State of the Gem MarketFollow

It's important to take this information with a grain of salt since the market is still adapting to the recent changes, and all realms will experience the changes differently.

With the release of Tier V raw gems to the market in exchange for heroic badges, there has been what seems to be about a 60% cut in gem prices.. red gems have dropped easily 80%. No single red cut is competing at a price higher than 30g, and at the moment even that looks like it will slip from competition soon. Most Forest Emerald cuts have been flooded below the profit threshold. Raw gems are predictably selling for even less.

I expect things to stable out with prices on most cuts dropping below the profit threshold soon. Hopefully, from there, the market will recover after all the badge hoarders have spent them all and aren't flooding it. I certainly don't anticipate a full recovery, but judging by the recent pre-patch state of the Frozen Orb market I'm hoping for at least a 30-40% recovery across the board.

Any one else's realms taking a hard hit that it looks like you'll just have to weather through for a while?

I don't know how many people are wasting badges for Frozen Orbs for gems..

I'm saying that everyone who has 600+ heroic badges that have been piled up (which is a very large portion of the realm since there's hardly anyone except brand new level 80 chars left that can use anything from badges) have just dumped them into raw gems, which are now available for badges directly from the jewelery vendor, and flooded the market.

Since they see Reds are the most profitable, reds were the most saturated. Since they can continue to get badges, I expect the market to stay lower -- but recover at least somewhat after the initial rush is over.

Rare cuts are just that, rare.

Cut gems sell for more than uncut on my server on most occasions. If you're a JC and find a cut that isn't posted on the AH at the time, you can sell them for premium prices because of its nature as a niche market.

The only gems that sell for considerably less than raw uncut gems are those you get from the trainer itself, since people are always using them to level up their professions. Cut gems whose recipes are attained through heroic dungeons and/or through trading in the daily JC awards for recipes are always higher price than the raw gems because of barriers to entry.

Simple economics, really.

Kewlness - time to start leveling my JC alt then!

Gems seem to be selling for 100g on my realm. I feel that I'm supporting the JC's at the moment with my persistent gem purchasing.