is prospecting profitable?

[Deleted]

buying shitloads of elementium ore and prospect the shit out of them - is that profitable?

[Deleted]

my half million since start of expansion says it is

[Deleted]

Depends completely on the price of the ore, but you'd be hard pressed to find an ore price atm where you wouldn't at least break even.

Don't bother personally unless it's 1.2g each or under, can get profit above that but I'm lazy

[Mugly]

If you have enchanting then you can make a lot more gold too

[Cactrot]

buying shitloads of elementium ore and prospect the shit out of them - is that profitable?

Depends on the server. Depends on elementium price, cut and uncut gem prices, cut and uncut gem demand, what the JC daily is, if you're patient enough to sell when it goes high, how much you intend to do it to.

So yes and no. You'd have to look.

[ABog]

Not sure how it is now but during the 1st 2 weeks of Cata I made almost 400k from prospecting ore I casually farmed.
I've also stopped playing the AH these past 2 months since I have more gold than I could ever use even though Im quitting after playing so long so Im not sure on prices but thats also server dependent.
Until we get more info about how epic gems are obtained I would possible focus on saving JC tokens and Pyrite ore in case since by now you should have most of the patterns.

[mreggena]

totally depends on your server economy.....research the going price for gems and what you can get ore for and do the math....it may be very profitable and it may not.

[bigbuddt]

It's server dependent. But on mine, I buy all elementium ore under 65g a stack. Convert red, purple, orange to rare quality and make jewelry from green/blue/yellow. Just for reference: red gems goes for 130-180g, orange: 75-120g, blue/green/yellow: 20-40g, purple: 50-80g, I basically double my invest on those alone not to mention excess amounts enchanting mats. All together about 3-4x my initial investment.

[cubby]

Depends completely on the price of the ore, but you'd be hard pressed to find an ore price atm where you wouldn't at least break even.

Don't bother personally unless it's 1.2g each or under, can get profit above that but I'm lazy

Your max price also depends on the server. Our ore is selling for 2.5g min and I'm still making a profit.

[Deleted]

On my server, I make a far higher profit buying pyrite and prospecting it than elementium - purely for the volatile earth prices, worth checking that out for your server.

[rboa]

It's server dependent. But on mine, I buy all elementium ore under 65g a stack. Convert red, purple, orange to rare quality and make jewelry from green/blue/yellow. Just for reference: red gems goes for 130-180g, orange: 75-120g, blue/green/yellow: 20-40g, purple: 50-80g, I basically double my invest on those alone not to mention excess amounts enchanting mats. All together about 3-4x my initial investment.

you are on a good server for the orange/blue/green/yellow/purple prices. On my servers those gems are routinely posted in the AH for a few silver below vendor price.

[bigbuddt]

you are on a good server for the orange/blue/green/yellow/purple prices. On my servers those gems are routinely posted in the AH for a few silver below vendor price.

Again, I'm paying 65g a stack, 3x as much as some realms .

[usiris]

http://theunderminejournal.com/category.php?realm=A-Alexstrasza&category=jewelcrafting

insert your server

[Deleted]

Its really,really difficult to make a precise accounting in benefits for shuffling.
Many have tried,most have failed.

You have SO MANY rng here...

-RNG on prospected gems...sometimes you end up with a mountain of rubies someties you get a kick in the mouth.
-RNG on transmuted gems (if any) for the mastery proc(reds is the only thing I transmute now...orange/violet market are 15g-30g cut rares here).
-RNG on blue procs from jewelry
-RNG on essences from disenchanting (I dont know in your servers on mine the dust sells at 10g the stack)..and bountiful procs.
-RNG ,if we can call it that,on prices on AH since theres so many players on this shuffling game that we got a high market volatibility.

If you try to do the simple math:

-I invested 10.000 g
-I sold everything for 25.000g
-I invested 5 hours in the process and AH handling.
...therefore I earn 3000 gold an hour.

Youll end up fooling yourself.Maybe the next time is 1200 g/hour or maybe the next time is 5000 gold/hour.If you ask..."how much should I pay for ores?" theres no answer because even considering standar percentages on RNGs we dont know how much essences/rubies/shards... cost.
So your question if really hard to answer.

Best thing you can do is get in the market step by step.Buy some ores,just a few,process and sell.See the profit and start knowing the market(I remark ,again,you cant assume thats always your profit : good or bad)....invest 500g-1000g(just a little) and see if it fits you.

[Mumuk]

there is no RNG in prospecting and disenchanting - only if you got 2-3 stacks of ore
in long run droprate of gems and DE mats is pretty much fixed

or is topicstarter from your server and you just dont want another competitor? :-)

[Deleted]

there is no RNG in prospecting and disenchanting - only if you got 2-3 stacks of ore
in long run droprate of gems and DE mats is pretty much fixed

The concept was pretty simple.I have marked in bold the main issue but I will try to simplify even more:
In the long run standar percentages rules.In a short run as in :"I had done it only once with a few hundreds of ores" (wich is the case of OP asking is it is proffitable): RNG applies so you can make a false image of the market.

1000(1500 gold on my server) ores could be converted in 2500g or 5000 g.Pretty big difference.

Yeah,after 50.000 ores prospected averages gets equilibrium but not in 200 ores.You could end up with 10 rubies or none.