Trading

Trading involves buying other players items for an an equivalent amount of items or gold.

Initiating a Trade
To trade with someone, you right-click them and select the "Trade with" option. The message "Sending trade offer..." will appear in your chat box, and "Player1 wishes to trade with you" will appear in theirs, in which "Player1" is replaced by your character name. Then that person must click on that message and the trade window will open.

However, if the person you are trying to trade is trading with someone else, using a bank, has equip window open, etc., then "The other player is busy at the moment" will show in your chat box instead of "Sending trade offer..." Wait for them to finish what they are doing.

First Trade Window
The trade window has 3 main parts: your offer, trader's (other person or opponent) offer, and scale. There is also an accept button, decline button, and slots left box.

Your offer is on the left. It contains everything you are willing to exchange for what is in your opponent's offer. To offer items/coins, click on the item/coins in your inventory, or right-click them and select an option if you wish to offer more than 1 item or coin. Remove them the same way, except click on them from your offer.

The trader's offer is on the right. It is what your opponent will give for what you offer. They will offer things the same way you do.

The scale, on the bottom, calculates the Grand Exchange values of all of your items, adds them together, and compares the total value to that of your opponent's. The difference (x) is shown as "Wealth transfer: x coins worth to me" if your opponent's (Player2) offer is worth more than yours, or "Wealth transfer: x coins worth to Player2" will show instead if your offer was of greater value. This text will be in red if the trade is too unbalanced (See Trade limit). If the trade is completely balanced, meaning that the total values of both offers are exactly the same, then "No net wealth transfer" shows on the scale instead.

Once you are satisfied with the trade, click "Accept" to proceed. When your opponent has also clicked Accept, the second trade window appears.

If you do not wish to trade with the player anymore, click "Decline" to close the trade window.

NOTE: When an item or coin is removed from an offer, a big red flashing exclamation point will appear where the item used to be.

Second Trade Window
The second window is to confirm your trade, so both players have a final chance to agree to the terms. It has lists of both offers and the accept/decline buttons. The red exclamation mark still flashes by any items that were replaced, decreased, or removed. It is advised to look through your opponent's offer carefully before clicking accept. When both players have clicked accept, the trade is completed and you will receive what was in the other player's offer.

Trade limits
Examine the table below before reading this article OR merchanting items by trading with other players. Note that free-to-play trade limits are limited to 10,000 coins no matter how many quest points they have.

Trading worlds and locations
Varrock's Grand Exchange has the most traders in free to play and pay to play RuneScape.

The Grand Exchange is hard to work with because messages disappear very quickly. Also, most players trade around the west bank. It is best to put your public chat on HIDE when going into that area, as the text can overwhelm your screen. The Grand Exchange on Worlds 1 and 2 is crowded at peak times, but it is probably the best trading opportunity in RuneScape.

The general store in Varrock world 1 and 2 can have goodies worth buying and reselling every minute as players lose patience with the flood of messages and the inability to locate potential trades first.

Although this is still true to some degree, the addition of the Grand Exchange in Varrock has shifted much of the trading in Varrock to here, and reduced the numbers of people trading face to face.

Official trading worlds:

Free worlds: 1, 3, 4, 5, and 105 Members worlds: 2, 27, and 100

About quantities

 * It is possible to get good deals on certain quantities of items depending on location and the buyer/seller.
 * Trade most items in multiples of 1,000, as it saves time. Reliable and hassle-free 1,000 trades quickly become popular for somewhat better prices
 * Also, when buying items in large quantities, the game forums hosts many sellers.

Where to trade
Most players wishing to exchange items congregate around the Grand Exchange in Varrock.

How to check if an item can be traded
If you're wondering whether an item is tradeable, the best option is to use the Grand Exchange Database located here.

You can also use the Price Checker on your equipment panel.