Read it and tell me what you think!
Thanks,
Lord Ralian.
INTRODUCTION:
BEFORE GETTING STARTED:
Before you can make money you have to gain an understanding of what you are buying and selling. You need to know the current market value (which, by the way, is always changing for some items) and you need to know how long it will take to find a buyer at your asking price. As in real life markets, it is all about supply and demand. What is the demand for this item? What price does the item usually sell for? How much (or rather how little!) can the item be bought for? The most useful and reliable resource for this information are the forums. Reading forums will keep you up to date with market trends and you will also be able to pick up good deals. I will cover this in more depth later on.
Ideal Starting Inventory:
You also need to get a decent amount of GP (money) to begin your Merchanting career. There is no set amount but try to start off with as much as possible. You will also preferably need the appropriate mage level and runes for all the teleports you will need, although they're not a must have. I would recommend that you aim to have about 50K in hand to be successful quickly. If you do not have much cash, sell your stuff! Sell anything - armour, weapons or absolutely anything else that you have in your bank account. If you are really serious about making money, you will not need any weapons, armour, or other items that you might have in your bank.
If, after selling your stuff, you still do not have enough money to get started then go to the last section, OTHER WAYS TO MAKE MONEY for a few ideas that will get you going.
Once you have a decent cash account and have familiarised yourself with the items you intend on Merchanting you are ready to get started.
GETTING STARTED:
If you are not a member, then I would suggest that you consider becoming one. Having membership will open up many more Merchanting capabilities because of the use of the Runescape forums, along with richer players on member's servers, and more items that you can buy and sell for huge profits.
That said it is not essential to be a member to make decent money. There are many players who have been successful at Merchanting without being a member. I am just saying that it is easier if you are a member.
Forums are an excellent place to find good deals - but you do have to be quick. You must check the forums constantly if you want to snap up bargains. All successful merchants use the forums and they will be just as quick as you in trying to close in on the deal that could make big money.
Ideal Merchanting Areas:
One of the best Merchanting areas is behind Varrock West Bank. I have found that this is the best place for selling high priced items like party hats and other rare items. This is because a lot of free to play people (F2P) really don't know the value of some items and you can either buy something at below market value or sell something for an above average price, making yourself a tidy profit in the process.
If you are a member then you have another great place to buy and sell - in front of the East Falador Bank on either World 2 or World 16. It is full of buyers and sellers 24 hours a day. The World depends on what time of day it is - World 2 is best from about 4 PM to 4 AM EST and World 16 is best for the rest of the time, 4AM to 4PM EST. The reason for this difference is because European and USA players play at different times of day. This is the best place to sell items that you have in bulk such as ores, bars, arrows, fish, bones, etc. These items are usually sold in bulk quantities to wealthy players who will pay the market price for the items in cash. This is also an excellent place to sell party hats.
BUYING CHEAP:
You can?t make money unless you can buy low and sell high so you must be able to get the seller to give you a good deal. When trading, it is important that you are able to work out what kind of a seller you are dealing with so that you can negotiate effectively.
There are 3 basic types of sellers:
1. The ones who don't know the value of an item. These are sometimes my favourite because you can get a great deal on an item or (better still) can get bulk quantities of an item really cheap. And after you have completed the trade, you are both happy! The seller feels like he got a good deal because he has cash in his pocket and you know you got a good deal because you know that you can mark-up the goods considerably. Everyone is happy and you make money!
2. Desperate sellers. These sellers are great because they are willing to negotiate the price of an item because they need cash immediately. As in real life markets, you can take advantage of 'desperate' sellers and get great deals in the process. If someone looks to be in a hurry to sell items, always negotiate with them. They will often take less than what they are asking for (and will sometimes take considerably less!).
