.

When you accept the contract, the collateral will be deducted from your wallet and a package will show in your Items hangar.  Don't forget to put the package in the ship.  You can look into the package but if you "Break" it then you fail the contracts and forfeit the collateral.  When you get to the destination, put the package in the Items hangar and right click on it.  There will be a "Deliver" option.  When you deliver the package you will get your collateral back and the reward.

Contract Scams
If you want to see a lot of contract scams then go to your local trade hub and watch local chat.  At least half the contracts linked are scams.  In Jita you can expect 90% of the contracts to be scams.  Its worth looking at these to see if you can recognise the scam but keep your mouse away from the Accept button.  I'm going to list a few of the scams I've seen in my time in Eve.

• Link in local chat says "500,000 Zydrine for 500 per unit" or similar.  When you look at the contract you see that there is only 50,000 zydrine and it works out to 5000 per unit.
• Link in local says "PvP fitted Tengu".  The contract has a tengu hull, some fittings and some subsystems skill books but no subsystems making the contract worth a lot less than advertised.
• Link says "Buying plex for 400 MISK".  When you look at the contract its selling you a plex AND buying one too.  I believe it will take the plex you just bought or one you already have.  You end up paying for nothing.
• "I'm leaving and giving my isk away for one tritanium...".  The contract is actually selling you one tritanium for 300 MISK or more.
• "Selling Faction Modules Cheap".  The contract has several faction modules that are rare or not available in your current region.  There is usually a single item in the contract that has a buy order on the market for more than the contract price.  That is the contract has a Serpentis EM Hardener at 700 MISK and there is a buy order for that hardener for 900 MISK.  This exploits the margin trading skill.  The owner of that buy order has emptied his wallet so that he cannot pay for the item.  The buy order just disappears leaving you with an item you wont be able to sell at the price you paid.  This is also done with tech 2 rigs.
• Courier contract goes to null sec.  The destination station is alliance owned and you cannot dock at it.  You loose the collateral.
• Courier contract has a huge collateral.  Someone will get a notification that you have accepted that contract and will have a ganking fleet waiting for you on the way.
• Link says "Navy Raven selling cheap".  The ship in the contract is a normal raven.  Lots of variations on this scam.
• Link says "Original Blueprint ......". Contract actually has a blueprint copy.
• Courier contract goes through low sec.  Usually sized for a freighter.  Someone is waiting for you.

There are a tonne more.  People are creative about scamming.

The Other Way to Start a Contract
There is a simple method to start a contract without opening the contract window.  Select the items you want to put in the contract and right click.  There will be a "Create Contract" option.  that will swing you right into the contract creation screens with the objects already selected.  You can do this from your Items hangar, Assets screen, Corp Assets screen or just about anywhere you see items as long as they are on a station.