More Awesome Than You!

Based on Possible Gem Worth of X to Y, multiplied by 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.3, 2.6, 3.5 and 5, rounded to the nearest, then subtracted by 10, 20, 35, 50, 75, 100, 250, 1000,
then further subtracted by X to Y (base gem worth), followed by the arithmetic mean of the values.

Bolded is the highest average (arithmetic mean) profit range, so it might well be the best cut for that type.

Aqua
Emerald Cut Profit: -8 to -5 , -6.5
Oval Cut Profit: -15 to -9 , -12
Pear Cut Profit: -28 to -19 , -23.5
Plumbbob Cut Profit: -41 to -29 , -35
Marquis Cut Profit: -63 to -48 , -55.5
Crystalball Cut Profit: -86 to -66 , -76
Brilliant Cut Profit: -227 to -197 , -212
Heart Cut Profit: -964 to -916 , -940
    
Smoky Quartz
Emerald Cut Profit: -6 to -4 , -5
Oval Cut Profit: -12 to -7 , -9.5
Pear Cut Profit: -24 to -16 , -20
Plumbbob Cut Profit: -35 to -25 , -30
Marquis Cut Profit: -55 to -42 , -48.5
Crystalball Cut Profit: -76 to -60 , -68
Brilliant Cut Profit: -212 to -187 , -199.5
Heart Cut Profit: -940 to -900 , -920
    
Emerald
Emerald Cut Profit: -5 to -2 , -3.5
Oval Cut Profit: -10 to -5 , -7.5
Pear Cut Profit: -20 to -12 , -16
Plumbbob Cut Profit: -30 to -20 , -25
Marquis Cut Profit: -49 to -36 , -42.5
Crystalball Cut Profit: -68 to -52 , -60
Brilliant Cut Profit: -200 to -175 , -187.5
Heart Cut Profit: -920 to -880 , -900
    
Ruby
Emerald Cut Profit: -4 to -1 , -2.5
Oval Cut Profit: -7 to -2 , -4.5
Pear Cut Profit: -16 to -9 , -12.5
Plumbbob Cut Profit: -25 to -15 , -20
Marquis Cut Profit: -42 to -29 , -35.5
Crystalball Cut Profit: -60 to -44 , -52
Brilliant Cut Profit: -187 to -162 , -174.5
Heart Cut Profit: -900 to -860 , -880
    
Yellow
Emerald Cut Profit: -1 to 5 , 2
Oval Cut Profit: -2 to 10 , 4
Pear Cut Profit: -9 to 10 , 0.5
Plumbbob Cut Profit: -15 to 10 , -2.5
Marquis Cut Profit: -29 to 3 , -13
Crystalball Cut Profit: -44 to -4 , -24
Brilliant Cut Profit: -162 to -100 , -131
Heart Cut Profit: -860 to -760 , -810
    
Tanzanite
Emerald Cut Profit: 6 to 14 , 10
Oval Cut Profit: 13 to 28 , 20.5
Pear Cut Profit: 14 to 36 , 25
Plumbbob Cut Profit: 15 to 45 , 30
Marquis Cut Profit: 10 to 49 , 29.5
Crystalball Cut Profit: 4 to 52 , 28
Brilliant Cut Profit: -87 to -12 , -49.5
Heart Cut Profit: -740 to -620 , -680
    
Diamond
Emerald Cut Profit: 15 to 40 , 27.5
Oval Cut Profit: 30 to 80 , 55
Pear Cut Profit: 40 to 115 , 77.5
Plumbbob Cut Profit: 50 to 150 , 100
Marquis Cut Profit: 55 to 185 , 120
Crystalball Cut Profit: 60 to 220 , 140
Brilliant Cut Profit: 0 to 250 , 125
Heart Cut Profit: -600 to -200 , -400
    
Luminorous
Emerald Cut Profit: 28 to 78 , 53
Oval Cut Profit: 55 to 155 , 105
Pear Cut Profit: 78 to 228 , 153
Plumbbob Cut Profit: 100 to 300 , 200
Marquis Cut Profit: 120 to 380 , 250
Crystalball Cut Profit: 140 to 460 , 300
Brilliant Cut Profit: 125 to 625 , 375
Heart Cut Profit: -400 to 400 , 0
    
Rainbow
Emerald Cut Profit: 103 to 165 , 134
Oval Cut Profit: 205 to 330 , 267.5
Pear Cut Profit: 303 to 490 , 396.5
Plumbbob Cut Profit: 400 to 650 , 525
Marquis Cut Profit: 510 to 835 , 672.5
Crystalball Cut Profit: 620 to 1020 , 820
Brilliant Cut Profit: 875 to 1500 , 1187.5
Heart Cut Profit: 800 to 1800 , 1300
    
Pink
Emerald Cut Profit: 290 to 403 , 346.5
Oval Cut Profit: 580 to 805 , 692.5
Pear Cut Profit: 865 to 1203 , 1034
Plumbbob Cut Profit: 1150 to 1600 , 1375
Marquis Cut Profit: 1485 to 2070 , 1777.5
Crystalball Cut Profit: 1820 to 2540 , 2180
Brilliant Cut Profit: 2750 to 3875 , 3312.5
Heart Cut Profit: 3800 to 5600 , 4700

Holy shiz. Extremely useful. Thank you.

