An interesting sub-topic that might by ideal to be explored is Guild Gold Saving (not limited to the bank but related to the pocket of each of its players).

Currently I'm considering the significant cumulative gain Fish Feasts provided by a Guild may have to its players finances in whole, if one only considers the striking difference in cost between 1 feast and 25 individual food bufs (I very roughly estimate 10g to get a Feast but 100g to provide 25 individual food bufs; a BOE item selling for 15,000g may provide 1,500 feasts that in turn may provide a striking gain of 1,500 x (100g-10g) = 135,000 gold to the guild members' financies; this in turn may be translated gaining over time the equivalent of 10 high level BOE items for its members out of 1 high level BOE drop).

I wonder if other such gain-distribution mechanics can be explored by a guild to improve the finances of each of its members.

A significant issue that may have to be overcome, is that any such provision may be depended on contributions to a bank, hence several management issues arising with players simply slacking paying their bill. Hence a simple solution may be not requiring contributions by convention, and only relying on BOE items sold on AH.

In the case of Fish Feasts, this is easily worked around by encouraging members to do their Fishing daily. 15-20 raiders doing the Wintergrasp daily once a week on average with an officer doing the Cooking daily each day will let you make more Feasts than most guilds can realistically use.

I think most guilds can easily finance buying everything their raiders need (including feasts, flasks, pots, repair bills) just from selling crafted items/patterns and BOEs, and more importantly, achievement runs which can yield 20k (Rusted proto) up through 50-100k (Ironbound proto) per person. I know that my guild certainly has no shortage of gold and we haven't even begun to dig into the rusted proto sales market (as we're pretty much the only group capable of doing it on our faction).

You are correct though that collective finances offer a great deal of shelter from server economy fluctuations, simply due to the potentially enormous amounts of stockpiling of materials that is available.

Off the topic of guild finances and back to JC, has anyone noticed a price increase in raw gems. I am seeing an increase of ~40-60 g per uncut that has been steady over the last 2 weeks taking into account outlier priced gems. I am wondering if this is due to people who would normaly spend honor and badges for these gems using this for something else. I know that many in my guild have just hit 1850/2150 in pvp, and are thus buying more pvp gear.

My specific questions are:

1. Is this the time ina season where a majority gain the rankings needed to buy the higher pvp gear (may ask on pvp forums as well).

2. Is this temporary due to pvp or are stocks of honor/emblems/gems finaly winding down and I need to adjust prices accordingly for cut gems.

I would like to know if anyone else has noticed this trend, and what if anything that they have done about it?

I believe it is more due to PvE loot than PvP.

As time goes on, more and more "casual" players learn the ToC 10/25 encounters and, thus, pug groups are able to complete them (or at least some portion thereof). This in turn creates a steady influx of high-end gear requiring high-end gems and enchants.

Aside from the minor bump to gem/enchant honor-bought gear at the beginning of the season, the balance of PvP gear is attained at a steady trickle--weeks inbetween each piece.

Moreover to accessibility, PvE gear is the major driving force for gems and enchanting materials.

I have definitely noticed epic gems creeping upwards in price. A few weeks ago I was buying Cardinal Rubies at 115g and every other gem at 110g each, now I'm lucky if I can find Rubies for 135g and other gems for 125g. The gem supply seems to be dwindling as well, and there's a dozen things that could have caused that.

Have any of you been playing the epic gem market long enough to see which cuts in each color are most popular/highest sell price? I have been scanning and keeping a spreadsheet of some prices, but my sample is too small to see a longer term trend.

Right now I usually cut Rubies to +23SP as it is always in demand and sells well. How about the rest?

Highest Demand Gems:
Smooth King's Amber
Runed Cardinal Ruby
Delicate Cardinal Ruby
Bold Cardinal Ruby
Solid Majestic Zircon
Deadly/Inscribed Ametrine

Highest Priced Cuts
Regal/Defenders/Pussiant Dreadstone
Mystic King's Amber
Dazzling Eye of Zul (greatly sensitive to demand)
Bold/Runed Scarlet Ruby
Rigid Kings Amber
Smmoth King's Amber (higher than almost any other on Tues/Wed)

You will notice that smooth sells the most on my server, at least at attractive prices, and that the off cuts are the highest profit percentage, while the slowed sellers.

Also note, this may not be entirely accurate information for the overall market but a good overview.

I have enough of the good cuts that on my smaller server I will browse the AH, then cut the most proffitable ones. The pricing is irrelevant per gem but the cut/uncut difference in price on my server can approach 150 g for the dreadstones, and I will not cut any of my own inventory for less than 80 g per cut, with avg gem prices for raw @125.

Delicate Cardinal Ruby seems to have the least profit involved, even if you look all the way upstream with the mats for epic tranmutes and the 20 badge cost.

With the flood of T9 gear with yellow slots and spellpower bonuses and the revamp of the Arcane tree for mages, I've found Reckless Ametrine to sell quite well on my server. Typically 30% more than the pure reds with a lot less competition.

