What would RS be without merchants?

[magmaguard3]

I don't think many people would quit. They would just switch over to investing.

[brando13a]

You know that one scene from Family Guy- the one which shows Ireland before alcohol? It would be alot like that.

 

 

 

Without merchants and merchant guilds/clans the prices of many items would be so vastly different. in a downward direction. If merchanting never existed "free" trade would be more literal alot of the time. Without merchanting, the stupid amounts of economic influx wouldnt happen, and RWT's wouldnt have a job because people wouldnt be needing to buy their money because they wouldnt need 100+mil for any item.

 

 

 

Without the forced inflation things would be cheap and the economy friendly, as close to eutopian as you can imagine for a video game :

 

 

 

But alas- it is the best way to make a cheap buck, I know because I used to be a mass merchant back in the day.

[tintin113]

Hey you know what? IF they removed all movement, talking and skills people would probably quit too, but, just like they won't remove trading more than one item at a time, they won't so this thread is pointless. :wall:

[TheAncient]

Imaginary

 

 

 

merchants are just smart people. you can't have a society (i.e. RS community) without at least a few smart ones out there who will try to jip the rest.

[BloodArgon]

Would be like real life.

 

God forbid we actually have to use the currency of the game.

 

 

 

You dont go to walmart and give them a toothbrush, your old stero, and a pile of napkins for a gameboy. Life doesnt work that way. Everything I buy in RS is either off the GE or from players with CASH. If something has a overinflated junk price, I dont buy it.

[Silver_Corner]

I know alot of you will disagree with me, however I feel that players should be limited to GE and GE alone to trade. Let me explain what I mean...

 

 

 

Players should only be allowed to buy/sell items by use of the G.E.

 

1) This would make item prices much more accurate on the GE market.

 

2) This would remove all forms of junk trading.

 

 

 

Players to Player trade should be removed completly.

 

1) While people still like to give "free gifts" an option could stay to let you give (or recieve) up to 30k in items (depending on QP). But you could not give or recieve 30k at the same time, therefor elimination all Junk trades.

 

 

 

A system like this would be much better I think as it keeps prices much more accurate and eliminates any junk trades in the game, giving all items the value the game sets the price as, and not the value players feel they want to charge for an item.

 

 

 

All in all, it would be much more fair for everyone as people would be foced to use the GE to trade, meaning merchanters cant take advantage of players who may not know how much their items are worth.

[BloodArgon]

I know alot of you will disagree with me, however I feel that players should be limited to GE and GE alone to trade. Let me explain what I mean...

 

 

 

Players should only be allowed to buy/sell items by use of the G.E.

 

1) This would make item prices much more accurate on the GE market.

 

2) This would remove all forms of junk trading.

 

 

 

Players to Player trade should be removed completly.

 

1) While people still like to give "free gifts" an option could stay to let you give (or recieve) up to 30k in items (depending on QP). But you could not give or recieve 30k at the same time, therefor elimination all Junk trades.

 

 

 

A system like this would be much better I think as it keeps prices much more accurate and eliminates any junk trades in the game, giving all items the value the game sets the price as, and not the value players feel they want to charge for an item.

 

 

 

All in all, it would be much more fair for everyone as people would be foced to use the GE to trade, meaning merchanters cant take advantage of players who may not know how much their items are worth.

 

 

 

Agreed. Look at current prices. Players have proven they are too stupid to set their own limits on items.

 

I wanted to shoot myself every second I was in world two buying yew longs.

 

 

 

Speaking of which. The limit needs to be raised. 100 yew longs per 4 hours? I think 2,000 or so would fit better.

 

Fletching might be more profitable if yew longs could be sold more rapidly.

[mememe513]

What if they made it so you can only trade one item at a time. Like a 3rd age item for a stack of cash.

 

"What if" questions are annoying. If you can come up with a situation where such a stupid trade limit were to be implemented, then this possibility would be more plausible. As it is, most merchants have found ways to make money using the GE. Those that didn't stopped merchanting or quit.

[Bonus]

Hey you know what? IF they removed all movement, talking and skills people would probably quit too, but, just like they won't remove trading more than one item at a time, they won't so this thread is pointless. :wall:

 

 

 

It's not "what if Jagex removed moving and talking and skills" it's "what if they took away merchanting".

