Spirit shards

Spirit shards are used in the Summoning skill along with charms to create pouches to summon Familiars. Players can purchase spirit shards from Pikkupstix in Taverley (at the starting point of the Wolf Whistle quest) for 25 coins each, and at the other Summoning Shops (including the Pet shops). 65,000 spirit shards are in stock. Players who desire large numbers of shards may also buy Spirit shards packs from Pikkupstix, each of which contains 5000 spirit shards. 65,000 spirit shards packs are in stock, effectively giving the stores infinite stocks of spirit shards.

The High Level Alchemy value of Summoning pouches is directly related to the number of spirit shards required:
 * (Spirit shards x 15) + 254 = High Level Alchemy value.

History
When Summoning was released, spirit shards were 50 coins each. This high price stirred a lot of criticism from players who felt they were too expensive. Players also complained that familiars were not very useful. Jagex initially countered that the price of shards and the number needed for each pouch type was carefully considered and meant to balance the true worth of the summoned familiar. However, in the face of continuing complaints - and possibly as economic changes resulting from the game modifications interrupting Real-World Trading and Unbalanced Trade became apparent - Jagex made several changes trying to address the concerns of players regarding the Summoning skill.

In the Summoning Changes update of the 17 January 2008 (just two days after Summoning was released), they decreased the shard price from 50 to 25 coins each. In the Summoning 2 update of the 31 March 2008, they made several changes to make the familiars themselves more cost-effective and useful.

Until September 2009, spirit shards were a "junk" item that were rarely bought for 25 coins each. Players often sold spirit shards for 20 coins or lower each, plus junk, on the forums. It was also possible to buy pouches and swap to Bogrog to obtain shards cheaper than 25 coins each without junk. For example, a granite lobster pouch worth about 2700 coins on the Grand Exchange gave 117 shards (2925 coins at 25 each), which is under 23.1 coins per shard.

Originally, spirit shards could not be traded on the Grand Exchange, but in September 2008, Jagex made it so players can buy spirit shards on the Grand Exchange, with minimum, median, and maximum price of 25 coins, and a buy limit of 10,000 per four hours.

In September 2009, Jagex removed the infinite stock of spirit shards from the shops, instead giving them a personalized stock of 65,000. Many players complained that this was too low of a stock, especially combined with the "Buy-500" instead of "Buy-X". In response, Jagex created Spirit shards packs, effectively returning infinite stock of Spirit shards. An option to sell spirit shards to pet store owners (such as the one in Yanille) was also added. With just four clicks, up to 50,000 shards can be sold at a time for 25 coins each. Thus, spirit shards can now be guaranteed to be bought or sold in extremely large quantities for 25 coins each. They are no longer a junk item, and there are no longer any pouches worth significantly under 25 coins times the shards received from Bogrog.

Spirit shards may be used to replace money due to their guaranteed buy and sell price of 25 coins each. This is useful for players who have over the cash limit of 2,147,483,647 coins.

Swapping
An ogre, called Bogrog, has the ability to exchange shards for completed pouches. Bogrog is at the obelisk and Summoning shop near the entrance to the ogre city of Gu'Tanoth. He will swap out summoning pouches or summoning scrolls for 70% of the shards it took to make it, rounded up to the nearest whole shard.

However, players need minimum Summoning levels, which begin at 21 and increases for higher summoning pouches. For example, a spirit terrorbird pouch requires level 52 Summoning and 12 spirit shards to make. Trading it to Bogrog requires level 58 Summoning, and yields 9 spirit shards in return.