Merching Clans

Hells Sponge · **Posted:** January 17th, 2010, 10:39 pm

Hypothesis:

Do you think that, when a merching clan abuses an item on the GE, the leader could make the most money? If the leader picks the item, say, dragon bones (hypothetical item btw), he could have 2000 dragon bones already in the bank, ready to drop back into the market and make even more money than the other clan members?

Adbot · **Posted:** January 17th, 2010, 10:39 pm

Tim · **Posted:** January 17th, 2010, 10:54 pm

I believe that's who merchanting clans work, the leader makes the most money because he sells first, then he tells everyone else to sell, after he has sold, and other people don't make as much money. I could be wrong but I think that's how they work.

Alex_SE · **Posted:** January 18th, 2010, 4:10 am

Mli 699 wrote:

I believe that's who merchanting clans work, the leader makes the most money because he sells first, then he tells everyone else to sell, after he has sold, and other people don't make as much money. I could be wrong but I think that's how they work.

Yep that's how it works.

The runescape wiki wrote:

How some merchant clan leaders are using a pyramid scam on people, in five steps:

1. Some merchant clan leaders secretly buy lots and lots of the same item.
2. They recruit and mislead people into buying the same item at a higher price, thus raising the item's price.
3. They encourage people to recruit even more people, thus creating a pyramid.
4. They set a "dump price" for everyone to sell.
5. They either secretly sell their item before this dump price is reached, or they suddenly announce a new dump price; in both cases many people are still buying the item. What these people are misled into buying is the item they are secretly or suddenly dumping.

zefski · **Posted:** January 18th, 2010, 6:38 am

I personally detest these ponzi scam merchants. Not only do they dupe noobs out of lots of hard earned gp that they can ill-afford, they also play havoc with skillers like myself who want to buy stuff for raising levels.

For example just recently the price of emeralds went through the roof and subsequently came crashing down again. Now it's on the rise yet again. I have been trying to buy emeralds on the GE for a couple of days now and none are selling so I expect this one to rocket again and that's tough if you like crafting rings of duelling like me.

One remedy to this would be to introduce a punitive capital gains tax beyond a certain threshold, something I suggested last year here on these forums. The profits from this tax can be redistributed into a weekly lottery draw or a mini game. Wayhey! a bit of socialism to upset the free market evangelists but seriously, what else can be done?

rs josec78 · **Posted:** January 18th, 2010, 9:46 am

Not all merch clans are a scam.

Arb 67 · **Posted:** January 18th, 2010, 6:28 pm

merching clans i think are scams because 5 people with 1b will controll the market and prob plan together and make the market crash so they make 300m and the other people loose most of their money...

for example a clan was merching gold amulets but the one person bought most of amulets so they sold them and then later the cc said loosers...

Adbot · **Posted:** January 18th, 2010, 6:28 pm

dafin0 · **Posted:** January 21st, 2010, 11:16 pm

Yeah, i would have to agree there. do you really think that the merching clan leaders will equally divide the profits... nope. They are only in in it for themselves and for the popularity.

Cheers, daifn0 :lol:

Duke Juker · RSBandB Donor since 07/01/2010

I believe that if the leader of a merchant clan was selfless, it wouldn't really make as big a difference. Sure, hypocrisy isn't acceptable for some people, but at the same time, even if the clan leader didn't take advantage, 1) someone else probably would, 2) the profit he wouldn't gain that would be spread out among the other members would probably have a net affect on most other people's profits and thereby not really help that greatly, and 3) the regular members in merchant clans aren't smart for joining and following in the first place, thereby leaving the fault on their own shoulders. ("Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" type of dynamic). Ideally, a merchant clan can only maximize profit when there are as few people as possible that can still greatly affect large portions of the market at a given time time. If you could get 10 millionaires to have an exclusive merchanting clan, it wouldn't matter if the leader sold early. Since there are fewer people, the profit will still be greater despite what the leader does (though he still will take a massive chunk). The moral or message of the story: either be a merchant clan leader or don't join a merchant clan and earn your own money. xD

madman1391 · **Posted:** January 23rd, 2010, 10:19 am

its similar to a pyramid scheme , the people at the top profit, other people get shafted

Shwa · **Posted:** January 23rd, 2010, 12:14 pm

I had always considered selling the item in a merchant clan like 75% of the goal price, it wouldn't yield as much money, but it might be safer.

hummerwar921 · **Posted:** January 23rd, 2010, 3:32 pm

If you're talking about those "groups" where they have lots of people in a clan chat, and they get told what to buy, and they have people auto-talking like...

"J01N TEH UB3RM0N3YZ CC 4 LOTS OF GPZZ@!11"

and whatnot, running those pyramid schemes, they are the scum of Runescape.

One person and their friends decide they want to get rich quick. Since lots of kids on Runescape want to get rich quick as well, they decide to exploit them, by promising riches.

They get lots of people in their clan chat, order them to buy, and then they say that they will tell them when to sell.

However, little do the members know, the leaders are now SELLING, rather than buying, gaining a huge profit, after they see the Grand Exchange charts skyrocketing.

Only then, when they have made their millions, they tell their members to sell.

But it's too late. It'll take forever to sell everything they've acquired. They have just been used, and are now out of a few thousand, or million coins.

They're garbage, and Jagex isn't going to do anything about it.

And the people who decide to take part in these pyramid schemes are bigots, tainted by ignorance and greed, and don't bother to take the time and think about what these merch clans are really doing. They just do what they are led to do, like sheep.

Now, on the other hand, the merchanting clans that do not tell you what to buy, that do not run pyramid schemes, who just teach you how to merchant effectively, and things like that, those aren't a problem.

Phresh Phob · **Posted:** January 23rd, 2010, 11:57 pm

rs josec78 wrote:

Not all merch clans are a scam.

All merchanting clans are a scam by nature no matter what the leaders' intentions are. They're all pyramid schemes, with some profiting generously, few profiting occasionally and most losing commonly.

Killjoy · **Posted:** January 24th, 2010, 10:16 am

hummerwar921 wrote:

Now, on the other hand, the merchanting clans that do not tell you what to buy, that do not run pyramid schemes, who just teach you how to merchant effectively, and things like that, those aren't a problem.

Phresh Phob wrote:

rs josec78 wrote:

Not all merch clans are a scam.

All merchanting clans are a scam by nature no matter what the leaders' intentions are. They're all pyramid schemes, with some profiting generously, few profiting occasionally and most losing commonly.

No... they are not all a scam.

jsbrules2 · **Posted:** January 26th, 2010, 1:04 pm

That's exacally how they work. the leader always makes the most money.

Killjoy · **Posted:** January 26th, 2010, 5:41 pm

Sure he/she makes the most mony but if you a normal member and not an idiot you can make some money too.
This is not to say that they are not **** up the prices.... which they are.