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.

[Aliena]

I calculated myself in excel. Even when I'm not so good at making formulas as Caliban, I tried, and here are the results. I took into account decimals too, so the values changed a bit from what he said.   
And here is the formula I used, if anyone wants to correct me: =(uncut value* %Improvement)-uncut value 
I found out that some cut are simply not worth their cost, and marked them in red. It is better to just use the one above them, wich is cheaper and gives a better profit for the same rocks. We will be still using emerald cut and low value gems to unlock the others, and the break even value I got was the same as the ones Caliban found, so I did not add them. 
I hope this helps a little to make better profits for the greedy sims out there.   
 
Type_________Gem Value Cut* 
Emerald________ <$40 
Oval__________$42-$60 
Pear 
Plumbbob______$61-$83 
Marquis 
Crystal Ball____$84-$166 
Brilliant_______$167-$500 
Heart-Shaped__$501+ 

[emicattt]

I followed the link from the page on gems and the table with Type, Cost, Improves Price by:, Break Even Value, Cuts Required and  Gem Value Cut.

I've done some calculations on OpenOffice Calc (similar to Windows Excel but free), and assuming the values on the page are right, to get the highest profit, these are the cuts that should be used for each uncut value. Sometimes three cuts will give the same price.
39 or below: uncut
40: emerald
40-60: oval
60: pear
60-83: plumb-bob
never: marquis
84-166: crystal ball
167-300: brilliant
300-600: star
600+: heart

I thought I should share this as I find it quite useful. However, I might have made mistakes. I made some earlier and I think I've corrected it but I still might not have got it right.

[Chuckles_82]

Actually you should still cut gems that are less than $39 in value. Cut most of them emerald cut, a few oval cut, and then transmute them into soulpeace gems.