This is a question that has puzzled me ever since the GE was released.

 

 

 

An example of what I mean is harpoons. Today I was raising my summoning by making Ibis pouches. Now these require harpoons as a secondary item, so to collect enough I did a few trips from Catherby bank to the Catherby fishing shop and bought 200 harpoons at 5gp each. This took me about 5 minutes. I then made my pouches and had about 20 left over. Now I didn't want to alch these as it would be a waste of Nats as I would only get about 3 gp for each. So rather than drop them I decided to sell them on the GE. To my surprise I found that the lowest GE price for these is 59gp and I thought to myself that they would never sell at that price, let alone the maximum price. Anyway I put them on the GE and as they did not sell immediately I went off started a farming run. After about 5 mins I got the message saying that one of my items in the GE had been sold. On my next visit to the bank I checked and found, to my surprise that someone had bought my harpoons at 60gp each.

 

 

 

Hence my question - why would anyone pay 12 times the value of such a common, cheap, easily obtained, everyday item?

 

 

 

Note - harpoons are not the only example.

For convenience. You can either pay a bit more and get it straight away, or can on a journey and get it dirt cheap.

3 words:

 

 

 

Quickness, and lazyness.

Time equals money, Money=time. pretty much sums up what's it about.

Because you would only make under 100k an hour buying harpoons and selling them on the GE as fast as possible. If you can make 500k an hour (which many, if not most, people who train summoning can), then it's way way better to do that for half an hour and buy 2.5 hours worth of harpoons.

 

 

 

Note that, in the future, you're much better off buying harpoons in Piscatoris- there's a guy there who sells them AND functions as a bank.

Look at the simple math.

 

 

 

You said you bought 200 harpoons in 5 minutes for a total of 1k.

 

 

 

That guy bought 200 harpoons instantly for a total of 12k, assuming he got instant buy and bought the same amount as you and a constant price.

 

 

 

So that means the person spent 11k to save 5 minutes of his time. Is that worth it? Let's see. 11k times 12 is 132k. What's that mean? That means if you make over 132k an hour, it is better for you to buy the harpoons at 60 gp each (maybe even more) at the GE rather than waste 5 minutes of your time running to and from a bank.

 

 

 

Btw, the Fishing Colony is the best place to buy harpoons ;)

I did that, i couldn't be bothered going to catherby. And most people that train summoning have extra money to burn.

I remember before the trade limit selling lobby pots for over 3k at Karajamba (I'm almost certain that is spelled wrong) before leaving to bank. :lol: But like mentioned before it's all about convenience.

I know lots of people, myself included who will pay like 500%+ more than the item is worth, to be able to get it quickly.

 

An example, when the wilderness was still here, a friend of mine would pay upwards of 100k just for a super set if he had none left.

When you think about it, buying a cheap item for extra cost is convenient, but in a way it does save you money.

 

It would cost more to teleport to Camelot & buy it from the NPC in Catherby.

nobody wants to make a voyage for a simple harpoon...

Even though it looks like it's not, it's actually the more efficient method.

3 words:

 

 

 

Quickness, and lazyness.

 

tech' thats 2 words but yeah to the point.

 

 

 

id rather just grab the damn item(s) ge and pay a bit extra then waste time walking somewhere, especially if im in a rush to finish a quest.

Basically, for a high-level player capable of making high amounts of money per hour, collecting certain bulk items by himself/herself is not efficient. For instance, you're maybe going to save an amount of ks per hour from getting by yourself, but you get no exp, and you could make more money than you save during that hour.

Time equals money, Money=time. pretty much sums up what's it about.

 

 

 

You're correct. This is much what economy is about, both in RS and in the real world.

What's 55gp anyway?

Same reason people will pay more for better shipping when ordering something off the internet.

 

 

 

Fast and convenient, at a higher price.

Because you would only make under 100k an hour buying harpoons and selling them on the GE as fast as possible. If you can make 500k an hour (which many, if not most, people who train summoning can), then it's way way better to do that for half an hour and buy 2.5 hours worth of harpoons.

 

 

 

Note that, in the future, you're much better off buying harpoons in Piscatoris- there's a guy there who sells them AND functions as a bank.

 

 

 

Summed up my answer, and the answer to the thread.

Yeah its a lot faster and I just want to get with what I was doing. Most of the time I forget theres infinit items available at most stores since I wasnt playing when that update came out.

3 words:

 

 

 

Quickness, and lazyness.

 

tech' thats 2 words but yeah to the point.

 

 

[/facepalm]

 

 

 

I think I count 3 there.

Lazy community.

Same reason i bought a small net for 15k the other day. didn't want to leave the bank.

There's being fast, which buying a harpoon for 60gp would be. 60g isn't an awful lot of money, and if it saves you a few minutes of going to some shop or harpoon spawn then the few extra fish you'd catch during your session would more than make up for it.

 

 

 

And then there's buying lazy and paying ridicilous amounts of money for something simple, such as the poster above did :P no way a few extra minutes of fishing (small-net fishing even) would earn you 15k. Then again, if you absolutely loathe having to walk a couple of minutes to grab a net and have the cash handy, you might as well use it :