Discontinued rare items

Discontinued items and holiday drops are items in-game that can no longer be obtained and therefore, their numbers are not increasing. However, some of these items can still be obtained through trading with other players.

It was suggested in a live video by Mod Mark that if a player with a large number of rares was banned, consideration would be given to reintroducing them into the game, possibly via the GE.

These items are now relatively few in number and are very expensive. Most of these items are holiday drops that were released years ago.

These rares are also a very important part of RuneScape's economy, many players work hard with skills to achieve a long-term goal of owning a rare and discontinued holiday item. For the most part rares either hold their value or grow, like that of a stock. In some special occasions, such as the "Unbalanced Trade Removal" update the price of rares will drop, but players can be certain that if they hold a rare long enough it will eventually be worth it because no more rares will ever enter the economy. Items such as Saradomin Godswords and Divine Spirit Shields have high prices compared to other non-discontinued items, however it is possible to get more of them. In the case of tradeable holiday items, this is not a possible reason for the price to decrease, beside a change in the Grand Exchange supply and demand.

Holiday drops
Holiday drops are items that are received on certain holidays, such as Christmas or Easter. These items are also few in number and can become very expensive over the years. Holiday drops that are wieldable are often worn by players to either show their wealth, fashion, or to show how long they've played. Previously, holiday items were tradeable. However, to prevent players from holding onto the items and selling them for a small fortune, Jagex currently makes new holiday items un-tradeable except for the past years (The Scythe and Rubber Chicken are the only exceptions).

Before 22 December 2003
When RuneScape Classic was still known as RuneScape, Jagex decided that they would drop items randomly across RuneScape on certain holidays.

On Easter, Halloween, and Christmas, Jagex would drop a certain item. For example, in December 2001 during Christmas, Jagex dropped 'Christmas Crackers'. These Christmas crackers could only be obtained during a certain day during December. When a player walked around RuneScape, they may have seen a Christmas cracker pop up out of nowhere on the ground nearby. This was how the items were dropped.

Originally dropped for fun, Jagex kept this going on for a few more years. An item would be dropped every Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. Unfortunately, players began to notice that these items could not be obtained any more unless they were bought from other players. Seeing this, players began to buy the holiday items low, and then sell them at an incredibly high price. This started the rise in the prices for holiday items. Players were also angry that they missed the drops. Players would complain to Jagex demanding that they redo the drop. Jagex decided to make the next few drops untradeable. However, this only enraged players even more.

Jagex, realising what was happening with the Christmas cracker, decided to stop holiday drops, as players were becoming too greedy. On 22 December 2003, Jagex put an announcement on RuneScape's main page, saying that they were ceasing holiday drops. From then on, tradeable items were no longer dropped on holidays.

After December 22, 2003
A year passed and no holiday drop was made. However, on 21 December 2004, Jagex changed that. Santa Claus was placed in the game and gave a Yo-yo to players who talked to him (They were untradeable). After the Yo-yo, Jagex introduced tasks players had to complete to obtain the holiday item, starting with the Rubber chicken.

Replacing holiday items
If you have lost your item or destroyed it, you may be able to get it back if it is non-tradeable. Ask Thessalia in the Varrock clothing store south-west of the main fountain for your Bunny ears or Scythe back and she will happily oblige. If you have lost your Zombie head, you can dig in the Lumbridge Swamp with a spade to obtain another. You can also get it back by talking to Diango. If you have lost a Marionette you can get another in a box near the entrance to the Christmas workshop of the Christmas 2005 event and Halloween 2006 event. All other such items can be obtained by speaking with Diango in the Draynor Marketplace. Diango will replace most non-tradeable holiday items. Some items appear twice, for example, the Yule log, mulled wine, scrambled eggs (items from the '08 Christmas Event) returned to all members during the 2012 Christmas event. They could be reobtained by barehanded catching and looting snow implings. In the 2013 Christmas event they could be obtain through opening Festive Crackers, purchased from Diango, and claimed for free at the Wizard Serving Tables.

June 6, 2012; The return of tradable rares
For the first time since 2002, Jagex released a new tradable rare item into the game obtainable through the Squeel of Fortune, the Fish Mask. This was released in large quantities and is consequently the cheapest of all tradable rares. Since then, the Christmas Tree Hat, Crown of Seasons, Black Santa Hat and Cloak of Seasons have all been introduced as tradable holiday rares. While the Fish Mask, the Christmas Tree Hat, and the Crown and Cloak of Seasons could all be obtained on the Squeel of Fortune and were criticized as being "RWT Rares", the Black Santa Hat was released through a semi-novel mechanism which was not influenced by the spending of real-world money.

The Black Santa Hat was released in minimal quantities through a new version of the Christmas Cracker - the Festive Cracker (which was removed from the game at the end of the 2013 Christmas season). The cracker was obtained through the completion of daily tasks, the Festive Cryptic Clue Fest, and a few forum contests. The crackers were relatively easy to obtain but the chance of receiving the hat from a cracker was incredibly low and the total number of Black Santa Hats which were released into the game is believed to be extremely small, so much so that it is now worth more than the original red Santa Hat and is by far the most valuable of the new generation of tradable rares.

Event items
Shaded items can be traded.

Discontinued items
Shaded items can be traded.
 * 1) For a list of Holiday rewards, click here.

Random Event Items
After the removal of random events, certain items related to them became unobtainable by any means. However, the costumes that they used to reward could be purchased exclusively from Iffie's Random Costume Shop which is located in Thessalia's Fine Clothes in central Varrock.