Merchanting Logs on the Grand Exchange

Using merchanting logs while merchanting on the Grand Exchange are a great way to improve your skills and abilities as a merchanter.  Merchanting logs are essentially a sort of diary of when you bought what item, for how much and how many - as well as when you sold and if you were in profit or loss.  Whenever you make an entry I'd definitely consider writing down as well where you went wrong and what you could do to improve next time. Sometimes even if I've made money I'll write down where I went wrong, because sometimes I'll take a risk I know I shouldn't and it'll luckily pay of - but this doesn't mean that that I did was right, what I did was stupid and I got lucky and it's as simple as that.

Using this type of diary is a great way to help you improve in what you do because you can look back over what you've done and slowly but surely lower the amounts of errors your make.  The common merchanting error a lot of people make isn't in picking the wrong item, most people are quite good at picking the right item but they're bad at knowing when to sell.  It's far better to make lots of small to moderate gains then to lose constantly and only get a few big wins.  When you've made a tidy profit then get out and keep it, eventually whatever it is you've bought into will drop and the longer you hold onto it the greater the chance of it dropping in value.  I'd definitely say as a rule that if you're making 5-15% you should definitely sell the item, if you wait for it to crash not only will you not make any money but there's a massive chance you'll actually lose it.

What's more important is that lots of small victories are far better than a few big ones.  Constantly making the right decisions will clear your mind for the trades to come and it'll give you a much better mind set.  What you definitely don't want is to be sitting at the edge of your seat completely nervous because you know you're probably going to lose money!

Merchanting Logs on the Grand Exchange help you achieve all these things and more, check them out!

Merchant Clans on Runescape

One group of clan that have risen with the introduction of the Grand Exchange are called Merchant Clans.  These are clans which in theory merchant items together for the benefit of everyone.  The reality is far from the truth because most of these clans exist purely to serve the leaders and the players who set the items to merchant.

In theory what should happen is that the clan leaders pick an item and tell everyone to buy this item at the same time for a higher value than what it's actually worth.  Other players in Runescape can't buy this item for its regular price so buy it for its higher price pushing up the value further.  Once the item has risen in value the clans leaders should then tell everyone to sell at the same time ensuring that everyone receives an equal and relative profit.  In reality of course this doesn't happen and most people lose money.  What happens is that the clan leaders buy the item days before everyone stocking up with large amounts.  They tell everyone to buy after they've already bought a lot, and they then sell it before telling everyone else to sell it.  This ensures they make a profit, and all but ensures that everyone else not told what item to buy actually lose money.  It's similar in a sense to a quasi Runescape ponzi scheme where only the first few layers of people at the top make money, and everyone else serves to make them money not themselves money which is obviously how it should be.

If you are interested in making money from Merchanting there are a few tips I can give you that'll definitely help you out.  First tip, find a merchanting partner!  One big problem is that it's hard to buy and sell items quickly for profit because when you buy an item you're never quite sure if you could've bought it cheaper unless you're willing to wait for 30 minutes or so each time you attempt to buy it.  With a friend he can tell you prices to buy and sell for for different items, and you can do the same for him.  It seriously makes things much easier.

One thing's for sure, merchant clans on Runescape are not good for money unless you're at the very top scamming everyone else!