Gambling

[Ruvanal]

Presumably one can not gamble (or shop or horcube) elites in Classic? This would suggest that gamble prices in Classic and and LoD diverge at some clvl, eh?

Correct and I would imagine that there is a price divergence. But I have not paid much attention to the portions of the game that have had differences set up for the classic version to be sure that they made a price allowance for classic not getting elites in gambling. You might still be getting the increased price at that point even though there is no chance of the elite.

AFAIK then, when one notices a price bump in a base item (e.g. a lower base item costing more than a higher base item) that is due to the possibility of the item being exceptional or elite (gambled in any difficulty)?

Yes for that item. Not all gambled items on the screen have the same ilvl, so it might serve as a small giveaway that a particular item has a chance to be an upgraded version.

Presumably the qlvl/clvl -5..+4 interaction order is nonetheless such that the optimal time to gamble for an exc/elite is some levels beyond when they are first available?

Correct. Particularly for those that are not aware of being able to spot teh price bump (which would include me in casual play).

(Unlike, I assume, circlets/coronets which must be at least a certain ilvl, i.e. clvl+4, when you first (can) see them?)

Sorry I do not follow what you are trying to state here?

For gambling the base item is chosen from those with a qlvl<=ilvl (iirc or is it qlvl<ilvl). Then if the ilvl is high enough to allow the upgrade codes item qlvl there will be the bump in price and a chance of the upgrade.

The screwy part with the circlets, coronets, tiaras and diadems is the way the upgrade codes were set for each of the four items.
circlet::circlet->tiara->diadem
coronet::coronet->tiara->diadem
tiara::coronet->tiara->diadem
diadem::coronet->tiara->diadem

While both the circlet and coronet show the same upgrades, the resulting item will use the graphic of the first item after the "::" to display the item on the gambling screen. So even if the game started by picking a circlet and then upgraded it to a tiara or diadem, the display would then show circlets as circlets and the other three types as a coronet.