Prior to 1.04 being released I was in the habit of building up supplies of crafting materials and selling them on the AH in bulk (particularly essences) when i would notice the stash page where I keep them filling up. I was lucky enough to have a large supply built up and dumped it all about 2 days after the patch was released making a nice chunk of gold.

When prices dropped again I decided to invest heavily in materials buying mainly tomes and brimstones. Since I began buying prices have only continued to drop.

My question is - do you all think these prices will stay low? I am starting to wonder If I should cut my losses, sell the materials and move on with the game or hold on to it all (or even keep buying) and hope that 1.05 or the eventual PvP patch will cause prices to spike back to a range where I can profit.

the game still has lot of crappy level 60 legendaries, there will always be a steady supply of brimstones.
I don't see their price going up anytime soon unless Blizzard releases any new information regarding a new legendary buff.

I think 85k for a brimstone is the lowest i've ever seen. I'd buy heavy at 80k, and stock up 500+ if possible, if they bounce back to 350k+ you'll be loaded for awhile even at the 15% commodity fee

I would personally save all the mats that you can. At least for a few more months. Future patches will more than likely see a jump in prices.

I struggle with this question myself. Without significant item system / crafting changes, though, I just don't see commodity prices increasing. Blizzard hasn't said anything about those recently, so there's no reason to think they'll spike any time soon, IMO.

I agree that without some external trigger from Blizzard to cause a spike in demand prices will stay low indefinitely or possibly drop further. I also have my doubts that we will see huge changes to items any time soon. The changes made in 1.04 were huge and I doubt we will see tweaks on that scale again anytime soon.

However, I could see the PvP patch creating a change in demand without needing changes to the items themselves. Noone knows at this point quite how PvP will work and what will be effective. Will effects like knockback or freeze on hit combined with IAS suddenly spike in value? It is hard to tell how this might shift - but if any crafted items have their value spike with these changes the materials will undoubtedly spike as well I assume. Or at this point is everyone stockpiling their materials thinking they are going to make a killing off the next big patch?

At this point I am leaning towards holding on to what I have but calling it quits on buying more. I have about 200 brimstones, 10k tomes, and 3500 essences in my stash right now. I figure that when/if the prices spike that should help keep me funded for awhile

There will be a point where crafting materials will jump im price. they are currently undervalued.