Profitable Prospectin’ for WotLK
Mar 22, 2009 Auction House, Crafting, Patches, Professions, Resources, Wrath of the Lich King
This is the first of many guest posts. Richard (Twinkletoes - EU Kul Tiras) sent me this article two months ago and I promised him to post it as soon as I could. Unfortunately, my recent injury significantly delayed it, but the basic concepts are still valid. A belated thanks Richard!
Ever since the release of the Profitable Prospectin’ article from last May I have been an avid prospector making enough gold to kit out my main and alts.
With the release of WotLK came new Ore and new Gems. AH prices have been fluctuating for the core materials and it took some time for this to settle however the wait is now over and we have enough information to dust off the article and give it an update.
The basic principles are still the same, work out the price of the resulting gems a prospecting session should make; if they’re worth more than the raw materials then it’s worth it. In the original article we stuck to Adamantite Ore and for WotLK Saronite Ore is the ore of choice.
I will leave the maths explanation for the original post but the theory is still very similar. There is a 24% chance to drop a blue gem and a 108% chance for either 1 or 2 green gems.
Test Results
Over a two week period I bought 112 stacks of Saronite Ore at 35 Gold each for a total investment of just over 3.9k. This prospected into the following:
| Gem | Number | AH Price | Total Sale Price | ||
| Scarlet Ruby | 24 | X | 1000000 | = | 24000000 |
| Monarch Topaz | 15 | X | 643500 | = | 9652500 |
| Autumn’s Glow | 12 | X | 875200 | = | 10502400 |
| Forest Emerald | 15 | X | 188100 | = | 2821500 |
| Sky Sapphire | 20 | X | 352600 | = | 7052000 |
| Twilight Opal | 13 | X | 425700 | = | 5534100 |
| Bloodstone | 77 | X | 69300 | = | 5336100 |
| Huge Citrine | 57 | X | 64800 | = | 3693600 |
| Sun Crystal | 55 | X | 38400 | = | 2112000 |
| Dark Jade | 62 | X | 39400 | = | 2442800 |
| Chalcedony | 70 | X | 21900 | = | 1533000 |
| Shadow Crystal | 62 | X | 27800 | = | 1723600 |
If we AH everything we prospected this would result in sales of 7.6k. With an initial investments of 3.9k that leaves us a profit of 3.7k.
For the theorycrafters amongst you the 112 stacks should result in 3.5k profit (I was lucky on a few extra Scarlet Rubies).
What’s interesting is the time required to make this much gold. By far the most time is spent doing the prospecting itself and then placing the gems on the AH at the right price. I would estimate that I spent about 1 hour game time for the above test.
Tips
This probably goes without saying but spend a little time tracking Saronite Ore on the AH at different times and on different days. Find the highs and lows on both prices and availability.
Ore is generally cheaper on the weekend and on my realm there are only 10 or 12 stacks below my target price at any one time. I aim to clear these out most days depending on how much I have invested in gems.
As with the original Profitable Prospectin’ post, this will only work over a large amount of prospects. Prospecting for profit works on the law of averages and you need a large enough sample size to justify the expense.
Although I put most of my green gems on the AH I am also saving a fair number of stacks back for the soon to be released Icy Prism. On that note, look out for cheap Frozen Orbs.
Having a Jewelcrafter at your disposal will greatly increase your profit on the blue gems. The higher level gem recipes are gained through the daily JC awards and running various instances. As a guide, the top ten gems from my realm make an extra 50 to 70 gold per sale. We got 99 blue gems from the test above and if we converted just half we would have made an extra 3k on top of our 3.7k of profit.
Looking for writers!
Mar 18, 2009 WoW Economist
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve not posted in some time. I ended up breaking my wrist and elbow while longboarding and now I’ve been busy working to pay the hefty medical bill. Casts, splints, and x-rays are expensive! UGH! I haven’t even logged into WoW in weeks - how I miss it!
There are a lot of topics I’ve been waiting to write about, a lot of ideas spinning in my head for new posts, and plenty more as WoW is patched to perfection. Unfortunately, I just don’t have as much time to devote to WoW and this blog as I used to and want to. This is where you fly in like Superman and save me from certain doom!
If you’ve ever wanted to contribute to WoW Economist more than just a comment, now’s your chance. I’m looking for a writer or two to share their knowledge of building weath in WoW with our community. You’ll not only be included in writing articles here, but you’ll have the opportunity to help with a few other projects we have going behind the scenes. It should be an exciting few months!
If you’re interested, please drop me an email at contact@woweconomist.com. Can’t wait to hear from you!