Niche Markets: Gems

While most jewelcrafters stick to the "tried and true" methods of shuffling ore and cutting/selling gems in their daily routine, there are very few that maximize their profit-making capabilities by hitting niche markets. By definition a niche market is one that is typically uncommon, specialized, or as in most cases, simply unknown. However, if available, niche markets can easily provide more gold than your standard jewelcrafting routines. In this post, I will go through several that I have found to be extremely profitable and remarkably non-competitive. While I will give the usual disclaimer that this varies from server to server like all things, there will inevitably exist untapped markets waiting to be pushed; all you need to do is find them!

1. Wrath Gems

I'm not going to claim that I found this market, or that this idea is altogether new. Nevertheless, it remains easily the most profitable niche market that I have found in Jewelcrafting. The reason for the success I have had in this market is mostly attributable to the large 70-twink community that exists on my server. With Cata gems limited to gear above certain ilevel, twinks can only go for the next best thing: Wrath epic gems. The limiting factor in this niche market is clearly supply. In Wrath, jewelcrafters were able to obtain epic/rare gems in a variety of ways: shuffling ore (saronite/titanium), valor point vendor, and buying cheap gems on the market. However in Cata, there really only exists one reliable way to obtain your epic gems: using justice points at the Dalaran vendor. The best practice for this is to bark in trade chat with a macro along the lines of:

         WTB all your Justice Points! 100g per 220, more profitable than selling JP boots!

From my experience, simply barking a few times a week at peak hours will get you the supply you need to last awhile. As in many niche markets, there are a couple things you need in Wrath gems to be successful. 

• Be patient: while there will be a demand for your gems eventually, don't flood the market and drag down the price. Have confidence that it will rebound if it takes a small hit.
• Buy patterns: if you don't have all the patterns from the Dalaran JC vendor, get them. While the variety of gems you will sell will be smaller than your variety of Cata gems, it doesn't hurt to have extra cuts.
• Buy up any cheap uncuts that hit the AH: many people don't understand the value of their uncut Wrath gems and will cheaply post them just to get them out of their bags. Take advantage of this by adding these uncut gems to your snatch list. 
• Don't count out rare gems: if you have a supply of Wrath rare gems or access to extremely cheap saronite ore, cut and sell those as well. Those cuts are also still in high-demand by people unwilling to pay the price of Wrath epic gems. If you have a transmute alchemist, don't be afraid to transmute as well.

2. Nightmare Tears

Awesome market. I know a bunch of bloggers have already talked about this niche, but it truly is fantastic. While it may take a little bit of time to sell your nightmare tears, the return on them is fantastic. Add dragon's eyes to your snatch list or buy them with extra Dalaran tokens if you don't need any cuts. Look for cheap infinite dust or even shuffle eternals if you have extra. This market will always stay alive and kicking for two reasons:

• People are dumb and don't understand prismatic sockets.
• Low-level characters and twinks need gems.

I couldn't find a more recent screenshot of MySales showing my nightmare tear sales. But in the weekly span shown below I made nearly 3000g pure profit on selling these. I know on some servers, these are selling for about double the price of my average below as well, so there is definite upside for many of you out there. 

3. Late-night and other non-peak times

This may be a bit easier for me to profit on than most, but regardless it's a strong market with very little competition. Since I live in France currently and play on US servers, I am on at all sorts of weird times. While most people would not bother trying to push their goods because of the perception that no one is online to buy, I continually make strong profits by posting and checking my auctions whenever I get the chance. While this market is open to a variety of professions and goblins, gems seem to sell the best as they are always in highest demand. Many people on late at night or early in the morning will opt to buy from the AH for several reasons.

• They perceive that finding a JC at that time will take too long.
• They are likely in a rush to get to bed, go to work, or do something more meaningful with their time than save 50g on one gem. 

In that vein, it is also easier to sell goods at exorbitant prices late at night, as people are typically willing to pay more because of their perceived lack of sellers. Whatever the case may be, if you do find yourself online late at night, make sure to check the prices on the AH. While your competition may be sleeping, the demand for gems never will be. 

Typical late-night haul...

Just as I was writing this at 5am server...

4. Leveling mats

Just like any other crafting profession, to get to 525 in JC you will need quite a bit of gold and/or a steady supply of leveling mats from a gathering alt. While it is invariably cheaper to get your own mats, rarely do people put in the time to farm them because of the hassle. With that being said, many people also look online to see the cheapest and fastest way to powerlevel a profession using sites like wow-profession.com to aid them. You can easily use this online advice to your own advantage by controlling markets of raw mats essential to the leveling process, especially those mats which are typically rare and expensive. Use your auctioneer scan data to build a database for price or use The Undermine Journal (www.theunderminejournal.com) to obtain knowledge about prices for these mats. Undoubtedly you will get sellers posting what they think are cheap gems or mats for next to nothing. You can also bark in trade for specific mats that you know are selling well. There are always people who don't understand value of random items in their bags and will take any offer to shed them for more than vendor price.