Where Are The Profits At Jewel Craft

[Tejaye]

I noticed that items like Plat Blue Diamond Tiara and Black Sapphire Necklace, have the components costing as much as you can sell it for. So there doesn't seem to be profits there.
Where are the profits for a 250 skilled Jewel Crafter?

[Kahmon]

Right Here

[vovinit]

pop combines and ldon jewelry especially the polished quartz used to be good sellers. When ldon first came out I made several velium polished quarts necklaces It cost me like 300 plat for the materials and I was selling them for 1k pretty fast too but now everyone is doing it so the price has dropped considerably.

[Tejaye]

Competition

Yes....it seems there are more Master Jewlers these days and I noticed the heavy competition in the bazaar. I give a lot of credit to those sticking it out in this business.
Do you find yourselves making Jewerly for your guild members more than for sale due to the competition?
Also......does it seem that the only way to make good profits is to get the gem drops yourself?
ie- The Highly Polished Gem almost costs as much as the Bloodmetal Earring of Engagement that it is used to make.

[Luclin Jeweler]

You are correct Tejaye,

Unless you are part of an elemental guild... you will be hard pressed to make a profit off JC combines that you cannot farm yourself. The Bloodmetal earrings sell from 22-25K on the Luclin server. The Highly polished Gems are sold for anywhere between 18-25K each. And it seems that one person buys them all up and marks up the price to monopolize the market on them.

The other day I got lucky and found a Gem for 6K... I quickly bought it and failed the combine... =X

I've succeeded on more of these for my guildies than I have those made for personal gain. I stopped making them now and even if I run accross a gem while XP'ing in Tactics, I refuse to take a chance at the combine. If I would have turned and sold the gem at 15K.. it would have sold fast and I would have made a 9K profit. It's just not worth the risk of combine, when I can make near the same amount selling the raw materials needed.

Same goes for Cloudy Eyes from PoJ, and metallic liquids. (Although I historically have had very good luck on Vings of Valorium)

LJ

P.S. I still haven't made myself some of the elemental rings. So I would still spend plat just for a chance to say .. yes I have made those successfully. After I have made one.. I no longer combine for selling... just sell the reagents and let other GM's waste their time and $.

[Mindmelder]

Enchanters shouldnt have a prob with highly polished farming. Just go to storms and quest the tactics key (easy) then find a druid buddy (or ranger and a healer) and camp the armorer area in tactics. Its uber xp and I have accumulated 25 HPGs from that area (pit xp is like 1/10hours or worse tho, have to go deep in ogre part to get em).

[Timmie]

I have my trader up 24/7 and make a decent profit selling. If I told you what would have to kill you

[Bregalad]

Plain vanilla JC market is dead. About only jewelry still worth it for some is diamond/blue diamond for resists. But selling even that above cost is about impossible.

Cazicite jewelry is hot, but cazicite is dang rare and hard to farm.

LDoN jewelry - dunno, I experimented with it, and was sorely unimpressed with results, even with Velium.

I did not have a chance to check out GoD JC yet - I had very little time to play EQ lately.

PoP JC can be a great moneymaker if you have a second account that allows you to keep a permanent trader in bazaar. Xev economics are a bit less crazy than Luclin, and bargains can be found.

I can usually make Tempest Earrings for under 1kpp cost(I charm solo storms in PoS, copper is the most expensive component here), and sell for over 2.5k. Metallic Liquids cost 5-6k, and Valorium rings sell real well at 10k - with cost of everything else factored in, that's 3-4kpp profit per ring if you succeed. HPGs go fo 16-17k, earrings sell for 25k or so - even better profit margin.

Elemental jewelry without elemental access is a scary business. If you check bazaar often, you can find all components needed for say, resilience ring for about 40k. Rings go for 70-80k, so on success it is 30+k in your pocket. But losing 40k on a fail feels on par with being kicked in the groin.

Overall, high-end JC market is not about who got the skill - but rather who has access to components.