Merchanting...a True Skill?

[bigfatleaf]

I am way to lazy to think of a decent argument to this right now, so i'll just post this. I find it so stupid that if I bought a few blue phats back when they were 3m each and let them sit in my bank up to now, i'd be rich for doing absolutely nothing.

[cookins2506]

 

IMO its pretty easy. Back when I used to Merchant (hate the smell of merchants now, I'd rather walk to the Mage Arena in Blue Phat skulled then stay in World 2 Fally for 2 hours) I made a lot of cash merchanting new things. When Dagganoth Hides came out I made an easy 15-25k profit PER HIDE. When Obby stuff came out is was extremely easy to make a quick 100k merchanting a shield or set. And back when Guthan helms ranged from 3.4-4.2 I made 3mil in an hour buying on the forums and selling in game. IMO merchanting is and extremely easy and fast way of making money, and investing takes no skill at all (as Bubsa stated).

 

 

 

- well of course merchanting new items is easy as the range of its price is several 100k usually or mill. like the guy said above there are several typs of merchanters. I think the guy who made this topic is talking about the serious merchanters, not the investors and not new item mercahnts, but people that merchant rare items, or large amounts of raw materials. When you are merchanting for serious money... NOT on new items... you will see that it is much harder than most people think due to several reasons already mentioned in this thread

[aj926]

How dare you?

 

I bought up 30K nats planning to get 85 smithing with gold, and sold for 10% more. Didn't mean to merchant, but I've bought from my fair share of merchanters. They do anything just to make that extra cent. It's obscene and absurd.

 

 

 

Without merchants, there would be soooo much less in circualtion around runescape. With merchants, it is much easier to buy things from other people, as there are always people selling.

 

 

 

Convinience > Price

 

 

 

Oh and for all you people who like to argue... I'll use the obby set as an example. Right now, there are 7 people on the official forums who are trying to buy an obby set (shield and cape). Also right now is a man selling 10 obby sets. Now, I'm sure this man is making a large profit out of this, but since he is keeping them up for buying and selling, he is helping those 7 people get what they want FAST, even if it is 100 or 200K higher than it should be. Money is sooo easily made in RS its completely absurd that you would not pay 100 or 200K more for something you could be spending hours looking for. Believe me, there ar not a lot of people who sell obsidian sets except for merchanters. Without them, NOBODY would be able to buy an obsidian set because NOBODY would sell them.

 

 

 

Stop beating on merchanters just because they take a tad more from you than others. If they did not fluctuate the prices, then all of the natures YOU craft would go down in price because people would want to sell the QUICKEST, and not by how much MONEY they make.

 

 

 

After all, what is a merchanter but a person who wants to make more money on an item he or she is selling?

[darkside]

It takes "skill" to know where to merchant? No it doesn't, there are guides all over the place of where to do this stuff, it takes no skill.

 

 

 

And Clicking 1000 times at a rock, with guides, takes skill?

 

 

 

it takes skill. the skill of clicking 1000 times without ur finger falling off.

[kido14]

A little ironic how merchanting isn't really a skill, yet it takes more skill to do than the "normal skills" such as mining.

 

 

 

I think anyone that is against merchants or whatever are either jealous their "skills" can't make them that much money, or they have never tried merchanting before.

[aj926]

It takes "skill" to know where to merchant? No it doesn't, there are guides all over the place of where to do this stuff, it takes no skill.

 

 

 

And Clicking 1000 times at a rock, with guides, takes skill?

 

 

 

it takes skill. the skill of clicking 1000 times without ur finger falling off.

 

 

 

Completely irrational. An auto program can do that.

 

 

 

It takes KNOWLEDGE to merchant. it takes NO KNOWLEDGE to play runescape.

 

 

 

--Repost--

 

 

 

How dare you?

 

I bought up 30K nats planning to get 85 smithing with gold, and sold for 10% more. Didn't mean to merchant, but I've bought from my fair share of merchanters. They do anything just to make that extra cent. It's obscene and absurd.