*puts paper in printer*

You're forgetting one component: What about the price on simply dumping it without cutting? You have to subtract that from the profit, too.

This is the one page on sims.wikia.com that I have bookmarked. http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Collecting_(The_Sims_3) (http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Collecting_(The_Sims_3))

About halfway down the page is a table of gem cuts, and it lists the cut, cost, increase in value, break-even point and better profit point. I usually collect a bunch of rocks and then send them all to be cut at the same time. I pick the best cut for each rock based on initial value. Anything under $40 to start I just sell the rock outright.

When deciding to cut or smelt or not you also have to take into account the chance to get a gnome back instead of the cut/smelted gem/ore. A gnome can be sold for $1000, which means, even not taking into account the amount of money returned from selling the cut gem or smelted ore, you would need to cut 50 100 emerald cut gems without any gnome returns in order to take a loss, or 25 smelted irons before taking a loss with gnome returns. I have found with one of my sims that gnome returns seem to be rather high.

While collecting, I was under the impression that she needed to get the highest cut available on her gems in order to unlock the next cut, so she was sending in even blue topaz to get the highest available cut and still made a tidy profit from the gnome returns. If I remember correctly, she had $40,000 with which to build a new house once she moved out of her parents' house and within only a few sim weeks, with gem collecting as her only source of income, she had well over $100,000 net worth.

Editted math for emerald cut gems, I thought they were $20, but I was mistaken, they are $10.

That's only after they've been sending them off for a while, I've noticed. Also, once the metal challenge is complete you get extra ingots back, so smelting iron and silver could be worth doing after that.

The trick, of course, is finding that last elusive metal... xP

Now if only my printer would let me print it in a nice manner...
It keeps trying to half print across pages instead of it all nice and tidy.

Oh well...

Try this, for your printer:

Aqua   - Emerald Cut
Smoky Quartz - Emerald Cut
Emerald - Emerald Cut
Ruby - Emerald Cut
Yellow - Oval Cut
Tanzanite - Plumbob Cut
Diamond - Crystal Ball Cut
Luminorous - Brilliant Cut
Rainbow - Heart Cut
Pink - Heart Cut

AwesomeMod's "Sell & Refine" command automatically performs the calculations dynamically, sending any gems found off to their optimal cuts.

What about using non-optimal cuts to unlock the more expensive cuts?

You can do that yourself. The ones that can't be properly cut are simply saved for later, but you can waste them if you are impatient.

Here's the equivalent list for the WA gems:

Alabaster
Emerald: -8 to 4, -2
Oval: -15 to 8, -3.5
Pear: -28 to  6, -11
PlumbBob: -41 to 5, -18
Marquis: -63 to -3, -33
CrystalBall: -86 to -12, -49
Brilliant: -227 to -112, -169.5
Heart: -964 to -780, -872

Turquoise
Emerald: 5 to 8, 6.5
Oval: 10 to 15, 12.5
Pear: 10 to 18, 14
PlumbBob: 10 to 20, 15
Marquis: 3 to 16, 9.5
CrystalBall: -4 to 12, 4
Brilliant: -100 to -75, -87.5
Heart: -760 to -720, -740

Lapis Lazuli
Emerald: -7 to -2, -4.5
Oval: -14 to -5, -9.5
Pear: -26 to -12, -19
PlumbBob: -38 to -20, -29
Marquis: -59 to -36, -47.5
CrystalBall: -81 to -52, -66.5
Brilliant: -220 to -175, -197.5
Heart: -952 to -880, -916

Jade
Emerald: 20 to 50, 35
Oval: 40 to 100, 70
Pear: 55 to 145, 100
PlumbBob: 70 to 190, 130
Marquis: 81 to 237, 159
CrystalBall: 92 to 284, 188
Brilliant: 50 to 350, 200
Heart: -520 to -40, -280

Amethyst
Emerald: -5 to -4, -4.5
Oval: -11 to -8, -9.5
Pear: -21 to -17, -19
PlumbBob: -32 to -26, -29
Marquis: -52 to -44, -48
CrystalBall: -71 to -62, -66.5
Brilliant: -205 to -190, -197.5
Heart: -928 -904 -916

Citrine
Emerald: -1 to 3, 1
Oval: -2 to 7, 2.5
Pear: -9 to 5, -2
PlumbBob: -15 to 3, -6
Marquis: -29 to -6, -17.5
CrystalBall: -44 to -15, -29.5
Brilliant: -162 to -117, -139.5
Heart: -860 to -788, -824

Opal
Emerald: 78 to 120, 99
Oval: 155 to 240, 197.5
Pear: 228 to 355, 291.5
PlumbBob: 300 to 470, 385
Marquis: 380 to 601, 490.5
CrystalBall: 460 to 732, 596
Brilliant: 625 to 1050, 837.5
Heart: 400 to 1080, 740

