Merchanting is the act (some may call it an art) of buying items at a low price, watching their price growth, and then selling. It is more commonly referred to as “flipping”, but it is a niche way of making millions of gp for those adventurous enough to take a risk.
Due to the different updates and content that is added to the game, the prices for items are constantly fluctuating, which can be scary for most players.
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Today, I am going to explain which items tend to flip the best, as well as ways that you can find item prices yourself. By the end of this, you’ll be a master at looking through Grand Exchange prices in Old School RuneScape!
In summary, we are going to place the items into two categories: low-value items that are traded at a high quantity and high-value items that have heavy price fluctuations. As long as you buy items at the average or lower market price and sell for higher, you will be able to effectively flip in Old School RuneScape!
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What Are the Best Items to Flip in OSRS?
When it comes to flipping in Old School RuneScape, there are fewer “specific items” and more “categories” that you would look for.
These can range from items that have an extremely low value that are sold constantly to items with an incredibly high Grand Exchange price but are constantly changing so much that the flip practically does it itself.
The general rule of thumb is to look for items that either have a low price that is sold at mass quantities on the Grand Exchange or for items that are high in price that have an incredibly high-profit margin, even if sold at a 5% increased value.
Low-Value / High-Quantity Items
Items that fall under this category are runes, skilling resources, and some armour and weapon items.
If you go to the main Old School RuneScape website, you will find a tab that is dedicated to showing Grand Exchange prices and margins for all items.
Specifically, you will see a tab for the most traded items.
These items are usually ones that you can buy at normal/just under market price and still be able to sell them higher.
Their prices don’t change often, so your best bet is to go with the reliable strategy of “buy low, sell high”.
For example: Fire runes are the number one most traded item in Old School RuneScape, currently going for 4 gp.
Most players (I’m sure myself and you are guilty of doing this too) will try to buy items as soon as possible by increasing their buying price at the Grand Exchange by 5%.
Therefore, if you bought 1,000 Fire runes for 4 gp each (4k) and tried to sell them for a higher price (5 gp-7 gp each), it is very possible to sell out of them quickly, at a 1k-3k gp profit.
This may sound like not a lot, but if you were to invest hundreds of thousands, or even millions of gp into doing this daily, you would be able to make so much more.
Let’s run through another example with Coal this time.
At the time of this article, Coal is going for 250 gp. You can buy 13k Coal (the buying limit for this specific item) for 3,250k.
You can then sell them for 5% higher (262 gp rounded down) and let them sell casually over time, eventually selling all of it for 3.406k. This would give you a 156k profit with only a few clicks and some patience.
Once more, you should look through the “Most Traded Items” section on the Grand Exchange market and see which items are sold often, allowing you to make quick profits.
High-Value / Low-Quantity Items
This category of items is more for people who already have millions of gp and can buy more expensive items. In short, these items include high-level PvM gear or valuable skilling items.
In the same Grand Exchange market tab on the main Old School RuneScape website, you will find another tab for the “Most Valuable Trades”. This list of items will be the ones we will be focusing on.
Buying high-value items can be a bit of a gamble when trying to flip them because since the price of them is so high, price changes can be between a few thousand to millions of gp.
Always be on the lookout for any new content or updates being added to the game, as some of them can change an item’s price drastically.
But for those willing to take the risk, this method can get you millions in moments if done correctly. Let’s discuss a scenario where somebody wanted to flip an Ancestral Robe Top.
Currently, the Ancestral Robe Top is going for around 180m.
Without regard to any price changes, a player could buy it and upsell it on the Grand Exchange for probably 5% higher (as we mentioned before, this is the norm for players who just want the item they need as soon as possible).
This would sell for 189m (before Grand Exchange tax), netting the play a 9m profit in seconds.
However, let’s say you bought that same item at the same price, but Jagex released an update stating they were lowering the stats of the Ancestral Robe Top and increasing the effects of others like it (Virtus, Ahrim’s, etc.).
This may cause the price to drop by millions, effectively losing you money without you being able to do anything.
Keeping an eye out for content updates can also work in your favour if you are trying to gain a profit from flipping.
More recently, when the “Desert Treasure II – The Fallen Empire” quest was released, people were eager to grind out the new bosses and create the new Ancient rings as fast as possible.
This could mean that if you bought something like an Archer’s ring (used to make one of the Ancient rings that were released with the quest) before “Desert Treasure II” was released at around 4m, you would have noticed that its value had increased, peaking at 5m the days after the quest came out.
Final Words
The best advice I could offer is to be careful of which items you are investing your gp into. You can take much less risk by buying the low-value items that I mentioned, although profit may come slow and steady.
But if you want to gain millions of gp shortly and are willing to risk losing money while learning, investing in high-value items that have drastic price changes may be in your best interest.
Those are the best items to flip in Old School RuneScape!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
