Visage Drop.
Posted by Merch Gwyar, Dec 8 2009, 05:16 AM in Pictures
I think I'm still in shock. In fact, I know I am. At first, I was quite calm. There might have been a 'Oh My God' uttered IRL, but I was in the KBD's lair with enough provision for a couple more fights. This didn't leave time to check the price. I knew that it was a rare drop and I knew that it was expensive. The fact that Shelley wouldn't hold it was also testimony to that. I screenied the drop, made my preparations for the next fight, then pasted and saved the picture. It wasn't until I'd defeated KBD twice more and gloried to Edgeville that I finally saw the price of it.
It's almost scary. Suddenly I have a potential 34m in my bank or else a shield-with-a-face-on. I just stared at it and told the bank at large, 'OMG, I've had a visage drop and I've just seen the price of it!' There was only one person there. Ma Cypress either had public off or else didn't want to engage. IRL, I was starting to panic very slightly. I checked my friends list. No-one was on. I dashed into Canting. No-one was there. I came out and stared at it again. I was loathe to log off because I remembered Josh's old theory that luck survives during each session. If you log off, your luck can change. If you stay on, you are likely to have another lucky drop. I don't know if that's just Josh superstition, but he kills lots of big things, so it's possible. This, of course, meant that I just froze in Edgeville Bank totally at a loss of what to do. Did I afix it to an anti-fire shield? Did I sell it? Did I log off and have a nice cup of tea?
Just as I was working my way up into utter shock, Dimblewit walked into the bank. He is level 130 and was clad in a Defence cape. As I watched, he started to put on all this spiky red armour that is always the hallmark of someone who knows combat. As calmly as I could, I asked, 'Dimblewit, could I ask you for some advice please?' He was happy to oblige and so it all came flooding out. The lovely Dimblewit talked me off the ceiling with sound advice for about 10 minutes. He gave me all of my options without trying to force any onto me. 
The main conclusions that were reached, under his advice and guidance, was that I would possibly be better off selling it. He did caution that these things rise in price all of the time, so that letting it sit in my bank for a while would mean even more profit. There's no great rush to sell, but if I did, then there are many Construction levels to be funded here. He recommended me putting aside 10-12m on buying better armour and/or merchanting. He said that I could easily and quickly make 33m again, whilst retaining the original trauche of money for Construction levels and/or better armour. Actually, he said a lot of things, but those were the options that really stood out for me. Mostly though, he told me to go and get that cup of tea, do my research, then consider my options. This I'm about to do!
Thank you, Dimblewit, for your patience and sound advice. 
There are still a handful of slots to fill, mainly during the Australasian/Asian afternoon or early evening. Anyone got anything for them please? Parade? Scavenger hunt? Mass farming run? Nature ramble? Soup kitchen?
Comments
Egghebrecht, Dec 8 2009, 05:32 AM
Pinkytm, Dec 8 2009, 06:02 AM
. I'd sell the visage, and use the money to fund your construction or any other skills, yet save some money in case you quickly need a large sum of cash. Enjoy ;D
Egghebrecht, Dec 8 2009, 06:36 AM
check
and most likely you know several of those
i'd say that you at least give it a go before you sell it (against dragons preferable since dragonbreath charges it)
you will need to use up all the charges again in order to sell it tho
i can't lend you mine to test it because of that
(can only be lent uncharged and that being 50 charges i cba the effort)
Egghebrecht, Dec 8 2009, 07:03 AM
My main concern is that Ranger Boots are rising again. If I sold right now, then bought them, I might save millions. Or would they just crash down again? I don't know!
i can't help you there either
they are rising because they are used as investment
which means when they crash they will crash hard because of panic
but that also means that it is nearly impossible to guess a when
when jagex introduces a new moneysink (skill or other) they will drop
but we don't know those things beforehand usually
Kayla, Dec 8 2009, 07:45 AM
edit: and i like the pic ive never seen just a visage by itself before ;o
This post has been edited by Kayla: Dec 8 2009, 07:45 AM
kuemper, Dec 8 2009, 08:18 AM
IMO, I didn't find the dfs worth the effort/cash to get one. A d square works just as well for combat stats and the normal anti dragon + antifire pot are good for dragon slaying. I'd sell the visage and use the money on your ranger boots, construction and dragon plate body.
RS Economist, Dec 8 2009, 08:26 AM
Taking advantage of the time sensitivity of others is just the market in action. There is no reason not to profit off the farmer who buys seeds at max because he wants 10 snapdragon seeds now regardless of the price. If you have the time, you can buy those seeds at mid in a few hours. Then selling them at max will yield a 5% profit. Many highly used items can be bought at 2.5% below the mid price if you are patient. After all, half the items sold on the GE are below mid (the other half are above) unless the graph is a straight line. With a bit of time you can use that to your advantage, buying heavily traded items at a 2.5% discount and selling them for 2.5% over mid for a 5% profit.
Done hap haphazardly, you might not make that 5% a day, but even then, you are almost assured of a slight profit, and that interest is compounded. Merch for one month and you can have your cake and eat it too.
