Analysis of Oldschool Runescape’s Most Profitable Money-Maker
http://oldschoolrunescape.wikia.com/wiki/Merchanting
http://oldschoolrunescape.wikia.com/wiki/Bandos_godswordhttp://oldschoolrunescape.wikia.com/wiki/Bandos_godsword
Oldschool Runescape (osrs) is a popular multiplayer online role playing game, where the player must complete quests, train skills, and fight monsters to achieve wealth, fame, and glory. One of the most notable parts of the game is The Grand Exchange, where players submit offers to buy items from other players. Here’s an example of how it works: player1 goes to The Grand Exchange and wants to put in an offer to buy a steel axe with an average traded price of 26 coins. If some player2 puts in an offer to sell a steel axe for 26 coins or less, player1’s offer is accepted and the steel axe is traded at a price of 26 coins. Both players know the average traded price of the steel axe, but if the offer isn’t fulfilled immediately, some players are willing to pay a higher price if they want it more urgently. Similarly, other players are willing to sell their item at a lower price to fulfill the offer quicker. Both of these acts give rise to the most lucrative money-making effect in Oldschool Runescape called merchanting (merching).
Merching refers to the process of systematically making offers less than the average traded price of an item, then selling it for higher. There are many methodologies for going about this, but I’ll start by covering only a few.
Investing:
This refers to the act of purchasing items and holding them over a long period of time in
the hopes that they increase in value, only to sell them later. There are several ways of
predicting when an item will rise in price. The biggest rises in price are caused by the
game updates. This is best described by an example.
Case Study: The Bandos Godsword Update
A few weeks ago, the Bandos Godsword (bgs) was a two handed melee weapon with one of the highest strength bonuses in the game. Unfortunately for the bgs, the Armadyl Godsword (ags) was exactly the same as the bgs except for its special attack. The ags’ special used 50% of the player’s special attack energy, allowing the player to use it twice in a row, and had a maximum hit of 83, and could be used in conjunction with the granite maul, dealing another max of 45 damage. The Bandos Godsword’s special attack used 65% of the player’s special attack energy, lowered the opponent’s defence, and had a maximum hit of 85, and could not be used with the granite maul. Thus, the ags was objectively better than the bgs, so the ags sat at an average price of around 27 million coins, whereas the bgs averaged around 2 million coins. Then, the developers of Oldschool Runescape announced polled whether or not to buff the bgs’ special attack. Anticipating that its special attack consumption would be reduced, and that it would pass the required 80% approval, I and other smart players bought several Bandos Godsword’s at around 2.1 million gp. Following this, the developers simply reduced the special attack requirement to 50%, updated the Bandos Godsword’s special attack to use only 50% of its special attack allowing it to be used with the granite maul. This made the bgs one of the most powerful weapons in oldschool runescape, and caused a huge increase in demand for the item. I sold my lot of 10 godswords in the grand exchange at a price just below the peak of 6.2 million coins. Additionally, I correctly predicted the fall of the ags’ price from 27 million coins to only 22 million, since the bgs a better substitute for the ags. Moral of the story, I made about 41 million coins simply by taking part in a poll, making a lucky guess, and making two offers in 5 minutes.
Case Study: Flipping
Another great way to make money merching is flipping. Flipping is the process of determining the lowest and highest prices that an item is currently being bought and sold instantly for. These are the lowest currently traded offers for the item. With this information, the player can offer to buy the item at slightly lower than the lowest sold price, and then sell it at a higher price of around the lowest currently sold price. This allows a player to capitialise on these “margins”, and thus make a profit.
These are two of the most profitable methods of merching in Oldschool Runescape, and are only prevalent due to the large network effects of Oldschool Runescape’s economy.