Merchanting / Flipping

How much money to start with

Before you start to merch you should make sure that you have enough spare money so that if stuff goes sour you will not rage quit. Also its hard to turn profits with less than 500k to start.

How to select your item

Choosing your item is different depending on your merching experience as well as wealth. If you have little to no experience with merching start with small items to build confidence and skill. Do not merch an item that will take all of your money to buy one. I recommend that you can at least buy 3-4 of an item before you start to buy it.

All items that you merch should first be searched for on the runescape GE data base. Graphs are what are important here. Only the data from after free trade is relevant to you. There is only three possible graphs that you care about.
1)The staircase graph-The GE only updates its price by 5% when it
updates. If the graph is rising up like a staircase that means it is
constantly jumping its 5% and is not close to where it will level out.

2)The dip-Look for a graph that was stable for a really long time then
dipped really far and is now curving back up. Make sure that this item
is a relevant item and has a reason to be climbing again.

3)Stable graph-This graph is looks like the teeth of a saw and has no
major ups or downs found in it. This graph may also have a gentle
slope either up or down.

How to merch your item

First off all merching should be done with flipping because it is the only way to make fast money. Investing should only be done if you are sure you will not be playing runescape for a long time.

1)The staircase-This item will ALWAYS have to be bought for over the GE price. This is because this items is on the rise. To find the buying price of the object set it for the GE price. After a couple hours increase the price by about 5%. Continue to do this until you find where this item buys easily. Buy a small amount of the item for this price. Now you need to sell the item. Set the price to quite a bit more than you paid and wait for a couple hours. If all items sold fast then you are to low and should raise your prices. If items didn't sell or took a long time lower your price until they do. At this point you just need to adjust your prices so that you make the most profit. This could either be less profit per sale but lots of sales, or large profit per sale but low amount of sales.

2)The dip-With the dip other people are also anticipating an increase in prices. This will help you to make a profit, but will also provide competition. The same process for buying should be done with the staircase. If the item buys fast and for cheap be careful, this could be a fake raise in the graph and the item may drop further. Once the item is bought raise the price and resell. Follow the same steps and staircase to find your buying and selling range.

3)Stable-This is the safest type of item to merch. Because this item is stable you don't stand to lose much if your merching doesn't work. For buying this item you should start by purchasing below the GE price. Slowly work your way up to a price that the item will buy for. Once you get the item sell it for a slight profit. Adjust your selling price depending on how fast your item is selling. The biggest technique to making money is adjusting after the price in the GE changes. As soon as the GE price updates prices will change. Make sure that you repeat the process of finding your buying and selling prices again. The market will be unstable for a while after the change but will calm down after a while. I find when the GE price goes up often prices will go down slightly and when GE price goes down prices will go up slightly. This is why the graph continually goes up and down like a saw blade.

When to merch

I find that during the week merching is a lot easier. Less people are playing so that when people want to buy and item there is less people selling at the updated price. People also will want to sell stuff from monster drops and there will be less people to buy. Weekend are tough because so many people are on the profit margins will shrink. You are fighting with a lot more people to buy and sell. Holidays are the worst. There are so many people online and competing with you that it can be very hard to make money.

You should check the GE at least 3 times a day. Once when you wake up. Once when you get home from school/work. And once when you go to bed. Obviously more is better, but only if you have time.

General Tips

1)Never let anybody know what you are merching. If they think that you are making money off an item they will also attempt to do so and your profit margins will shrink.

2)Never bother selling your stuff on the street. Its not worth your time and people will hardly ever buy your overpriced items.

3)New items often spike then crash so be wary of merching a new item.

4)Merching popular items often means more sales.

5)Be very wary when using merching clans as it can be risky. The higher members may screw you over to make their profits. If you find a good clan this can be a great way to make tons of profit. (Edited to take into account what Psycho mentioned in his post.)

6)Never buy and sell using nice numbers. If you bid 75000 on something and so does someone else it goes to whoever bid first, but if you bid 75011 you are higher so you will win. Alternatively when selling sell for 74989 so that you will sell before the people at 75000. Also never hit the +5% or -5% button and leave it, always take a few bucks off or put some on so that you win easier.

7)Try to only merch a couple items. The fewer items your merch and the longer you merch them the more familiar you become with their prices and how they behave on the market.[u]

nice guide