Merchanting or RuneCrafing? Which do you find better?

[Peronix]

Yes, I am aware that in the Help and Advice forum, I posted somthing with the title "Merchanting or RuneCrafting? Which is better for me?". But rest assured, this is completely different, and is not directly for my personal benefit. Instead, I have started this thread to open a discussion about a topic that has captured my attention over the past few weeks. Which method of making money is faster in your opinion? Let me share with you from personal experience my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over a three day perion a few days ago, my goal was to get to level 44 runecrafting. I finally did, and using the stockpile of duel rings I had ammassed from crafting (the method where you run to the alter, tp to cw arena, then to al karid, and then take the glider back to the jungle, and repeat) I began to craft nats. I have been able thusfar to make on average 300k gcph (gold coins per hour).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, one day, I decided to do some merchanting by buying bloods and deaths from the mage guild. It took me roughly an hour to make 400k profit. While this is certainly better than the above experience, it is more limited than you think. One, it is VERY boring. Most of the time spent is waiting for your character to switch worlds. So most of the time you are looking at the java screen with a ticking timer, which made me miss RSC every minute I went through it. Two, there is an increase in the number of people doing it, which will eventually of course decrease this figure. And finally, more money can be made as you go further in runecrafting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For example, I make 1k nats an hour using a medium and small pouch. But, I am close to level 50 runecrafting. When I reach it, I will be able to use my large pouch, increasing the number of runes I can make per hour to 1200+ (I can make a trip using the above method in 2 minutes. If I use all three pouches, I can make 42 per trip instead of 34. That increases the figure to 1260). This is approximatly 360-380k! That almost matches the merchanting figure, and is much less dull and limited! But wait, there's more! I estimate that if I used the abyss with all three pouches, I could make roughly 1500 per hour, which brings the figure to 450k+! Sure this figure could be wrong, but it is obviously going to be a whole lot better than the last one! And this has its advantages too. You can repair your pouches during trips instead of having to make the occasional side-trip to get them repaired, and the glory transport method is free! (unless you stupidly fall victim to a PKer).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It gets even better after that. If you use the abyss to make laws instead of nats when you reach level 54 rune crafting, you can make 350-375 gp per rune instead of 300-320! This bring the 1500 rune/hour estimate to 525-563k gcph. Then, at 59 RC, you can make two cosmics per rune, bringing the 1500 rune/hour to double that, 3000. Since cosmics currently go for 200 gp each, and two would make 400 gp, you could bag as much as 600k gcph. And, when you reach level 75 RC, you can use giant pouches. This brings cosmics to 106/trip instead of 84. So you could make as much as 4000 of em' per hour, which increases the profits to 800k gcph. And, finally, when you reach level 91, you can make double nats, which increases the money you can make to up to 1m+ per hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, if you have 91 RC, you can make 4 mil a day if you play only 4 hours in a day. Of all of the merchanting methods I've tried, nothing beats that. Not even partyhat merchanting could beat that, unless you can afford a whole mess of them. So in my opinion, RuneCrafting is better, unless in the thread I mentioned above someone gives me a method that beats my immediate runecrafting benefit outlooks. Which I seriously Doubt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your thoughts?

[PlutoniumCross]

Id say that runecrafting is better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Runecrafting gives exp. Once youve made so much natures (ie money) you hit 92 rc and you make double. Once u hit 92 rc you get 1m per hours easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. You can merchant while runecrafting.

[brjo555]

well runecrafting is basically guaranteed cash flow, and usually more than merchanting...however in merchanting every once in a while youll come across an idiot and youll triple your hourly rate in a few minutes...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

all in all though, i think youre right

[Peronix]

Id say that runecrafting is better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Runecrafting gives exp. Once youve made so much natures (ie money) you hit 92 rc and you make double. Once u hit 92 rc you get 1m per hours easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. You can merchant while runecrafting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I thought of that. You'd have to use the forums though, which unless you quickly switch between RS and the forums you'd waste some time, and you'd have to go to someone to buy somthing, so the cash flow coming from RC wouldn't be as much. But, if the merchanting was making like 300k and hour and you were usually making 500k with runecrafting per hour and it lowered to 400 because of your merchanting, that would still be 700k :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I couldn't even do that though, i'm terrible at merchanting :lol:

[Fromfirst2Last1987]

i find runecrafting a better and more reliable source of income. use the abyss you can make a few mil a day

[Duke_Freedom]

RuneCrafting is the best for most people yes.

[Unitedite]

I wouldn't call buying runes from a shop merchanting - sure, techincally, it's mercahnting but then so is selling the nats you've crafted. 'Real' merchanting, when you're talking about Runescape is, in my eyes, buying goods of players and selling them on for more money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out of buying runes and nat running, i'd say nat running is more interesting and gets you exp, so is the better option. Out of rc and merchanting i'd do both; merchant while rcing.

[Peronix]

I wouldn't call buying runes from a shop merchanting - sure, techincally, it's mercahnting but then so is selling the nats you've crafted. 'Real' merchanting, when you're talking about Runescape is, in my eyes, buying goods of players and selling them on for more money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out of buying runes and nat running, i'd say nat running is more interesting and gets you exp, so is the better option. Out of rc and merchanting i'd do both; merchant while rcing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, it is in fact true merchanting, if you want to get techincal. The basic principle is buying low and selling high; it dosen't matter if the source is a person or not. If you want to go by RuneScape's definiton of the word, I guess it wouldn't nececarily be considered merchanting. But it is to me. And, another thing, I find many of the methods of merchanting by that definiton within my means are too time consuming for the profits made; it is hard to find a seller willing to sell at a low price, and it is often hard to find buyers who will buy for a higher price. For example, I tried buying bulk rune for cheap price and I had a hell of a time trying to sell it to F2P players; most of the trades I got were scammers whom I promptly hit the decline + report button on. And I didn't get trades that often either, mabye one every few minutes. And then a lot of the noobs hit decline and said "nahh". :x

[oddfaery2]

RC is obviously best if you have 91 RC... but even at fast paced RCing with runners you're going to top out at 20-25k xp an hour. That's pretty slow compared to almost every other skill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So if you want to have runners from 54 to 91 RC (W66LC or whatever), you'd spend about 287 hours RCing, and need to buy up 605k worth of rune essence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is quite an expensive and time consuming feat... but it can be done. If this is too costly to buy all the essence, one can spend about 1 hour making natures for every 3-4 hours they spend making laws and it will pay for the essence. This take a little more time, but it is comparable to buying all the ess and having runners when you consider profits. More time breaking even vs time recovering GP after getting 91 -- not much difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Either way, with just 44 RC you can get about 300k gp an hour if you don't get distracted too much, and there are several other reasonably attainable skills that can make about the same rate of GP. There are even some skills (and combinations of skills) that can average you around 600k gp an hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guess you have to pick if you want XP with money, or just the money, and which way is fastest.