Edit #7: I hate to inform everyone I'll be taking a merchanting break. When I purchased the last green mask I have I bought it @ 18.3m. Which was about 300k cheaper than the average selling price at the time. Since the recent plumit in rare prices, I refuse to merchant any rare items (at least until green masks rise back 18.3m or so). :notalk: . I could make the last 1 million to obtain my goal without rare merchanting, but I don't feel like sitting on Runescape for hours straight for small gains. I'll let you guys know when I start up again, though!

 

 

 

** Special Note: If the pictures don't show up or load, right click on them and select 'Show Picture'. Sometimes they load and sometimes they dont, and this fixes them every time (for me at least) **

 

 

 

Hello everyone! If you are viewing this, you have stumbled upon something amazing... my Blog! This isn't your normal stats blog or anything of that sort (though there may be some random leveling picture thrown in). This blog is specifically for my merchanting extravaganza! Be sure to read my reason for the blog and also my shortened 'Merchanting History' parts to understand just a little bit more about my Runescape merchanting life. Enjoy!

 

 

 

_____________

 

 

 

[hide=Merchanting History]I will pathetically attempt to shorten some of my merchanting history/RS history as best as I can. You'll have to forgive me, however. Most of the times & dates I am not 100% sure of (I'm only human) and some names aren't 100% clear but I'll try my best. The "history" information is broken up into 4 different sections. The first section represents my very early RS life (like right when I joined and first picke dup on merchanting), and the other 3 sections deal with information on my 3 different hackings *points to sig*.

 

 

 

Part #1: I joined Runescape in very late December 2001 as you can tell by my signature. When I first joined I was both confused and excited about RS. The character class that I chose was an adventurer. I didn't know what in the heck to do first. Luckily, I met a dude by the name of Rubbermaid (whom I ended up finding out years later was one of the 1st 2,000 people to ever join RS). He was very nice when I asked him what to do. Fast forward to the next day. Rubbermaid finds me again and trades me. He had kindly went out and made me full bronze armor + long sword + square shield. I was pumped. He showed me where the cows were in Lumby and told me he was collecting cow hides and that he would buy them from me 20 gp each. He also said it would be good for my combat level. I killed cows. However I noticed while I was killing cows that other people in the pin (other newbies) were selling their cow hides for 10 gp each. "Wow," I thought, "Instead of wasting time killing all these cows I could just buy their hides and sell them to Rubber." Thus it began. I found 2 guys who were obsessed with training their combat and they were always at the cow pin. I told them I would buy their hides @ 10 gp each and when I got a full inventory, I would quickly message Rubber and he would come get them. I was doing no work at all, and making money. I loved it. Ended up getting about 10k gp in a week and in late December 2001 & early 2002 for a level 5... that's a lot of money \ .

 

 

 

Part #2: Fast forward a bit. Rune 2 handers are selling at about 350k-400k each. For the life of me, I can't remember how much rune ores were at the time (I want to say around 35k or 40k each? but I may be wrong so don't quote me). While leveling my mining south of Falador I started chatting with a guy by the name of Britches27. The conversation started off simple enough, but soon directed itself towards merchanting. I don't remember when this happened (it was in 2002... perhaps summer/beginning of fall 2002?) when I met him. I told him about how I loved merchanting and he said he loved it too but wasn't making the money he wanted to. I must admit, he was richer than me. I had managed to merchant just a little over 1 million gp (I remember because I showed like all my friends when I finally hit 1 million :anxious: ). Britches was standing on a fortune of about 2 million at the time. He informed me that he had just made friends with a level 99 smither. Of course me and my crappy memory, I can't exactly remember who the smith was. I believe it was Yankeeyank but at the same time I recall late 2002 that I was getting some smithing done by Musashi :-k . But anyways, we became pretty good friends and decided to go into the R2H business. We would each buy however many ores/coal/natures that we wanted and have the level 99 smith make us rune 2 handers. If I am correct at the rune ores costing about 40k each, then that meant we were spending roughly 130k gp to get 1 r2h made, and then reselling it for around 350k to 400k. We were making on average around 235k gp per rune 2 hander. Fast forward to around Halloween 2002. I remember exactly how much money/rares I had because me and Britches both took pictures of our bank account and sent the pictures to each other to show how much money we actually had (this turned out to be my downfall). Me and Britches never spoke about how many gold each other had, or how many party hats we each owned... we would hang out in-game and talk and merchant all the time but our money was just never brought up. Not the point. The things worth noting in my bank account that Halloween was 107 rune 2 handers (worth at least 150k at the time.. I don't remember exact prices so they might have been a bit more) || 2 sets of party hats (with an extra blue hat because blue is my favorite color) || and 1.8 million raw gp. Britches, however, was not even close. If memory serves me correct, he had around 11 million raw gp and at least 1 party hat set (with a couple of extra hats.. like 1 extra yellow and 1 extra pink or something like that). He had always, or so we both thought, been the richer of the 2 of us. Within a couple of days of those pictures being sent I logged on to find my friend's list wiped, my bank account empty, and my character turned into a female standing in Lumbridge :cry: . I readded Britches to tell him the news and he never signed back on. He also conveniently never logged back into his AIM screen name. I knew he must have been the hacker. I download a free virus scanner (because I didn't have one at the time) and it found a keylogger in my computer. I suppose Britches sent it through AIM or something when we were directly connected sharings Rs pictures or something.

