EDIT: For clarification the math on this email is a little off... the average amount of gold you get for vendoring the results of prospecting saronite ore should average out to about 7-9 gold unless you get very lucky. That being said, prospecting saronite ore will always yield more gold than it cost to buy it for around vendor price if you cut the gems or even sell them raw.
"Hey Markco,
I had a counter-intuitive realization today that I thought you might find interesting.
I recently leveled jewel crafting and have been exploring that market on my server. I use Little Sparky's Workshop as a guide to tell me which cuts are profitable. I've been prospecting large amounts of cheap saronite, but the supply far outstrips the profitable uses I can put it to (sadly, its not below vendor).
So the problem is that I cannot sell all the raw gems I'm able to make, and there aren't many profitable cuts available to me (being a new JC). Most cuts I have reduce the value of the gem. (Cut Value < Raw Gem Value)
However, today I figured out that, with Saronite Ore at 13.5g / stack, I can get green (uncommon) gems at about 50s each and blue (rare) gems at about 2g each (from prospecting). This changes everything. Because I cannot sell my raw gems fast enough, cutting them allows me to spread my glut across many markets and I'm still clearly making a profit on each one. Thus increasing the volume I can move dramatically!
I'd never have realized this if I was just comparing the market value of raw gems vs cuts though. It took a ton of prospecting and analysis to figure out how much I was personally paying per green and blue gem. Realizing how low it actually is opened the doors for a lot more action.
Thought you'd like this tip,
-Slorn, Dragonmaw Horde."
I added in bold for clarification regarding Slorn's verbage of gem quality vs color cut. The saronite shuffle is alive and well Slorn, just not as profitable as before! Also, don't be afraid to spend some tokens for good rare quality sellers like +strength, +stamina, +intellect, etc.
9 comments: on "Selling Gems at a Loss are We?"
Stokpile said... May 4, 2010 at 8:06 AM
When I first started out my best profit came from prospecting saronite, and selling both cut and raw gems. Now the markets have switch and I smelt the saronite for other purposes and buy the raw gems as prospecting NR ore is a huge loss.
Course this all depends on the server entirely. Yellow gems of any kind and blue stamina gems have always been my best sellers from months ago to this very day. I'd spend my tokens on them before any others.
Kowaku said... May 4, 2010 at 8:16 AM
Hi Marko
I recently came across your blog around 2 weeks ago and have since made 70k gold,i really enjoy reading it each day and trying to follow some of the tips that i have picked up and to apply them to the server i am on, im fairly new to the whole auction house game and really love finding ways of making gold by buying reselling crafting etc and the whole process of making gold. SO i thought if just pop on and say thanks and keep up the goodjob.
on a side note since im new to the auction house, i find that i can buy stacks of eternal shadow at the weekend on alliance side for around 40g and then resell midweek(normally tuesday) for around 150-170g i guess people are eager to buy them for arrows or other mats but its a nice little way to make some cash and takes minimal of effort.
Thanks
Kowaku
jimmyolsenblues said... May 4, 2010 at 10:10 AM
There are so many different ways to make gold in the game...if your margins are razor thin in gems..check cross faction...you will be amazed in the differences in gem prices between factions.
Unknown said... May 4, 2010 at 11:27 AM
Any chance of showing the maths behind this as according to my spreadsheet using those prices you need to buy ore at just over 4.5g/stack and even usinging basic vendor value of cut gems.i.e. 50s for a green and 5g for a blue it still just under 7g/stack
Anonymous said... May 4, 2010 at 11:48 AM
The math on this doesn't look right at all.
Given a 100% chance rate on getting a uncommon gem per prospect, plus an 8% chance of receiving two, and a 24% chance of receiving a rare gem per prospect, plus an 8% chance of receiving two (8% of 24%), my numbers are...
For each prospect, you will receive:
100% chance of receiving 1.08 uncommon gems (1.00 * .08)
and
100% chance of receiving .2582 rare gems (.25 * .08)
and let's equate market price of saronite with vendor price (12.50 / stack, or 3.125 per prospect)
and let's also put the value of one rare gem at (cut) vendor price of 4.50g per gem, so setting x equal to the gold cost per uncommon gem, you get:
1.08x + (.2592)*(4.5) = 3.125
x = 1.813
so with a cost for a rare gem of 4.5g, the cost of the uncommon gem is 1.813g each.
His numbers are way too low for the price of saronite.
Simbaria said... May 4, 2010 at 2:20 PM
That doesnt seem right to me.
Is it not the case that each prospect stack gives about 4.8 uncommon gems and about .96 of a rare gem.
That would sugest that those prices dont add up.
Possibly not being mentioned are some higher values for, say, the rubies?
Markco said... May 4, 2010 at 3:06 PM
Once you cut those gems you obviously make far more than the cost of the ore. Or you can sell the uncommons if they are the ones used in daily quests for jewelcrafting. Those can go for like 5-10 gold each. A rare gem cut can go for upwards of 60 gold for the blue stamina one as well. Uncommon go for around 1-3 gold cut depending on type.
The math does seem a little fishy on his end, but the premise that you can prospect saronite ore and make excess gold from the results still stands true.
Unknown said... May 4, 2010 at 6:26 PM
If you utilize the resources you aquire through prospecting fully then yes it is reasonable to make a good profit from saronite still. I'm still making more than 100% profit from saronite. But the point of the post seems to say that if you buy for 13.5g or less you have no chance of making a loss as you can sell the gems to a vendor for a profit.
Unless there's been a big missunderstanding in the point of the post i think it should be removed as it is quite missleading. really.
Anonymous said... May 5, 2010 at 11:29 AM
It's so important to understand your realm's economy. The Shuffle is completely dead on mine, on the Alliance side. We've completely reached a saturation point because of several factors...one of them being that MANY people are competing in the shuffle. I'm a JC with many many cuts of every gem type and I can tell you with confidence there are no less than four or five people doing the shuffle, as they are consistantly undercutting each other on almost every blue cut imaginable, on a daily basis. The blue cuts have dropped to single digits and are dangerously close to vendor prices, which is sad. Couple this with the every day people who simply dump their cuts and we have a massive influx of supply that outpaces the demand. Even the long time staples of scarlet ruby cuts (bold, precise, runed, etc) have fallen dramatically.
Even with listing my gems at 12 hour auctions to avoid fees, I am practically taking a loss on every blue gem (raw or uncut), so I stopped the shuffle entirely. I can't keep guild bank tabs stocked with this stuff because of future plans for Cataclysm and stacking up other items for future sale. I have decided to casually dump my entire stock of blue gems that I have now, and not acquire any additional ones in hopes of moving to better markets on my realm.
More power to the people who's shuffle is still working for them.
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