r2-pleasent

Update: Small Rares dropped this week. This has been nearly 8 months of Rares declining in price. I say it's beyond a coincidence.

This would be possible, I mean a Cannon gives pretty low Range exp per Dmg point, and no HP exp. Then using a skill like Crumble Undead, which gives low exp per dmg point for mage, and finishing with some help from friends using a variation of combat styles. Basically, if you can get 99 Slayer without 99 Range or 99 HP, it's possible.

Guys, let's be honest, I think we all knew for awhile this was coming. When a player is saying "Hey, come to Dwarf Mountain, I'm selling x item for x underpriced", they're LYING and DECEIVING, exactly the description of a scam. And like any other scam on Runescape, the victim does have to be pretty stupid to actually fall for it, but that is beyond the point. Just because it takes a stupid person to fall for a money-switch scam doesn't mean it's not a scam. I can also understand that lurers have tricked themselves into believing what they are doing is legitimate, because up until recently, there was no official outlawing of the practice. To say that the Wilderness warning makes anybody fair game is also ridiculous. That's the same as saying the second trade screen makes all trade scams fair game. The fact is, lurers are hoping players don't realize they're in the Wild, and most of them will admit that. The bottom line is, however, that Luring, which began as a creative tactic, is now so widespread and practiced that it has saturated the marketplace. People these days are just followers, and the margins of profit as far as executing the scam are much lower now anyways, since 95% of players know what Luring is now. It's time to let this fad go, and move on with your lives.

Taken this morning, Yews are still 350 ea. Taken this morning. Raw Lobs are 250-275 ea. I'd say materials are quite high at the moment, and sure, you can say it's not due to Skill Capes, but we must all agree on one thing. The reason Raw Lobs rose last year was due to the "Cook X" option. The reason Yews rose before was the "Fletch x" option. But now, they have risen without any change to the actual skill. So I believe it is very plausible that Skill Capes played a role in these rises, because no other update has really affected skills in the past year.

By your logic, I could also just buy an account with a 99 Skill on it, couldn't I? r2 you already sell rs gp for usd though, so it is by your logic :-w The fact is, people buy accounts for real-money just as often as they buy GP for real-money, so you can't say there's a difference between skills and gold in that regard. You're comparing someone who raised his skills legitly vs someone who made an illegal trade for his gold. What you should be comparing is someone who bought an account with someone who bought gold, if you're going to try and contrast them. As far as this goes, I could care less that some kid on a Runescape forum has lost respect for me. You're nobody to me.

By your logic, I could also just buy an account with a 99 Skill on it, couldn't I?

Merchanting is a service, and it really facilitates many players' experience on the Market, often more than is realized. If there weren't merchants, you'd likely spend hours trying to buy what you're looking for, or sell your monster loot. The profit a Merchant usually makes is quite low comparative to item prices, maybe 10-15% max. That's a small price to pay for a nice time saver if you ask me.

I'd say the vast majority of players earn their money to buy a Party Hat. The amount of people who actually still holds a Phat Set from the drop in 2002 are EXTREMELY small. I'd say just about 95% of Party Hat owners bought their Phat from another player, meaning they earned the money themselves, as opposed to watching their investment grow over 4+ years. And who said that a Party Hat, or a 99 Skill made you one of the best players? Look at how many people have 99 Cooking or Fletching, that would be a lot of "best players". Owning a Party Hat is about MUCH MORE than luck, just ask the hundreds of players who worked, as I did, to save up the money to afford one.

I never said this was the sole reason for Party Hats / Rares declining. I simply said there is a different relationship between Rares and Skills with the implementation of Skill Capes, which are a wearable achievement much the same as a Party Hat or a Santa Hat. I think people are concentrating far too much on the calculations I offered in my post. Yes, Party Hats now seem to be approximately the same prices as a certain 99 Skills, but the reason this comparison is now more significant is that a 99 Skill offers a very similar achievement to a Party Hat, which I am saying creates competition in the market that was before unseen. I am saying that when there is an increase in macroing, the prices fall, because supply increases, and demand remains constant. I think that's basically common knowledge, we saw this with Rune Essence and Yew Logs about a year ago. Actually, Yew Longs are selling at 600 Ea on Fletching forums, which at least matches their peak from last year. Also, I just did a quick search for Yew Logs on Fletching Forums, and found this: As you can see there are many players paying 350 per Yew Log now. With a low of 250 Each last year, that's a 40% rise in price for Yew Logs. To immediately consider this as proof of Skill Capes' impact would obviously be false and unfounded. But, like I said earlier, it is not necessary for Raw Materials to go up in price for my theory to be true. So long as the comparative values between Materials and Rares changes, which is taking effect right now, since most materials are remaining mostly constant in their prices (although some of them, like Yews, seem to be increasing also), my argument is sound. It actually makes much more sense for Rares to drop as opposed to materials, because Rares have basically been a loose cannon. Their prices are much less stable than materials, which are somewhat constricted by High Alch values and other factors. I'm not seeing these "definite signs" at all.