 

 

 

And if this thread is pointless don't bother posting on it.

[killerbeer0]

What would RS be without merchants?

 

 

 

Cheaper.

[Golvellius]

Nicer.

[buzz_knight]

If merchanting was removed, we might as well be playing a single-player rpg.

 

 

 

agreed.

[Randox]

I wan't to see someone explain this to me. Explain how a person, who trades items for the sole purpose of making money is benifiting me, when their profit comes from me paying more for something than the merchant did. All profit made from merchanting is the result of price differences which means that merchants cost everyone else money.

 

 

 

If all the merchants just left, we would see reductions in most items. And for once it would not be a market problem, it would be every item returning to the natural value.

 

 

 

We don't need merchants, all items can be bought through the GE (with few exceptions) and to be frank, Jagex needs to get off there arses and figure out what these items trade for so they can stop junk trading.

[BiJay]

No RuneScape.

[hephaestos8]

I wan't to see someone explain this to me. Explain how a person, who trades items for the sole purpose of making money is benifiting me, when their profit comes from me paying more for something than the merchant did. All profit made from merchanting is the result of price differences which means that merchants cost everyone else money.

 

 

 

If all the merchants just left, we would see reductions in most items. And for once it would not be a market problem, it would be every item returning to the natural value.

 

 

 

We don't need merchants, all items can be bought through the GE (with few exceptions) and to be frank, Jagex needs to get off there arses and figure out what these items trade for so they can stop junk trading.

 

 

 

Merchants are keeping godsword rices steady, not good if you can not afford one, but good if you have one, merchants were a lot more important before the ge came out. Look at coal. Before the GE, coal was 190-200gp for the previous 2 years, and if you wanted to pay 210 ea for coal you could get 500k of it in 20 minutes. For most people time=money, sure you could sit in fally buying coal at 150ea but it would take days to buy a reasonable amount.

 

 

 

In a current example, zammy spears cost about 1 mil each. at max price it would take around 6 hours to buy one, but what if you didnot feel like wasting those precious 6 hours when you could get one in 10 minutes via the forums, but it would cost roughly 1.4 mil. So if you made 70k an hour using your spear, you made up for your loss.

 

 

 

sure things might be cheaper without merchants, but everything would be cheaper, therefore, it is harder to earn gp. so no merchants is not a good thing. If a godsword costs 15 mil, but you can only make 200k an hour using the fastest moneymaking methods, is runescape really different

 

 

 

 

 

Many items used for junk trading (pouches saphire and gold rings, maple long bows) are bottomed out due to alching, if jagex drops the price, they will become alchable, therefore bought in high quantities, but demand will go up and price will go upand they will no longer be good for alching and are junk once more

[NukeMarine]

Jagex could get rid of the merchants (well, get rid of the "need" for merchants) in a month with the following:

 

 

 

1. Remove Price Floors and Caps - Without price floors, "junk" items reach their actual player based value. Without "junk" higher prices, the loophole to get around balanced trade is closed.

 

 

 

2. Allow bidding outside the 5% window - Players can place the bids outside the window, which will help determine the shift of prices. However, until your bid falls within the 5% window, it will not get processed.

 

 

 

3. Post publicly items that bring profits via alchemy/store selling for low priced items, and purchase for store bought/easily obtained items - The reason for this step is to prevent "back door" and out of sight market manipulations. If million plus players start to notice "1/3 cake" is selling for 500 gp or higher (due to attempt to manipulate prices for quick RWT), then players will flood the GE with "1/3 cakes". It'll also help those that want to alc or store sell for profit to know what items to grab (or what items to stop selling).

 

 

 

4. Allow decimal bidding for low price items - A gp difference is nothing if an item is 500k gp, but immense for a 25k items at 12 gp instead of 13 gp. Allowing decimal bidding for items under 100gp means a smoother price change. Not to mention it removes those stupid results on the big movers page (cause going from 5gp to 6gp is 20% increase, but 5.48 gp to 5.53 gp is a 1% increase).

 

 

 

With the above, you fix issue with the GE with market manipulation. And without price floors, junk disappears because now it's at a price players will pay.

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

Merchants are keeping godsword rices steady, not good if you can not afford one, but good if you have one...

