Rune Mining/Smithing No Longer Profitable?

[mainiac2k3]

Since the December 10th updates, it seems like there have been a lot more rune miners. Every time I go up there, even during hours where less than 100,000 people are on, the rune rocks seem to be perpetually depleted. Also, for the few times I can find some rune, 3 or 4 other miners occasionally pop up and fight for the rock. I have never seen this before and I have been rune mining for 2 years now. Also, now that I can't attack other players in the wild, I can't defend my rocks, or even get any loot from other miners. I have seen tons of level 80s and 90s stout mining that would otherwise not have been there, or been there as frequently, back before December 10th.

 

 

 

The time it takes me to make a decent trip of rune (for me about 16-20 rune ores) has gone from 30-40mins to an 1+ hours. Heres a log of my last trip:

 

 

 

World-Time-Which Rocks have Rune

 

 

 

30-11:16-Both-11:31

 

47-11:18-None

 

87-11:19-None

 

35-11:20-None

 

55-11:21-None

 

57-11:21-None

 

43-11:22-None

 

75-11:23-None

 

74-11:24-None

 

87-11:24-None

 

33-11:25-None

 

34-11:26-None

 

35-11:27-None

 

102-11:28-None

 

105-11:29-None

 

106-11:30-None

 

107-11:30-None

 

108-11:31-None

 

30-11:32-None

 

32-11:34-None

 

1-11:35-None

 

4-11:36-Both-11:51

 

7-11:38-Both-11:53

 

5-11:39-None

 

8-11:40-None-2 Revs

 

32-11:42-None

 

 

 

It took me 30 minutes to get 6 rune ores. I think its no longer plausible to use rune mining to create profits. Most miners can easily escape revs by trapping them behind the rocks or the lava and it seems that with no pkers, a lot more miners are coming to mine. Also, Revs don't appear as often as pkers once did-in the log a rev only appeared once whereas pkers would guard rune rocks on almost every other world. The Wild has become a much more secure place for rune miners and they are willing to spend more time mining then before.

 

 

 

This leads to a perplexing issue-the rise in prices of rune ores. Since the opening of the GE, rune ores have risen from around 12k to 12.5k+. Although there seems to be a much higher supply, prices are still rising. I believe this anomaly arises from the huge demand that the GE tapped. Rune smithers with mountains of cash, who before either had permanent buyers or were too lazy to actively buy rune ores, could conveniently put millions into the GE. This meant that the rising demand far outstripped the rising supply, as the supply is limited by the respawn time and has an absolute maximum. Thus, as prices rose, rune miners were even more inclined to go out and mine, ruining the rune mining business.

 

 

 

Rune Smithing, on the same note, has also been made unprofitable. With the high price of ores and the introduction of the GE, even smithing full rune is no longer worth while. The GE made many rune commodities, such as axes and scimmies sell below their cost for creating them. There is now an xp premium for smithing rune, just like there is for addy, mith, and steel. Only 2 items are now somewhat productive. These are rune meds (which sell for about 12.5k, whereas the cost for one bar is about 14k with the inclusion of coal costs) and the rune kiteshield (currently selling 40k at GE, where the cost of 3 bars is about 42k). Everything else renders an even more enormous loss. No manufacture of smithing gives a profit, unless rune ores are bought at 12k each, which is incredibly hard these days. Then, at 12k each, only rune kiteshields yield a modest profit of 500-2000gp.

 

 

 

Whats this all mean?

 

 

 

At the current rate, smithing of any kind, rune included, will just be a showoff skill like firemaking or construction. With the limiting respawn time of rune ores, as more people get richer, rune ores will cost proportionally more. But, the supply of rune is already saturated and prices of rune items will sink further. Its time that everyone took a step back and saw that this skill no longer offers the luxurious income that it once did. Smithing could be dead.

[Shahrazad]

Since the Bolts update for Members or whatever it is/was in Summer Holidays, Smithing became no longer profitable in Non Member Worlds even if a player has 99 Smithing. However, Mining is still profitable because players keep buying Runite Ores to make Bolts to kill Dragons in Member Worlds for good drops which can be sold for money.

 

 

 

Edit: You have mentioned great points in your introduction and you are unlucky to mine 6 Runite Ores within 30 minutes :XD:.

[FastForce]

Start a timer after youve mined the rocks so you can come back when it refills.

[BBC3]

you have no idea what your talking about, mining and smithing have been stable since the beginning of the game.