 

 

 

Without merchants, there would be soooo much less in circualtion around runescape. With merchants, it is much easier to buy things from other people, as there are always people selling.

 

 

 

Convinience > Price

 

 

 

Oh and for all you people who like to argue... I'll use the obby set as an example. Right now, there are 7 people on the official forums who are trying to buy an obby set (shield and cape). Also right now is a man selling 10 obby sets. Now, I'm sure this man is making a large profit out of this, but since he is keeping them up for buying and selling, he is helping those 7 people get what they want FAST, even if it is 100 or 200K higher than it should be. Money is sooo easily made in RS its completely absurd that you would not pay 100 or 200K more for something you could be spending hours looking for. Believe me, there ar not a lot of people who sell obsidian sets except for merchanters. Without them, NOBODY would be able to buy an obsidian set because NOBODY would sell them.

 

 

 

Stop beating on merchanters just because they take a tad more from you than others. If they did not fluctuate the prices, then all of the natures YOU craft would go down in price because people would want to sell the QUICKEST, and not by how much MONEY they make.

 

 

 

After all, what is a merchanter but a person who wants to make more money on an item he or she is selling?

[Jimmyd17]

I didn't read it all because it's always the same. I agree with the first post about merchanting being a skill, but not in the traditional sense. It's more of a different dimension to the game. How can anyone say that merchants don't enjoy themselves? That's just pathetic and very narrow-minded. Some people prefer different things than you do. For example (hate bringing real-life examples into a computer game discussion :x ) professions. Me, I want to be a dentist. My brother is in an apprenticeship to be in residential construction. How can anyone say that we have chosen the wrong profession to go into, that I should be a carpenter or that my brother should be a dentist? They simply can't so what makes it right to say that merchanting is bad, but skilling is fine and the right choice to make? Apperently some of you have a reason, doubt it's very valid but whatever, eh? There is no one way to go through life, same goes for the game. As long as someone enjoys themselves then that's the way it's suposed to be.

[aj926]

I didn't read it all because it's always the same. I agree with the first post about merchanting being a skill, but not in the traditional sense. It's more of a different dimension to the game. How can anyone say that merchants don't enjoy themselves? That's just pathetic and very narrow-minded. Some people prefer different things than you do. For example (hate bringing real-life examples into a computer game discussion :x ) professions. Me, I want to be a dentist. My brother is in an apprenticeship to be in residential construction. How can anyone say that we have chosen the wrong profession to go into, that I should be a carpenter or that my brother should be a dentist? They simply can't so what makes it right to say that merchanting is bad, but skilling is fine and the right choice to make? Apperently some of you have a reason, doubt it's very valid but whatever, eh? There is no one way to go through life, same goes for the game. As long as someone enjoys themselves then that's the way it's suposed to be.

 

 

 

Wow. Quite well said... Welcome to the forums, and keep posting like this!

[Jimmyd17]

Wow. Quite well said... Welcome to the forums, and keep posting like this!

Thank you. I usually think like this but get flamed because it comes out wrong. And for the record I've been here since '04 but just recently got this account back, old one I posted with was 3p0int0.

[transcript80]

Merchants have not traditional skills (no exp points for them!!) but it sure as hell requires skill to merchant the right way.

 

 

 

Me, i only do it on a small scale, for example when making bowstrings out of flax. There are ppl wo sell theirs for 120gp or so. I only sell for 150 or above, even my own that I else would use for raising fletching. That makes a measly (?) 30+ gp ea, but when done a lot of times or in bulk, it adds up. I would be like the occasional merchant, not full timing. Some people are really dedicated to having billions of gp, and the only way to get them is merching. I have no objection to that, I just have other priorities (all skills to 99, lol!).

 

 

 

I just HATE whining of merchants. "oh no, phat went down from 26M to 24M, i lost 265M!!!!" If you can't handle the obvious risk involves, stay out of the business. The same after the "essence-gate". "OMG i lost mills"...well, that's the risk of merchanting EVERY item, be it phats or essence!

