Beating the GE Clans and Profiting

Grand Exchange Clans have become famous (or infamous) in the world of merchanting. They promise many the opportunity to make millions by simply telling them to buy items at a max price (causing the item's value to go up, even though it's not really suppose to be worth more money) and then they sell it at a targeted price. So you would think you profit, but the clans dump it before the price goes high enough for you to make a profit, but since they bought item when it was lower, they make a great profit.

Well, if you are tired of getting ripped off from merchanting clans, here's a strategy to stay one step ahead of them, and make a profit in the process.



How it Works

This graph below, a 180-day Grand Exchange History of the item White Bead, demonstrates the key points for when you should buy and sell items that Grand Exchange Clans try to manipulate.

Step 1. At this point, you can notice when a clan starts dumping an item. The item peaks very high, and then starts heading for a downward tumble and the heads of the GE Clan start dumping the item. This dumping panic causes everyone else to dump the item at minimum, and the price of the item starts getting lower and lower.

It will reach a point where it nears it's original price before the Merchanting clans started messing with it. This is the crucial time you should be aware of.

Step 2. Once the price of the item starts to near it's original price (the price it had before the GE Clan started buying it up), it will be easy to buy the item. A lot of poeple are still selling the item and minimum price in an effort to dump it. This is where you should buy up the item. This ensures that you can easily access the item before it comes into high demand, and since it's near it's original value, you know you won't make much of a loss because the price can't fall too much lower.

Step 3. Now comes the part where you wait. GE Clans are known for merchanting an item more than once. One GE merchanting clan or another always comes back to an item. When they do so, the price of the item will go up. So if you bought it at around 600 GP as indicated in the buying time for the chart above, and if you sell it at 1200 GP, a price that the clan drives it up to, you just doubled your GP.

Why should I beat the GE Merchanting Clans?

Usually when GE Clans want you to buy things, the leaders, or the few people who made the GE Clan, already bought a high ammount of the item. So even if they say a target price they want to drive an item to is 300k, they might start dumping it at 200k because they bought it back when it was 100k.

So for the people who buy it at 180k, and wait, they see the next day that everyone is already dumping the item, and no one will buy their item when they try to sell it. So they are now stuck with an item worth 100k, which they bought at 180k.

This is why you should not work with merchanting clans. Most of them are made by 2-3 people who alone will benefit, while everyone else makes a loss. Instead, try to beat them by staying one step ahead.

Finding an Item

This process works only if you buy an item that the GE Clans manipulate often, and have just recently started dumping. Look for an item that had a low price, went really high, and came back down. You can access GE Price Histories for items at the Grand Exchange section of the Runescape website.

You can find prices that have dropped in price by accessing the GE's highest price drop items list. List of highest price-decrease Grand Exchange items.

Alternatively, you can stalk a clan, see the item they have just recently dumped, then observe that item until it's time to buy based on the tips from step 2.

With some luck, you can use this method to beat the GE Clans and double or even triple the GP you put into it.

Best of luck,
Shad