 

 

 

Part #3: Well as devistated as I was about losing millions upon millions of my hard earned rares and gold, I was determined not to just up and quit because I enjoyed Runescape too much. With the kindness of a couple friends (that I could remember and re-add) I managed to start my rune 2 hander business again. Through the months of working with Britches, I had in turn gathered the trust and friendship of the 99 smithers that at one time would only smith for me if I went through Britches first. Luckily, Christmas break came quickly, and that meant A LOT of playing time. Through December and January I stuck with my old rune 2 hander business. Nearing the middle of March 2003 I had made enough money to start getting some good gains with rares again. However, I didn't dive immediatly into party hat merchanting which was, prior to the Britches hacking, how I managed to make big gains of my old wealth. I was mostly inolved with the ever changing prices of Santa hats and Masks. But eventually, I realized there was no huge gains in the cheaper rare market. Nearing the end of April I started to grow sick of merchanting. Things weren't like used to be in the golden age of middle near-late 2002. Britches and I were the best of pals/merchanting partners, the rune 2 hander business was BOOMING (if you were one of the lucky ones to have a level 99 smith you could go to at any time you needed), the RS life was good. 98% of my friends list was full of rune smiths/miners, suppliers and buyers, and other friends who were into skilling rather than merchanting. I pretty much stopped merchanting (unless I would see a deal I couldnt pass up). Fast forward to some time in August 2003. I had started merchanting again. Party hat merchanting to be exact. Things were going good. Fast forward a bit more. My bank was full again, more beautiful than ever. With only around 800k raw gp, my 2 sets of party hats (1 extra pink... now the rarest of the hats) and 2 santa hats made up for it :thumbsup: . Well needless to say it was the beginning of November 2003 at this time. Those RS veterans knows what happened... the duping. November 7th, I log on to a Runescape in chaos. I'm camped at my normal area (back crowd/rare crowd of world 1 Varrock Castle) to see that party hats are selling UNDER 1 million gp each. Pink party hats, the rarest (worth 15 million gp alone) was being sold for 500k to 900k. I was paniced, confused, and furious. These factors flipped on my "get as much money as you can out of this bad situation" switch and I began selling. At the end of the day every rare that I owned was sold off for a crappy 7 million gp total :x . A few days later an IRL friend/classmate heard me say to someone, "Psshh. I pretty much use d----- as my password to everything haha" when he asked me a question about something (not RS related). That day I cant log onto my account. I reset password to find my bank, yet again, wiped out.

