Okay, I just saw this on a youtube vid. I forgot the link but the maker of the vid is SuperiorInvester. You can look him up on Youtube.

So this is the graph:


1. Leaders buy: They buy a vast amount of the item before announcing, so they can get it for a lower price.
2. Item is announced: When they get enough of the item they tell you to buy it so they can get the price pushed up.
3. Leaders sell: They sell right right on top of the spike so they make sure they don't have any of the item left on them and make the highest profit possible.
4: They tell you to sell: Now, that they are done they tell you to sell so they can get you believe they help you. And they can use you for later manipulations.

Well I know you still make some money but a bunch of people can't sell the items in 4th step because there are lots of sell offers of that item in G.E. So you might end up with a mass amount of useless items while the leaders enjoy their pure profit... I wanted to share this with you

Thanks

Not all merch clans scam, chessy018 doesn't scam and i don't think smokin mils scams.

Also your just figuring this out now?

*clap* *clap* *clap*

Everyone gets there in the end

Although the leaders will try and dump before the peak so they get maxiumum profit and don't end up with and junk, if they're nice they'l tell there members to dump at the peak, if not, bye bye gps

Many people realize this though, and they still take advantage of it. IF they manage to get a decent amount of items they dump several days before the dump day and still make massive profit.

That's simple economics, of course if you know when the price will drop you will sell before then. Enron, anyone?

Took you a while mate....But not all merch clans are like that....Or are they....?

A lot of them are like this, so what? They make money and you don't. That'll teach you to be stupid.

Sigh... Yes, as Morte just said. You shouldn't think you can just "make millions" without something bad happening.

Though, if it were actual economics, it would be illegal. Monopolies are illegal, and also doing what is being done is basically having insight on whether or not prices will rise or drop (At least in the US, not sure of other countries).

Then you just sit back, relax, and realize you are playing a game.

Or, this is what I do, you take advantage of them. Buy the item when they say to. Note down the price when you buy. Sell when you make a decent percentage of profit, 10-20%. It's easy, and slightly safer, I guess.

Surely you would have figured everything out from the concept.
Or are there people in merchanting clans with no idea what they are doing or how it works?

It's simple enough, I'd class it as it common sense.

I guess you could dump before they tell you when to dump...nobody said you have to wait for the order to dump before you can sell your items.

Smokin Mils DOES this. I once watched the graph of the item they were manipulating. And they told people to sell when it was going down.

What do you expect? For the merchanting clan to just tell its members to keep the items even though it's going down?

Hadn't people already come to a consensus that they use their members to make a bigger profit? Anyone in the Clan who actually waits for the Leaders to say 'dump now' is severely misguided.

Well you didn't get it. Nvm.

Oh, you meant they sold all their items then told everyone else to sell? Read this: http://runescape.salmoneus.net/forums/inde...howtopic=303139 and have a look through the topic. Their leaders do checks every 3 days or so to make sure the ranked members still hold the items. And watch a few of their vids, it shows them holding onto items after they told to dump. One of the requirements of ranked members is the ability to junk trade, and junk trade well.

Point is, if someone MAKES millions, someone ELSE loses. Merching is th attempt to take advantage of an unstable economy, which makes the economy even MORE unstable. It is a cycle of epic fail, and it was catalyzed by coins added from 76kers.

Actually, a monopoly just means that there's only one business that provides the service to your area. Insider trading is illegal, price-fixing is illegal, but monopolies are not, and merchanting clans aren't even monopolies.

Actually monopolies are illegal .

If they prevent other companies from selling in their area by illegal means, yes, but there are many monopolies. For instance, in many areas in the U.S., there is only one Internet/cable TV/phone provider. This is very common. If there are naturally no competitors, it's not illegal and would be stupid to prosecute. If no-one can give the same thing and/or a competitive/lower price for that product, it's a monopoly, and quite legal.

Regional monopolies are legal >_>. But a full monopoly is illegal.

Oh, yeah. But saying that monopolies are inherently illegal is wrong.

Who in their right mind is going to wait till the price is halfway back to normal to sell? I've never seen a merch clan do that lol. The dumping early if it happens usually is only a few hours if even that before the rest of the clan works it out.

And that's news??

I don't think Chessy018 scams. But most of the rest do.

You only found out about this now?
The fact that merch clans are arseholey scammers has been floating around for ages.

No one believes me when i say chessy is innocent!
but her clans exclusively to richer people.

Well it does seem smart for a clan leader to buy earlier than the rest of the clan members and then dump earlier before them too.

Smart does not equate to fair

Milsaday doesn't scam

The Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed monopolies. Regional and natural monopolies (monopolies over such things as electricity and water utilities) are legal, but actual monopolies are not.

Anyways, the whole idea of merchanting via merchanting clans is a massive scam. When you make money on the GE, you do not produce it: it comes from someone else. Now, if you make prices rise by by 300%, as the clan Hero Merch did to the Amulet of Accuracy, people won't buy that item unless they are desparate. So, where does your money come from? The grunts in your clan whom you have told to buy said item at max price. They are the ones who buy it when the ranked members sell. Merchanting clans are a massive Ponzi Scheme, and the guy who created them should change his display name to B3rn13 Mad0ff666

Yes, but is there any fairness in the realm of which we call RuneScape?

Merch clans are a waste of time, i dont bother going near them.
nothing wrong with merchanting by yourself.

Nicely said. Either invest yourself, of work for cash.

thats how it used to be, things changed when all the noobs learned thats what manippers did

manippers know that the real money now is trying to make everyone trust you, the more your trusted the more people buy your manip and the more likely it is to raise thats why clans like smokin mils and 2lum have worked so hard on building up their image with clan leaders dumping later

like someone also said aswell, the main holders in manips are checked regularly that they still have the item, if you deny the person then you are removed from the clan unless you can prove you still have the items. alots changed since that was made and most merch clans are actually out to make people money now because they know by making people money they, inturn, make more money thats (one of the reasons) why manips now raise to 100-300% the normal price instead of the 60-80% that used to be achieved