Budgeting for Newbies

There are tons of ways to make money on Runescape without hardly doing anything. They still require some kind of effort one way or another. Here are a few things to keep in mind while you're out there trying to win the bread.

Time Is Money

This is a well-known saying.  If the least you have to do is stand around and sell something, then there is still the effort in standing around, broadcasting your item, or simply just waiting for something to happen in the GE.  Well, that's where the saying comes into play.

If you have to stand around and broadcast what you're selling because your particular item has a better street price, then make sure it's going to be worth the time before you buy it.  If it takes an hour to sell an item and you've made 10k off of it, you just wasted your time and lost money. You could have made 10k doing something productive in less time AND earned experience points at the same time. 

If you have an item that will do well in the GE and the profit is good, you really, really, really don't have to sell it in 10 seconds. If it's a good item, it's going to sell. Leave it in the GE and do something else.  If it's a very expensive item, it is possible that you just have to wait for somebody with the money to buy it.

High Alchemy for Profit

I'm about to use a phrase that I'll use more than once in this guide: Use a calculator! There are High Alchemy Price Watch pages on the internet, but they are not always right.  Popular items will change prices too fast for the websites to pick up. The GE updates its downloadable price database within a minimum of 12 hours to a maximum of 2 days. Use these sites as a guide only! The real-time GE is the best place to budget. Get your calculator (your freaking computer already comes with one) and do the math yourself.  Keep a few things in mind:

• Don't use the standard GE price when you budget. Go up 5% or round up, whichever is higher.
• Are you buying Nature Runes or crafting your own? If you're crafting them, did you mine the essence or buy it? No matter what your method is, add it to the cost per item you're buying to alch.
• Use a Fire/Lava staff. Fire runes are pretty freaking pricey, especially since it takes 5 fires per alch.
• High Alchemy coin transfer never changes. An item will never alch for a different amount of coins. It doesn't get lower the more you alch.

And since we're on the subject, if you don't want to alch it, then don't have it in your inventory while you're alching! All you have to do is bump your hand, sneeze, cough, somebody else bump into you, drop your mouse, etc, and boom. You've just accidentally alched your godsword.  The moment you click it, the deal is sealed, and you can't reverse the action.  A good example: As of this post, Ascension Crossbow sells for over 60m. It alchs for 540k. Put it in the bank.

Bank Standing Profit

Some items can actually be bought from the GE, then crafted, smithed, etc, for a profit. Use your calculator and make sure you'll actually make a profit. Remember before you buy, go up 5% or round up, whichever is higher and then when you examine the selling price of the completed item, go down 5% or round down, whichever is lower. This doesn't mean you have to pay for/sell for that much. Just use it as a guide when you budget.

Although time is money, if you're earning experience points while working on your profit, you aren't necessarily wasting time. Experience is also money.  This is why most items are more expensive as raw materials than they are as completed items.

Study Other People

Go to trade worlds and stand around to see what other people are trading. You can learn street prices of items that you may be able to purchase from the GE and resell.


So, the bottom line, use your calculator and make sure you include everything you have to pay for.  Don't be afraid to take a little leap every now and then to try something small. Just make sure you don't spend too much in case it doesn't work.  Go through your stats lists and see what items you can make, then check the GE for prices. Check online databases for items dropped by the monsters you're fighting. You just might make more money alching it than throwing it in the GE to sell.  Bring natures and fires with you when you fight monsters who drop adamant and rune items (just be careful when you alch with an inventory full of stuff).