3. Repeat sellers. These are also great sellers because they will continue to bring you an item in bulk over and over again. This can make you rich quickly and you don't have to do much work at all. If someone is a repeat seller, it will be in your best interests to build up a good relationship with them. Pay them enough so that while you are able to make a decent profit, that they will come back to you to sell their items again. Doing this can create a network of sellers because they will soon tell their friends about you. With 'repeat sellers' you can soon be making huge profits without even spending time looking for the good deals - the deals will find you!
With all sellers, there are ways to get the price you are looking to pay most of the time. It is all about negotiating. Sometimes there are a few stubborn sellers who know what the market value is and will not sell for less. This is not usually the case. If you can avoid it, don't make an offer at first. If the seller insists that you make an offer, then work it out by taking what you know you can sell it for and subtracting at least 40%. The seller might accept the deal or might counter offer you. Try if possible to make at least a 25% profit on all trades. A lot of the time you will make over 100% or even 250% of the price that you paid for the item. Some of the time you will only make 5%. If it is an item you know moves quickly, then go ahead and buy it for a smaller profit. It might be only 50K profit but it can still be a quick 50K!
NEGOTIATING TIP: Always try to negotiate the price, and if the seller refuses, walk away a short distance and wait. A lot of the time they are trying to push you into paying what they want and when you show you are no longer interested they will come running over to you to sell at the price you suggested. Don't come across as too keen when negotiating - if you seem desperate, they will push their prices up!
Also I can?t say this enough, USE THE FORUMS. They are the most useful tool available to a seller in my opinion.
RAKING IN THE PROFITS:
As long as you paid less than you know you can sell an item for, you will always make some profit. You?re negotiating skills and knowledge of market trends (the prices that items can be sold for) will determine the amount of money that you can make. You will be surprised - a little profit many times over will add up quickly. Don?t turn down any trade where you can make a quick 50K or more. Twenty such trades and you will have made a million!
Buyers can be categorised in much the same way as sellers:
You will have buyers who are willing to pay a lot more than an item is worth as they don't know it's real value, buyers who are desperate for an item and will pay you more because they have to have it now, and regular buyers who will come back to you over and over again to purchase items from you. Try to accommodate the regular buyers. Building up a network of regular buyers will make it easier for you to make money. If they need to buy for slightly less every now and again then go for it. You will probably already have made so much money from them and if making a lower profit means they keep coming back then it is in your interests to please them. Any good business person knows that it is a lot easier to keep an existing customer than to sell to a new one! Giving good customer services will only benefit you in the long run. Ideally you will build up a network of regular buyers and regular sellers.
When you are selling to just anyone, never negotiate your price. Go into it knowing the market value and be firm that you will not sell for anything less than that. Always ask the buyer to make an offer first and if they offer less than what you want, tell them what you are wanting. Do not give in to selling your items for less than you know they are worth. If they say no then walk away a short distance and wait a minute. A lot of times if they really want the item they will come over to you and pay what you are asking. The 'walk away' tactic works just as well for selling as it does for buying! If they don't counter offer, you can always sell to another buyer.
As I have mentioned more than once before, the forums are a great way to sell your items for the market price. And the best thing about using the forums is that you do not need to put in any work to sell the item. Sometimes, just looking at the first few pages on the forums will present you with a buyer. And BANG you just made a quick profit without any work at all. If you are unsure about the price of an item, or if it is an item that has an uncertain value just tell them to make an offer. A lot of times this will get people into bidding wars and they will pay a lot more for the item. If you have any experience of eBay you will know the result of bidding wars - higher prices!
SELLING TIP: Selling in bulk brings in greater profits. Not only can you sell thousands of items each for a small mark-up (which in turn adds up to a huge profit) but it usually brings you repeat buyers. On top of this, items sold in bulk will often sell for higher prices than when sold individually. Arrows and bones are great examples of items that sell for more when sold in bulk.
