I feel that Jagex (the maker of runescape and fun orb) did an overall great job with runescape. I know that the fighting of runescape sucks, all you do is click on the monster and decide how you will attack (slash, stab, ect.). I feel like it should be a little more hands on, and you should get to have more options than that.

I feel however, that the Grand Exchange was one of the best ideas in a game that I have ever seen! I like how its entirly dependant upon supply and demand of the players. Jagex rarely steps in to stabalize a price; however, when it does, its normally for a good reason. I make so much money merchanting in the Grand Exchange in Varrock, that I now rarely leave it. I mostly just like to make money in the game by merchanting; however, Jagex was open to many other skills and you can make your way through the game with only one skill if you really want to. The skills (woodcutting, runecrafting, firemaking, fishing, herblore, agility, hunting, farming, slayer, and ect.) are as much part of the game as the fighting is.

I have found that if you have over about 500k, merchanting is a great way to make money. I merch many differnet items and make millions of gold pieces. If you do decide to merch however, I don't recomend trusting merching clans too much, you may buy some of the items that they are buying; but, don't trust when they will stop rasing the price of the items in the Grand Exchange! They often are selfish and sell thier items before they tell you to sell yours. This way, everyone will sell thier item, the price plumet down, no one will buy the item anymore, the merch clan heads will make max profit (often hundreds of million with a single item, and you are stuck with some items that your losing money on by the minute, and no one will buy them from you.

To get up to about 500k or more on a free world (with not training your combat level), I suggest that you start out mining clay and selling it until you can buy some buckets (I suggest at least 200 buckets). Then you should fill the buckets with water and store them in your bank while you go mine some more clay. Next, you should add the water to the recently mined clay, to obtain soft clay! You can sell soft clay in the Grand Exchange for huge profits! Once you have about 50k worth of money, you can try to buy your clay in the Grand Exchange to quicken up the proccess of making soft clay.

For members, you can still make soft clay with clay bracelets, so when you mine, you dirrectly mine soft clay instead of going through the tiring water proccess. I however, have found a better way to make money as a member than soft clay. I find that its quickest to play god wars (if you have the level), or to collect herbs from Chaos Druids. I collect my herbs in the underground area just West of Falador (marked with an "!" on your map). Ranarr sells for huge profits!! I have sold a single ranarr for like 10k (keep in mind I had like 50 ranarr when I sold them at this price)!!!

I currently have 5 differnent accounts (Palodin6, Palodin66, Palodin666, Palodin6666, and Palodin66666 ~ I know, I am very inventive when it comes to my characters names.) and often give advise to other players on good ways to level up and make money. My main account (Palodin6) is a member and can do many things within the game. If you want to ask me any questions about this game, feel free to ask me here on this blog or go onto www.runescape.com (make an account if you don't already have one) and add me as a friend so that I can try to help you in any way that i possibly can.

I actually play runescape the most out all any online game, so i highly recomend that if you have never played the game (or used to play and want to get back into it), that you should make an account with Jagex (or use an old account). So, I hope that I gave at least a few people some insite into this game called Runescape.

uhh for ur information, merching, the term, isnt used for only these merching clans. it is used as a term for something else-to buy low and sell high. dont make me put down a whole merching guide now, but basicly, merch clans are <beep>. they're lame. unless you own one... ;)
one way to make money on the ge is to buy for market price and sell for max price. works well on most highly traded items. the less traded ones, buy low, sell market. the extremely little traded ones, buy low, sell max...

of course, there are tricks and all, but thats just a basic way.
another is to take advantages of the poor suckers who bought into the merching clan idea-when the prices are plummeting, look at how much they USED to be. (works best for very low value items, 1-100gp) wait for the MINIMUM price to reach a bit lower than the previous market price. buy at a little less than the average previous price...

yeah. kinda simple. if u dont want to piggy back to the merch beast, u can try merching volatile items like gems.
go find out urself. like i did. in game. stop reading forum shiz for this kind of info. :P

It is also called merchanting. Buy low, sell high is common knowledge. I don't think you'll see any merchant buying high and selling low.
Also, feel free to put down a merchant's guide on this forum, it is already too overdone and a huge waste of time for me to read at least.
Yeah, merchanting clans are pretty lame unless you own them, since the owners are the ones gaining the most profit since they have already begun buying out the item before it was even released to the rest of the clan.

There are tricks of the trade, yes. There are also good skill merchant's too.
Skill merchants being those who take time to invest in a production skill, then merch their inventory, thus making greater profits.
For instance, the new extreme potions. This is one way I made 3m per hour for about three days. (16m in all woot!)
Take time to research a *base skill, then be sure to pick it up, or go a step lower and provide for the base skiller with items that require no skill to actually obtain.

What I did was think of the base skill for the extreme potions (herblore) and I figured out it was hunting.
Hunting being the skill to get Pawya meat, then hunting Grenwalls for their spikes.
In order for them to get Pawya meat, they need the fruit Papaya, which can be bought for 1.2k each, or obtained by using a Fruit Bat (69 summoning required) and a Fruitfall scroll.
I figured that since I have 87 summoning, I could buy 1k scrolls for 310gp each, making 310k cash spent.
I started doing it, and while actually making the papaya, some clan was merchanting them, making the price rise for me.
After I finished I ended up with 955 Papaya (45 dud scrolls) and made around 3m cash.
I continued to do it as the papaya rose to 2.9k and made my final 6m profit before it began to climb down from max price due to market flooding.

Other than skill merchanting, I am completely against the concept of merchant clans as well as solo merchants who buy and sell items in the Grand Exchange only.
Goodluck to those of you who invested in becoming a merchant, though I look higher upon players who actually work for their money.

*base skill is the lowest skill in the skill triangle. Examples: Woodcutting, Crafting, Fletching; woodcutting makes bows(u), crafters pick and spin flax making bow string, and fletchers buy out both items to create the finished product.

Notes:

Buying items such as a Pestle and Mortar, Eye of Newt, as well as Vials from certain general shops will make you money if sold in G.E, Pestle and Mortar sometimes will go for 10k each through trading someone, though usually seen going for 1k-5k in trade only. It'll make decent money especially whenever you stop at your local Bank or the G.E.


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Getting back to the gaming part, Jagex is working really hard to fix all the bugs and make this a really good MMORPG game. The graphics are getting better, the items are getting better, as well as new skills and extensions to the game.
I'm proud to be a RuneScape player, and I hope they continue making changes for the best.