Alright guys, to cut down on all of the random threads that have been popping up, and hopefully to cut down on the mass amount of PMs I get from people inquiring on how to "merch", I am going to break this down for you guys, at least according to how I see it. Not everyone may agree, but feel free to post changes or additions you think should be here!
"Merching", as a method of making money, is composed of a vast number of different methods. Some people refer to merching very generically, which is frustrating at times because there are so many types, and each one suits a different style. This explanation is going to be VERY basic and generic, as trying to teach the details of everything in a guide would take far too much time.
In general I would say there are (very broadly), two types of merching: flipping (and its sub-categories) and buyouts (and its categories).
Pure flipping is most commonly seen as the act of purchasing one item, or a set quantity of an item, then reselling it within a short time span for a small amount of profit, typically around 2%-3% per "flip". This is the category of merching that I am least familiar with, as I do not have the patience to find which items are best to flip each day, and the profit margin did not appeal to me. However, there are many successful flip merchants who have gained stately amounts of GP in game simply through flipping.
Flipping itself does not really have as much profit potential as the different categories of buyout merching, however anyone at any wealth level can flip. Although it is recommended to at least have a few million in your bank before you begin flipping, with enough research and practice, it can be profitable for anyone. Since I am not knowledgeable in this category, I will defer to what appears to be a relatively detailed flipping guide, found HERE.
In the category of flipping I will include short term and long term investments, as they are still most closely related in mechanics to flipping. Short term investment involves buying into an item that you think may rise in the short term (could be a day, could be a week or two, no way to really quantify it) then selling it later after it has reached a suitable price for you to make a profit. Any item may potentially be a good short term investment, it just takes some skill at reading a graph to determine something you think may work. Good examples of this are underpriced potions, barrows armour which has just crashed from a merch, or perhaps a lower wearable rare like a santa or mask (I personally went from my first 250m to 450m by doing short term investments on H'ween masks, however their market is currently VERY volatile). Here is a picture of an ideal time it would have been for a short term investment with masks.
Long term investing is looking at an item which you think is very underpriced, or extremely high in demand which you anticipate will rise over the long term. Now there are some items which are blatantly obvious as investments, such as most edibles or any partyhat which will almost always increase over the long run. Long term investments are good for some people who don't want to put in the time or effort to try out the other methods; however in my opinion, if your money is sitting around not being used, then you are using it inefficiently. The best long term investment I ever made was purchasing a red H'ween for 120k in RSC then recovering my old main many years later to find it at a nice 40m (lucky eh?). I do not have experience with long term merching, so i will not advise on it. Here is a picture of what your ideal long term investment graph will look like.
Buyout variants
There are two types of buyouts really, although there are many ways normal folk can exploit these as well. For this guides purposes, we will discuss solo buyouts, and clan merching.
Clan merching is basically any time a clan stocks up on an item, then releases it to their clan, who in turn will buy it for max, raising the items price. These are typically where you will find the corrupt leaders who will dump early on their clan and what not. In general, I would advise to stay away from merch clans if you are a normal players. If you think that by joining a merch CC and buying into their item you will profit, 9/10 times you will be wrong. If you are ranked in a good clan and receive early stock of an item, then there is a good chance you will make some profit. Clan merching is general though is somewhat risky, as most of the times the item rise is dependent solely on the members of the clan buying it out. If one person dumps a large quantity, then it may cause a chain panic reaction, leading to everyone dumping and crashing the merch. I have not included a graph of clan merching, because the graphs for it will look the exact same for a successful or failed solo buyout as well, depending on the quality and skill of the clan doing it.
A good way to take advantage of clan merching is to stock on an item that is commonly used by manipulation clans and buying it after it has crashed, or when it is at its normal price. This can be very effective, since if you buy it at normal price your chances for losing GP are minimal, and if a clan happens to pick the item up, you will most likely gain a fair sum of GP. Unless you are ranked in a clan or are friends with an owner, then stocking on a likely item is the only real way i suggest you involve yourselves in a merch clan. Private clans are a whole different matter, and those typically fall into the next category of buyouts, since it is usually a smaller amount of people who trust each other.