WEBSITES AND FORUMS:
The forums are the best place to make money and find the deals you have been looking for to profit off. And the best thing about them is that all you need to do is make a post and then sit back. There is no standing around in Varrock or Falador to find the perfect trade. Below are lists of forums where you can buy and sell your Runescape items. Sign up for these forums and make regular use of them. They are your best tool! By keeping an eye on the forums, you will also get a 'feel' for the prices that items can be bought and sold for.
The following websites contains forums:
- http://www.runescape.com
- This is only for members to post but if you are not a member you can at least view the forums for good deals you just won't be able to post. A good idea is to start auctions for items, the bidders are more competitive so you will be able to achieve greater prices than selling an item at a flat charge that you've chose. You can also set an auto-win which means you will sell an item to the person that first offers so much for an item, (e.g. set an auto-win of 100k when auctioning and dragon longsword).
Other Forum sites that I do not use as often but still are really useful for finding deals include:READ FIRST: These are the prices that I have seen on the market recently. They are constantly changing so PLEASE make sure you know what you are buying and the CURRENT market price. Use this only to help you get familiar with items and the price that I consider to be the value now. If something is not listed then either it is a new item, or I do not know enough about that item to post here.
HOT/COLD ITEMS:
Please Note: This list is accurate at the time this guide was last updated. You should familiarize yourself with the current market trends because they will vary.
HOT ITEMS: (quick moving items). You can sell these quickly on the forums and you can make a quick profit:- All Ores: Iron, Mithril, Adamantine and Rune have all seen an increase in interest recently. Since the last update these have started to rise!
- Magic logs. These can always be sold pretty quickly for a nice profit!
- All bars will sell and usually sell quickly. Steel and above are the best. Steel can be an excellent money maker because a lot of people buy and sell in it in bulk. Try to buy these for around 250 -350 gp each and resell them for 500 to 600 gp each. Mithril bars will move very quickly along with Adamantine. You can often find people on forums selling steel bars in bulk.
- Arrows. All arrows have picked up interest with the addition of more ranging equipment and armour.
- Bones. Big Bones and Dragon Bones will move extremely quickly.
- Hides. If you are a member keep your eye open for dragon hides being sold. They can make you a quick profit.
- Party hats! These have started to go up again. Watch for them to double or triple in price by the middle of this summer!
- Any item that people can raise there crafting on (silver, hides & gems).
- Herbs. I never used to merchant these but now they are great. Buy unidentified herbs and resell them, or ID them and they typically will sell for more than you paid for them.
- Prayer and Anti-Fire pots. These have gone up a lot since the new dungeon update.
- Drag med, dragon squares, legs, chains have raised a little. These should sell quickly.
- Yew Longs: Interest in these items has sky-rocketed over the last couple of years. They now sell for anywhere from 450gp each to 600gp each. (See section below Utilising Skillers).
- Higher level runes sell very well, Deaths, Nats and Bloods are currently selling extremely well. Chaos and Law runes sell well but I wouldn't recommend these to merchant.
- Rannar Seeds: Demand for Rannar seeds is extremely high. Buy them for 10k to 15k each on less busy worlds and then sell them again through the forums or on busier worlds (2 and 18) for tidy profits. (You can sell them for anything up to 30k, the highest I've ever seen anyone buying them for).
SLOW ITEMS: (slow moving items):- Trimmed armour.
- Rune Weapons.
- Many elemental runes do not sell well unless in large quantities.
- Most low level treasure trial items. Headbands, pirates hat, highway man mask, etc.
An Example of What to Merchant and How To Go About It:
One of the biggest profit items is iron ore. Buy iron ore for around 25 to 50gp each. This is very easy to buy and is very plentiful. Hire iron ore miners and pay them 35 gp each. You could ultimately have 15 iron ore miners that bring around 25000 - 50000 iron ore per week. Pay them their fees each Friday. If you get 40000 iron ore in a particular week, you end up paying your miners 1.4 million gp for 40000 iron (35 gp a piece). Then take all the iron ore and sell it for 100 gp each to other players. 40000 times 100 gp each equals 4 million gp. You can make a profit of 2.6 million gp from 15 iron ore miners using this method.
