Gems and Inscription come 4.2

hey guys, just wanted to put in my two cents about gems in 4.2. it's not going to be a long post but will just summarize my thoughts on what people have been calling the end of some shuffle or other.

Uncommon, uncut gems will no longer have the vendor price of 5g.  What does that mean?  almost nothing.

Well, for the lazy, it means that they cannot vendor their stacks of Alicites or Nightstones anymore. 

And what about the not-so-lazy people?  they're still going to craft pendants, rings and spikes just like before for their Enchanter to DE.  and for those who have X-mute Master Alchemists?  I still see these items transformed into Shadowspirit diamonds.

This patch wont break anything for the shuffle, or whatever you want to call it.  it will basically get those lazy bastids off their lazy ass and actually do some more work if they want to make near the profit margin they had before.

Predictions: 
- Uncommon gems (alicites, nightstones, etc) will drop in price since the lazy people who used to vendor them will now sell them on the AH, flooding supplies.
- Uncommon gems used for daily quests will retain its value, or drop slightly. 
- Enchanting mats prices will decrease slightly due to some folks actually making pendants, rings and spikes to DE instead of vendoring them.  They may even level up their own enchanter to do this or sell the items in the AH.
- Shadowspirit diamonds will decrease in value slightly. Due to the same reason above with alchemists instead of enchanters.
- Obsidium and Elementium ores will decrease in price due to the oversupply of enchanting mats and shadowspirit diamonds.  However, Obsidium and Elementium will have a floor (although we'll probably never get there-4.5gold/stack elementium).  As JC'ers find their secondary market (dusts, essences and shadowspirit diamonds) overflowing, thus dropping prices, their margins will decrease. therefore, they will continue to look for cheaper and cheaper ores.  i do not know what the max would be for a stack of elementium ore yet, as prices for that is dictated by prices for gems, dusts, etc. but overall, a decrease will result.

Deductions:
The changes to vendored prices ultimately brings prices down on various goods used to buff up players' stats.  This is a good change as it will make enchating scrolls and shadowspirit diamonds a little more available to the more frugal (i say frugal because you really can be rich in wow. its easy. some people just dont like spending).  This change will help support the boom that will occur during 4.2 when everyone gets new gear from firelands (raids or dungeons or rep).  not only that, those who were stuck on the first boss of ZG will finally be able to down him and attain more gear.  the casuals and baddies will also be able to upgrade their gear as well (normal raids nerfed combined with many class buffs).  overall, the turnover in gear will be great, and this change to the vendor price of uncommon gems will help meet the demand. 

Also, as prices drop. JCers will find it difficult to justify paying 40-50g per stack of elementium ore.  eventually the prices will drop, decreasing the daily profits from the farmers.  when this profit decreases, they'll have to find ways to circumvent this. either avoid the AH to recover on fees, or farm more ore.  farming more ore will increase supply, thus decreasing the prices even more.  maybe they'll focus more on herbalism or skinning instead. 

The farmers are ultimately the ones to lose here.  they'll be the ones with 5000 stacks of ore to sell at a lower price.  imagine if elementium dropped by 10g a stack, that's 10g x 5000 stacks someone is about to lose potential profit on.  in this way, it appears that bliz is tackling the problem (although they wont solve it, it does cause a slight dent to it) of gold farmers and gold sellers.  they are the ones that are up day and night farming ore.  it's no secret to the rest of the world how they fund their gold selling business.  especially when the dollar appreciates so much when it goes into the right country. Blizz will just make it a little harder for these guys to make a dollar.

In any case, there you have it. my deductions as to why these changes occur in the first place.  Bliz already set it up nicely the past six months, giving an imaginary bottom to ore prices (through vendor price for uncommon uncut gems), then removing it when they need to increase supply from the obsidium/elementium shuffle. 

Final Note:  please note that we do get dusts and essences through other means.  however, because this process is so widely used, a large chunk of the enchanting market is fueled by the gemming industry.  therefore, a significant change in the JC industry will cause serious changes in the enchanting industry as well.  as for shadowspirits, this portion of the market is entirely dependant on JC'ers.  there's no other way to get shadowspirit diamonds except to xmute it from uncommon gems. 

Final Final Note: Since patch 4.2 will add significant amounts of new content (as opposed to 4.1 which only saw two 5-man dungeons) and more accessible current content, we will see a large increase for enchants and augmentations to upgrades attained. and since bliz is going to counter that spike in demand with higher supply, this will mean one thing:  JC'ers will not see anything like Glyphmas. 

Thanks for reading and have a great day!