Price manipulation

Price Manipulation is a deliberate changing of price that usually occurs on the forums. In this type of scam, the player will deliberately overprice their item and then try to rally other players to do the same, leaving the buyer with high prices. Not all players who are told to raise their prices will. Anyone caught doing this act or aiding it by also raising their prices is subject to being banned from the forums. Merchanting is not overpricing.

One of the most overpriced items on the Official Forums are gems.

This Scam can still be seen today with the Grand exchange but in a fairly different way. Players will go to a merchanting clan and be told to buy an item that the clan owner already bought mass amounts of, so the price will go up. The leader will then sell his items, and once the leader finishes selling, they will tell the rest of the clan to dump. Since the price is so high, no one will be buying them, causing the price to plummet and the rest of the clan to lose money.

An example of Price Manipulation on the Official Forums

 * Seller: Selling 20 uncut saphs for 800gp each
 * Seller: Also selling 10 cut diamonds 5K each
 * Window Shopper: Hey, I can get those much cheaper in F2P
 * Seller: Well it's my prices or no gems
 * Window Shopper: This is SO overpriced!
 * Seller: Well it wont be if everyone makes it this price.
 * Seller goes to Seller 2 and tells him to raise his prices.
 * Seller 2 raises his prices.