Utilising skillers-
Many people in Runescape love to train their non-combat skills (fletching, smithing, etc). and will even sacrifice profits to do this faster. Take any finished product you know that is made in large quantities by skillers, we'll say the yew longbow, and buy a bulk of the supplies needed, 1k yew logs 1k bowstrings. Then, post on the forums a "trade" of your 1k of supplies (and some cash if none are willing) for 1k of the finished products. Then, sell the finished products for a nice profit, which exists because there is a mark up between the combined costs of the raw materials and the finished good for labor costs. In the past I have made over 100k profit on yew longs trading 1k supplies + 50k for the bows, and done this rapidly (found trade within 10 minutes of posting). Although this greatly depends on how many skillers are willing to do this at any time, it is a good method to try again at the same prices, you usually have to wait for waves of people selling items to achieve the biggest products.
MERCHANTING TIPS:- You must be patient. There are times when Merchanting will be slow and you will go all day without making any good trades. Just keep at it. I promise that you will make a profit and will get better and better at it.
- Do not get in over your head. It is good to purchase items in bulk but do not buy so many of an item that can take a long time to sell. This ties up your cash and leaves you desperate to sell. When you are in this position you are likely to make a loss on the items - just what you want to avoid!
- Try to keep a good amount of pure cash on you at all times. At least 30% of your value should be in pure cash. There is nothing worse than seeing a great deal slip away because you didn't?t have the cash at that
moment.
- Don't spend your money on personal items. A lot of people I have trained will make their first million and then feel like they have to go out and by the rare items they have always wanted to wear around. Try to resist the temptation as it is probably the worst thing you can do to impede your progress. It is alright to buy rare items and other valuable items but sell them for more than you paid for them!
- Until you get over 1 million stay away from rare items. Rare items are party hats, masks, Santa hats, eggs, pumpkins, disks, half wine and anything else that was a holiday drop or has become rare now. These items typically will not make you much of a profit unless you are getting them a lot cheaper than they are worth and you know you can sell it quickly. A lot of cheap items in bulk will make you a lot more money.
- Diversify. Do not keep all your money in one item. Do not merchant only one type of item. Have a little bit of everything. And over time you will be familiar enough with it that you can merchant any item for a nice profit. Start off slowly with 6 or so items to merchant. As you spend time Merchanting you will see how well some items move and how much you can get for them.
- Become a member. While it is easily possible to become a Runescape millionaire by staying an f2p (free to play), becoming a member will open the door to a more opportunities.
- Be careful of scams. Do not buy an item you have not heard of. A lot of times Jagex adds an item and people will try to sell it for more than it is worth because no one has heard of it. Stay away from it unless you have seen it, know what it is and have a good idea of its value.
- ALWAYS double check the last trade screen. Have a calculator by your side so that you can double check the money being exchanged and make sure your maths was correct. Also make sure you are trading for the item you thought you were. Do NOT click accept because it is a great deal and you want to get the item from the person really quick. A scammer can easily fool you if you do not look at the second screen and double check the trade.
- Spend a lot of time playing. Until you have a network of players selling to you, you will need to be on a lot trying to find people to buy from and sell to. If you can stop don?t take a break from it for a week and go train something else.
- If you are going to be away for more than a few weeks at a time sell everything you own and buy rare items. They generally will go up over time, and if you are going to be away for an extended period you do not know if the price of other goods will drop during that time. Jagex are not making new rare items so they should always give you a potential profit over long periods of time.
- Do not go to websites promoting free items, or hacking Runescape. These sites are scams and they will steal your password and everything you worked hard for. There is no way to hack, manipulate, or duplicate Runescape items.
- Also notice where some items sell higher that others. For example lobsters sell higher in towns close to the Wilderness. While rune hatchets will sell for more in seers.