 

Really? Well what the heck happened with the AGS? Did the Bank of Varrock get robbed or something?

[hephaestos8]

Merchants are keeping godsword rices steady, not good if you can not afford one, but good if you have one...

 

Really? Well what the heck happened with the AGS? Did the Bank of Varrock get robbed or something?

 

 

 

What is a merchant, well if we ask Merriam-Webster, it says a merchant is

a buyer and seller of commodities for profit

 

 

 

so it was clearly not merchants who killed the price of the ags, because they themselves are taking a loss

[Laura]

Then they should just remove the GE, and sell every item in the General Store. :|

[xpx]

I know alot of you will disagree with me, however I feel that players should be limited to GE and GE alone to trade. Let me explain what I mean...

 

 

 

Players should only be allowed to buy/sell items by use of the G.E.

 

1) This would make item prices much more accurate on the GE market.

 

2) This would remove all forms of junk trading.

 

 

 

Players to Player trade should be removed completly.

 

1) While people still like to give "free gifts" an option could stay to let you give (or recieve) up to 30k in items (depending on QP). But you could not give or recieve 30k at the same time, therefor elimination all Junk trades.

 

 

 

A system like this would be much better I think as it keeps prices much more accurate and eliminates any junk trades in the game, giving all items the value the game sets the price as, and not the value players feel they want to charge for an item.

 

 

 

All in all, it would be much more fair for everyone as people would be foced to use the GE to trade, meaning merchanters cant take advantage of players who may not know how much their items are worth.

 

What sort of an idiot thinks that trade removal would get all GE prices right? IT WOULDN'T! If an item is worth 50m gp and priced at 20m then there will still be no sellers, no GE updates. People think that junk trades ruin the GE system, but no, they don't. If people couldn't sell their items with junk, over 95% wouldn't sell them at all. Junk trades are just an easy way to still let these items change owners, but it doesn't have any effect on GE prices. If an item is going up in price, there is no reason to sell it. No sales, no price changes. The concept of Jagex'es stupidity.

 

 

 

Merchants do not ruin runescape, they circulate the trade market by the basis that time is money. Without merchants everyone would be buying items at near market price and never get the things they want quickly.

[Fromfirst2Last1987]

it would be a better game. merchants are much like the republican party. so if you like merchants you support george bush. jk on the george bush comment, but it is very much like the republican party. money for the rich tax the poor

[Stewie_Griffen]

GWD and Waterbirth Island would be a lot more crowded.

[Sir_Sibz]

If merchanting was removed, we might as well be playing a single-player rpg.

 

 

 

Ding ding ding! I also agree. It would be kinda sad imo. :arrow: :(

[999134]

junk merchants are the really enemy

 

If you lost 140mil becasue u sold in ge i dont care!

 

to get that item you would have bought ge or got it free from a clue anyway!

 

junk should be destoryed (i mean wtf why is maple longbow worth that much!)

 

would have to be careful though (zgs anyone?)

 

oh yeah and price maniulators because its annoying paying 10k or something for a dragonfire shield

[jettrider]

I love how merchants are blamed for both raising and lowering prices. You want everything cheap except the things that you sell for profit.

 

 

 

"Omg why are furies still 2.8m noob merchants!!111!"

 

"Why can I only sell sara swords for 6m ffs noob merchants lower price"

 

 

 

Merchants can't turn the price of an item or keep it steady on their own, only slow down the correct change (excluding hoarding by clan chats). Thus preventing dfs from being under 10m right now.

 

 

 

junk merchants are the really enemy

 

If you lost 140mil becasue u sold in ge i dont care!

 

to get that item you would have bought ge or got it free from a clue anyway!

 

junk should be destoryed (i mean wtf why is maple longbow worth that much!)

 

would have to be careful though (zgs anyone?)

 

oh yeah and price maniulators because its annoying paying 10k or something for a dragonfire shield

 

 

 

This is a perfect example of an ignorant post. You don't care about 140m gp? I'll take it from ya! No, the only 3a is sold in the Grand Exchange is the pieces achieved by newb clue hunters. Almost all 3a is traded with junk in w2 and clan chats.

 

 

 

Some people use pouches as junk. Does that mean all pouches should be worth 0 gp? Of course not...And like I said, price manipulators can't alter the direction an item is moving, only *slightly* slow the process.