Junk Trading: Acceptable, Practical Practice?

Junk trading... personally, I used to dislike the concept. I thought you might as well be scamming a person the old way because those JUNK items you put up to increase your "profit" are items your buyer aren't meant to sell again.

If you see it that way, then you obviously don't accept junk trading. If you see junk trading as a way around the "broken GE" and a method to buy and sell at accurate prices, then you most likely accept the idea. But do you think it's practical too?

There are different ways of collecting junk discussed and debated on later pages. Some are impractical, such as collecting junk at a slow rate in order to save possible profit loss in mass producing better junk. Others make more sense, like finding junk which you can produce quickly without spending.

I'm going to be honest. When I began this thread my opinion wasn't very well informed. I saw junk trading as a way to try and manipulate prices. But one an a half pages in brought me to the realization that yes... the GE is in fact broken and people are just junk trading to make a deal on a more accurate price.

Yes. If a person is going through with a junk trade to buy something, they probably aren't desperate, but agree with the price achieved with junk.

Discuss. What you think of junk trading. Do you do it? Why or why not? How do you go about doing it? What are some of the market effects of junk trading?

I would like to thank all of the contributors of this thread. My first hot topic :)

I don't really mind it, it isn't against the rules or anything of that sort.

It gets the job done.

So if it gets the job done, you must be good at conjuring up junk... I guess you don't just buy junk to resell it along with a good item? That would be pointless.

i was talking to my brother today and i realized that if i ever got a good t trail like 3rd age i wouldnt bother selling it on gebecause some one would just junk trade it and make bank off of it. and i definently dont have the money or time to set up a junk trade.

Mmm, that's why I think it's as good as scamming... because those people you're trading with don't intend on you selling the junk.

Not that all people who frequently junk trade have that intention.. but otherwise they don't make a profit.

you're not selling it for a ridiculous high, unfair price you're selling it for the true price. it's just a way of getting around jagex's incompetence :|

Haha, I like you're strong opinion. But how many people do you think are willing to do junk trades if they knew they couldn't pawn off the junk that gets sold to them?

So if it gets the job done, you must be good at conjuring up junk... I guess you don't just buy junk to resell it along with a good item? That would be pointless.

I buy items I want with their junk, I reuse it when I want to sell my stuff.

Recycling, the possibilities really are endless.

The only way it would be considered scamming is if you deceived the other player into thinking that those items were worth their GE value. Otherwise the player is simply paying what he thinks the value of the item is.

The law of supply and demand dictates that if no one is selling the item on the GE the value of it to that player goes up.

Junk trading though hurts the chances of the GE prices ever changing, because if everyone is not selling the item in the GE the price will remain at it's low price.

EDIT:

Haha, I like you're strong opinion. But how many people do you think are willing to do junk trades if they knew they couldn't pawn off the junk that gets sold to them?

I believe all of them would. Person paying 200m for a third age plate could do so like before the trade update. Now with controlled prices he is actually getting more. The seller is actually the one getting "scammed"

Junk is hard to make, many people do not seem to recognize that. You can easily make more money by actually earning it then you can "creating" it by making most junk, except for the fairly secret ones. On top of that, Jagex is relentlessly fixing every junk item one by one, and sooner or later all that junk your planning to use will be worthless again according to the GE.

you're not selling it for a ridiculous high, unfair price you're selling it for the true price. it's just a way of getting around jagex's incompetence :|

Said Larry Carter, a 52 year old man from Orego, on his way into the courtroom. Mr. Carter was arrested by the Secret Service for 18 counts of fraud and tax evasion.

It's easy to justify things. For one, who sets this "true price?" Because looking at the junk prices of items on the Runescape forums, they are every which way. There is no "true price." It's only true in the eyes of who is selling it.

It's an unfortunate byproduct of jagex's flawed system. If people can't buy/sell for the prices they want, junk trading is the only option to resort to.

