Economy guide

The Runescape Economy can be simple or complex, with greater complexity when trading with other players. There are several distinct areas of the economy, with very different pressures and motivations, from the stratospheric and highly volatile prices of rare items, through the more powerful weapons and armours for members down to the everyday items for both members and free-to-play.

Inflation, Deflation, Stability
In general, the RuneScape economy suffers from some inflation, due to the ever-increasing number of coins in the game due to High Alchemy and other smaller factors. Gold sinks, or features that drain wealth in coins or items out of the game, include losses on banned accounts, items lost where they will not be picked up, and the cost of repairs to Barrows armour and recharging of Crystal bows.

The more recent Construction skill is the largest gold sink, as it requires a hefty investment of gold coins to raise one's level in that skill.

The economy is split-level, with the price shifts of high level items having little effect on the baseline items. The High Alchemy spell serves as another price maintainer for mid-level items - it's doubtful that the Rune medium helm would command the same, typically 10,000 coin price if it wasn't possible to make a profit on them.

Hard prices
Where you would expect to buy and sell a certain item to a store, the store price serves as a stabilzing factor, since buyers are hoping to get an item cheaper than the store would sell for and sellers are looking for a better price than the store would buy for.

Store prices shift by a certain amount depending on stock levels, and where large amounts of player-made items are sold (dumped) on a store, the prices can be seriously depressed, though this can be a good opportunity for arbitrage if you don't believe the situation will be maintained.

The only case of "hard price" inflation in Runescape, was when Jagex raised the store price of Chaos and Death runes to be close to the typical player trading price, as the low prices only aided merchants who camped on the stores and bought all the stock as it respawned.

Soft prices
Where the item cannot routinely be obtained from a store, then the trade situation is more complex, as you have to rely on finding a player trading the item you want at a price you are prepared to pay. Worlds 1 and 2 have gained a reputation as the common free-to-play and members trading worlds, though banks and Falador and Varrock are places that trades may often be found on most worlds.

As the number of richer players grows, this tends to increase the prices, as high level skill trainers will often be prepared to pay top prices to get large supplies quickly.

Merchants
Players who buy low, and sell high, often deliberatly creating a shortage of slow restocking items. This kind of merchant is not well liked.

Arbitrage
Buying up overstocked, price-depressed items cheaply, and then selling them at another store, world or later when prices have returned to normal. The level of overstocking needs to be quite severe, to ensure that the selling price bottoms-out at a level below the normal buying price of the store.

You can also modify some items, such as stringing amulets, so that they are a different item, and immediately sell a few back to the same store.

Types of item
It is reasonable to divide items into a few distinct classes.

Commodities
Items that are used in bulk, to further the development of a skill and as a raw material for production. You cannot eat a commodity, or use it in combat. These items are most commonly traded in large, noted transactions with better prices offered for larger quantities, and the store price has little effect on the price of bulk supplies. The termination of many Runescape accounts for autoing has tended to push the price of many supplies higher, due to the reduction in supplies.

Examples
 * Raw fish (rarely traded since the introduction of "Cook-X", which made cooking faster and less tedious)
 * Rune Essence (note that "pure ess" has made the ess market drop drastically)
 * Now with the release of pure essence, normal essence is useless to members and has dropped in price drastically, pure essence, can be obtained if you are a member and have at least lvl 30 mining (which means F2P players, lost a very good way of getting money.)
 * Commonly traded at the Varrock east bank, closest bank to where it can be mined
 * The best example of supply and demand, now with pure ess, normal essence prices have dropped to about 10-15 coins each, and pure essence prices have become 50-100 coins each, all these prices can vary depending on the amount that is being bought/sold and whoever is buying/selling, sometimes people who are in desperate need for something will buy it for even twice the price
 * Coal
 * A less stable market than ESS, with the most likely location being the Falador east bank, due to the proximity of the Mining Guild
 * Pressure of supply and demand is critical, and the coal market is one that has tightened significantly since the mass banning of autoers.
 * Other ores
 * Bars
 * The market price for steel bars makes it impossible for buyers to profit unless smithing cannonballs, but the price of most bars is held up by the fact that they provide concentrated smithing experience.
 * Logs (for fletching)
 * Feathers

Consumables
The difference between consumables and commodities, is that they are used up without necessarily creating any result. The trade in consumables is usually a lot slower than in commodities, since you usually only collect enough for a couple of trips.