Soulpeace
Emerald: 353 to 515, 434
Oval: 705 to 1030, 867.5
Pear: 1053 to 1540, 1296.5
PlumbBob: 1400 to 2050, 1725
Marquis: 1810 to 2655, 2232.5
CrystalBall: 2220 to 3260, 2740
Brilliant: 3375 to 5000, 4187.5
Heart: 4800 to 7400, 6100

Quartz
Emerald: -7 to -5, -6
Oval: -15 to -11, -13
Pear: -27 to -21, -24
PlumbBob: -40 to -32, -36
Marquis: -62 to -52, -57
CrystalBall: -84 to -71, -77.5
Brilliant: -225 to -205, -215
Heart: -960 to -928, -944

Geode
Split:  -24 to 123, 49.5
Heart: -940 to -520, -730

Septarian
Split:  25 to 445, 235
Heart: -800 to 400, -200

Tiberium
Spire: -5480 to 1660, -1910
Heart: -940 to -520, -730

Tiberium is rather a special case;  if you leave a cut gem sitting around on the ground for a bit (20 to 28 hours) it will turn into a 'Large Tiberium Spire' crystal that's worth over $35,000. This appears to happen regardless of the cut -- over a bunch of test cases, I couldn't see any difference between what happened with heart-cut and spire-cut crystals (aside from the extra $5500 cost to cut spires).  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that allowing heart cuts for tiberium is technically a bug, so I wouldn't be surprised if EAxis removes it in a later update.

Tiberium Spire Cut definitely is better than Heart cut. What multiplier did you use for it?

What about those large version of the cuts? (The ones you get after processing 8 identical gems in that XL display case.) Are they worth it? Also, does anybody know if there's a small/normal version of the skull cut? I've been getting the large ones only ???

The Tiberium Spire Cut has a multiplier of 69 and a cost of $6500, while the Heart cut has a multiplier of 5 and a cost of $1000. The worth of raw Tiberium ranges from 75 to 125, so this is where the numbers come from.  Again, though, this multiplier only applies to the normal spire-cut Tiberium.  When a cut Tiberium grows into a Large crystal, it gets a new price.  The point is that this new price for the large Tiberium is not (apparently) affected by the worth of the original cut.  Here's a quick example:

Spire-cut Tiberium:  81.86 grams, worth $6,831
Same crystal after it grows: 487.67 grams, worth $37,950

Heart-cut Tiberium:  66.2 grams, worth $405
Same crystal after it grows:  473.88 grams, worth $36,846

So, since there's no real correlation between the cut of the original gem and the large crystal it grows into, it's better to use the Heart cut because you'll save money on the cut.  This is one of the reasons why I suspect that allowing the Heart cut for Tiberium is a bug.

AwesomeMod has this handy "Sell/Refine" feature that will automatically calculate the most profitable cut for a gem. It is shiny.

But doesn't tiberium grow no matter what it is cut into?

-edit-
ok, did some experimenting and figured out tiberium's growth method.
Basically, tiberium ore (when it is green and initially found/bought) is inert. Leaving it out does absolutely nothing, and it will stay green just like any other ore. However, when left inside a Sim's inventory until the Sim gets the nauseous moodlet, the tiberium crystals will activate and turn into a bluish-grey shade and start emitting green "radiation". After this "radiation" persists for a while, a sudden burst of radiation will surround the ore and it will cut itself into a "Large spire cut Tiberium" for free. Hence, it is not worth it to cut Tiberium into any cut as the self-cutting capability of tiberium far outweighs any cut, with upwards of 30000% gain.
After recording some values of Tiberium ore I obtained which self-cut, I obtained the following values:
A $110 ore turned into a $36777 Large Spire
92->39675
90->37329
87->35397
The Large Spire Tiberium continue to emit radiation as per normal. From the values obtained, we can see that there is little to no correlation between original value and final value. However, it can easily be seen that instead of wasting 6500 or 1000 $ to cut the tiberium, one can simply wait for them to cut themselves.

So, it's like emo grass.

Closer to emo glass :P

More like Command & Conquer ... yes, lets put a Westwoood series references in a Maxis series game, after all both were assimilated and destroyed by EA.

I know this, yes. Although you act like this is new: The Sims has had references to other EA games since TS1.

     I never knew about it before.  :-X So wen't to my sim who had a hoard of gems, and thought to try it out. I didn't realize it analyzed space rocks as well, thought that was quite handy... Until I noticed an super rare/expensive space rock, worth more than I had ever seen.  :'( I wanted to keep it for my sim to show off.

For the skull cut gem, place one of each cut of a gem on the large display and activate it.

Money wise, not worth it on the lower level gems.  Better on more valuable ones.  Total cost for all eight cuts: 1540.  Average value of 8 Soulpeace gems: 13,600.  Soulpeace skull: 25,000ish.  Profit: 10,000ish.  Your mileage may vary.

EDIT:  Heard that it just takes five different cuts of the same gem type to make the skull, not all eight.  So that could come out a lot cheaper.  Haven't tested that yet though.

Find this on MTS and figured I'd post it here. Some testing required. ;D

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=379770