Economy

Junk Trading and the Economy

In the days after the trade updates a few years ago, and even more after Summoning was released, junk trading became an easy way to trade items over their set prices. The junk trading “community” is made up of mainly high level players. They are the ones who can control the prices of rares, and high level armor such as Bandos, and Third Age. We take a deeper dive into what all of this trading is all about, and why people do it.

Obviously people were mad with the trade updates. There are those players who got over it after a while, some who quit, and some who decided the best thing to do was to find a way around it. The people got their answer when Summoning came out. At the time, people were still looking for uses to the thousands of scrolls and pouches they made. They began using them to trade items for higher prices, and thus, junk trading was born. It escalated into a way to make cash quickly, buying items with cash and trading them, with your junk, for even more cash.

One thing that junk trading did was open up a market for lending items. When the lending item update came out, it was done in trade. This made it possible for players to lend an item for a certain amount of cash per hour. They would offer the item for however many hours, then add junk to reach the price they wanted. The person getting the item would then give the cash, and borrow the item. This is another way to make an easy couple hundred thousand coins, but only if you have the right items.

One common misconception of junk trading is that is against the rules. It is not against the rules, Jagex has said it themselves that it is not a problem in the Wilderness and Real-World Trading Q&A.

“I don’t consider junk trading a problem. I am actually quite happy that it is making those ‘junk’ items perceived as more valuable. It doesn’t allow real-world trading, but does let people do the trades they want. I see it as a good thing! Bounty Hunter is going to be further tweaked.”

The lists below are the items lended with junk, items traded with junk, and the items used as junk. They are some of the most common items, but the junk trading is not limited to just these items.

Items Lended with Junk

• Party Hats
• Godswords
• Whips
• Bandos Armor
• H’ween Masks
• Other expensive armor and weapons

Items Boosted Price with Junk

• Party Hats
• H’ween Masks
• Spirit Shields
• Third Age
• Dragon Claws, Dragon Full Helm
• Whips (Newest, due to different colored whips update)
• Godswords

Junk Items

• Maple and Willow Longbows (u)
• Willow Logs
• Seeds (Low Level)
• Rune (p) Darts, Addy (p) Darts
• Leather items (Coifs, bodies, chaps)
• Summoning Pouches

Any comments, questions, or suggestions, please PM me on the forums, or post here.