Merchanting Guide

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Introduction

Merchanting is a very popular way to make money in runescape. Sometimes you will loose money, sometimes you will make money. In this guide we will show you the basics of Merchanting. Just remember, if you want to be a famous merchanter, you need to be patient. Prices wont always go the way you want it to, so this guide will show you when to buy and when to sell the item.
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The Basics

Rule 1: Never invest your money in an item that will not decrease or increase.
Rule 2: Keep track of what you buy and how many you buy. A good merchanter always keeps track of the quantity, price and item of what he purchases.
Rule 3: Never sell for the maximum price! No one will buy items for maximum price, unless they are very desperate! Sell lower than maximum so you will beat everyone that sells for maximum price! You can also only buy a specific number of each item per hour, this will show you how many of what item you can buy:
  • 100 Weopons/Armour
  • 10K Arrows
  • 10K Food
  • 100 Jewellery
  • 10K Feathers
  • 25K Herbs
  • 25K Logs
  • 25k Ores
  • 25K Runes
  • 10K Potions

Short Term Investments

Short term investments is exactly as it sounds. You make a short term investment. To do so, buy an item for 1gp over market price, so you beat all the other buying for market price. You are now likely to get the item almost instantly (depending on what you're buying). After you have bought the item, sell it for a little less than maximum price. Let's say a Rune full helmet was selling for 15K at market (mid) price. Buy the most you can buy, and buy each of them for about 15.1K, this way you beat the oppenents bid. If maximum price was selling for 17K, sell for about 16.5K, now you will also outbid all of the 'maximum price bidders'.

Long Term Investments

Long term investments is the most common kind of merchanting in the game, and the best way to make money. To use this method, you need to keep track of the prices by using the GE Database. Let's say a future update is coming out for being able to colour the Dark Bows (which has came out). When people find out about the future update everyone will start to buy Dark Bows, which means the price will rise rapidly. Buy as many as you can from the start. When the update comes out they
will go to up to twice the amount, and that is the time to sell it. You will make approximately 1M per Dark Bow. That is a riskier way of merchanting, now this is the better way to do it... Let's say coal was at 192gp on the GE Database, and it went down to 181gp in the last 30 days. Jump on it now, or the price will start to go back up. Buy around 1-2K coal, or as much as you can afford. Don't spend it all so you can invest your money in other things. Now wait for another few days or weeks depending on how the market goes until it goes back up, then sell it for a little bit over market price for a nice profit!

Dangerous Merchanting

Now you are rich, you could spend your money on valuables and awesome armor, or you could double the danger of merchanting and become even more rich! That's why this is called dangerous merchanting. You can either make a lot of money, or loose a lot of money. This is how you do it... Let's say a Bandos God Sword has dropped from 30M to 25M, this is when you will buy one. Only buy one, unless you are willing to risk a lot of your money. This is where it gets dangerous. As the price goes back up, either three of these things can happen:
  1. People may lose interest in the item.
  2. People may want to buy it for the minimum price.
  3. People may just not want the item anymore, and buy a better item.
As soon as it goes back up to around 30M, sell it. Don't wait for the line on the GE Database to flatten out, as this is when it will crash. Congratulations if you have made a lot of money, and sorry if you have lost a lot of money!

Guide created by Framack4

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