The way I see it, junk trading is a way for skillers to buy things for cheaper. The by products that most skillers make are usually worth less than what was originally used to make it (Which btw, is the exact opposite IRL). They then use these items to purchase more materials for their skilling needs. It's like a secondary currency, just using items one has no use for. But money has no other use than to buy items as well, so why does this make junk trading not acceptable?

Heres another way to think about it. Summoning has you getting charms, as well as buying many shards and secondary ingredients. Your finished product is either a pouch, or 10 scrolls from that pouch. You can either use the pouch for your own needs, or "sell" it. But no one actually buys most pouches, so what use do they have? Junk trading.

The way I see it, junk trading is a way for skillers to buy things for cheaper. The by products that most skillers make are usually worth less than what was originally used to make it (Which btw, is the exact opposite IRL). They then use these items to purchase more materials for their skilling needs. It's like a secondary currency, just using items one has no use for. But money has no other use than to buy items as well, so why does this make junk trading not acceptable?

 

Yes, this junk can act as a currency. But if you were selling something in real life, and someone offered you Iraqi money or something that had little value to you, would be hard to use in other transactions, and worst of all, had questionable stability (could change in value at any moment), why would you want that currency?

In real life we're able to say no and ask for whatever currency we want. But in runescape we can't. And that's an almost game-breaking problem.

The way I see it, junk trading is a way for skillers to buy things for cheaper. The by products that most skillers make are usually worth less than what was originally used to make it (Which btw, is the exact opposite IRL). They then use these items to purchase more materials for their skilling needs. It's like a secondary currency, just using items one has no use for. But money has no other use than to buy items as well, so why does this make junk trading not acceptable?

 

 

 

Heres another way to think about it. Summoning has you getting charms, as well as buying many shards and secondary ingredients. Your finished product is either a pouch, or 10 scrolls from that pouch. You can either use the pouch for your own needs, or "sell" it. But no one actually buys most pouches, so what use do they have? Junk trading.

I'd rather just trade in the pouch for shards :-). That's why sometimes, people are fooling themselves. When people are selling third age plates for 300m they arent really getting 300m. Say, the seller sells with onyx necklaces. He must have gotten these onyx necklaces himself somewhere? If he would have bought onyxes and crafted them into necklaces, he "makes" 500k per necklace. 300M (minus plate 37m) is rougly 90 necklaces. So he only "makes" 45m. The seller on the other hand gets an item worth 900k (if he enchants it), so he's "losing" 81m.

You can follow the same logic with any other item. Pouches, you get back around the same price in shards (for crimson ones). So basicly, you're not even losing money. However, if you do decide to trade in, you got tons of shards which you need to sell. And quite funny, shards are overpriced, so people will offer cash and junk for them...

Anyway, you can still make back about 60-90 percent of the cash you payed for the pouches. This means the seller is only "making" 10-40 percent of the "extra money" he's asking. With extra money I mean the extra money the buyer has to add for the junk. (say a mage hat: GE price 7.7M, Junk price 80M, seller adds 73M in junk, but in reality, he's only "making" around 10-20M (from that 73)).

On the other hand, scrolls cant be exhanged for shards. So the only use for scrolls (and onyx necklaces etc) is to use them again, when YOU are selling an underpriced item.

Quite a stupid situation TBH. I luckily got hold of a 3A kite and 3a mage hat, and I cant sell them since I have no junk. (and refuse to sell at Jagex's silly price). Making junk doesnt seem an option, since I'd better be runecrafting then.

(I find it ironic how people are advising to make maples longs (u) or buy pouches lowest in GE to get junk)

Junk trading is the reason I deal exclusively with the GE. If i wanted a heap of crap I would have asked for it.

The way I see it, junk trading is a way for skillers to buy things for cheaper. The by products that most skillers make are usually worth less than what was originally used to make it (Which btw, is the exact opposite IRL). They then use these items to purchase more materials for their skilling needs. It's like a secondary currency, just using items one has no use for. But money has no other use than to buy items as well, so why does this make junk trading not acceptable?