OTHER WAYS TO MAKE MONEY:
Low Level Player:
1) Try killing chickens. This is especially good for level 3's. Each feather you gather from them will get you 10 gp if you collect 1k or more of them at a time. This is the quickest way and the most efficient way for you to get your 1st 100k. When killed, each chicken will drop 5 to 15 feathers. Feathers currently sell for 10 - 15 gp each. So you will get 50 - 225 gold coins for each chicken you kill. Below is a list of the possible income for
Each chicken killed:
5 feathers = 50 - 75 gold coins
10 feathers = 100 - 150 gold coins
15 feathers = 150 - 225 gold coins
Since feathers keep adding up and only take up 1 space in inventory there is no need to be running to the bank. You can easily get 10,000 feathers in 5 hours work by killing 650 - 2000 chickens. Once you have 10,000 feathers, then you can sell them off by looking for a buyer in the Runescape forums. You will get somewhere
between 100k to 150k for your 10,000 feathers. Low level players can go one step further and while you are at it buy some feathers from other players. Buy them for 1-3 gp each. A lot of people will sell them for that price. Once you reach 10,000 feathers, sell off your feathers by looking for a buyer in the forums.
2) Kill cows, if you bank the hides you can sell these for 200 - 250 gp ea or more if you collect a lot of them (500+)
3) Goblins are also good training because they drop a lot of low level clues.
4) Kill chaos druids in Edgeville dungeon. They drop herbs of all levels. Do NOT id them. Collect a full load and bank them. Once you get a few hundred sell those all as unidentified herbs. You can get at least 1k ea on the Runescape forums.
5) Fishing is a good way to make money at the lower levels - there is a good market for fish and you can reach the required fishing and cooking levels rather quickly. Many people who are rich don't want to take the time to fish. If you're a low fishing level, just grab a net or a rod and fish the best thing you can until you're at least fishing level 40. Level 40 is the minimum to fish lobsters. During your time of fishing to train up to level 40, make sure to cook everything you catch for cooking levels! You need to be level 40 cooking as well, in order to cook your lobsters. Bear in mind that you can sell them uncooked, but more people prefer to buy them cooked and they pay more for them cooked as well. After you fish a good deal of lobsters (100+) - cook them! Don't be discouraged at first because you will burn a good deal of them. Usually fish about twice as many raw lobsters as you plan on selling because you very well may burn about half of them at first. After that, go to Varrock on World 1 and sell for 150 - 200gp each! Do that until you can fish swordfish and cook them (level 50 fishing and 45 cooking) and then you can switch to that if you want. Swordfish take a lot longer to catch though, you'll burn very many of them, and more people seem to buy lobsters than swordfish, but the choice is yours. If you catch and cook them up you can sell them for 200 - 250gp each.
High Level Player:
1) Kill Giants. Bank the big bones. They will sell for 400 ea if you collect them in bulk.
2) Slay Dragons. The wilderness was recently updated so that there are green dragons at level 18 wild just northeast of Edgeville. Here you can slay the dragons, bank the bones and hides. I can make about 500k an hour easy doing this over and over. Blue drags in Taverly are also close to the bank but they also take a lot longer to slay then the green drags mentioned above.
3) Train on the monsters that drop treasure trails. The profit from the clues will provide a nice income. These include ice warriors, all dragons, greater demons, paladins, and hell hounds. Kills stronger monsters to get better clues, for example, Hell Hounds will drop better clues as they're higher levels (Hell Hounds also drop less than most monsters their level).
Even More Money Making Ideas:
1) Buy coal and iron. Smelt the ores into steel bars. You can make 100-200 profit per bar (see
Running a Runescape Business Below).
2) Buy shafts and feathers. Make Headless arrows and sell for 5 -10 gp profit per headless.
3) Sheer sheep. Spin the wool and make balls of wool. They can sell for 100+ gp ea in bulk.
4) All skills will provide you with income if you get the resources yourself and sell at the market value.
