Glyph of jewel crafting

NOTE: This entry was written before the nerf to the shuffle but I am still posting it because it does contain a lot of useful information. Check in after my weekly report for my thoughts on why the shuffle is still viable.


Today's entry was inspired by a conversation I had a bit ago with an Ysera local AH baron. Also please note this was before the announced nerf to the shuffle. It seems that even today people don't get why I undercut by large amounts and why most successful (read, non campers) goblins do the same thing. Even though I have covered it in depth many times over. Today won't be a rehash of all of that per sé, but more of a "how to" for those that want to work gems to it's fullest potential. We'll be covering undercuts first, but before I get into it allow me to ask you a pair of questions to illustrate the points that I'll be making.

Do you know why I can sell a mechano hog for 17k? Because that's what it's worth.

Do you know why people will sell a bold inferno ruby for 30g? Same answer, because that's what it's worth.

...to them.

That's the catch right there, that 17k mechano hog is worth exactly that much to the one that bought it. Conversely the 30g inferno ruby is worth that much to the one that sells it. If They didn't feel that it was worth that much they wouldn't be selling it. Meanwhile I wouldn't be selling a bike for 17k if I didn't think it was worth that much to somebody.

You'll notice that each entry that I linked above not only spans the entire life of this blog, but they all deal with campers. They all deal with getting rid of competition. And in the current gem market, there is no shortage of that on any server. The point of the large undercut is that it will drive away a ton of competitors all on its own. That's because 90% of the people that sell gems are doing it ONLY because of the shuffle giving "free" rare gems.

Once prices get down to a certain point the market is then labeled as fail, unprofitable, and boring then they move onto something else. That leaves you with only the people that know the score and just wait as prices always go back up. That and the one thing that fuels the massive banks of every goblin, quantity over quality.

Let me make the obvious comparison that nobody (that I know of) has made yet. In doing so, allow me to give you the short history on how the glyph business used to be ran during wrath.

- Buy a ton of herbs to mill.
- Sell off the uncommon inks or turn into them into DMC cards or scrolls. Set aside a few for your daily research.
- Sold uncommon inks pay for the entire stack of herbs, making every glyph "free."
- Learn every recipe for glyphs and craft a few of all of them.
- Undercut everyone fiercely while making a profit on every sale to get rid of casual sellers and campers.
- Slowly start to raise your sale price and reset prices on many glyphs at once.
- Get crazy rich 2 months later.


Make sense? Now let me reword that just a tad with a copy/paste of the above and you'll see what I'm getting at.

- Buy a ton of ore to prospect.
- Sell off the uncommon gems or turn into them into DE gear or metas. Set aside a few for your daily quest.
- Sold uncommon gems pay for the entire stack of ore, making all of the gems "free."
- Learn every recipe for gems and craft a few of all of them.
- Undercut everyone fiercely while making a profit on every sale to get rid of casual sellers and campers.
- Slowly start to raise your sale price and reset prices on many gems at once.
- Get crazy rich 2 months later.


In case you can't tell, the gem market now is 100% identical to the glyph business of wrath under different names. There is only one small catch and that's the comparatively large deposit fee, but in all reality that's something that can be almost entirely ignored. But why are people getting all QQ about low prices and big undercuts when they understand the whole mentality when it comes to glyphs which is the exact same method that works so perfectly? The main reason that people are complaining about gem prices now is because they are simply too used to the big numbers that they see in their mail box next to a sold gem.

But the sale price does not, has not, and will not matter when compared to the profit made on that sale. This method has worked well for any successful goblin you read about and it will continue to work well until the optimal method changes like it did with the 9g vendor price. If or when the nerf to the shuffle changes then so will the method, but until then this is going to remain the best way and the best market to get rich with.

And for the people that still cling ever so desperately to the notion that when you undercut by more than 1 copper you're losing money, check out my business reports over the last few weeks and look at the gem sections. That's right, around 80k on average in profit every single week. Are large undercuts always necessary? Of course not, I've said so many times and pointed out specific markets and items that should never be undercut by more than a couple gold at the most. But those very few specific things aside, the gem market is the same as glyphs and warrants the same methodology to get the most out of it.


Thanks for stopping by!