I support both super hard!!!!

This is a great idea!!!

I've stoped going in the mines now for a bit cuz I keep getting nothing, so I went to the Hoofbeat Plains instead,

so the second idea is great!

@Black Oak, I think that is a great question, about would we use horses in the mines, and I had an idea an it might be to hard to handle but I think it would be great!:

We could make a avatar, hear me out, and we could have Avatar Coins, like breeding coins, we get one free one, then buy more, for a price, the Avatar Coins could be like 1.Resets or 2.Multible avatars, and we could BUY add ons for the avatars, like one could be more likely to get Rubies, Saphires, Emeralds, so on and so on,

Please tell me if this is a good idea when you say your thoutghts on the origanal topic,

sorry it was so long and thanks for staying with me!

~KatieLee

@Maki I can see your opinion about finding your own but than the market loose it's purpose. If you buy those minerals you like to have and sell those you don't need everyone gets something they need insted of people piling up trash in their storages that they can't sell. To get the market rolling would support low level players who can make an income from their gems. 
I have tack with gems on allmost all my grown horses and still have around 50 of each garnet, apatite and quartz which is those I use most of. Saphire that i don't use at all is at 94 at the moment. 
Maybe I'm strange but I can't see that we lack access to gems (except the new ones that are impossible to find)

There are plenty of people who would rather buy gems and always will be 

An explore like method would be nice because then new players (and players in general) can pick up stuff that are "high in demand" rather than everything. Which then leads to having less "junk" that no one wants in your storage. The market is always going to fluctuate and people are going to pay more for some things and pay less for others. I haven't been buying mass amounts of gems or even crafting mass amounts of saddles with gems because I have too many horses and until we get mass craft, I'm not taking the time to do it. So for now I'm just stockpiling and I'm not everyone but one of my favorite things to do in games is to stockpile and have a nice hoard of items. 

So no, I don't think upping the rates would negatively affect the markets anymore than it already has. Especially with the vast amount of people here that have stated they don't even go there. I personally recommend players that need money or new players to do explore first and when they've exhausted all their explore horses then they can try the mine. But the mine itself isn't worth the amount of energy you use unless you're just trying to quick use up your energy because you're busy or if you've got no explore horses to use at the moment. 

As already said, the market likely will always flucuate. Just because something is listed for a particular price, doesn't mean they sell at that price. I'll add no more to that, including the bulk of my opinions, except to say that in my opinion, the gems that many of us have currently, are likely when the drop rates were much better. Most of my own personal hoard, is from that time.

@ KatieLee Having additional NPC-style people to work at doing certain things (even if we take over the person and manually do these things, like how the mine is currently) could theroetically alleviate the issues we have now. I don't know how I like the idea, currently. Could certainly be at least a one-time cash sink... or something. Additions could thereotically cost real money, which would help support the game, without actually adding any pay-to-win scenarios. Be better if it was a continuous cash sink, such as, hiring somebody short-term to up chances of finding choice-driven items (i.e. a guide to help find stones). That could cover the drop rates for many different things, but itself is a standalone suggestion separate from this one. I like certain options your suggestion might unlock.

@Oaken Fields, I was thinking real money, I forgot to write it down though, cause that is very me.

@ KatieLee I figured you meant real money, but wanted to offer a certainty with naming it out. 😊

**Same Account As Oaken Fields

@BlackOak, Ahhhhhh ok!😁

Fully support higher drops and/or an explore feature for the Mines!

I was just thinking about this! However I do have mixed feelings. I see everyone's point that gem spawn is very unbalanced compared to the items we find in hoofbeat plains. But should it be equatable? Maybe we should keep gems what they are...precious stones. I for one don't really want to compete against a ton of gemmed up horses lol.