Selling Cataclysmic Jewelry

Jewelcrafters tend to focus on selling gems.  This has been true for quite some time since Wrath's content gave us epics long after the craftable jewelry was useful.  I'm leading up to an all-encompassing post for the end of the week, but today I want to talk, in depth, about selling crafted jewelry.

Introduction - To buy the design of each piece of the highest-level crafted jewelry takes 5 Illustrious Jewelcrafter's Tokens.  A lot of people will balk at that, because it's nearly enough to get 2 rare cuts.  I won't waste time trying to convince you.  If you're an auctioneer looking for something new, or one who has hit diminishing returns with your cut gem sales, you're in luck.  If you're not either of those, suspend your disbelief for the rest of the post and then let me know what you think.

In addition to the 5 JC tokens for the recipe, the materials for each piece of jewelry include 4 Chimera's Eye, 4 Elementium Bars, 4 of one type of uncut Rare Gem, and 75 of a Volatile Element.  I bet you're thinking, "Now, you've really lost it, Stede!"  And, maybe I have - but, I've made it back in profits.

Keep In Mind - Now that I have your attention, I want to just go ahead and talk about each piece of crafted jewelry.  There are a couple things I want you to keep in mind as you read.

• Target Consumer - Your target consumer is someone who has a modest amount of disposable gold, and who is trying to gear up, probably a fresh, developing raider, or an alt. 
• Competition - Odds are that there is little direct competition from other Jewelcrafters on your realm, but if there is, you should already know how to deal with them.  Crafted jewelry competes with rare world drops, reputation-locked gear, raid drops, heroic 5-man drops, and Justice Point vendor gear.  To be fair, a lot of crafted jewelry beats the drops from 5-man heroics, from the JP vendor, and from the rep grinds.
• Motivation to Buy - WoW is a game; gold is its currency.  Most folks see gold as useless unless it's spent, so they buy things that are worth it to them.  Grinding out gear takes time.  Offering something better or just-as-good for instant gratification (no rep grind, no JP spent, no grinding for rare world drops) can be a 12 hour shortcut for a raider that allows that person to focus on replacing other gear.

Now that we've got all that out of the way, let's talk about the jewelry. 

Rings - Rings are not available from Justice Point Quartermasters.  They come primarily from dungeon/raid drops, rep grinds, and world drops (i.e. time & luck).  All crafted rings have a single gem socket and are not unique-equipped.  All comparisons made take gemming and reforging into account.

• Elementium Destroyer's Ring - The top crafted Agility DPS Ring.  Gemming with a Delicate Inferno Ruby gives another 50 Agility, after the socket bonus, and most classes will reforge Crit to Hit.  This is the best pre-raid (10 man) ring for many Agility DPS classes.  There are a couple better rings for a couple classes, namely Gilnean Ring of Ruination (a rare world drop) , Signet of the Elder Council, and Terrath's Signet of Balance (rep grinds for both).  One thing you'll notice about this ring is that, in addition to the 4 Chimera's Eye & the 4 Elementium Bars, it requires 4 Demonseye & 75 Volatile Air to craft.  I've sold 3 of these for 9k+, and I wear two.  They don't move fast, but there are plenty of people who don't feel like grinding rep or courting the RNG.  Because of the high cost of mats, expect to keep your profit margins slim (around 1k).

• Band of Blades - The Elementium Destroyer's Ring's (EDR) cousin.  I realize Hit is better than Mastery for a lot of classes, but this ring has a yellow socket, no Agility socket bonus, and 10 less Agility to base stats.  It's not worth much, in my opinion, though there may be a specialized class where it beats the EDR.  It uses the same mats as the EDR, as well, which are expensive.  Plan to skip this pattern.

• Elementium Moebius Band - This is the top crafted Tank/Strength DPS ring, and it's an inversion of the case-study we just did on the EDR.  The Elementium Moebius Band (EMB) actually sits halfway down a litany of rings.  The main difference, though, is that, in addition to the 4 Chimera's Eye & 4 Elementium Bars, this ring uses 4 Dream Emeralds & 75 Volatile Life, which are relatively cheap.  The attraction of this ring is its low crafting cost, and the fact that any level 85 can buy two without ever having to set foot in a 5-man.  This is the next design that I will be picking up.

• Ring of Warring Elements - This is the top crafted Int DPS ring for many classes, though, that's not saying much.  This ring, like the EMB above sits halfway down a list of better rings.  Interestingly enough, wowhead seems to rate a few rings with no Int above it, so take that with a grain of salt.  Mats include 4 Chimera's Eye & 4 Elementium Bars, this ring uses 4 Ember Topaz & 75 Volatile Fire, which can make it a bit dicey.  I wouldn't pick this as my first piece to craft, but if you have a couple under your belts and feel comfortable, I'm willing to bet this will sell.

