Why would you sell gems on the AH?

[Mokhtar]

I just wrote an article about Diablo 3 gems for my blog and would like to share same thought with you guys. I have been thinking about who will sell gems on the AH and I came to the conclusion that maybe only traders and players trying to make some quick money may end up selling them. Really, why would you sell gems on the AH if you will need 20000 level 5 gems to make a level 14 gem? Players are better off just sticking to their gems until they have full sets of level 14 gems, which will take a long time.

To good point about this is that even though gems can be unsocketed from gear (which means there will be more and more gems in the market every day) the supply may not increase that much, which in turn would keep nice prices. Of course I can be all wrong and everybody starts dumping their gems like crazy in the AH

What do you guys think?

[Zokar]

My initial thought is that if at anypoint gems just start flooding the market because everybody just has too many of them, they'll add a sink which will destroy them for mats that will be used for something awesome. Say, use the jeweler to bust up lvl 14gems to get specific type of dust that does a unique powerful thing.

But, largely I think I agree with you. I know I will not be selling any of my gems. And in all probability I will be watching the market and gobbling them up if they seem reasonably priced. No idea how many gems I will need in all, but whatever it ends up being, multiply it by at least 5 for all the toons.

[Mokhtar]

I know I will not be selling any of my gems.

I think I'll just sell my gems in the begging when most players don't have access to them. Honestly, I'll only start thinking about gems when I need the bonus stats to survive and kill things at Hell and Inferno.

[Zokar]

I think I'll just sell my gems in the begging when most players don't have access to them. Honestly, I'll only start thinking about gems when I need the bonus stats to survive and kill things at Hell and Inferno.

The problem right there is ... you'll likely be in Hell/Inferno within 72 hours ...

[Concupisco Quaestus]

One thing worth considering is that in my experience a large portion of the gaming population seem to be almost incapable of rational thought when online, I don't know who is going to sell what but I do know that there are a great many people who don't really live in the real world, they just make stories up in their head and run with it so while it may not make logical sense I could see people AH'ing gems because although it may not seem like there is a market for it there are always people who won't be thinking clearly or who won't want to farm things for themselves, don't underestimate the power of a "shortcut" either, if there is a good enough reason to have level 14 gems then there will be people who will want to buy them up to the point where it could be entirely possible to see 20k level 1 gems selling for a higher value than the level 14 gem it makes... We've seen it before in other games but only time will tell.

Short answer to why would *I* sell gems on the AH... If there is a market, I'll sell anything... The better question would be why would someone "buy" gems and to that I would answer, if you have 19k and don't want to wait to farm the rest you might not care about the math involved as the only math you are looking at is 5 more days farming, spending whatever it costs to buy 1k gems or buying the level 14 gem itself... That's ultimately the behaviour that would drive such a market, it's not the people looking at the whole picture, it's the casual people that only need a few more and don't want to wait for them, AKA. the shortcut.

[Zokar]

Totally agree. I've never been a big believer in rational behavior in markets. This is why when I trade currencies IRL I stick to purely automated algorithms

[Azzure]

In terms of Power-to-Cost ratio, if the current gem stats are final they are the worst value for money. So they would best be focused on much later in the end-game.

But like CQ said, you can't adjust the behaviors of some hardcore gamers. Min-maxers will love gems lots, and may be willing to pay a lot of money for them in an effort to get level 14 gems asap.

[Mokhtar]

Short answer to why would *I* sell gems on the AH... If there is a market, I'll sell anything

You're right. Actually I was not wondering if we will sell gems, but if the casual players will be selling it on the AH, since they are better off not selling it. I should have asked "Why casual players will sell..." or "Will casual players sell...".

[Abidextria]

Allyourgemsarebelongtome

[DexA]

Why not just sell those low lvl gems and buy a better weapon with that money to lvl faster. Once in Inferno you get much better gems which make the ones you have sold neglectable.

Edit: Oh are we talking about lvl 5 gems? Everyone will want those -> high price -> people will sell. Simple as that. The reasons you guys mentioned abover are there too of course.