Collecting/Gems

[caliban]

Firstly, thanks for your awesome guides! So much good info here I feel I've barely scratched the surface.

I did find one error on the Collecting page in the section on gemstones

You have $100*2.30 - 75 = 165  This should be 155, which means the following statement about the Crystal ball cut is backwards (it would be $155 vs $160)

I've calculated the break points where you want to move to the next cut for higher profit:

raw gem value: Cut w/ highest profit
< 40 Emerald
41-60 Oval
61-83 Plumbob*
84-166 Crystal Ball**
167-499 Brilliant
500 + Heart

*Plumbob passes Pear at the same point that Pear passes Oval.
**Similarly, Crystal passes Marquis at the same point Marquis passes Plumbob

Math if you're interested:

X(%) - c = profit (raw gem value * % - cost = profit)

%1 is the percent increase of cut 1
c1 is the cost of cut 1
%2 is the percent increase of cut 2
c2 is the cost of cut 2
X is the unknown value of the raw gem

we set the two formulas equal to each other, because we want to find the point where the profits become equal.

X(%1) - c1 = X(%2) - c2
X(%1) - X(%2) = c1 - c2
X(%1 - %2) = c1 - c2
X = (c1 - c2) / (%1 - %2)

Thanks again for all your hard work on this site! Hope you find this info interesting/helpful!

[Carl]

Brilliant, I'll add this to the guide.

[Kreathyr]

Do you mean brilliant? or Heart? 

[Eftyen]

I'm glad someone thought to do the math before me, but I can completely corroborate your findings, since I made a spreadsheet with essentially the same formula, and it gave me identical results.  I can only add that it should be stressed that even at $40 base value, an Emerald or Oval cut yields net profit of ZERO because the increase in gem value is equal to the cost of the cut.

P = X*% - C - X
(profit from cut) = (base value)*(cut multiplier)-(cut cost)-(base value))

thus

P = 40*1.5 - 20 - 40 = 0

The practical conclusion being, once you have all the gem cuts available, just sell any uncut stones of value $40 or below, because you will lose money by cutting them!

[Carl]

Glad I just took finite math this semester so I can work these just fine. Helpful when upgrading the collecting guide for gems by tomorrow night.

[tiff_jewels]

Good Morning from England.  This is my first post and I hope it is not out of place to add the information here.   I wish to correct the assumption that you must have a spire cut to get the larger tiberium.  I have received the larger tiberium by using the heart-shaped cut instead of the spire cut.  This has been tested with 100% accuracy.   Perhaps what I should be saying is while the information in the guide is correct, you can achieve the same result using the less expensive heart-shaped cut.

I am afraid my grammar may not be up to your quality standards.  I may be American but I have also lived in England for the last 4 years.  At this point, it is safe to say I have a hybrid of the two types of English which constantly war with each other. Thank you for your help in correcting my current and future grammar errors.

 

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum, Tiff!

Your grammar is perfectly fine, so no worries there.  As for the Tiberium, we've had lengthy discussions about it on the Forum already and I believe most everyone is aware of the heart cut being the best choice when it has to be cut.  It's also mentioned in the Guide, so I think we've got it covered. 

[tiff_jewels]

My error Pam. I did find the information further down the guide.  You would think after having read the guides so many times I would have caught this before posting here.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.