Examples
 * Food (eg. cooked fish)
 * Runes
 * Air and Mind are in greatest demand, due to their use in strike spells
 * Law runes command high prices - in free-to-play, the price has not quite yet settled at 1000 coins each
 * Arrows
 * Potions

Finished Items
Since there is no requirement for other finished items in bulk quantities, these are normally traded to the the stores, or "alched" if the price is worth it. A problem for higher level smiths is that although there may be players who would pay more for Mithril items or above, meeting them takes a long time. Trade in finished items is very slow. Smithing "on-demand" is one way to beat low store prices, without carrying a bank-busting stock of assorted items.


 * Clay items
 * These are often found as "waste" around the pottery in the Barbarian Village, with a trail of bowls leading from the pottery back to the mine
 * Leather items
 * Armour & Weapons
 * Jewelry

Discontinued/Rare Items
The discontinued items represent an item class of their own. The discontinued items are mostly items which were given in holiday drops years ago, and the decreasing supply coupled with increasing demand continually drives prices up. The drops were given from varying monsters across the game, and were originally intended to show how long one had played. However, Jagex found that these items were being hoarded and sold later for much higher prices, due to there not being new items created ever again. In response, Jagex has created a new series of untradeable holiday items, the oldest of which was released about two years ago.


 * Party hats (all colors)
 * Christmas cracker
 * Halloween masks
 * Santa hat - 25 million - 27 million
 * Pumpkin
 * Easter egg - Newer version is at fifteen million
 * Disk of returning (not a holiday drop)
 * There once was a "black hole" that banned players were sent to. Other players could go into this hole also, and they could leave by using this. The "hole" does no longer exist.
 * Half wine (not holiday drop)
 * These were created when Jagex changed wine jugs so they were consumed in one click, not two. The people with half wines already in their banks kept them.

Availability
The level of availability of an item also has an effect on the price, or specifically, the price another player will offer.

Common
Some items are quite commonly available, but not necessarily at the location they are wanted.

Only in Al-Kharid, is the craft shop where you would buy moulds close to the furnace where you would use them. Other items are available, but the shop's stock is often depleted.

Low stock
Runes such as Chaos runes and Death runes are usually in a low stock condition, with Mind runes and Air runes often low as well, due to their use in Strike spells.

Mithril square shields are also often out of stock, while some Adamantite items can be very hard to find in stock.

No store (free world)
Shields above Mithril square, Rune helmets and a few other desirable items in the free-to-play world have no regular store, so are unavailable except by player trading or reaching the level required to make them.

Rare and semi-rare
The genuinely rare items are from the early days of Runescape, and may be found among the Rares and Holiday Drops. It is worth repeating that trimmed armour is only obtainable from members treasure trials, and no player, not even a member, can trim existing armour.

There are some pseudo-rare items in free-to-play, that are actually available to members and may be traded and used by free players. Some useful items in this category are certain items in Black, that are unavailable by any means in free-to-play:


 * Black axe
 * Black mace
 * Black medium helmet
 * Black scimitar
 * Black warhammer
 * Black two-handed sword

All other black items can be bought from stores, or can be obtained from a monster drop in free-to-play. Since black items cannot be player-made, it is not possible to smith them. Unless you insist on wielding one of these weapons instead of a black longsword, then there is no need to be held to ransom for a particular item.


 * Black kiteshield: only available as a monster drop in free-to-play
 * Black full helmet: only available in the Champions guild
 * Black scimitar: respawns on the 2nd floor of Ardougne castle.

The remaining Black armour and swords are sold in the usual stores.

There are also coloured gloves, that are cheap for members and can be traded to and worn by free players - they do not offer any advantage over plain leather.