Why merchanting clans are scam !

I just noticed today many bots spaming around with merch clans and I thought why would they do it... I got idea that they have to make some money in some way..i joined the merchanting clan and got it.

Its better written on runescape wikia so i quote it:

How some merchant clan leaders are using a pyramid scam on people, in five steps:
Some merchant clan leaders secretly buy lots and lots of the same item.
They recruit and mislead people into buying the same item at a higher price, thus raising the item's price.
They encourage people to recruit even more people, thus creating a pyramid.
They set a "dump price" for everyone to sell.
They either secretly sell their item before this dump price is reached, or they suddenly announce a new dump price; in both cases many people are still buying the item. What these people are misled into buying is the item they are secretly or suddenly dumping.
Steps 2 through 5 overlap considerably.
The clan owner will make millions this way, and all clan leaders do this with their ranks. They'll set the price of a 1k item, to be dumped at 10k. They themselves will buy the item for 1k -1.2k each, wait till 5k, and they'll sell them. If the clan is big, this wont affect their merchant, or they can blame another clan and start needless 'wars'.

So I prefer merchanting at my own

 

I always thought it would be easier for the leaders to buy an item as low as possible and tell the recruits to buy it at max

 

Thank you Mr. Obvious... I hope you just didn't realize this.. This has been happening since the GE came out..

 

Smart people know this

 

Well happens, smart leaders eh

 

So that's how they do it! And there was me thinking merch clans were legit! Jeekers, i'm such a tool!

 

Lol, yeah I think everybody realizes that it's just a little scheme already. At least hope so by now.

 

Some merchant clans do ok though. You have to remember just because there is a dump price doesn't mean you can't wait an update or two, and con them out yourself. Any item is sellable before dump, but the clan won't like you much. But yeah, if you get enough you can outsmart even the leader.

 

While it's true that the leaders make the most money, anyone can profit from a clan merch. Just ignore whatever the clan says is the dump price, wait for them to release a new item, buy as much as you can of it for max, and sell it within 7 days. It should rise 50% in 7 days and if you got these items right as they were made public, you shouldn't worry about a crash. The only problem is that they're usually bought out, but if you catch the g.e. right as it updates, you can easily get mils worth of stock

 

Or try to get in friends with the leader, and he may even slip you a future merch item (definitly worth buying 1k of it early) that way, when they start, you already have stock!

 

Alot of people know this, and jagex knows they're doing it. I saw a quote from a Jmod somewhere.. i think it was from a leaked pmod thread posted here on sythe, that jagex just doesnt know what to do with it.

 

If you're gonna attempt a buyout with a clan, just forget about it.
You're better off finding some random item and trying to buy it out yourself.

 

Yeah I agree with Determinate, i was merching chaos runes and made big cash from it but than rsbot has releassed script for making money with runes and dropped price of it

 

The non-ranks in merchanting clans get scammed. This is often why people give merch clans such bad reputations. Some people say that it is impossible to profit from one, but it is indeed. All you need to do is become ranked in one and you'll receive all the early information and items!

 

lol that is what they do smart one?

 

Sorry to burst your bubble but anyone who has atleast half a brain already knows this...

 

Isn't this common knowledge already? It's kind of obvious anyway, but thank you for trying to help everyone out