Mineral prices vary all over New Eden. I've seen Tritanium selling for anywhere from the high 3s to the mid 6s, and I've seen buy orders for less than that (which apparently are being filled by miners who don't know any better). Every other mineral has similar volatility. So how does someone calculate what "mineral cost" really is?
I'm sure the standard answer here is "use the Jita prices". Eve Central keeps the going rates for the seven main minerals pretty up to date in all of the major trade hubs, and accessing those prices is quite simple. Even using Jita prices presents a problem though: should I use the sell prices, or the lower buy prices? If I use the sell prices, that doesn't accurately reflect what I spent to acquire those minerals. But, if I were to use the buy prices, it would undervalue what I could sell those same minerals for, too- if I didn't build with them. I'm purposely not including the taxes here, because when something gets built "at mineral cost" it's either being station traded (if I really trust the person) or more often through private contracts. Realistically, the Jita prices don't even reflect what "mineral cost" is, though- because Kym is nowhere near Jita, and isn't hauling minerals halfway across New Eden to build something.
The local mineral market isn't the Jita mineral market. Tritanium sell orders are, at a minimum, 5 ISK. The other bulk minerals, Pyerite and Mexallon, are similarly inflated, while the "rare" minerals are often cheaper than highsec. This is because there are lots of "rare" ores in null and comparatively less common ores than the ratios in highsec (Welcome to null. There are lots of shiny things here.). So that's the first difference. The second difference is volume- If my buy orders for minerals don't fill fast enough, I have to either buy them, mine them, or fly around highsec and haul them. Or wait. All of these things add to the cost. See how complex this gets?
After mulling all of this over for quite some time, I've figured out what works for me. When I calculate my "mineral cost", I do it at the highest price that I would personally pay for the minerals- what is typically the reasonable sell order price in my local market. This means that my "mineral cost" is actually higher than what I paid for those minerals, in most cases. I always check my calculated cost against the local & Jita market prices, and in almost every case, it's still much less than what the item goes for on the market. The one exception I've noticed is in battleships- sometimes they're being sold at ridiculously low prices. To me, that means the seller is either looking to unload assets, or has access to really cheap Tritanium (most battleships use around 10 million trit for a single hull and trit's often the single biggest cost).
I feel this is a fair strategy, especially when I consider what the people would do if I didn't build for them. They could buy it on the market for more, try to find another builder (which they're free to do), or build it themselves. The last option is where skilling and investment come into play. Unless they have the "Production Efficiency" skill trained all the way to V (I think that skill might be named "Material Efficiency" now), they'll have at least 5% more in material costs than Kym, and maybe as much as 25% more in material costs if it's not trained at all. That's a lot, especially on larger hulls or if they want lots of one item. They'd also need a BPO or a BPC, and that costs ISK and time to find, buy, and research.
Sometimes I feel a bit bad about calculating mineral cost like this, since there is a net gain in my wallet, but perhaps I should realize that if I calculated everything at my buy order prices, I'd risk taking a loss if the mineral price jumped and I had to buy the next round of minerals for my own production at a higher cost than I just paid. Then again, maybe I'm being selfish. Someone let me know!
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