 

 

 

only woodcutting and fletching are going to have problems soon in january thanks to ge :)

[mainiac2k3]

Thats what i did the log for. But the thing is, when i got back to that world, the rune appeared, but so did 2 other people. Theres a lot more competition than there used to be.

 

 

 

And actually, mining and smithing have not been stable since the beginning of the game. In the beginning of the game, you could get upwards of 500k for a r2h. The profit margins were huge, but now they have altogether evaporated.

[Kill_Thomas9]

you have no idea what your talking about, mining and smithing have been stable since the beginning of the game.

 

 

 

only woodcutting and fletching are going to have problems soon in january thanks to ge :)

 

 

 

Did you even take the time to read what he wrote?

[Marco]

The lack of Rune Ore was the reason I became a member again just 3 days after getting 85 Mining.. :|

 

I was seriously quite annoyed when I ventured into the 'Wilderness' to mine what I thought was the product of a rare skill, when to my horror I found not 1, not 2, but 6 other Rune miners fighting for the last rock..

 

 

 

After mining a decent amount I experimented with the prices on the GE and I'm shocked that they all sold for max price immediatly.. I question whether or not getting 85 Mining was worth it (especially in F2p) now with the huge increase in Rune miners..

[Dead_Dude4]

As a 99 smith, I must agree that rune smithing is not worth it anymore, and hasn't been worth it even before the ge (due to the time it took to sell the rune, it was faster and better to simply alch the rune).

 

 

 

On the other hand as a 85 miner, I find the updates ok. Rune ores are worth more and there are LESS miners out there since everyone ventures to the wilderness (2 rocks) instead of the 1 rock places (like the lava maze dungeon which I found was empty 100% of the time, the temple of ligth or nietotz(sp?)).

 

If you know what you are doing, you can manage a row of worlds and constantly be mining rune without ever having to hit a empty world.

[mainiac2k3]

and thats why f2p sucks :wall:

 

 

 

i dunno about members servers, but there has definitely been an increase on f2p servers.

[Lady_Shahdie]

Well, I often hear members describe the competition at the Hero's Guild to be herrendous. This still probably has not become as bad as their guild just yet. I do not notice any changes in my rune mining loads, just the fact that I have more competition when I log in at rune rocks (as you mentioned).

[wannabee789]

There were gold farmers before who mined runite. So after the updates I thought: "Yay! No more real world trading, no more gold farmers and more runite for me..." Well I was wrong #-o . As soon as I get to the runite rocks I see like 3 players fighting for the runite.

[Master_Smither]

I usually mine on the same 4 or 5 2,000 player worlds cause respawn is ~12.5M on full worlds.

 

 

 

Noone realy goes there if I'm on unless they're lvl 99 mining too.

 

 

 

It's only profitable no adays if you mine the rune which is yes hard but I guess we have to live with it.

[Ravenkana]

I used to think Smithing was a golden skill- once you could smith rune you could make gold like nothing else.

[deep_pain]

you have no idea what your talking about, mining and smithing have been stable since the beginning of the game.

 

 

 

only woodcutting and fletching are going to have problems soon in january thanks to ge :)

 

 

 

Did you even take the time to read what he wrote?

 

 

 

He rarely does, just usually reads the titles and spams. Not really worth commenting on because he rarely answers any comments people make.

 

 

 

Shouldnt the price of rune even out eventually? I think it dropped like a bomb because a lot of smiths and PKers and mercs had massive stock piles. I sold a heap of rune on here just after the G.E opened, and nobody wanted to touch it, I was selling it at far less than G.E prices of the time. It's only after it was on here for a while that I realised it would make more money alching it all.

 

 

 

I would in any normal case say ohh well the prices will even out. supply demand and all that.

 

 

 

But I can only see demand dropping, well it will be in demand on f2p. But p2p rune is a rarer and rarer site now. people want non-smithable armour, like barrows, dragon etc etc.. They are becoming more affordable everyday.

 

 

 

No one really wears rune in f2p Bounty Hunter, because of the risk of being teamed, not compared to the numbers that did previously in the wild. Demand I should imagine will only keep dropping for rune armour in the short term, it may have a saving grace if rune prices keep dropping tho is that a lot of rune items have dropped below their alch prices on G.E occasionally, when they do I have personally alched heaps.