[Satenza]

I used to merchant. Boring, lonley and annoying. However its a great way to make money if you know what to do. It does depend on the stupididty of other people. I quit doing it a while ago as it was in no way fun.

[SAGE]

REAL Merchanting to me is-

 

Buying Low.

 

Selling Normal.

 

 

 

Anything different is manipulation. Selling it for higher then retail price. Being greedy, while true merchants find their deals and sell for an host profit.

 

 

 

Real Merchanting takes skill

 

Making people buy items for prices above normal is lame.

[Satenza]

Not really when i merchanted i bought very low, sold very high. Theres where the money is. In raw materials you can charge what ever the hell you like if you have a massive bulk of them.

[wippy_m]

Skills are more fun. We don't play to get big numbers on our coin slot.

 

 

 

We play for fun.

 

 

 

Actually, some people also play for the challenge of achieving big things. Besides, its hard to have any fun without being able to pay for anything, which is why people make money, by whatever means.

[ChewyShoe]

I just wanted to address the majority of points made by the merchant dislikers (I won't use hate, because thats a strong word).

 

 

 

 

 

'Its just luck' - Lets look at the dictionary.com definition - 'The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events'. If it was all down to chance then you'd expect people to be at the wrong time and wrong place and lose money, this rarely happens. Also, if it was purely luck then each person would have the same chance of getting 'lucky'. If this is the case, why are some merchants able to consistently make more money than others?

 

 

 

The second part of luck I wanted to address was the reference to real life trading in the stock exchange. How the hell is that just luck? You need to know how the economy interacts with households and firms, how the inflation rate in mexico affects the price of coffee beans in Australia and how that affects the price of stock E in America. You don't just randomly buy shares and get lucky, if you did people wouldn't get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it each year.

 

 

 

 

 

'All merchants are jerks and make people pay more than they want to' - Its true that the majority (or maybe minority) or merchants are dishonest and deceiving, but its plain wrong to generalise such a large population by saying all merchants are deceiving and manipulate. People pay above average prices for products because its convient, time is worth money and if it saves them two hours to pay an extra 500k whats it to you? They can probably make 500k from skilling in two hours anyway. If you don't want to pay a price for a good, don't. Don't blame the person trying to sell it.

 

 

 

'Merchanting takes no skill, you just put stuff in the bank and it goes up' - While this is somewhat true (the you put stuff in the bank and it goes up), but not entirely. The purchasing power of your dollar goes down as more money gets injected into the economy, so really you could LOSE money by investing in party hats. Lets see an example:

 

 

 

I want to eventually get 99 smithing, it will cost me 200mill. I have two options, buy my steel bars now for 200mill or buy a pink party hat.

 

 

 

Lets say I buy the steel bars for 200mill, it costs me 200mill to get my level.

 

 

 

Lets say I invest in the party hat and then re-sell for 220mill a year, thats an increase of 10%. Now lets say steel bars have gone from 600 each to 700 each, thats an increase of OVER 10% due to inflation. Therefore I am actually loosing money.

 

 

 

 

 

'Merchanting isn't a skill, you don't get in the high scores with it, you don't get XP' - Just because you aren't in the high scores, doesn't mean you aren't skillfull or well known. Also, you can count GP on hand and GP invested in skills as net XP for merchanting. For example, lets say you value 100,000 smithing XP at 10million GP. If you can make 1mill an hr merchanting then you'd be better of merchanting unless you can do more than 10,000 smithing XP an hr.

 

 

 

 

 

Just because you feel cheated doesn't mean you should hate a whole section of people, you won't make a very diverse section of friends by doing that. I can't understand why people skill total, I don't see the enjoyment myself, it doesn't seem like its anything more than who can play the most per day. But it doesn't mean I don't socialise with skill totallers and I respect that they can have so much dedication.

 

 

 

To get respect you have to give it first, well I am more than happy to say I respect levellers of all types, how about cutting us some slack and doing the same?