Slayer is a very hard skill to train when you compare it to most others, and the time required to just reach 85 can rival a 99 in some of the faster skills. That being said, I also believe Slayer is one of the few new Skills that really had some thought put into it, and incorporates itself very well into the game as a whole. It allows a player to use their Combat stats raising another skill at the same time, which worked out very well. The fact is, however, that most players are simply interested in Abyssal Whips, which explains the insane decline of prices on these items over the years. I remember back when they were first released they cost quite a bit more than a Blue Party Hat. Now you could trade a Blue Party Hat for 300 Whips :P

I already asked this (politely, I might add) and hesaid he was mistaken because he forgot to add he got an offer of 2 red phats. And santas were 22m 3 days ago, so I have noticed a small change. zomfg! a 3m price change! its a crash! holy hell, if it were actually a crash then blue phats would be 30m at most, to this day runescape has never had a crash yet, and it wont for a while because it simply does not fit the requirements for a crash...yet. What kind of an idiot would actually call this a crash? or is this a sad attempt at price manipulation? Santas were not 22M 3 days ago either. This drop happened much more steadily, Santas have slowly dropped from 22M around 2 weeks ago to approximately 20M today.

You fail to see the point of my topic. All my calculations were simply estimates, just showing an example of how to compare the price of a Party Hat to that of a Skill Cape. I understand not everyone makes 600K an hour, many people make less, there are also people who make more. I am simply saying that both a Party Hat and a 99 Skill require the same resource: TIME. Time spent doing things like Quests, Castle Wars, and other activities are irrelevant to the discussion. I am simply saying that during 1 hour, if a player is working at moneymaking as hard as he were working leveling a certain skill, he would be making X amount per hour if he were instead working towards a Party Hat. What you said with your Castle Wars analogy is like saying, "well i don't get 50K Range exp per hour because when I play this game for 10 hours I spend 3 hours at Castle Wars leveling my Mage instead." But really, the 3 hours you're at Castle Wars have nothing to do with your Range Exp / Hour, because you aren't training Range. Just like spending 3 hours at Castle Wars does not affect your GP production per hour, because you are not moneymaking at the time! As far as analyzing merchanting by how many "clicks" you're doing, that's just plain ignorant. Sure, you might not be frantically clicking on a Coal Rock, but you are instead browsing forums, watching Fally Park for good offers, and usually doing something like alching at the same time to stay productive. If Merchanting was such an easy way to make gold, more people would be doing it, don't you think? And to compare upgrading a Purple Party Hat to say a Yellow Party Hat in two weeks is comparable to getting a 99 Skill is completely wrong. You obviously missed some serious points of my argument, because the scenarios you're describing are quite irrelevant.

Wow this is a stupid post. First of all, no one traded you a Blue Party Hat + 5M for your Red. If they did, they were the biggest IDIOT in the world. You then claim that you're so upset about Blues falling in price, even though this fake value you give (335M) is still 135M higher than you'd ever get for a Red. And finally, your values for Party Hats are absolutely false, and all Rares for that matter. Blues are still around 390M, Reds are still around 195M. Santas are still like 20M, Green Masks a bit lower. So please stop posting these complete lies. It's basically blatant manipulation, which won't have any effect except hopefully you being banned from tipit.

