Crafting profesions. How to set priority for MOP... Part TWO Jewelcrafting

Okay so its even harder to not get excited about jewlecrafting with the new mounts that have been data mined.  Wow Insider suggests it could be a million gold mount, the Onyx Panther.  Though nothing is certain, it is pretty clear that this thing is going to be supper expensive.  And flaunting the gold I have may be just the point of making one.  Though I prefer the other 4 Panthers to the onyx one, the colors are so rich and primary, and the black one is well, just not as eye catching as say the BRIGHT RED or BRIGHT YELLOW ones.  If you have not seen them, get out from under your rock and look em up on MMO Champion or Wow Insider.

So why or why not to level JC in early Cata.  Most of the reasons from yesterday apply here, but I am not going back to review them and copy here, I am going to make a fresh list.

Why Jewelcrafting will be my second priority:

1. My #1 raiding toon is a JC
2. The Profession bonuses are great
3. The sooner I can start doing dailies the soon I have more cuts for profit,  convenience and helping guild peeps, fellow raiders etc
4. If I can prospect ore and cut my own gems I can save a ton of money in the long run
5. It is indirectly a gathering and crafting profession, You can make gold by just prospecting for gems and neve cutting any of them for sale.
6. It has seen some great changes that lower risks and is looking like it will see more changes to make it a more balanced profession.  ATM its all about prospecting for red gems for profits, and minimizing losses with the rest of the cuts and such... Check out this post at JMTC on why it will get more balanced.  Lower risk is in the lower vendor value of the gems and there by the lower deposit cost on the AH
7. Its not just Prospecting and cutting gems,  Rings and Necks for raiding and PVP or for DEing to craft enchant mats... (a second post on strategies for this comming soon, maybe later today)
8. It is key to a successful ore shuffle market
9. There are some initial reports that all chanting mats will be tradeable to others, Like the current maelstorm shatter, but the other way around.  Final implementation of this is still up for confirmation and such, but if we get the dust --> lesser essence --> greater essence --> lesser shard --> greater shard --> crystal shuffling will be a big time sink, but a potential mega profit
10. Jewelcrafting has long term staying power.  There are 5 things end game players need/want.  Helm glyps, shoulder inscriptions, legarmor/spellthread, enchants and gems.  Of those items 2 are from vendors, leg enhancements need 2 professions, and then there is enchants covered yesterday and gems.  End game players need up to ~15-20 gems for their gear.  It meats the high volume requirement for a great business.  And it will be valuable througought the expansion like enchanting at volume. 

Okay, why is JC a monster in cage and you would rather some one else tames that beast.

1. PVP cuts + PVE cuts + jewelery + Ore + gems + other incidental mats.  That is a lot of different items to manage an inventory on and keep track of in an efficient manner.
2. The shuffle is a well documented and highly effective gold making strategy, you will have competition
3. AH deposit costs?  Not sure how this will be in MOP, but you have to figure it in to your selling price
4. Slow aquisition of patterns and cuts via the daily quests for tokens as well as the new JC proffesion gems (I will buy mine on the AH and spend tokens on cuts or jewelry paterns)
5. Profit per item is lower than some other profession, but it is covered by extreme volume, that means a lot more crafting time and post or cancel/post time at the mailbox.
6. The market will be strong at first and almost certainly see a sharp decline as more people get into the market
7. Due to volume of sales, and volume of players and the daily, weekly reset and weekly weekend cycles it can be a real roller coaster ride.
8. Gems stack both raw and cut and there are a lot of them, but the jewlery does not stack.
9. There is a lot of planning that can go into the market, however my experience is that this is a profession better run on an "on demand" crafting schedule.  So I dont like it by who that selling strategy is time consuming.  By this I mean buy your ore cheap and prospect it, but when it comes to crafting, you look at volume in the AH vs. popularity of cut and profit per gem to decide what cuts to make, then craft and post them.

Okay, so that is potentially a possitive not too.   I love auctionator for this, the UMJ has a great page that can help you too.  Because I like to precraft more and do a quick post in the 20 minutes before raid time with stocks precrafted and prepositioned for quick post cycle, I do not like this profession as I dont like to precraft that many gems and cuts and stuff. It is an even bigger inventory of items to manage when you get it in full swing... Though it is still a great profession and can be a monster money maker at many levels of market involvement... You do not have to cut every cut and post every thing in the AH every time.  What I did was go the AH w/ acutionator, scan a gem to cut, inferno ruby for example and then cut 5 each of the 2 most profitable cuts and post them.  Then search maybe demonseyes and do the same, though I might only cut 3 each of the 4 most profitable cuts... and post them and then the next gem color.  It could be a little or a lot of time in the AH depending how many gems I was listing.  I did this because it was such a volatile market and I was not fully commited to it, though I did gross about 250K from just this market strategy in the 4.3 gold rush event.

Not sure what is next, but there is more comming in this series.  Likely it will be inscription or mining.