Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsPatch 4.2 PTR: Uncut green gems vendor price reduced
by Basil Berntsen 
May 24th 2011 at 1:00PM
Well, the latest testing from the patch 4.2 PTR has reduced the price of uncut gems, too. On the live realms, they vendor for 100g a stack, leaving a decent vendor floor price for ore. Once this change goes live, they will be worth 50s each or 10g a stack. This should indeed have the desired effect of causing fewer of these to end up vendored for inflationary vendor money, with the potentially undesirable effect of making mining less profitable.
Assuming you're transmuting, disenchanting, or otherwise making good use of 5 of the 6 colors of uncommon gems, this will likely not change your life much. You will make 10g instead of 100g when you vendor a stack of the borderline useless Zephyrite, but most of your money will be coming from the other activities. Also, you can still occasionally sell these to other jewelcrafters for their daily.
Bottom line, though, is that the new "floor" price of Elementium Ore and Obsidium Ore is basically gone now. There are no more guaranteed sales, and if you flood a market (like enchanting mats) by processing thousands of stacks of ore, you can't count on any vendor based fallback to at least get you your money back.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!Filed under: News items, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
wutsconflag May 24th 2011 2:26PM
You want to know what makes money for Miners?
Fel Iron
Khorium
Cobalt
Sometimes you can count Mithril and Thorium in there, but with the glut of nodes added to Azeroth, most of the Vanilla ores aren't worth as much as they used to be (though you'll want to check your AH, of course).
Why, you ask? Due to the way Blizzard added expansion content, the later ores (Adamantium and Saronite) aren't as necessary, any longer. This is why the "beginner" ores for each expansion still bring in plenty of cash. I was selling Fel Iron for 95g a stack while leveling an alt recently, compared to the 20g I was lucky to get for Adamantium.
As always, check your AH at various times of day/night and during the week and on the weekend. You'll notice trends, and can sell at the right times to make the most gold.
Khorium? Khorium sells for astonishing amounts whenever it goes up because engineers want their mount. Since Blizzard hasn't added a transmute for this particular rare ore, and because so many people aren't mining in the Outlands anymore, it's even rarer, which pushes the price sky high. I normally sell each ore for anywhere from 50g to 200g - and they always sell within a day or two.
VioletArrows May 24th 2011 3:51PM
@wutsconflag The people on my server must have all run screaming from engineering then, because while I was finishing up Outland Loremaster, I dug up plenty of fel iron and khorium, and I couldn't get rid of *any of it*. After 3 weeks I just wound up giving it to one of my guildies. :/
Of course the gold sellers and bot farmers utterly destroyed most of the markets anyway, so that's likely the other problem.
Noyou May 24th 2011 7:45PM
Pretty much any ore but Obsidium, Elementium or Pyrite sells right now. Why? Because people are too lazy/bored to mine it, have a surplus of gold or can make better use of their time by buying and listing or crafting and listing. Then there are the people who want to have buffs from 2 crafting professions. These are consequences my friends. If they made it too easy to farm or professions too easy to level it would be a lot harder to earn gold. (some would argue-and have the gold to prove- that it already is too easy to make gold)
Grumpy Wow Guy May 25th 2011 9:46PM
If you can't scrape 5K together, something's wrong with you.
If you give one red cent to those goddamn gold-selling parasites, then cancel your subscription now. You're f_____g up our game.
Koleckai May 24th 2011 2:12PM
I will just make my shuffling money before the patch and work in smaller batches afterwards. The spike in desirable gem prices will more than make up for the loss on zephyrite that will occur.
I never expected it to last however new gear still needs to be gemmed and enchanted so I'll still make money. Maybe not 30,000 gold profit every week but will still make money. Besides once the jewelcrafters stop buying hundreds of stacks per day, the ore prices will crash for a while. 10 gold per stack? The change will hurt miners more than it will hurt me. I'll be paying 1/3 less for my raw materials and end up just as much for the finished products.
Then epic gems will be released. Booyah.
Noyou May 24th 2011 7:50PM
Don't forget they said/listed that 36 slot gem bags were on the way with 4.2. I myself have 2 lousy 20 slot bags on my main JC and none on my 2nd JC. I am looking forward to having much more room in the bank and more room to store my gems. Huzzah!
superleadplexi May 24th 2011 4:32PM
The only thing I will do differently now is not vendor the zephyrite. I'll simply sell what I can on the respective JC daily, and keep whatever doesn't sell in the bank for the next zeph daily. I might have to think more about what I'm willing to pay for a stack of ore, but I suspect it won't change much...
chrisf May 24th 2011 4:48PM
I would be fine all day long with this change if they simply added a ring or neckpiece that uses zephyrite. They should encourage use of gems, not make a useless one like zephyrite. Yes, there is a tiny demand from dailies, but blue rares are losers and with no ring or neck using it, I will continue to vendor stacks upon stacks each week, 50 silver or not.
I fully support removing artificial vendor demand overall however. Heck, maybe 50 silver is too much. I actually enjoyed them removing the 9 gold price for cut uncommons, since I didn't have to feel guilty about not wanting to cut 12 stacks of zephyrites.
Cold's Gold Factory May 25th 2011 9:42AM
This makes the floor value of obsidium ore 5 gold since that's the guaranteed value of smelting and vendoring the bars, which is slightly higher than (75s x 6 gems).