Two years ago, a Party Hat's price was much lower, around 30M for a Blue. At this point in time, this price was not at all comparative to any 99 Skill cost-wise. So, if Skill Capes had come out 2 years ago, I believe Rares would have obviously continued to go up, but likely at a slower rate, and more steadily. Materials often have little chance to rise and fall in price, mainly due to autoing. With the constant influx of players using macroers at Yew trees, Coal rocks, etc., it's very hard for materials to rise in price, even if there is a higher demand. However, if you look at materials that are much harder to macro, such as High-Alch items (Strung Yew Longs specifically), you notice increased demand, and an increased price. Manufactured materials seem to be the ones that have risen in price, as they are un-autoable. Also, high level materials, such as Magic Logs have also increased in value, going for 1.2K-1.3K each in decent amounts. Even a 10-20% rise in certain materials is significant, because the materials market rarely fluctuates much to either side, barring a huge impact in the macroing community. This relationship between Party Hat and Skill Cape does not need to be followed by an increase of prices in materials to remain true. With prices comparatively growing closer, which can be the result of either Rares dropping in price, or Materials going up in price, the effect remains the same. And right now, we are surely seeing Rares dropping, and there are some definite signs of increased demand on the materials marketplace.

You're COMPLETELY missing the point of the post. I never claimed my calculations were bang on, I was simply showing a rough example of how to calculate the price of a 99 Skill Cape. I also would like you to note that my account was banned nearly a year ago, and I can't even afford a Purple Phat right now, so I really have no incentive to try and crash the prices. I'd also like you to know that if I did want to manipulate the market, I wouldn't do so by writing an article for tipit. Runescape is a massive online game, and the tipit community represents FARRRR too small of a percentage for a simple article to actually impact the Rares economy. Try and be realistic, if you think I'm making this post to alter Rares prices, you're basically calling me an idiot at the same time. Once again, this article is only intended to show the correlation that now exists between a skills and Party Hats, done through implementation of Skill Capes. There are now much greater incentives for players to train skills to 99, incentives that in many ways parallel the motivation people have to accumulate enough wealth to buy a Party Hat (which is to publicly demonstrate their achievement and to have a extremely Rare item).

Sure, there are a VERY small amount of players that might be able to stake their way up to a Party Hat in a short amount of time. However, most stakers do NOT average anywhere near a Phat a weak in profit. Because, for any player that wins a Phat staking, another player loses a Phat. The average profit over a week of staking, unless you're in the top 5 stakers worldwide, is often quite similar to high-level Merchanting.

You clearly missed the point. The thing is that you can convert a party hat into time, and you can convert a skill into time. Then you can compare them to see whats the greatest achievement. Its a personal calculation though. So its not a universal formula you can use to calculate whats greater. How did I miss the point? :-s I was just saying that someone with 20k in their bank cannot go out and purchase 99 cooking as someone with 10mil can. Think the problem he had with your quote was that you didn't factor the time in. Sure, you may have the money to buy the materials, but the time required is equally important, if not more.

You are forgetting to factor in Opportunity Cost to your calculation. Sure, the material cost might only be 4 Mil, but the extra time used to burn Willows instead of Yews / Magics costs you in the long run.

So long as you're making the money within the game, what's the big difference if you're technically using a skill or not? Could you not say that GP is like the exp points for Merchanting? There are millions of players on Runescape, and they all have different goals. Some of them are firmly concentrated on Skill Total, some of them care only about Combat stats, some of them only care about wealth. What you are saying is that there is a "right" way to play this game, but in an MMORPG, so long as you're playing within the rules, there's no "wrong" way to play.