 

 

 

Part #4: I'll make this section short and sweet since my others were so long and detailed. I was again cleaned of my bank, but luckily I had made some very close in-game friends and my friend's list wasnt wiped. Since they knew my merchanting reputation, they trusted me when I asked to borrow any money they could lend to work my way back into some riches. 4 different friends loaned me some money (totaling out to about 2 million gp I believe). Though the rare market had died, I knew that in the future it would only be a matter of time until they would regain their worth. Fast forward a LONG time (the end of August 2005 to be exact). Runescape 2 had been released. I was actually skilling more than I ever had before. I had bought p2p a couple months after RS2 came out and found a new love in magic and fletching. I managed to get 86 fletching (before the easy breezy fletch 'X'/string 'X' options :wall: ) and 79 magic due to alching the bows. Life was good. I was enjoying the overall feel of Runescape opposed to camping out for weeks at a time on world 1 (and then world 2 fally after RS2 came out and I got p2p) trying to find good deals to make more money. I was hanging out a lot with RS friends, questing, and just goofying around a bit. I really don't recall exactly what my bank's net worth was up to. I also don't recall the exact prices of party hats. I believe i had almost 2 of every party hat except I didn't have any blues (which had become the rarest after the duping). Some random masks and santas thrown in the mix as well. Not too high of a raw gold count. But needless to say, my hacking curse struck again. The day before October 2005, I was hacked yet again. Losing the most I had ever had (due to party hats incredible leaps in value with the release of RS2 and an almost 2 year "climb" since the dupe). I was devistated. I thought about trying to merchant again, but rares were so expensive at the time. Back in 2002 I could manage to regain a party hat set because it would only be about... 10 to 20 million gp a set (rough guess). These days, the cheapest party hat was at around 20 million or perhaps even a bit more I can't remember correctly. So I decided to quit *points to signature*. I hung up my Professional Merchant title and quit.

 

 

 

** By the way, I would hop on RS occasionally after I quit to talk to friends or something. It was never longer than like... 30 minutes at a time and I rarely did it. Eventually, I didn't log on at all (not even to say hi to old friends) for about 6 months. I've been back playing RS minimally for almost a month now. I still consider my self half retired, though, because I play like an hour or maybe 2 a day and don't normally get very much done :anxious: ***[/hide]

 

 

 

[hide=The Goal/Starting Bank]The reasoning for this small little blog is to share with others my goal and experiences. The goal, as of right now, is to merchant my way into having another rare item (excluding egg/pumpkin/half wine). My short term goal is for a green mask since it is the cheapest wearable rare item on the market, but my overall goal is a santa hat. Why merchanting you ask? Well my skills, for the most part, suck. I've never been much into skilling. I've always loved making money and gathering rares (which is explained a bit more in the 'Merchanting History' part of this blog). Below is a picture of my starting bank account. The only thing not shown in the picture is a full set of rune that really isn't going to make much of a difference. Oh by the way, I'm doing this fully f2p:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[/hide]

 

 

 

[hide=Random Levels & Other Pictures]79 Cooking!

 

 

 

 

80 Cooking!

 

 

 

 

51 Crafting

 

 

 

 

70 Attack & 87 Combat

 

[/hide]

 

_____________

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I realize there is A LOT of reading in this blog but just be glad I didn't go into full detail of everything hahaha. Otherwise it would probably be twice as long. Hopefully, I'll be getting a lot more pictures up since I know pictures are better than reading. Thanks to all supporters and even though it isn't needed... donations are always very welcome and appreciated :-w .[hide=][/hide]

Even though youre not done with blog, good luck with the merchanting. :D

Enipeus took the words out on my mouth.

 

 

 

Good luck, you will do well.

 

 

 

:)

good luck i guess :| merchanting is about to end i hear :)

 

~decked~

good luck on merchant,

good luck i guess :| merchanting is about to end i hear :)

 

~decked~

 

 

 

So they say. I, personally, don't see how the Grand exchange is going to ultimatly ruin merchanting. If anything, it could possible help due to the much broader market \ . Reguardless. I shall try.

Sorry to double post, but I thought I would bump this up and let everyone know that the Blog is now FULLY OPERATIONAL!! Wish me luck and thanks to anyone who reads/replies :wink: .

lucks! 8-)

Thanks much daalboy. Hopefully, I will have a rare by the end of the month. In fact... I'm shooting for a rare by my birthday (November 22nd). We'll see.

Merchanting will be a dominant force with the near future updates :D

 

I believe that the Grand Exchange will only broaden the market.