Sparhawke, Dec 8 2009, 09:02 AM
I agree with RSEco, if you put some back into trading in time you will make back what you have spent in no time and have a nice big slice of cake, I was experimenting with Adamant arrowtips yesterday, buying 10k of them for min+1 and they sold today at middle price, earning 70k
If you do that every day with them for 30-50k you should be able to bring in a nice daily stipend
www.runescapemoneyguild.blogspot.com
On a side note, I owe Ma Cypress the 200 thread she lent me when I am still a noob at the game and just learning how to craft lol
Anyways, my advice is to reward yourself with 75% of it, spending it on what you want such as the booties and construction and investing the rest to give yourself a nice little daily income
This post has been edited by Sparhawke: Dec 8 2009, 09:13 AM
Smeck, Dec 8 2009, 09:32 AM
I know you're struggling with what to do with it, but that's a great problem to have
Merch Gwyar, Dec 8 2009, 09:34 AM
Kayla: LOL Trust me, the irony wasn't lost on me either. I'd barely thought on a visage being a possible drop. I always scramble to look to see if the head is there, but if not, I assume it will be general drops. You're welcome re the picture.
Kuemper: Thank you for helping me turn this into a dragonfire shield.
I am erring on the side of selling it, it has to be said.RS Economist: Thank you for the link. I've just been to read it. I'm currently attempting merchanting. I've done all the maths, researched graphs, then put my bids in and never get sold the stuff.
I know this is probably me missing the boat on putting the bid in, as the real merchanters like yourself are already on the ball. However, I'm getting there. I noticed that toadflax is rising again, so I put a bid on for 220 grimy toadflax. I've so far had 20-odd sold to me, which I've cleaned up and stashed away for later re-sale. Does your 2.5% thing equate to Sparhawke's -5gp and +5gp thing?
Merch Gwyar, Dec 8 2009, 09:40 AM
Thanks for the arrowtip advice. Between you and RSECo, I'll be working out this merchanting soon!
Smeck: Yes! I know it looks like I'm struggling, but I'd rather this struggle than any others!
Thanks!
Easl, Dec 8 2009, 10:20 AM
This is a great gift.
teacuptime, Dec 8 2009, 11:34 AM
To celebrate, here's some maths for you.... oak planks are currently 627gp in the GE. 38,000,000 gp is enough to buy 60,600 of them, which could be turned into 6,060 oak dungeon doors, for a total of 3,636,000 construction xp. For a player currently on 2,966,380xp, this would make a total of 6,602,380, raising that player from level 84 construction to level 92 construction, which would allow that player (with tea and saw) to make every construction item in the game apart from the demonic throne (possible with stew) and magical cape rack (which can obtained as a flat pack), as well as extending their house to 30 rooms.
If the player was prepared to make planks at the sawmill instead of buying them on the GE, buying oak logs and paying sawmill fees would reduce the cost to 50+250=300 per plank. This means 38m would buy 126,660 planks, which could be turned into 12,666 oak dungeon doors, yielding 7,599,600 xp. This would be enough to raise a player on 2,966,380xp to 10,565,980 xp, which is just 156k short of level 97!
(edit.... drat, it was 33m not 38! oh well, you get the idea anyway :-) )
This post has been edited by teacuptime: Dec 8 2009, 12:41 PM
Herty, Dec 8 2009, 12:27 PM
Congrats merch on such a lucky drop
Josh, Dec 8 2009, 12:27 PM
i would make it into a shield considering it is a superb shield
but seeing as you are a combat nub you might as well sell it
now or later
but don't forget that this is the best shield around for mages, rangers and melee users! (i don't bother with spirit shields seeing as they don't sell anyway)
and a big def bonus instead of hardly one at all against dragons is a great plus
or in other words i'm even making it harder to choose for you
still lucky you!
check
and most likely you know several of those
i'd say that you at least give it a go before you sell it (against dragons preferable since dragonbreath charges it)
you will need to use up all the charges again in order to sell it tho
i can't lend you mine to test it because of that
(can only be lent uncharged and that being 50 charges i cba the effort)Best shield for Melee is Rune defender, Ranged Unholy book and Magic Arcane. DFS gives - to both Ranged and Magic and for the vast majority of monsters the +19 slash from a Rune defender outweighs the extra +2 Strength. The only real use for a DFS is boss monsters if you need more Defence than you'll get from a Crystal shield and can't afford an Elysian, Divine or Spectral (depending on the boss).
DFS also aren't lendable at all, regardless of charges, and there's a empty all charges option that empties them all at once.
Krazy Karl 5, Dec 8 2009, 12:33 PM
i would make it into a shield considering it is a superb shield
but seeing as you are a combat nub you might as well sell it
now or later
but don't forget that this is the best shield around for mages, rangers and melee users! (i don't bother with spirit shields seeing as they don't sell anyway)
and a big def bonus instead of hardly one at all against dragons is a great plus
or in other words i'm even making it harder to choose for you
still lucky you!
This post has been edited by Egghebrecht: Dec 8 2009, 05:33 AM