Learning To Free Trade Smoothly in RuneScape
Free trade is as simple as it sounds: the ability to trade with other players without limits. You can trade as much or as little as you want with other players, as often as you want.
The act of trading is when you and another player exchange coins for items, or items for items. Free trade means that the items and coins being exchanged do not need to be of equal value. Indeed, you can even give coins/items to another player for nothing in return should you choose. There are no restrictions on how much (or little) you can request in exchange for what you are selling.
With free trade, though, you’re able to take advantage of those rare opportunities to sell an item much higher than this guide (if you can find a player willing to buy at such a high price). An example might be to sell law runes somewhere far from a bank where players just want a quick teleport out, and are willing to pay over the odds for it. Another example might be to head to Edgeville and sell food to players preparing for some PvP combat in the Wilderness.
Making money in RuneScape through trading comes down to the basic economics of supply and demand, and buying low/selling high. One tool we offer to help with this are the Grand Exchange section of the website, which tracks the guide prices of tradeable items.
Figuring out which items are about to rise or fall in value is something you will need to learn through experience, and by making educated guesses based on new content (and the changing popularity of old content). Investing in oft-used resources for training skills is a more reliable way to earn money, but the profit margins for such items tend to be small.