Continuing on with the series we look at jewel crafting today. JC was the king of kings for making gold during TBC and was just under inscription during WotLK and is still a very strong profession today. It was also the very first profession that I worked in seriously.
Pros:
- Prospecting ore can make all rare gems nearly free
- Constant demand, especially when new content is released
- Easy to manage
- Combines great with enchanting and/or alchemy
Cons:
- Gems don't stack and take up a lot of bag space
- Prospecting can be a large time sink
- Depending on average ore costs, may not be viable on select servers
Best sellers:
- Austere shadowspirit diamond
- Fractured amberjewel
- Glinting demon's eye
- Rigid ocean sapphire
- Brilliant inferno ruby
- Regal dream emerald
- Reckless ember topaz
Overview:
The best part of JC is that you have so many options to work with and almost all of them are worthwhile. Red gems have a use with every cut, half the mixed color ones are great, and meta gems will never go out of style. Everybody needs gems and a good amount of blue gear has at least 1 socket in them. And if Blizz continues with the gear reset and hand me downs with each content patch, you'll know in advance when to stokpile big time and get a huge boost to your profits.
Another good thing is the synergy you get if you have somebody that can DE a ton of things for you. Carnelian gems turn into fist weapons that DE into 2-3 greater celestials which is a profit for most servers. After that you can craft green level rings/necks with the other common gems which are able to proc a rare quality item which I get 100g+ for. And if you're on the odd server where ore is 60g/stack or below all of your rare gems from prospecting are free. The common gems you can just cut and vendor which pays for that stack of ore.
However if ore prices haven't crashed for you I typically have these buying prices for each color.
Red: 100
Blue: 15
Orange: 40
Purple: 50
Green: 20
Yellow: 10
Meta: 170 (use commons to xmute these, you get 2 per xmute before mastery)
Don't forget than an alchemist can xmute any of the rare gems with no CD for 3x commons of the related color and 3 of a certain herb.
My max sale price on the meta gems is 400 and for the rest of the colored gems I put them up for no more than 200. As far as stack sizes go, you'll have to figure that out on your own based on what you see selling the most. But for myself, I tend to list gems 2 at a time with another 2 in the bags and I list 3 and stash 3 for the most popular ones. The important thing to pay attention to here is balancing how many you list at a time against the deposit cost. If you can't find a good middle ground there you'll lose a noticeable amount on the AH deposits when gems go unsold.
The last tip I can give for this profession is to not be afraid to sell the gems raw. What I like to do is have a set of 2-4 of each raw gem on my banker. I add them into their associated item groups in ZA because they cost no more than the cut versions. I've said it before and I'll say it again, do not limit yourself! Get into as many markets as possible if there is profit to be made. After all, everything has a price.
Thanks for stopping by!
I think you kind of touched on it with the raw gems part, but I stokpile around 100 zephyrite, jasper, and nightstone and unload them on the JC dailies. This is critical if you are trying to shuffle ore. The general assumption is that each stack of obsidium is worth at least 54g due to the average yield of 6 uncommons that could be cut/vendored. The JC daily is very underrated in my opinion and I used to be one of the lazy bastards that loathed the gem dailies because then I'd have to guy buy the gems instead of getting it free. A little change in the way I do things and now I loath the free JC dailies! Like anything prospecting in limited amounts to achieve the daily is painful and inefficient and lends to buying the gems. Prospecting 400+ stacks of ore while afk with a mouse clicking program and enchantrix is incredibly efficient. (use mouse clicking programs at your own risk of course)
ReplyDeleteI take the previous mentioned raw gems and have them in a auctioning group titled JC Daily. If the price of those gems is over 15g it'll post em. Generally that price threshold will keep from posting when its not the daily, but even if it isn't and the prices are there I want to post so it works out. I find 100 of each to be a good number to try and sell on a JC day so I'll cut/vendor or craft/de the excess beyond that. Nightstone might be the exception since it almost always floats around 18g.
In terms of the shuffle I'll play if obsidium 60g or less and elementium is 75g or less. I will do some shadowspirit transmutes, but they don't move fast so I'm sitting on the 50+ i have for now. If you really want the most bang for your buck you need a jc/enchanter/xmute alchemist
Currently I typically will:
Carnelian -> Inferno Ruby (xmute spec)
Hessonite -> Ember Topaz (xmute spec)
Alicite -> (Almost always cut/vendor, but craft/de is definitely possible)
Jasper -> Stokpile 100 JC Daily, craft/de rest
Nightstone -> Stokpile 100 JC Daily, sell raw for 18g
Zephyrite -> Stokpile 100 JC Daily, sell raw or cut/vendor
PS. I just looked at your previous weekly profit breakdown again and I hate you for your 373g belt buckles stokpile. H8! Mine are only 240ish, but I still make like 50g profit easy.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree on the last tip.
ReplyDeleteYou have to keep an eye out in this early phase of the expansion, as often times the raw gems will sell for equal or more than the cut versions.
On these days I'll either put out raw and cut gems or just pump the raw gems into the market.
Transmuting rentability is clearly server dependent - recently made some nice profits on Inferno rubies.
One tip that is rather obvious: Timing
I try to put up auctions at the usual times before and after raids. Much higer volume than during the day.
@ Dale
ReplyDeleteI am both the reason that buckles drop down to 200g and the reason they sell for up to 400. You got to defend your turf.
@ Sarge
Timing is very important with every market that you can work in. Namely try not to undercut too much on weekends because sales are usually pretty low then but supply goes way up.
What do you think of the Fire Prism CD?
ReplyDelete@ Anon
ReplyDeleteI don'y like to gamble so I either don't bother with it or I just sell the CD in trade chat to people that do. I never made a profit from it in wrath and the 5 or so times I've done it in cata I've lost money each time. The gems are better spent on xmutes for me personally. Averages tend to not be in my favor.
I agree. I saw that fire prism and didn't want anything to do with it. On my server they would avg cost 228g if i bought the gems or opportunity cost of selling my prospected gems. As you can see if I don't get several inferno rubies then I'm losing money. I'm with stokpile. Guaranteed money on xmutes is better than gambling where even a win is minor at best.
ReplyDeleteI've offered my fire prism cd several times for free in trade chat. (For skillup points)
ReplyDeleteGuess what: Even then nobody was interested.