Understanding Mintcakes, Junk, & Rares

[MerchantInTheDark]

The Junk System, Mints and "Virtual Wealth"

How to understand and use the "virtual wealth" merchanting system

 

Hi Tip.It,

 

This is another guide in my merchanting/investing series, specifically aimed to help explain the purpose of "virtual wealth" (AKA junk and items such as Mintcakes) to players who may not understand it, as well as offer some tips on how to get started merchanting and profiting using the "virtual wealth" system. This guide was written by me for the Grand Exchange section of Rune-Tips.net, the original version can be found here.

 

If you've spend any time trading in worlds one and two, you've probably already seen people using the "virtual wealth" system to barter, trade, and make deals - the most high-profile item at the moment being Mint Cakes. Ever since unbalanced trade was removed from the game, players have been using a variety of methods to continue to trade their valuable items and commodities outside of the Grand Exchange, and the current "virtual wealth" system has now become almost universal.

 

What is "virtual wealth"?

 

When considering any tradeable item in RuneScape, it is important to understand that it has two "values" - Trade Price, and True Value. Of these, the first is fairly straightforward - the Trade Price of an item is simply the medium Grand Exchange price, which you can find in the Grand Exchange Database.

 

The second "value" of an item is the True Value. True value is the price people are willing to pay for an item. When the "true value" of an item is OUTSIDE of the Grand Exchange price range (above or below), this item is almost exclusively traded on the Virtual Wealth market. If an item's True Value is UNDER the Trade Price (like crashing items and useless items) is is classified as JUNK. If the True Value of an item is ABOVE the Trade Price (like mintcakes and rares), the item is classified as a COMMODITY.

 

 

How can I sell an item for it's "True Value"?

 

Let's assume you have an Easter Egg, a rare with a Trade Value of 50M in the Grand Exchange. Anyone with any knowledge of the rares market will know that nobody will sell their egg for 50M, however - the true value of the egg is MUCH higher, let's say it's 150M. How can you sell your egg for it's true value since the trade limit prevents unbalanced trades?

 

The answer is that you can get the "true value" for your item by using the Virtual Wealth system. There are two ways to do this - if you possess junk, you can make the buyer buy an amount of your junk as well as the item - if the trade price of your egg is 50M, and the true value of your egg is 100M, you could trade someone your egg as well as 50M worth of "junk" in order to receive the "true value" of your egg.

 

If, however, you do not possess junk, you can still trade with "virtual wealth" - in addition to cash, the buyer of your commodity item must give you an acceptable amount of other commodity items to balance the "true value" of the trade. For example, you might accept 50 mintcakes as well as cash for your easter egg to "balance" the trade.

How can I aquire items with a high "true value"?

 

If you possess no items with a high "true value" like mintcakes, it's very hard to acquire your first one - since nobody will sell one for trade price! You can use several methods to aquire your first stock of commodity items:

 

Buy one with junk

If you are willing to lock up some cash in junk, you may find someone willing to sell you a commodity item as long as you buy an amount of their junk along with it.

 

Buy one with rising items

If you are lucky enough (or smart enough) to have a large amount of items that are rising fast in the Grand Exchange, you can almost always find someone who will give you commodity items to sell them for trade price. This works especially well if the item is rising because of an update. Learn more about finding good rising items in my

Investing Guide

.

 

 

Acquire them yourself

While not recommended, some non-discontinued "commodity" items can be obtained ingame (although they are always hard to get). Mintcakes, for example, can (very rarely) be obtained from the Gnome Restaurant minigame. Rising items can also be obtained at their source if you have the right levels and equipment, although you won't be able to acquire as many as you would have if you knew to buy them before they started rising.

 

Commodity Merchanting

 

If you are lucky (and skilled) enough to acquire a large stock of commodity items, you will find them invaluable in helping you earn lots of money, fast.

 

Commodity items can be traded for rising items that you missed out on, used to sell an investment RIGHT at the top of its rise (that you would otherwise have had to hold until it dropped in price), or bartered for rares that will earn you millions as they rise in the long run. Some high leveled players also enjoy the thrill of staking by offering commodities with a low Trade Value (such as Mintcakes) as the spoils during staking matches in Al Kharid.

 

Finally, you will find that the "true value" of commodity items may change over time - use this to your advantage, and a skilled merchant can easily turn a stack of ten mintcakes into a stack of 20, 30, or more through the tried and true skill of classic merchanting.

 

Good Luck, and Happy Merchanting!

[258ForLife]

Good guide. You could also put get a Mint from a Quest reward. Merchanting ftw :thumbsup:

[MerchantInTheDark]

Good guide. You could also put get a Mint from a Quest reward. Merchanting ftw :thumbsup:

 

Yup, here are the only ways you can get a mintcake besides trading:

 

A mint cake can be obtained as a rare reward from the Gnome Restaurant minigame by doing hard orders for the gnomic explorers Brambickle, Penwie and Wingstone.

 

There is one other way to obtain a mint cake: During or after The Path of Glouphrie quest, Longramble will exchange a mint cake in return for delivering a Tangled Toad Legs. This can only be done once.

[Hedgehog]

Very interesting guide. Hopefully it will clear up some misconceptions that a lot of players have about mint cakes and junk. Your investing guide was also very good. You should consider posting it here, if you haven't already.

[MerchantInTheDark]

Very interesting guide. Hopefully it will clear up some misconceptions that a lot of players have about mint cakes and junk. Your investing guide was also very good. You should consider posting it here, if you haven't already.

 

I posted a xopy of my investing guide in this forum, it's somewhere near the bottom of this page (or on the next one).