World-of-warcraft – Jewel crafting gems cost more than cut, how to make money

world of warcraft

I'm slightly confused. From what I've seen, many people said jewel crafting is a very profitable career. I just purchased a Delicate Queen's Garnet recipe that allows me to create red +50 agility gems. However, after looking for raw materials (Queen's Garnet), the going price for those in the AH is roughly 750G. I see Brilliant Queen's Garnet (the cut) selling for 450G. How is someone supposed to make profit with going rates such as these? Buying the raw material and cutting it just does not seem feasible.

Best Answer

The profiteering from buying raw mats on the AH and converting them to crafted materials is very low, if it all. This is true with just about any profession.

The real profit of JC comes from what people call the shuffle. If you have an enchanter or someone who doesn't mind disenchanting mass greens for you this is profitable on most servers.

Buy/farm mass obsidium/elementium ore. Obsidium is slightly more valuable for this.
Prospect all of it. Green quality gems are what you are hoping for.
Cut all blue quality gems to whatever is most profitable.
Craft all green quality gems into corresponding items
- Alicite -> Alicite Pendant
- Carnelian -> Carnelian Spikes
  - This is your bread winner. D/E averages out to 3 GCE.
- Hessonite -> Hessonite Band
- Jasper -> Jasper Ring
- Nightstone -> Nightstone Choker
- Zephyrite -> Nothing
  - These are fairly worthless. You can wait for the daily or just cut them and vendor.
Disenchant all the greens.
Sell all the enchanting mats!

Notes

This is extremely time consuming. You get you what you put into this.
Find bulk sellers. I used to buy ~100-250 stacks a day.
Be careful to not flood the market. If you put up 40 greater celestial essences you're only going to drive the price down. Small increments are good.
The more time of the day you can watch your auctions, the better! If someone floods and undercuts you, undercut them back on the bid.
Tuesdays are your friend. Some days I wouldn't be able to sell all my mats made that day, but on Tuesdays I could usually push my inventory.
Find bulk buyers! If you notice someone buying a lot of your enchanting mats off the AH send them a whisper and ask if they'd be interested in bulk discounts.
You'll end up with a lot of leftover Hypnotic Dust. If you have a tailor, you can make Embersilk Bags.

For estimations of profit, check out this spreadsheet.