Solo (or duo/trio etc) buyouts are essentially when you, and your partners if you have them, attempt to get a large stock of an item, then manipulate the GE into raising the value of the item by creating a false demand. Novice players who attempt a solo buyout will usually fail after achieving a small rise on their item, considering it is very difficult to actually acquire a majority stock of the item.
The ideal picture for a solo buyout is that you gain most of the stock in game which as small a rise to the item as possible, THEN you begin rising the item buy buying it for max in the GE. There are a few problems with solo buyouts though. The first and biggest issue is trying to figure out how much of the item you want to buyout is in game. One way of doing this is by simply asking around and trying to find other merchers who have attempted that item. Another way is to look at the GE graph and determine the level of "steppedness" that the graph shows. This concept is a bit more advanced than I would like to venture though. The last way is just to guess, and that is how the majority of people end up doing it. Here is an ideal looking graph of a buyout when it is well prepared, done by a gent named kevsredsox. Notice the small changes in prices before it began to rise, undoubtedly the time frame in which the item was being stocked.
Another big problem is being able to keep the item bought out. Unless you planned and prepared the merch well by gathering most of the stock, then chances are once you have risen the item a bit, then other people who have some of that item will dump it, taking advantage of the inflated price and running off with their profit. Here is an example of that happening recently with a few friends of mine who underestimated the size of the stock and could not keep the item bought out. They attempted to stock it after it was merched first, then the recent fail after a small rise is due to not being able to keep it bought out. I imagine they were off on their estimation by around 4 bill.
That basically concludes my very brief explanation for now. As you can see there are alot more types of merching than one would imagine, and each one requires different skill sets and resources to be able to accomplish. I hope this has helped at least some people, obviously for those already familiar with the concept then this will seem like old news to you, but for you experienced merchants please feel free to offer suggestions so as to help improve the thread for everyone else. Enjoy!
"Merching", as a method of making money, is composed of a vast number of different methods. Some people refer to merching very generically, which is frustrating at times because there are so many types, and each one suits a different style. This explanation is going to be VERY basic and generic, as trying to teach the details of everything in a guide would take far too much time.
In general I would say there are (very broadly), two types of merching: flipping (and its sub-categories) and buyouts (and its categories).
Flipping variants
Pure flipping is most commonly seen as the act of purchasing one item, or a set quantity of an item, then reselling it within a short time span for a small amount of profit, typically around 2%-3% per "flip". This is the category of merching that I am least familiar with, as I do not have the patience to find which items are best to flip each day, and the profit margin did not appeal to me. However, there are many successful flip merchants who have gained stately amounts of GP in game simply through flipping.
Flipping itself does not really have as much profit potential as the different categories of buyout merching, however anyone at any wealth level can flip. Although it is recommended to at least have a few million in your bank before you begin flipping, with enough research and practice, it can be profitable for anyone. Since I am not knowledgeable in this category, I will defer to what appears to be a relatively detailed flipping guide, found HERE.
In the category of flipping I will include short term and long term investments, as they are still most closely related in mechanics to flipping. Short term investment involves buying into an item that you think may rise in the short term (could be a day, could be a week or two, no way to really quantify it) then selling it later after it has reached a suitable price for you to make a profit. Any item may potentially be a good short term investment, it just takes some skill at reading a graph to determine something you think may work. Good examples of this are underpriced potions, barrows armour which has just crashed from a merch, or perhaps a lower wearable rare like a santa or mask (I personally went from my first 250m to 450m by doing short term investments on H'ween masks, however their market is currently VERY volatile). Here is a picture of an ideal time it would have been for a short term investment with masks.
Long term investing is looking at an item which you think is very underpriced, or extremely high in demand which you anticipate will rise over the long term. