New Life and Necromancy in Market Aggregators

Since the untimely demise of EVE-Central back in September, the community has adapted. Sites like EVE Marketer have tried to fill that niche, but the community is always hungry for new tools and toys. In the last few days, a couple of exciting initiatives have come to light.

First off: EVE-Central may still be coming back. The classic resource (2009-2017, requiescat in pace) has given us the next best thing to radio silence in past months. However, October 10th and December 8th Twitter updates pledge that the project isn’t dead yet. One factor in the delay may be CCP’s upcoming switch to the new ESI API. 

Meanwhile, ESI is creating options. Capsuleer MirandaLM (a decade-old alt with a nearly blank killboard) has announced an all-new market aggregation and analysis tool called Paneden. Though still in beta, Paneden shows real promise. I’m used to cluttered spreadsheets and recursive menus. My first view of the clean, minimal interface told me this site came from a very different school of thought. A few elements I noticed:

• Static item/view hyperlinks, an advantage over some of the competition. If I bookmark this for example then I’ll get the sales history of the Rifter every time.
• Intuitive UX. You always know where you need to click; there’s no information overload. In a handful of simple clicks, someone brand new to the site can find market details for any item, compare them by region and/or sec level, and export them in a variety of formats.
• Differentiating citadel and station markets when listing prices. Not every Upwell market is as clearly labeled as ‘IChooseYou’ or ‘EVE Mogul.’
• Good customer support. By all accounts, MirandaLM tackles issues promptly, and welcomes feedback, suggestions, and bug reports.
• Upcoming features: Market notifications (email, SMS, etc.), configurable widgets for market data on the home page, and improvements to market history data.

Am I blown away? No. Am I impressed enough to bookmark Paneden and write it up? You bet. If Paneden stays the course, it’ll be a go-to resource, one of many aiming to fill EVE-Central’s shoes in some way. And if EVE-Central does claw its way out of the grave, it faces another challenge: regaining its market share in an ecosystem full of competition.

Jenne Exupery is a low-wattage independent who dabbles in shipping, salvage, trade, exploration, and nearly victimless heists. He can usually be found bumming around Derelik and Domain under one name or another. Preferred contact method: in-game mail to Jenne Exupery of Manticore-Horizon Shipping [MANHO].