Sunday 28 November 2010

How the Grand Exchange 4 Hour Rule Links In With Solo Merchanting

The Grand Exchange 4 hour rule links in with solo and flip merchanting hugely. The biggest reason is because it only allows you to be able to buy a cirtain amount of items every 4 hours. This can give you an advantage or a disadvantage because if the item has a high 4 hour limit, it is easy to stock pile the item quickly and also finish buying before the Grand Exchange updates, therefore giving you an advantage. If the item has a low 4 hour limit then you will not be able to buy many items very quickly therfore a disadvantage.
Therefore it is highly reccomended that you make sure the item you are about to invest in has a high 4 hour limit by checking the list on the page 'The Grand Exchange'.

Monday 23 August 2010

Set Merchanting

Set Merchanting can be very difficult for not much profit so I do not suggest set merchanting if you are serious about making money from merchanting.
Set Merchanting is basically when you buy an armour set or the components for a set and either change the set for the components, or change the components into a set and sell them for a profit. This method can be difficult to gain much profit from as most of the sets are priced very similarly to the price of all the components added up.
For this method to work you need to follow the prices of an armour set and the components, when you find an update when a component rises by a lot and the set doesnt or vice versa, take the opportunity to use the method on as many sets as possible at once, every 4 hours.

Sunday 22 August 2010

Solo Merchanting

Solo Merchanting is proberly the hardest form of Merchanting in the game. Its almost based 100% on luck and a great understanding of the Grand Exchange.
First of all you will want to make yourself over to the Grand Exchange Database. Search for any items you like (preferably with a low 4 hour limit). You want to find an item that has just finished a crash (or looks like its going to finish). This can take a very long time so be patient and attentive.

Once you have found the item you have decided to Merchant, log on to your account and try buying the item at minium. If it buys instantly then choose another item (it means its still crashing). Once you have found an item that doesnt buy instantly at minium try to buy it at market. If it buys instantly then spend about 50% of the money you are willing to invest on the item (you may want to spend more but it will be risky if it is your first time). Once they buy store them in your bank and do whatever you want to do in the game. If the item doesn't buy instantly choose another item.

Keep checking the Grand Exchange for updates whenever you are on the internet. If it has gone down a little on the first update dont worry because it will proberly go up the next one. After every update try selling one of your items at market price (only if it is a cheep item (-5k) if not just leave out this step) if it sells instantly keep your items and if not sell them at minimum price. Also use your common sense, if you dont think the item is going to rise any more just sell at market price.

Solo Merchanting is very risky so if you are inexperienced at merchanting I suggest you first get some more experience from the other methods.

Bounce Merchanting

Bounce Merchanting can be quite risky but it can pay off very well if you know what your doing.
Bounce Merchanting is where you buy highly priced items (1m+) that are very fluctuant. The item that you use should have lots of bouncing up and down on the 30 day graph on the Grand Exchange database, hense the name Bounce Merchanting. You need to buy the item at about market price when it is just finishing a bounce (it should just be finishing dropping) then keep the item for 2-3 updates then sell the item at max price.
This is very similar to Flip Merchanting accept you are holding the items for a longer amount of time. However this can be a just as profitable method if you are investing a large amount of money.




Buyout Merchanting

Buyout Merchanting can be the most profitable form of Merchanting if performed correctly. Buyout Merchanting, Clan Merchanting, or price manipulation is also the most populer form of merchanting, especially in F2P. It is usually performed by clans, most of the time scamming their members.

It works by supply and demand. The clan leader will pick an item and the whole clan will buy as many as they can at max price. This is raising the demand. As the merch goes on the clan will begin to own a certain percentage of that item in the game. This is reducing the supply as the clan is owning a lot of that item in the game so there is less to be sold. This is all calculated in the Grand Exchange then it will work out how much the price will rise, therefor manipulating the price.

Once the item reaches a certain price the clan leader will tell the clan to dump the item (usually the clan leader will have dumped before this price to make sure they make money and don't loose out by selling too late). When the clan dumps their items this is doing the opposite of what happens when they buy the item. The demand falls and the supply rises. This causes the price to drop.

This can be risky because if someone dumps their items before they are told (usually the leaders) it can cause the item to fall in price before it reaches the set price to dump. This causes everyone who invested to panic sell which overloads the Grand Exchange with the item making it extreamly difficult to sell and leaving many people with a load of items falling in price.

I do not reccomend this form of Merchanting unless you outsmart everyone else by selling before even the leaders.

Flip Merchanting

Flip Merchanting is proberly the most simple form of Merchanting you don't need much money to start out for this method but about 1m+ is reccomended.

Choosing the item: This is proberly the hardest part of Flip Merchanting because if you choose the wrong item you could lose money. The best items to flip are items which have a large demand and that are easy to obtain in the game, e.g. Raw Monkfish, Yew Logs etc.
Also the item needs to be faily stable (only going up or down a few gp). If the item is crashing when you buy, you won't be able to sell, and if the item is rising a lot, it will be difficult to buy.

Buying the item: This is fairly easy, if the item is rising, then buy the item(s) for a few gp over market price. If the item is falling, buy the item(s) a few gp over minum price. If the item(s) do not buy instantly, be patient and keep your offers in the ge, if you wait and wait and wait and nothing is buying, put the price up a few more gp. If still nothing buys try another item.

Selling the item: This is also easy, if the item was rising then sell the item(s) for a few gp under maxium price and be patient. If they don't sell drop the price by a few more gp. If the item was falling then sell a few gp under market price, again if they don't sell drop the price by a bit more.

Repeat this method over and over again as many times a day as possible and if you can afford to flip multiple items at a time (as long as they are from different category's in the four hour limit).

If you have good capital it is possible to make over 10m a day from this method.

The Grand Exchange

The Grand Exchange is the key tool that you will be using in merchanting. It replictes the real life Stock Market as the prices fluctuate according to demand and supply. So in more simple terms, the more people that buy an item without people selling, the higher the price will raise, and vice versa.

The four hour Grand Exchange limit was set in place to stop people from making "too much money" and also to stop huge price manipulation. This limit means that you can only buy a certain amount of each item every four hours, also you have to wait four hours before you can sell an item you just brought. Fortunately there is no limit for how many you can sell at once, as long as you have waited 4 hours after you brought the items.

Here are the limited items and how many you are able to buy every four hours:

Rares - 2
Treasure Trail Items - 2
God Wars Armour - 10
Barrows - 10
Most Weapons/Armour - 100
Flatpacks - 100
Seeds - 1,000
Jewellery - 5,000
Talismans - 5,000
Bows - 5,000
Gems - 5,000
Bow Strings - 10,000
Unstrung Bows - 10,000
Vials - 10,000
Arrows - 10,000
Cowhides - 10,000
Soft Clay - 10,000
Ashes - 10,000
Feathers - 10,000
Bones - 10,000
Potions - 10,000
Herbs - 10,000
Food - 10,000
Spirit Shards - 10,000
Bars - 10,000
Fish - 20,000
Ores - 25,000
Logs - 25,000
Runes - 25,000

Please correct me if  I have made a mistake.