flipping margins have gone to hell

[enfield]

I don't know, my naive speculation is that all those players running the chance games took up flipping once their toys were outlawed or broken or whatever happened to them (i didn't keep up with that drama, since i never got involved in doing that kind of thing), and killed its profitability with all the money they poured into it.

 

but ever since i started merching again (2 months ago) the margins have been unspeakably low. unless you catch the nex items in some weird transient period of instability. but that's not often. So i spend my waking hours crestfallen over the miniscule profit i'm making.

 

let me just say, Merching used to Make Me Happy. Now i just end up disappointed, never doing as well as I used to. Maybe I need to readjust my standards. But that takes time and adjustment, and I'm Just Not There Yet.

[Kimberly]

Maybe I need to readjust my standards. But that takes time and adjustment, and I'm Just Not There Yet.

 

The sooner you get there and put the work into it for some of the easiest money you can make in game, the happier you'll be.

[enfield]

aw i was just trying to fill the acknowledged void in this sub-forum. I didn't expect well-intentioned feedback! I would say i disagree with your analysis of my happiness function, but that would be taking things too far. thanks for your concern :3.

[Hedgehog]

Your rant is dumb. Stop crying like a baby :P

 

But ye, this is very annoying.

[Marduk_God]

I think one of the main problems is people undercutting each other and being impatient at merchanting wanting to make a quick buck while not taking into account the peculiarities of the market exchange in RS. There's more people returning to the game than before, and I'd wager at least some of them try their hand at flipping (such as the old dicers, as you say).

The market is also somewhat more volatile now than a couple of months ago. Immediately after the bot nuke, many items first skyrocketed in anticipation of the actual price rise, and later dropped again when people dumped the stock they'd saved up on the market. Those prices later rose again, but more gradually this time. There's also been a return of bots the past few months (sorc's garden, for example) which also has an effect on prices (though not as much as before).

 

An experienced flipper knows not to undercut, as this leads to increasingly diminishing returns and in some cases even causes a cascade effect.

 

Just to give an example: about half of the item's I'm flipping on a regular basis usually wind up being undercut relatively quickly. This is mostly the case for the more well-known flipping items. It's annoying because I'm constantly having to adjust the margins to keep up (while not undercutting, of course). I still make some profit, but not much, and less than a couple of months ago.

 

The other half of items I'm flipping is still profitable, but these are items that flipped somewhat less frequently while still being in demand. Still, even with these I do find myself checking and re-checking offers more frequently than before to ensure I'm not being undercut - and even with these items, it still happens more frequently than before.

 

In some rare cases I've had the cascade effect occur with an item that's normally stable, where a previously profitable 3%-5% profit margin evaporates in a matter of minutes. Now that's something that's annoying, because you have no way to see it coming. I've had certain items that I'd been flipping for several hours, adjusting the margins by a couple of gp every once in a while (5-10 gp) to keep up with the price changes suddenly drop a full 100 or more gp in a matter of mere minutes (this constituting just about the entire profit margin).

[The_Fray]

This is primarily the reason I stopped merchanting, when the same margins that you have been using for a while suddenly reduce to the point where you just don`t feel like it is worth the effort to merchant anymore. Considering I have a very small cash pile due to training herblore and summoning, it is increasingly frustrating when the item that you have been selling consistently for price X suddenly drops so that you have to keep adjusting. I need my monies so that I can merchant or buy other stuff and the having all your cash pile stuck in a merch that yields so little profit is really depressing.

[Huzzah]

I never seen item flipping as a planned money making methods. Its leaps and bounds away from the merchents of old annnd I can't say I feel bad for you. At all.

[enfield]

you certainly voiced your opinion there ^.

[Kaida23]

Personally, I haven't had any problems. I also returned to merching a couple of weeks ago and I'm getting similar, if not higher, profits compared to what I was getting before I stopped.