In real life, gold was considered a safe haven against high rates of inflation. Traditionally, people considered gold as a good thing to buy during times of high-inflation since gold would appreciate in value during times of high inflation (whereas paper money loses a percentage of its value during times of high inflation).

Question: Considering that Runescape is currently undergoing serious inflation (thereby undermining Runescape gp value), are there any common F2P items (e.g. raw trout/salmon/tuna/swordfish, coal, yew logs, Wine of Zamorak, cooked lobster, etc.) that could be bought in Runescape that would serve as a solid safe haven against inflation? Or in other words, what common Runescape F2P items could be bought that will maintain their value (i.e. rise in price at the % inflation rate) while Runescape inflation occurs?

I highly doubt that gold bars / gold ore in Runescape would be the anti-inflation safe haven that gold in real life is, but if Runescape gold bars / gold ores is your answer, then by all means select it.

No I don't think so. the only item frequently used by both members and freeplayers is rune armour, which is not stable in price at all.

the reason gold is considered a safe haven during economic distress is because gold is gold and will forever be only gold and nothing more. Anything that is commonly traded in runescape has a reason behind why it is traded and has a supply and demand cycle because of its uses. the only "safe" item you can have believe it or not is coins, even though there is inflation the rate you can get coins goes up with the value of item increase (I made 1.5m in an hour doing double astrals because they are worth a lot)

Thanks, I agree that the rate at which you can now earn coins goes up. But the coins that you HAD in the bank (which took so much work getting) are (significantly) losing their purchasing power value.

Nothing in runescape can be made safe. Why? Because of alchemy, PVP, and monster drops.

Alchemy turns anything into coins (even coins, weird as it is).
PVP adds even more coins into the economy, especially with 1 item-ers.
Monster drops generally circle more money around into the economy, unless its coins (yes, monsters drop coins, and some people pick those up too). Though, this leads back into alchemy. Everything in the game is a renewable resource, though it can all be bought and withheld to bring inflation to something else.

tl;dr supply and demand.

Thanks, I agree that Grand Exchange prices depend on Supply and Demand. But I wasn't asking for something that couldn't lose value -> I already know that safe doesn't exist as all Grand Exchange prices are dependent on supply and demand. I'm just looking for something that will better retain value than Runescape gp. Say, for example, you bought lots of swordfish before the current period of higher-than-normal Runescape inflation, and held swordfish in your bank instead of gp. Swordfish is now worth more gp than before, because there's a lot more money circulating in Runescape, therefore people are willing to pay more gp for swordfish on the Grand Exchange. Thus swordfish would have been a much better value-retaining choice to have in your bank account than gp. (I am aware that if there was a huge trend to making food as opposed to buying it on the Grand Exchange, then with supply and demand, the price of swordfish would significantly go down, making swordfish a very poor choice (compared to gp) of holding the value of your Runescape bank account.)

Are there any Runescape items that would have a greater probablility (I already know there are no guarantee to Grand Exchange prices) or retaining the total value of your bank account than value-losing-during-inflation Runescape gp? I would guess that it would have to be something that you could obtain in large quantities.

Anything could be easily obtained in large quantities. The fastest would probably be some type of fish or logs, but obviously those DEFINITELY don't have a stable price either.

Ashes, bones, and any other 100% drop from something is all I can think of.

Fire runes are usually stable but they have actually decreased in value recently...

http://services.runescape.com/m=itemdb_rs/...554&scale=2

Wines Of Zamorak are probably pretty stable.The only ways to obtain them is that temple respawn and as a uncommon drop from boss monsters.

Anything that can be dropped from monsters is automatically unstable. Anything that has a respawn could theoretically be stable, so long as it's not affected by monster drops or shops. IE if its the only way to get it.

Needles. Can't go wrong with needles. Not like they'll drop...

Who will want over 1 needle though?

They break. But they're stackable and static.

Don't general stores take them for free though?

If inflation decreases the 'value' of gold pieces and gold to needles is a 1:1 ratio, then doesn't the same problem exist only now you have something you can't really use (except as junk).

Yeah, I wasn't really being that serious.

- Yes, I knew that needles wasn't a serious answer.

- Besides not crashing in value, an important criterion of value-retention is that the item be convertible back to gp fairly easily (will sell on the Grand Exchange). People don't buy much needles on the Grand Exchange.

Which is why the items have to be something that people tend to buy on the Grand Exchange: rune essence, cow hides, coal, law runes, nature runes, food. People who mine to earn gp say they make a pretty profit from mining gold ore and selling it on the Grand Exchange, so even gold ore.

Rsconomy only partially models the real world. Other than items like need's that are ALWAYS worth 1gp, there really IS no stability.

YES
I randomly thought of a way to save your cash.
Skills
If your money is in a skill it won't increase or decrease, as its experience.

dragon bones

if i'm not mistaken they are f2p also

Dragon bones are member only.



Actually the only items which could be safe havens are the discontinued items, since there's only a limited supply of those.

Yeah, only REALLY stable item gp wise is shards.

Actually, while this may be one of the better ideas, it's fallible. If you spent money on 99 Summoning and Jagex nerfed it (the most likely way would be by making it cheaper), you would have wasted your money.

Technically, that and pouches. They have an unlimited/renewable supply, not dropped by monsters, and (for now) have a set-in-stone price.

The things that best retain their value over time are things that are commonly hi-alched, the alchemy value of items is the baseline, they stick rigidly to it and rarely soar or crash for much more than a day or two, even years later...the price of yew longs has held steady regardless of what else is happening in Runescape.

You cannot get a better guarantee, even rares that were supposed to always be valuable because of their rarity dropped like a stone a couple of years ago...when alchemy items held steady.

coals pretty reliable only really changes when an associated item peaks

you can never tell with the amount of updates the game has though, look at herbs after the herby update no one saw that happening and fire runes only dropped after the price floors were removed