Does it make sense to sell Gems?

Remove all ads!

I've been trying to figure this out and I'll admit to not understanding a lot of the gem calculators out there as they seem to be factoring in things that I don't think they need to. Here is what I've come up with and I'm looking for some fact checkers and reality checkers.

I am assuming the cost of flawless gems is zero as I find them all the time in inferno. I don't believe I find perfect ones in inferno, but I may be mistaken. I am also going to assume the price of tomes is zero, because I also find them all the time in inferno and I have like 300 of them already. I also am not counting the cost to upgrade Shen as that is a cost I spent a long time ago.

If I have 27 flawless I can combine them into 9 perfect for a cost of 270K. Then the 9 perfect can be combined to 3 Radiant Square for a cost of 150K. Then the 3 Radiant Square can be combined to form a Star for 80K.

That means my total cost is 500K. With the 15% haircut that the Auction House takes that means I would have to sell for 588,235 gold just to break even. I'm at work so I can't check on the current selling prices of Stars, but I seem to recall it was over 600K so while not being a fantastic source of gold, I believe it is possible. This also assumes that you can manage to sell the Star otherwise you are out a decent sum of gold.

 

I've never done it, so I'm not sure how it would turn out. It doesn't seem to be an ideal source of gold, but if you gain more profit the more you upgrade the gems at least it would be a dependable one. I'll try it the next time I have the gold.

 

In my experience you tend to need all your gems yourself when you get decent gear and want to use proper gems. Sure, your DH only use greens but one day you will level other classes.

 

Now that is a valid point.

 

Granted, I've never played the game, but I'm sure if these star gems are sold in the AH at all, then necessarily they would be sold at a higher price than what it costs someone to make them. This doesn't require any game knowledge, just human knowledge and basic economics. From what you describe, it would seem that both supply and demand for these items is high, so it would make sense that the selling price would be slightly higher than the cost of making one yourself. 600K selling for a 588K cost means a profit margin of just 2%. That's up to you if it's worth it.

 

I sold one star for 650K which netted me 552.5K. It cost me 500K to make so the profit margin was 10.5.

I've since made 4 more, but I'm using two of them, and will probably let Teen Snook borrow one. The question is do I horde them for future characters or flip for cash. Right now I'm flush with gold due to my windfall (see the auction house thread) so I believe I'm going to hold on to gems for my own benefit (at least for now).

 

My interest is in how the more powerful gems are also significantly rarer, since they can only be crafted. Rarer items being more expensive, maybe you get a better profit for selling more powerful gems. After "star" there's still "radiant star", "flawless star", etc.

 

Correct and to make those even rarer, you have to find the plans on how to make them.