T2 BPO vs BPC

Someone a few comments ago was asking about T2 BPO vs T2 BPC and Invention and what not. A few explanations of the various pros and cons of T2 Invention and Manufacture are in order I think to clear things up for the new to this stuff.

1) T2 BPOs unlimited run blue prints and were originally seeded in EVE by way of a research agent lottery. These are research-able BPOs just like their T1 Counterparts.
2) T2 BPCs are limited run blueprints and are made either by copying a T2 BPO or by doing an invention job on a T1 BPC.

So the quesiton came up "I always hear that t2 bpos aren't that important because an inventor can out-produce a t2. But, what prevents a t2 bpo owner from doing copies of his bpo and building as many items as the inventors do?"

The answer is "nothing". But (yes there's always a but) Although he can arange it so that his "simultaneous manufacture" capability is the same as an inventor, the end result is that he will be making less quantity of T2 goods over time. Why? because the of the massive copy times vs invention times. It takes longer to make a copy than to invent a BPC or manufacture from the BPO. And every time the bpo is in the copy slot it's not in the manufacturing slot. So the bottle neck is the copy times, not the manufacturing times.

This isn't to say the inventor has it all his way. The owner has an advantage in manufacturing times. This means that if both are making only 10 the owner will get the 10 faster and they will cost less to make.

The bigest advantage an owner has compared to an inventor is the owner will always be able to manufacture the T2 items for less. Not necessarely a lot less, but less on a per run basis - leading to a higher profit ratio for the same sales price and for the same raw materials costs.

Another advantage is that the owner can still be in the invention game - since he's not using his research slots as part of his BPO manufacture, that frees up his science slots to make either some extra BPC using invention or to make some stuff he doesn't have the BPO for. On a per skill slot basis the BPO owner has a serious advantage over the inventor. Course he pays a price for this - BPOs are prety much a rich pilots only game.

Remember The BPO owner still has the advantage since he can invent just as much as the inventor AND he still has his BPO - which incidentaly build faster on a per run basis.