 

 

Yes, this junk can act as a currency. But if you were selling something in real life, and someone offered you Iraqi money or something that had little value to you, would be hard to use in other transactions, and worst of all, had questionable stability (could change in value at any moment), why would you want that currency?

 

 

 

In real life we're able to say no and ask for whatever currency we want. But in runescape we can't. And that's an almost game-breaking problem.

And that's the exact problem. You can't say yes or no. The very people who say this is "necessary" are the ones who are abusing it and getting rich off of it. It either needs to be properly reformed, or murdered. It's going to boil down to Jagex either making one item trades or just removing the trading system period.

The way I see it is, since Jagex basically controls most of the market now, players have had to resort to junk trading to get the price that it SHOULD have been (because of the 5% higher/lower restrictions)

A shame that I can't get full 3a melee now because of it though :cry: I want the set by the time I get 99 slayer - which is really soon - so there goes that plan :lol:

The way I see it is, since Jagex basically controls most of the market now, players have had to resort to junk trading to get the price that it SHOULD have been (because of the 5% higher/lower restrictions)

 

 

 

A shame that I can't get full 3a melee now because of it though :cry: I want the set by the time I get 99 slayer - which is really soon - so there goes that plan :lol:

Good Lord, son. Jagex does not control the prices, PLAYERS DO. The reason price floors don't disappear is because Jagex set parameters for player transactions to change the pricing.

If Jagex can't have a proper economy running in their game, and they've left holes like these for the players, why not? It's not right for us to get something, or make it, and then have it undersold, or oversold? That just takes the motivation out of most of RuneScape; for money.

In my opinion junk trading does not exisit.

If something is being used for something then it is hardly junk is it ;)

The person who recieves the "junk" in the trade still has those items, and can just use them in another junk trade or even sell on the GE as people are buying "junk" items.

It's a totally stupid practice. If I got a Dragon Full Helm I would put it on the GE at high price. Why would I want to activley seek out "junk" to get more? I'd have spent that extra in getting the junk.

How many people have that much stuff in there banks? I know unstrung bows are common, but then fletchers buy these for fast XP. Scrolls? People exchange pouches for shards these days. Maybe the odd potion, but potions are so cheap you'd need thousands, lying around, in your bank.

So yeah junk isn't junk if it has a purpose.

you're not selling it for a ridiculous high, unfair price you're selling it for the true price. it's just a way of getting around jagex's incompetence :|

No the true price is the GE price.

Like it or not what Jagex say an item is worth, is what it is worth. Adding "junk" to it isn't selling it for more, it's adding to it's value.

Also if people do junk trade then the GE will never have the "correct" price in it as most junk trades consist of med price.

so yeah ive decided anythin valuable i get i guess ill keep untill they finally fix all the prices.

The way I see it, junk trading is a way for skillers to buy things for cheaper. The by products that most skillers make are usually worth less than what was originally used to make it (Which btw, is the exact opposite IRL). They then use these items to purchase more materials for their skilling needs. It's like a secondary currency, just using items one has no use for. But money has no other use than to buy items as well, so why does this make junk trading not acceptable?

 

 

Yes, this junk can act as a currency. But if you were selling something in real life, and someone offered you Iraqi money or something that had little value to you, would be hard to use in other transactions, and worst of all, had questionable stability (could change in value at any moment), why would you want that currency?

 

 

 

In real life we're able to say no and ask for whatever currency we want. But in runescape we can't. And that's an almost game-breaking problem.

 

 

 

And that's the exact problem. You can't say yes or no. The very people who say this is "necessary" are the ones who are abusing it and getting rich off of it. It either needs to be properly reformed, or murdered. It's going to boil down to Jagex either making one item trades or just removing the trading system period.

In theory no one is getting rich from it as the trade is balanced. Seller gets cash, buyer gets "junk" but the buyer still has items to the value of to use in another trade/sell.

If anyone gets rich it's due to price flucuations and/or merchanting junk.