[Chaos_Reborn]

It's good that you're bringing this up, as I've always regarded smithing as a skill in which you cannot make any decent cash from a year ago already. I mean even if you, before, could make a few things that sold for a profit, the problem lied in selling them. It ain't possible selling kites or stuff in bulk unless to merchants, and that's of course low prices. So now the GE has made selling easier, but it's pushed the prices down.

 

 

 

Only thing which you can profit from smithing is making ores into bars now? Members have more options, of course.

 

 

 

I agree with your post in other words.

[lordkafei]

I personally mine rune ores for my own use. I smith rune swords and high alch them for 12,480 each.

 

 

 

As I pay nothing for the ores, it's all profit for me (yes, I craft my own nats).

 

 

 

People who gather their own resources are still making money.

 

People who don't are writing long theses on fan sites about how the economy no longer works.

 

 

 

As for me, I am laughing all the way to the bank.

[Artificial_Doom_Flavor]

Thats what i did the log for. But the thing is, when i got back to that world, the rune appeared, but so did 2 other people. Theres a lot more competition than there used to be.

 

 

 

I hate that cowards who once clung to PKer-free supplies of runite now come to the runite rocks that I've risked my life for countless times. Although the price of my favorite commodity has gone up, it comes at the cost of competing with miners I once felt a kinship with and a need to protect.

[cabbage_ownz]

you must not be that good of a rune miner it took me 30 minutes to get 16 ores it still profitable and i mine coal and use my freind assist me and make them all into bars making close to 13.5k every ore i mine so yes its profitable

[Artificial_Doom_Flavor]

I personally mine rune ores for my own use. I smith rune swords and high alch them for 12,480 each.

 

 

 

As I pay nothing for the ores, it's all profit for me (yes, I craft my own nats).

 

 

 

People who gather their own resources are still making money.

 

People who don't are writing long theses on fan sites about how the economy no longer works.

 

 

 

As for me, I am laughing all the way to the bank.

 

 

 

Of course, that's a silly way to train smithing and magic when you can sell the raw ore and buy lesser bars to gain more xp for your money.

 

 

 

But hey, if it makes you feel better about yourself...

[swordwindtrtrtrt]

Green dragons are the same, its very rare to find a world with less than 3 people on. Now that pkers are gone its so much easier to get hides.

 

 

 

OT:

 

you have no idea what your talking about, mining and smithing have been stable since the beginning of the game.

 

 

 

only woodcutting and fletching are going to have problems soon in january thanks to ge :)

 

 

 

Did you even take the time to read what he wrote?

 

 

 

He rarely does, just usually reads the titles and spams. Not really worth commenting on because he rarely answers any comments people make.

 

 

Yeah pretty much sums up BBC3.

[lordkafei]

 

Of course, that's a silly way to train smithing and magic when you can sell the raw ore and buy lesser bars to gain more xp for your money.

 

 

 

But hey, if it makes you feel better about yourself...

 

 

 

I never said I was in it for training smithing and/or magic, though, now did I?

 

 

 

This thread is about making a profit with rune ores.

 

 

 

I make one. =D>

[mainiac2k3]

I personally mine rune ores for my own use. I smith rune swords and high alch them for 12,480 each.

 

 

 

As I pay nothing for the ores, it's all profit for me (yes, I craft my own nats).

 

 

 

People who gather their own resources are still making money.

 

People who don't are writing long theses on fan sites about how the economy no longer works.

 

 

 

As for me, I am laughing all the way to the bank.

 

 

 

Although it is undoubtedly profitable in real terms to mine rune ores and then smith them, in terms of opportunity costs for a member, it is extremely unprofitable compared with the amount of xp obtained. For a member, there are numerous other ways to obtain the same amount of xp while making much more money. For a f2p on the other hand, rune mining and smithing is probably the best way to make money and does not impose an opportunity cost. Rune mining and smithing remains profitable for the f2p only because there is no better way to make money.

[Freesia]

I'll have to agree with what deep pain said, when smithing was still in the profitable stage, members didn't have so much strong armour back then, only piece of armour they have is probably d med, so many of members are still wearing rune parts, which goes as demand for rune smithers, more and more p2p monsters are dropping rune stuff as well as clues, that adds on to the competition for selling rune items.

 

 

 

If you even been to the rune equipment selling area in w1 before GE, you'll notice that the approximate amount of sellers to buyers is somewhere 4:1

[Torlen]

I never made much money with 99 smithing to begin with. I did notice that rune mining got tough though.

[subre_y]

christmas break is probably contributing to the lack of ore spawns too