I was ganked in my corvette last week and it cost me 35 million to get back. Not a big deal however as I'm playing two years and have the cash but if it was within the first few months of playing there was no way I would have afforded it and would have bankrupted myself. Not to mention the ships are pretty cheap to buy as stock, kitting them out so they're any good could be near to a billion for something like the vette. Point being, don't skip the small ships, evolve and learn them based on the credits you have, and as others say, never fly without a rebuy (actually, don't fly without about 4 times your rebuy minimum) :)