The latest patch on the PTR has some dire news for miners. MMO-Champion posted that the vendor price for a cut green-quality Cataclysm gem has been reduced from 9g to 75s. It’s not yet in the patch notes, and I can’t log into the PTR to grab a screenshot, but it’s in the data files and will likely go live with patch 4.1.
Why is this change dire news for miners? Right now, the price for all Cataclysm ores is largely based on the fact that no matter what, you can vendor cut green gems for 9g. For example,Obsidium Ore has a price floor based on green gems only of 54g. Players who can prospect Obsidium can safely spend all their money on any amount of ore below that cost, and they will get a no-risk return on this “shuffle.” Add in the fact that a lot of green-quality gems can be made into items that value those gems at considerably more than 9g each, and you have a very profitable and risk-free way to make money.
Miners enjoyed this because the demand was basically unlimited below those costs. All miners who wanted to make a bunch of cash would have to do is ensure that they listed their ore at or below this threshold, and it would all sell as soon as I or one of my competitors noticed it and bought everything they could produce.
I’ve said before that this is a huge source of in-game inflation. Inflation is one of those things that Blizzard likes to try to keep under control, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this is the reason we’re seeing this change.
What does this mean to jewelcrafters?
First off, the new vendor threshold is no longer going to have such a large effect on prices. People will mine less when the gold per hour they make takes a dive, which will keep the price for ore well above the vendor threshold. Also, while right now, most ore being mined ends up at a vendor, there’s always a bit of it that goes to blacksmiths and engineers.
- Carnelians will still be turned into Greater Celestials and Inferno Rubies.
- Jasper, Hessonite, Nightstone, and Alicite will now almost always be turned into greens for disenchanting, until the price for enchanting mats goes below the point where this is still profitable. This will make Carnelians be more likely to be used for Inferno Rubies. Jasper will be the last holdout, as it only takes one raw gem to make a green. The random blue-quality procs from these businesses will continue to sell, but at a much lower price. As more guilds get access to Bountiful Bags at level 23, the prices for mats will fall even more.
- Zepphyrite will likely get vendored or sold on days where it’s the mat required for the JC daily; however, there’s not much else you can do with it.
The price for green gems on the JC daily will likely fall, and the price for meta gems will also decrease.
For everyone else?
This is a bad patch to be a miner. The amount you can mine in an hour won’t change, but the amount you’ll get paid for it will. If the price for Cataclysm ores ever gets too low, there is good money in ore from previous expansions to supply those leveling new trade skills.
All people, regardless of trade skill, can expect to see a massive decrease in the cost of enchanting mats and enchanting scrolls. Conversely, cut gems may increase or decrease. It all depends on how far down ore goes before people stop mining. Right now, many jewelcrafters make all their money back up front by vendoring cut green gems, and they treat the cut blue gems as pure profit. This will change, and the blue gems will have to be considered when calculating profitability of ore.
The blue-quality, random-enchant, low-ilvl BoE gear that is produced as a side effect of making DE mats will likely fall in price, but not far enough to make them worth disenchanting. Be on the watch for cheap Hessonite Bands, Jasper Rings, Alicite Pendants, and Nightstone Chokers for your alts.
Update (8 April, 2011)
Since logging onto the PTR to test, it appears that the uncut price for green quality gems remains 5g. This puts the new vendor floor for Obsidium is 29.74g per stack, and 26.8 for Elementium. These numbers were calculated at WoW Prospector by inputting 5g into the price field for each rare and uncommon prospecting result.
Assuming that the reduction of the vendor price on the cut gems was intentional to reduce inflation, this may well be an oversight on Blizzard’s part. If the PTR in this state goes to the live servers, the inflation problem will be reduced, but only by about half. If they elect to reduce the uncut gem price as well, then I’ll stand by all the above analysis. Otherwise, the only real changes will be to the meta gem prices and ore prices.
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