Similar but not quite as well are the Luminous.

May not necessary be due to ban. 1st Oct is China's National Day, and the labour force generally has 1-2 weeks of holiday (also known as Golden Week in China).

If you been playing long enough, you will notice, during Lunar New Year period, 1st week of May (Chinese Labour Day) and 1st-2nd week of Oct, there's always some shortage of raw mats in the market.

These are the most popular cuts per color for me, followed by notably high-priced cuts (compared to their uncut version). I've kept a spreadsheet since I started getting patterns for the blue quality cuts way back when.

Cardinal -
Bold (High margin)
Delicate (Popular)
Runed (Popular)

Ametrine -
Accurate (High margin)
Deadly (Popular)
Reckless (Popular)
Stalwart (High margin)

Amber -
Brilliant (Popular)
Rigid - (Popular), (High margin)

Zul -
Enduring (Popular)
Intricate (Popular)
Vivid (High margin)

Zircon -
Lustrous, Solid, and Sparkling are all about even, none are really spectacular either way..

Dreadstone -
Regal (Popular)
Royal (High margin)
Shifting (Popular)
Sovereign (Popular)

I have seen the opposite on my server. For while it seemed like the farmers were gone and then I find teleport hackers in WG and lots of cheap ore on the AH lately. However even before that its not so much that prices are coming down, its that there is so many people undercutting by 1c that it seriously cuts into volume sold.

Farmers don't seem to have herbalists though and Frost Lotus prices have gone way up. Is this common on other servers?

There does seem to be a rather acute shortage of Frost Lotus on my server, with prices going suddenly from 20g to 40-50g.

Yes. Lotus prices have risen from 25g to between 40-50g on Stormrage recently.

I've also noticed the farmer/hacker bans affecting prices. Ore has gone up several gold per stack, and green gems have also gone up.

On my server I have never noticed (this is not an opinion, I buy a large percentage of both JC and ALC mats so I would notice) any large scale goldfarmers selling Herbs/Lotus. I do not know if this has to do with the lower yeilds (on farming) or the generealy lower prices, but the price of herbs seems to be controlled/modified by the regular players ( non-goldfarmers). Since the end of summer start of school, there has been a 7-10 gold increase per lotus, starting with the first day of school.

I would tend to think that with the RNG inherent in Lotus, and the fact that even just vendoring saronite may be profitable to the goldfarmer, it precludes massive farming of herbs at the cost of obtaining more ore to sell.

This makes getting a stealth / combat dropping class saved to a ulduar that has freya up and auriaya down a decently lucrative farming method. You can consistently extend the raid lock now, and if no one else does, you essentially have your own frost lotus farm. Who knows how long it will last...

How much did you pick up your world drop recipes for?

I've seen most recipes going for 1-2k. Even at a (generous) profit of 30g per gem, that's 33 to 67 sales of that particular cut before you break even. What sort of volume are you seeing on those cuts? (i.e. is that month to recoup, two months, three months, etc.)

Further, the value of rare cuts goes pretty much to zero once the next expansion comes out.

I guess I'm asking you to convince me it's worth investing in purchasing rare world drop recipes :p

I guess he's saying that for people with world drop recipes already. I've been able to pick up a few in the past few months, and I sell like, 2-3 a week. It's not bad for gems that I would otherwise cut and vendor.

I probably would not begin to invest in blue gem world drops, but if you have some, they are usually the ones that sell for a decent amount (for me, I only sell purified twilight opals).

The world drop cuts definitely aren't selling for very much on Stormrage. You might be able to get 25g for a few of the cuts, vs 15-20 for the token recipes. I've found Scarlet Rubies are the only rare gems really worth cutting these days, as I can still sell Bold/Delicate cuts for over 80g each a lot of the time.

I know this topic is related to the specifics server economy, but for some reason I am falling short on my supplies to feed my JC->Disenchant routine. There is a short supply on Saronite Ore, uncommon gems and Eternal Earth. I am out of stock and seeing Infinite Dust spike to 20g+ and actually sell because there is no stock left for some reason.

So basically, what do you do when you are short on supplies?
- Advertise on /2 and risk to uncover your strategy?
- Just stay silent and wait for supply to come back?

I am interested in suggestions (beside the obvious "go farm yourself" ).

Instead of advertising in /2, you could try responding to people who are offering the items you need for sale and see if you can set up a CoD agreement if it's something they farm on a regular basis. If you are afraid of tying all three of those types of items together revealing your scheme, simply advertise for them in /2 on separate characters each looking for a different item. However the JC->Disenchant routine is pretty well known on most servers by now.

I advertise in Trade chat for Ore, Eternal Earth, Uncommon and Epic gems. I don't get a whole lot of business this way, but it is an easy way to get cheap supplies if you're desperate. I think anyone who cares already knows what my strategy is, so it's not like you're letting slip some huge secret.

The best way is to find some connections and have them set up a C.O.D. agreement, as the above poster said. With 4-5 people sending me epic gems I really never run out of steady income.