[swampjedi]

I am a skiller, and xp > money in my book, for the most part. Thing is, I try to at least break even on what I use. So, I end up selling end products high and buying raw materials low. However, that only works for very large amounts. If I can offer 100k higher to buy or 100k lower to sell, and get a transaction an hour faster, I usually will - because that's time I could be gaining xp.

 

 

 

Merchanting takes real-world skill, whereas the other 21 don't. So when you quit runescape, your mining knowledge dies - but you will still be able to use your merchanting knowledge.

[x_missile_x]

edited

[silver24-7]

a friend of mine bought 1k cow hides in Fallador for 10k, and with a transportation to Al-Kharid, he managed to profit 90kÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâæ a non skilled merchant would not know how to do this, end up trying to resell in Fallador, and could lose money.

 

Well awaiting commentsÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâæ

 

 

 

I'm funny how your friend used his "skill" to sell those items 50k under their max street value hehe ;)

 

As u said a "non skilled" merchanter wouldnt know what they can get for their items and end up making 90k instead of 140k as ur friend could've done.

 

Ohw and of course its hard to merchant but I'm srry to fell that you have no idea of what it IS really about....

 

 

 

Silver24-7

[jessy87]

How dare you?

 

I bought up 30K nats planning to get 85 smithing with gold, and sold for 10% more. Didn't mean to merchant, but I've bought from my fair share of merchanters. They do anything just to make that extra cent. It's obscene and absurd.

 

 

 

 

 

omg he has a point.

 

 

 

 

 

I used to merchant. Boring, lonley and annoying. I quit doing it a while ago as it was in no way fun.

 

 

 

 

 

said like a true player.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

im sure every one, has bought something said, hey i could sell this just a lil higher, and made a profit. i dont believe thats what this topic is about

 

 

 

this topic to me, is about spending 90% of your time on world 2 or the official forums. it makes me sick to see people who basically raise their skills up to a certain lvl to obtain like 1-5mil or whatever, then went to world 2 and now have alot of $. of course i have made some money on world 2 by buyin stuff a lil low and selling it for that persons price(i dont say, its this or that i always let them offer and then accept or decline i dont manipulate them into it)

 

 

 

but seeing a lvl 80 with full dragon who has never actually cut logs mined coal or something or did this for a while to earn it it just gets to me that i prefer that when i buy something, i earned it thru a skill

[Plod2]

merchanting is just pure dumb luck...

[deangut]

OMG it's a game!

 

 

 

Merchants are fine as long as they aren't manipulating prices.

 

 

 

They collect small amounts of items and sell in bulk, thus helping "Lvl'ers"

 

 

 

Or they buy the items off "LvL'ers or Pk'ers" for the price they are looking for and re-sell it to another "LvL'ers or Pk'ers" at a profit. Helping "LvL'ers or Pk'ers" get back to their business of LvL'ing or PK'ing..

 

 

 

I find them a as a great tool in the game. Instead of selling pixels to the Gen store for a little amount of gps, you get top dollar for your pixels and quick.

 

 

 

I am no merchant! But if I see a great deal and know I can either profit off or use on a skill I don't pass it up.

 

 

 

If you have a negative feelings towards merchs then don't use them, go on about your business...

 

 

 

Anywayz... that's my 2 cents..

[meb]

I tried mechanting, and to be honest; I hated it. Not because I lost my money (I doubled it in a week actually... ), but because it just wasn't as satisfying as skill training and selling your product. The money didn't felt like "mine". I felt a lot better when I bought that 1k steel bars to lvl my smithing.

 

 

 

The point is: Merchanting is a skill, but you have to like it.

[Dazzuh]

I agree, Merchanting does require skill, but it is not one of the game's skills. I used to merchant a lot and try and get really rich, but then i realised skills were more important.

[Idarodo]

AHH! BUBSA! SAVE US FROM THAT HORRIBLE WORD!

 

 

 

If so, my merchanting lvl 1. I'm too lazy to buy someone's rune scimmy for 20 k and sell it for 27 k.

[anesthetik]

look on the skill section of the game, and do you see a skill slot called merchanting? i dont, so its not a skill.