The Mint Cake Fiasco

I saw a quite remarkable sight last night, as I nipped in to check on my GE bids just before bed. It was world 84, so not a big merchanting world, but every second person seemed to be trying to buy or sell mint cakes. I was already aware that there was an issue, because I read The RS Economist. I'd made a mental note to mention the situation to Jdeh Rhyfela and ODST Isaac, both of whom I know have mint cakes, but then put it out of my mind until then.

For those not in the loop, the situation seem to be that mint cakes are worth about 20k on the GE, but several million in world 2/street prices. They weren't particularly rare, but were highly uncommon. Everyone finishing 'The Path of Glouphrie' gets a free mint cake. It's also a semi-rare reward from the Gnome Restaurant minigame. I had one after the quest and nommed it there and then, thinking of Kendal. It wasn't even thought of as a merchanting gem back then. I'm not savvy enough about the lores and tides of junk trading to know why it ever became such a sought after item. I certainly don't understand how such a difference in price can exist between GE and street. Nevertheless, it happened and that's been the way of the world until this week.

One of the updates on Monday made the mint cake a more common reward in the Gnome Restaurant. In all honesty, that didn't even make a blip on my radar. I don't have a mint cake and I was too busy happy dancing over the increased trade limits. I'd heard that, if both parties had completed all quests and had been friends for over 3 months, then the trade limit was now 180k. Hurrah. I should have been paying attention.

Last night (Tues), I stood in shock watching the mix of emotions in the GE. It was a crowded world, though not a trading one, and the thing that was starkly apparent was that there was no consensus of opinion. One person was selling mint cake for minimum in the GE and telling us so; next to him was someone else selling mint cake for 1.4m each, via junk trading. Others were rushing around buying every bargain mint cake that they could get their hands on. To the credit of the sellers, I didn't see a single transaction taking place without the seller warning the buyer that mint cakes were crashing. The bubble had burst. I saw one high level player laughing in glee, as he bought up 35 mint cake at 100k each. He told them that they were idiots, because it would stabilise. Mint cakes were rocking right now, but they would resume their original position. Someone else agreed, comparing them to strange fruit. Three strange fruit spawn every 15 mins near Brimhaven. Apparently strange fruit are another favourite of the junk traders.

Here and there, though, were upset players screaming vengeance upon Jagex and all who sail in her. There was a sole player moderator standing in the middle of it all. She didn't appear to be alching, fletching or anything else. She was acting as a public information service. She calmly answered every question, however confused or angry; stating with infinite patience, over and over again, 'Mint cakes were traded as rares. They are freely available by playing the Gnome Restaurant minigame.' I wish I'd taken her name, as she really did meet a lot of abuse with simple facts and calm. 'If you can keep your head, while all about you, people are losing their's and blaming you...'

As I said, this doesn't directly affect me, though I do have a upset relative for whom it has. I just wanted to record it here, as a moment of Runescape history. We all get so used to a consensus in merchanting. When things crash, everyone sells. This is the first time I've ever seen it where no-one seemed entirely sure what to do. As many mint cakes were bought as sold, though none of them for millions. For those affected by it, what are we advising them? The RS Economist says to sell. So far, that's the message that I've passed on to mine.

Many thanks to Wafflezor and the other members of Icey Dan1's chat channel, who went through the issue in detail with me. I feel much more knowledgable on it now.