5) High Alching. Yew longs are usually always for sale on the forums. You can pick these up for usually 400 gp ea. If you have the Nature Runes or can buy them then you can make a little money and get very good mage experience at the same time.
RUNNING A RUNESCAPE BUSINESS:
If you get bored of Merchanting, you can successfully run a Runescape Steel bar making business. This business will bring great wealth to you and your miners. Pay your miners for this business - 150 gp per coal and 75 gp per iron ore. So it costs you 375 gp to make each. Once you have made the bars, sell them to other players for 600 gp each (sometimes 500 each). You can easily generate profits of 2 - 3 million gp each week running this business. If you are a member then you can also make cannonballs and sell them for 200 - 250 gp each. Each bar produces 4 cannonballs. So if you make these you will get 800 - 1,000 gp per steel bar which will mean a profit of 425 - 625 gp per steel bar. If you just sell the bars after making them then your profit will be 125 - 225 gp per bar. You can easily make 25,000 bars in a week. So you will bank in profits between 3.12 million to 15.65 million depending on whether you make cannonballs or just sell the bars. Do not buy your bars; otherwise it won't be as profitable a business. If you have trouble selling your bars then look in the forums for buyers or make a post.
This is a more advanced overlook on running a Steel bar business, submitted by Zack De La Rocha.
Steel Bar Scheme:
140-150gp Coal
80-90gp Iron
500-600GP Steel Bar
--**__----**__||||||||||||||
(140x2)+80 = 360
360 - 600 = 240 GP Profit.
--------------------------------------------
2000 Coal (280k)]} 360k
1000 Iron (80k) ]} 360k
----------
1000 Steel Bars (600k)
600000 - 360000 = 240000
-----------
240k Profit per 1000 Steel Bars sold.
-----------
1000 Steel Bars = 200 Steel Plates
= 260k profit
Plus additional Smithing XP = 17.5/per smithed Steel Bar.
187.5/per Steel Plate
Equals to 17.5k smithing XP for Smelting the bars
and 37.5k Smithing XP for making Plates
= 55k smithing experience.
INVESTMENTS:
If you are going to train combat for a while and would like to make some income on all that GP in your bank. Buy some rare items. Rare items will sometimes have a bump in price where they will fall, but they always have and always will recover in price eventually. Part hats are the best investment you can make for the long term. Buy them only when you see a good deal. Do not feel pressured into going out and spending your saving on part hats when they are going to just sit in your bank.
Stay away from the new novelty items, like the trimmed armours and godly armours. These items are rapidly dropping in price.
HOW TO MAKE FAST, EASY CASH:
The only thing you will need is some GP and to be able to get into the Mage Guild...
Runescape is usually updated on Monday and Tuesday (morning time in EST). Get on Runescape when you know there is an update coming. When the update countdown starts stop what you are doing and teleport or run down to Yanille. Take as much money as you can with you and go over to the Mage Guild. Go upstairs near the Mage shop. Wait for the game to count down until it reboots. After the update start buying runes like crazy... There will be 500 bloods, deaths, laws, natures and chaos in stock. Buy the bloods first, followed by the natures, then deaths and laws, then chaos last. If you are quick at clicking and there are not a lot of people around you can easily get the majority of the runes, they also respawn faster than in other rune shops so you can get more runes, faster.
I wish you everything of the best on your quest to become a Runescape Millionaire!
Credits
Lord Ralian - Owen Plant: Author
Slangtande - Matt Rix: Really helpful advice from a true master merchanter
Luite: Contributer
E Z Fisher: Corrected Grammar.
Nstanier: Contributer.
Zack De La Rocha: Contributer.
Swift1992 - Jordan Hollingsworth: Contributer.
WILLSC84WINGS: Contributer.
qudeb: Contributer.
Twitch: Corrected Grammar.
nick8071992: Corrected Section.
And all the people who have replied positively.
Quote:
Post extra information or grammatic corrections to be entered into the credits!