Necklaces  - Unlike rings, you can get necklaces from the JP quartermasters.  The JP quartermasters also have a healing necklace, whereas non of the jewelry that's craftable has anything with Spirit on it.  These, like the crafted rings, also have a gem socket.  All comparisons made take gemming and reforging into account.

• Brazen Elementium Medallion -  The top Agility DPS crafted neck.  Like the EDR, this is the best neck available pre-raid for most Agility DPS with a couple exceptions, namely Don Rodrigo's Fabulous Necklace, a rare world drop,  and Mouth of the Earth, which drops out of Halls of Origination (Heroic) - there is a PvP neck that's also slightly better, but I don't consider it to be true competition.  Mats include 4 Chimera's Eye, 4 Elementium Bars, 4 Amberjewel & 75 Volatile Water.  That makes this a relatively inexpensive piece to craft, and a good money-maker, considering the lack of competition.  The world drop usually goes for 20k+, so your only real competition is the HoO drop.  This is definitely one to sell.  I've sold 3 so far in a week on 1-2k margins.

• Elementium Guardian - Like the EMB ring above, this neck piece is further down a long list of other gear.  Don't let that discourage you too much, though - the crafting costs are low:  4 Chimera's Eye, 4 Elementium Bars, 4 Ocean Sapphire, & 75 Volatile Earth.  This is one to pick up after you've grabbed a few other recipes.

• Entwined Elementium Choker - This is the neck counterpart to the Band of Blades above.  Again, I don't see much use for this, and it would seem to be in competition with the Brazen Elementium Medallion (BEM).  Mats are the same as the BEM.  This is one I would skip.

• Eye of Many Deaths - Okay, this one just sounds cool - the name should help it sell.  This is one of the best slam-dunks out there for casters.  The only other neck piece that beats it, pre-raid is the String of Beaded Bubbles (like anybody would be caught dead wearing something with that name), which runs 1250 JP, and results in less Int.  Mats are 4 Chimera's Eye, 4 Elementium Bars, 4 Inferno Ruby, & 75 Volatile Fire.  This is definitely one to be selling.

 How to Craft  - Obviously, this gear is expensive to make.  To start with, you'll need to buy a lot of your Chimera's Eye off the Auction House.  For me, I tend to snatch these when the price is below 450g.  Try not to keep more than 4 of these stockpiled, as you want to be able to let the market fall.  Elementium Bars add a fairly negligible cost.  I'll address this in more detail later in the week, but as a full-service JC, you should have easy, affordable access to Elementium Ore.  Which brings us to uncut rares - if you're cutting them, just have some handy for crafting.  This is easy to do if you're prospecting, and again, I'll talk more about that later in the week.  Your biggest variable cost across all these are the Volatiles.  They vary in price, and buying 75 can be a big hit in the wallet.  The other problem is that the market needs time between your gorgings to recover.  Set  a threshold and buy these over time, keeping 75 of each of those needed to craft gear in stock.

I've sold EDR & BEM, at a crafting cost of 7~8k & 3.5k, respectively for 9k+ & 5.5k+, respectively.  My competition is catching on, but it's very slow, and I've established myself as 'the guy' - people whisper me even when I don't bark these.  They write my name down, friend me, and wait til they have mats & money to give me a pst.  That's a cool 1-2k margin.  I get a sale every 2-3 days, tops, and I'm expecting more as I expand my wares into pieces that are cheaper to craft.  I'm anticipating a sweet spot in sales at a price of 4.9k.


How to Sell - Because of the high crafting cost and material availability, it makes sense to only have oen of each piece crafted at a time.  Bark your wares in Trade, and make certain to include proper links.  I use a macro, but Cold had a great post about barking add-ons that you should check out.  Don't bark your price.  You don't want to tip off any other Jewelcrafters on your server.  If people are genuinely interested, then they will check the AH or whisper you.

Don't oversell it either - something like "Best crafted Agility DPS neck - Brazen Elementium Medallion - on AH".  Don't say anything about what it's better than or that it's BiS pre-raid - you will get trolled.  When people troll you on the cost, just explain the mats - that will shut them up on gouging.  When they say it isn't worth it, then say that it can save a lot of people a lot of time.  When they link something better, explain the cost associated with that item, and point out any stats where your wares are better.  Pick your battles, but don't get rickrolled, and don't let other people trash you.  Believe me, I've seen it all, and I've given a lot of trolls whatfor.  The point is that you don't want potential customers dismissing you out of hand.  You just want them to think - don't argue to win; argue only to be relevant to your customers.


Conclusion -  Crafted jewelry is another way to expand your profitability as a Jewelcrafter in an increasingly crowded cut gem market.  Although I'm only seeing an extra ~4k a week in profits right now, that's nothing to sneeze at, and I hope it will grow as I pick up more recipes.