Jewelcrafting Golden Rules

[jfazau]

Hi. This is my first guide for MmoOwned, I don't intend for it to be super advanced, my aim is to get down a number of simple principles that will ensure you profit easily. So please don't flame me because you already know some of them

Prospecting Vs. Buying Raw
These are the two main ways you are going to get your raw gems. Prospecting is more risky, but in the end you can return a greater amount. Raw is quite efficient if you only need small amounts of gold at a time. Usually I check the price of Scarlet Ruby (say they happen to be 45g) and then the price of your best Red cut. Usually on my server there's a 20-40g increase. Simply buy as many of the raws as you need, keeping in mind you don't want to flood the market, cut and sell. This might seem fairly obvious but if you cut a large amount of Scarlet Ruby and just leak in 2-5 per day you will see the money build up fast for only 2-3 minutes work.

If you have a lot of cash available, buying to prospect is usually better, although riskier. The best time to buy is peak when people dump huge amounts of Saronite on the AH and the price drops a bit. You can also organize a contract with someone who you know regually posts Saronite, by telling him to C.O.D you ore, which saves him AH fees and you money. It's a win win.

Don't work for tips
By this I mean don't sit in trade asking to cut people's raw gems. This is a waste of time for a few reasons, because you have to wait for people to get to you, plus they will usually only want 1-2 gems cut and on top of all this the financial gain is very small. Most people are stingy and will tip 5g, if at all, which really isn't worth it for the amount of time you have to sit around spamming a macro.

P.S If you really enjoy doing this for some reason, then specific a set price (I.e 10g for Red and Orange cuts and 5g for everything else.) This makes the whole transaction more streamlined and and it will save frustration if you cut 10 gems only to get tipped 2g, it's happened to me!

You don't need all the cuts
I can't stress this enough. At the time when everyone was hitting 80 and getting into Naxx, I made around 20k in two weeks for about 30 minutes cutting and selling per day. To this day I still only own around 5 cuts from the vender. These are Delicate Scarlet Ruby, Rigid Autumn's Glow, Potent Monarch Topaz, Enduring Forest Emerald, Glowing Twilight Opal and Solid Sky Sapphire. I never bought any meta cuts simply because I couldn't see the profit margin being enough.

I never really understood why my guildies were so hyped about getting their fifth green cut, I understand if you're a completionist and you like having all of them, but it needs to be said that it is not necessary. Dragon's eyes were selling like hotcakes back then, and I was one of the few JCs selling them while the rest were still buying recipes. This meant I could charge pretty ludicrous amounts. Of course, these days they aren't worth as much, so once you have a good small collection of cuts start saving for 3.2!

Epic Cuts in 3.2
At this stage we know that the new epic gem cuts will cost 5 tokens from the vender. These gems are going to be a huge change to JC, as compared to Burning Crusade jewelcrafting these will be far more accessible. They are purchasable for honor, badges, through alchemy transmution as well as being prospectable from Titanium Ore. This means every casual playing is going to be able to get his mits on them, and you're going to be cutting them a lot. I've already started saving my tokens up to buy 3-4 really good cuts which I'll have once patch hits, and you should probably do the same.

Do your daily!
I know, I know. It seems incredibly obvious. But I know plenty of JCs who don't bother to do the daily, and they really should. It equates to 80g for around 3 minutes work if you sell the dragon's eye. Just alt tab on the flight path and read some forums, or go get a drink


Maximise with Addons.
Use an auction addon that scans just as it posts is the most efficent way without relying on out of date Auctioneer data that takes 20 minutes to get. I prefer AuctionLite. This will cut down a lot of time that it takes checking prices, undercutting and posting, and is crucial to being efficent at selling. If you want to take this to the next level I suggest using Smirdzius' addon setup here.


Know Your Market
As I mentioned before, the best time to post auctions are raiding nights, particularly just as people are finishing up. Patch day is always a good time, as is the day after server shutdown as arena players will have new gear that needs socketing. Just keep in mind that gems don't have a use by date, they can sit in your bank as long as you want if the price isn't good, or the market is flooded. Remember, gems are not like glyphs or enchants, you will lose a fair amount of money if you keep posting them and they aren't getting sold.

[Smirdzius]

Simple and Nice.
+Rep

[tottelol]

Nice guide, maybe I should do some dailies after all +Rep

[petrix]

Very simple and nice guide have a cookie.

[jfazau]

Thanks for the positive responses guys

[cosa555]

ooh nice guide , TY
+Rep!

[ChildeRoland]

Nice guide, but remove the +Rep thingy. I won't rep just because that was there.

[grambaM]

great post + rep and i think everyone should put in their guides like these somewhere telling the noobs to please undercut by 1 copper and not 2-3g as this creates the flooded profitless market.

[amime255]

Great Guide +rep

[abhorsenjay]

Nice guide, the "Don't work for tips" doesn't work on my server though, since there are about 5 other JC's running around each raid night doing work for free

[paniczone]

How exactly is this teaching us anything? Sorry to be a douche, but this is a pointless thread. You basically told us to prospect gems and don't cut for tips. ??????

[pballin77]

Nice guide, but remove the +Rep thingy. I won't rep just because that was there.

Complain more ******.

[illogos]

Thank you for the tips. I just got my JC up to 450 the other day, and this provides some good insight. I wonder if I am better off getting a few select designs now using my DJTs or if I should stock pile them for 3.2 to make sure I can get 5 epic gem designs.

[Emilie Autumn]

How exactly is this teaching us anything? Sorry to be a douche, but this is a pointless thread. You basically told us to prospect gems and don't cut for tips. ??????

shut up leecher.

@op this is a nice guide, useful info that can help out beginners who are coming to JC, and has a few tips I'm sure many of the higher end JCs wouldn't know =P +2rep for you!

[quattro4]

good read. good general knowledge to apply to all the other guides. +rep