 

People will be desperate for sales which will mean selling cheap

 

And people will be desperate to buy.

 

Which will mean selling for high prices :D

 

 

 

Therefore a nice balance.

 

Best of luck to you :D

 

 

 

:)-Samari

Merchanting will be a dominant force with the near future updates :D

 

I believe that the Grand Exchange will only broaden the market.

 

People will be desperate for sales which will mean selling cheap

 

And people will be desperate to buy.

 

Which will mean selling for high prices :D

 

 

 

Therefore a nice balance.

 

Best of luck to you :D

 

 

 

:)-Samari

 

 

 

Now this is the kind of opinion I like to see on the Grand Exchange. It's a nice switch from the normal "oh meh gawd teh m3rchantz are too d00med!11!!1!" types of talk I've been seeing around here lately.

Took a merchanting break today cuz I was tired of looking at my level 79 cooking. Got 80 though! Picture added. Enjoy.

 

 

 

double post (again) for teh win \ .

Well I took yet another break when I saw that I was only a little bit off from 51 crafting. Not high at all, but hey, it's an easy level. Added the picture.

 

 

 

After I complete this merchanting goal (however long that may be... up to 5 million gp now :-$ ) I plan on getting p2p for at least another month to more easily merchant my rare. I also started to notice that it's been forever since slayer came out and I didn't even have the attack level to wield a friggin whip #-o . I normally hate combat training, but honestly, it wasn't so bad. Got from level 68 attack to 70 in around 4 hours (I'm a slow combat trainer :oops: ).

 

 

 

Sorry for bad picture quality on the combat pic. I had to reformat my computer and I have yet to reinstall photoshop. And in a brain fart, I forgot saving a picture as a JPEG using MS Paint makes the quality God awful. Enjoy!

Good luck, I love my fellow rare merchanters...*Points to Sig*

 

 

 

Well, good luck! =D>

Best blog I have ever read :)

 

 

 

I started RS in around 2001 (late). But I never got into merchanting, mostly just making random pures :). I also was hacked many, many times just as you were, but not as much was lost when I was. Most I lost was pink, yellow, and white hat and my pure who was 74 Attack 81 Str 30 def :(

 

 

 

Well, goodluck in your merchanting!

Good luck :)

 

Too bad F2P merchanting sucks....

Added another bank picture from today. Last night I got some pretty good gains through easter egg trades (oddly enough). Found a guy on world 102 in Varrock selling an easter egg. I offered him 6 million flat for it, not expecting him to take it. He did :-s . Hoped on world one and sold it off for an easy 6.6 million. Found another guy selling his egg for 6.1 million INSIDE west bank on world 1. Bought it. Took it to the same guy who bought my other egg and sold it for another 6.6 million. So that was a very easy/lucky 1 million in a little less than 30 minutes \ .

 

 

 

Anyways. Like I said, added bank picture. Check it out. Started with 550k 5 days ago and I'm already over 9 million O:) .

Great job on this, with losing all your stuff so much.

 

 

 

I just wish I could be good at merchanting, but I guess I never will. I really don't have that "thing" it takes, but you definately do. Keep it up.

Happy Birthday :wink:

 

 

 

Looks like your already way on your way to the top, so not much point me wishing you much more luck (but still good luck), aim for a paper hat? And just in interest, how th heck are you making so much in f2p :-k

Happy Birthday :wink:

 

 

 

How'd you know it was my brithday :-k ? Thanks, though \ ! And I also want to thank everyone who's read/replied to this blog. It really helps to get some feedback when you're trying to accomplish something.

 

 

 

:thumbsup:

Happy Birthday :wink:

 

 

 

How'd you know it was my brithday :-k ? Thanks, though \ ! And I also want to thank everyone who's read/replied to this blog. It really helps to get some feedback when you're trying to accomplish something.

 

 

 

:thumbsup:

 

 

 

A magician never reveals there tricks.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, may be for a certain price :-w

What did you do to merchant 9M in only 5 days?

Check out edit #7 at the top of the topic. :( .

Nice!!!!!!!! =D> =D>

 

(I responded cuz you responded to mine about million.)

Good with everything

 

nice money making skills

 

come and see my blog if you have time