Has the Grand Exchange really Killed Merchanting?

[hatebringer]

PLEASE KEEP BUMPED, I HAVE CLASSES IN THE EARLY MORNING, SO I MUST SLEEP NOW. #-o

 

 

 

Well i know most of you will look at this and say YES! MERCHANTING IS DEAD!!! But think for a second.

 

Jagex released a buying and selling mechanic into the game that allows players to sell across all servers nearly instantly, but also installed a controlling element, Price Caps.

 

 

 

Most people will agree that they still disagree on the whole idea, as prices have been falling constantly since its release, but is it due to the price caps?

 

 

 

One of the major opportunities that I found nearly when everyone else did was the Onyx Gem profit.

 

 

 

Some of you may have noticed the fall of fury amulets from 3.8 to 3.4 in just a day from about Wednesday to today. Well this was not due to the caps, but to merchants taking advantage of the prices in the GE. players supplied a very key element to make furys, supplies that could be sold for tokkul. simply stated, chaos runes. The price caps limited chaos runes to 107-120g for 2 days, and merchants jumped on it. I even jumped on. Buying enough chaos for a fury at an easy 3.1-3.2M and then selling them to the shop, along with the "sell 50" added was all to easy. Onyx were being sold into the game very quickly, that the demand for this item literally disappeared. Selling for an easy 3.7m on the forums, people could make 2-3 furys in an hour, and make very easy profit. Slowly the demand faded away, and merchants began to sell on the GE, decreasing prices. Just going on the RSOF crafting section, you will undoubtedly find at least 4-5 people on the first page selling furys on onyx gems for very low amounts compared to a few days ago..

 

 

 

Now, this doesn't prove that merchants still exist. Its no longer as simple as standing in a crowded world, buying an object for low, and selling for high, and not saying that that method doesn't exist, because it does, but I'm only saying that the GE opens lots of doors that force many players to sell for less and less, and sometimes selling for a bit under for players to make a quick buck.

 

 

 

As well as all this, many players dislike the GE, and stick to the "original" way to buy and sell items, going to trade worlds, such as W2, and using the forums. This made two separate, and very different trading options. One where you can forfeit low buys for simplicity, and one where you can buy for lower, but wait longer. This also made a very good choice for merchants, able to buy their supplies on the forums, and sell quickly on the GE for good Profit. This has since slowed down for now, but yousee nearly the opposite, forums being used to sell high, and the GE being a cheap, quick way to sell most items.

 

 

 

Just looking at some of the GE prices show how much has changed in the economy. the mostly unchanged items are there due to low stock, and the players never wanting to buy for any more than the lowest value allowed, continuously dragging prices lower and lower.

 

I know eventually they will stop, as the profit will be to low, and supply will drop, but as of now, just going into the GE, i can easily buy and sell using only the forums and the GE to merchant very quickly. and still make a decent, although slightly less-than-before-GE merchanted amount in an hour.

 

 

 

What do you think?

[Yohbilleh]

Short answer: yes

 

 

 

Long answer: darn right it has

[icecube]

Eh, yeah it does.

 

I've still made money merchanting Bandos the last few days.

 

The RSOF are still alive :D, so those are always an option.

 

 

 

Through the GE? Idk, I haven't payed much attention to it and how items are sold/bought in it.

[TeeBeaun]

I think there will always still be ways to buy low and sell high. Its just going to be done differently now. Maybe you can buy low from players and sell higher in the GE. People will be willing to pay more for the added ease of the GE.

[Krimm911]

Members can still effectively merchant. Just like you said not as much gp per hour. On the other hand, free players would have a much harder time with just 2 available buy/sell slots.

 

 

 

The onyx market is probably dead now. Because the original GE prices were set by Jagex it means that it wasn't the "RS community" price of onyx. In the first hours of the GE players have made a lot of merchanting money. Since then and from now on merchanting will still go on, but like I said above less gp per hour.

 

 

 

The upside of the GE is that you can merchant while offline which is HUGE.

[Yaz]

My theory is that the GE will become a form of stock market, with prices changing each day. If you were to have (for example) a constant ad to buy 100k willows at 22gp (i believe that's the minimum) and put them up for market price (24) as soon as you buy some, you could potentially make a bit of money.

 

 

 

Or for example if you had a large amount of money, you could constantly be buying santas for minimum market price and keep then try to sell for market.

 

 

 

I believe that this update will bring a new form of merchanting to rs, just wait for people to get used to it.

[tuttle43]

Unfortunately merchanting is still viable. I went to sell my 9000 rune arrows for the average price of 450ea on the first day. I wasn't making any progress and went to the GE to find out why. When I got there I found out that my rune arrows were 100gp above the max market price, so they wouldn't sell unless I lowered them to 350ea. Until the rune arrow price normalizes back to 450ea I'll be holding onto them.

[hatebringer]

My theory is that the GE will become a form of stock market, with prices changing each day. If you were to have (for example) a constant ad to buy 100k willows at 22gp (i believe that's the minimum) and put them up for market price (24) as soon as you buy some, you could potentially make a bit of money.

 

 

 

Or for example if you had a large amount of money, you could constantly be buying santas for minimum market price and keep then try to sell for market.

 

 

 

I believe that this update will bring a new form of merchanting to rs, just wait for people to get used to it.

 

 

 

Actually, you put a very good point, which i haven't thought off before. This comes true as every day, the prices fluctuate, and cane go up or down.

 

 

 

And you are also right on another part, the Ge will definitely bring a new form of merchanting to RS, and people will just have to adopt to it.

[BBC3]

all the popular items that have bad prices on the GE are being merchanted right now.

[folmer_veeman]

i like the ge for i dislike merchanting, the most noobish way ever to make money, take a level 3 account, find a bone, sell it, buy a bone for half price, sell it, buy 2 bones for half price etc etc etc..

[misterxman]

Sorry but there is no need to make a new topic when there's already existing ones.