The Obsidium shuffle

Ok, ok, I'll admit it's been a while since my last post. I've been busy leveling my main character and haven't paid a lot of attention to the Auction House for the past few weeks. In fact I've only just started trying to earn back the gold I've lost since Cataclysm was released (leveling enchanting & jewelcrafting and some nice BoE PvE and PvP items took a nice chunk out of my balance).

This morning I had a wonderful opportunity to start making some well needed profit. I logged on before work to check some auctions and relist my glyphs when out of habit I checked the prices for Obsidium Ore and I was able to grab 46 stacks for 60g each. After checking some prices I decided to buy the whole lot to prospect, craft and disenchant.

I prospected all 46 stacks, which gave me the following gems:
44 Alicite
40 Carnelian
47 Hessonite
41 Jasper
40 Nightstone
46 Zephyrite

2 Amberjewel
2 Demonseye
3 Dream Emerald
3 Ember Topaz
4 Inferno Ruby
1 Ocean Sapphire

I crafted 2 Bold Inferno Ruby's, 2 Brilliant Inferno Ruby's and 2 Smooth Amberjewel's. I can't cut any other rare gems yet so I stored the other gems for later use.

The uncommon gems I used to craft the following items:
Alicite > Alicite Pendant
Carnelian > Carnelian Spikes
Hessonite > Hessonite Band
Jasper > Jasper Ring
Nightstone > Nightstone Choker

I then disenchanted all the uncommon quality items. I didn't get too many procs for a rare quality item, but the ones I did get weren't disenchanted since the Cataclysm levelling is still going on at large either from mains or alts so I'm expecting to sell at least some of them.

When I finally finished prospecting, cutting, crafting and disenchanting I ended up with the following items to be sold on the Auction House:
2 Bold Inferno Ruby (listed for 224g 50s each)
2 Brilliant Inferno Ruby (listed for 179g 50s each)
2 Smooth Amberjewel (listed for 248g 50s each)
10 Nightstone (listed for 55g each) *
6 BoE blue's from crafting rings and necklaces (listed for 195g each)
150 Hypnotic Dust (listed for 15g 90s each)
44 Lesser Celestial Essence (listed for 32g each)
30 Greater Celestial Essence (listed for 90g each)

* Always check the prices for individual gems, Nightstone is an excellent example of an uncommon gem which sells for good profit, on my server at least.

If all auctions sell for the prices listed above, which I'm not expecting, I'll be getting 9.518 gold for my effort. With an initial investment of 2.760 gold I've got a potential profit of 6.758 gold for about one hour work, not bad. This is without doing anything with the other four types or rare gems and Zephyrites, these should definately give me another 1.000g at least and maybe even more. For the time being they're stored away and not bringing in any gold so I'm not including them in the profit calculation.

When Maelstrom Crystal's finally start appearing for decent prices it might be more rewarding to use the enchanting materials for enchants instead of selling them raw.

For the more visually inclined I've included a small flowchart for the Obsidium shuffle. All jewelcrafting actions are colored like the gems which are needed for that cut / craft and all disenchants are gray colored.

As a small proof of concept: After 4 hours I've already sold all the Inferno Ruby's, one of the BoE rare rings, a good amount of enchanting mats and the Nightstones. I've got 3.869 gold waiting for me in my mailbox, 1.100 gold profit! I'll probably be checking the Remote Auction House when possible for the rest of the day to keep track of the rest of the auctions so I'll keep updating the process.

Updates:

13.10: I noticed Zephyrite is needed for today's JC daily so I quickly listed five batches of three for 150 gold and already sold one batch.

13.36: Another 1.067 gold incoming from sold auctions in the past hour

15.59: It's slowing down 557 gold incoming. Probably related to being undercut

23.47: To finish the day, 1.973 gold worth of auctions sold during the evening.

Total profit for today from just this batch of ores is about 4.700 gold, not bad for one hour in the morning and 5 minutes relisting in the evening!