The Skill Cape update which came out last year was one of the most impactful changes of all time in Runescape2. It gave players a reason to level skills past the former 80-85 milestones, and offered them a way to publicly demonstrate their achievements in the game. Unnoticed by many, however, is the relationship that was created between Skillcapes and Party Hats. The similarities are huge between a Skill Cape and a Party Hat. Skill Capes are wearable achievements, much the same as Party Hats. A wearable, tradeable Rare demonstrates a player has a certain level of Wealth. A wearable skillcape demonstrates a player has a certain level of a skill. The only difference between the two? A Phat has an actual market value; but are Phats now restricted in price by the Skill Cape? Must they now reflect the prices of raising a skill, due to their similarities? I'm going to say, yes, they do. Let's examine the average buyable skill, one that's been in Runescape for years: Firemaking. Firemaking is the classic buyable skill, you buy the logs, you burn them. The only return you get for consuming the materials is experience, all that remains afterwards is Ash. Assuming a player uses the highest level traditional wood, buying them at average prices, is 90K (Willow) + 1373K (Yews) + 38.8M (Magics), so roughly 40 Mil. So, essentially, you could say a Firemaking Cape costs 40M + The opportunity cost of burning the logs. If we say an hour is worth about 600K to an efficient player, and they earned the experience at an overall rate of approximately 70K / Hour, then this amounts to approximately 185 Hours, worth a total of another 111M. So, the total cost of 99 Firemaking is approximately 150M to an efficient player burning the highest level traditional woods. So, if the buyable skill of Firemaking was compared in price to a colour of Party Hat, it would currently be in between a Purple and a Yellow. This seems to make sense, as the rate for leveling Firemaking is quite high, and the cost is low comparative to other skills. This shows a direct relation between Party Hat prices and Skill-Leveling prices. Other skills are much more difficult to measure, but it's quite obvious that one such as Construction would be much more expensive, likely falling somewhere between a White and Blue Party Hat. It is very important to remember that opportunity cost must be factored into the equation when measuring a Skill's price for this equation to work. So what does this mean? I theorize that Party Hat rises have subsided due to their new linkage with skills. Raw Material prices now have a direct relation to Party Hat prices, and as we know, Raw Materials very seldom change in price. This should lead to much more stable prices in the Rares economy, perhaps beginning with a slow decline, as Rares seem to be somewhat overpriced at the moment. I think it was a very interesting update by Jagex, which sheds light on the fact that the Rares problem was one much more complex than inflation. It was the lack of linkage between the skilling economy and the Rares economy.

I was executing price raises / drops right up until the time of my banning just about. Around March of 2006, I would message my friend Gdec Goat, who had 2 Phat Sets or so, whenever I planned to drop the prices. I'd find a morning where Party Hats weren't selling very well, and the only people buying on forums were those paying in Party Hats + Cash (for example they're buying Red for Yellow + cash, upgrading their Phat sort of thing). I would then post on forums that I was selling my Party Hats off FAST!! An example of the title would be ":+: SELLING PHATS CHEAP :+:". Now, technically, yes, you're not supposed to say "Cheap" in the title, but they were actually cheap. Also it looks a bit desperate, which is what I want people to think. I'd sell off my first Phat Set, then I'd tell Gdec Goat to sell his Phat Set(s) off. He'd do the same, and he'd sell them at whatever price I told him to (within reason), to help further lower Party Hat prices. We also made sure to request "CASH ONLY", since we'd need cash to buy the Phats back (and we were in effect temporarily raising the price of GP in comparison to Party Hats). By the time Gdec and myself had sold off 2-3 of our Phat sets combined, the market would be in a tailspin. People would be undercutting us, and trying to steal sales, which was exactly what we wanted. Sometimes we could drop Phat prices as low as 10-15% within one morning. But, the drop was extremely elastic, and bounced right back up once they hit a certain price. I'd begin buying right when prices looked their worst, buying back the Phats I sold at a 10% discount. Gdec did the same, and by the end of the day Party Hat prices would be exactly as they were at the beginning of the day. It was an interesting Merchanting tactic that provided huge profits, and was very fun to execute. So to answer your question, I'd say yes, players could in-fact pull this off today. HOWEVER, the Party Hat merchanting community has actually dwindled over the past few years, and the only reason it might NOT work is because the population trading is, believe it or not, too small. The more action there is on the market, the further you can push the prices.

I believe the growth rate on members has slown down quite significantly, as there used to be new servers created almost weekly. Nowadays, you're lucky to see a new server update every month. However, with the implementation of Runescape in different languages (such as the German Beta), there is great potential for growth. Jagex has to take into account, however, that the European gaming industry is much different from that in North America. If Jagex plays its cards correctly, expect to see an influx of players from these changes.

Woah there. First of all, here are more updated prices on Phats. I would also like you to note that Phats have not exactly been going up ever since they were released. They crashed at the dupe, they crashed in June of 2005, they've been dropping for the past 2-3 months as well overall. Prices: Blue - 390M White - 250M Red - 200M Green - 170M Yellow - 155M Purple - 140M

Yeah, Misterxman, one of the greatest artists I've personally known made it. Check out his dinosaurs on Runescape Player Gallery (January). He's got amazing talent.

That bank is from my main account (R2pleasent) which got banned, not my pure.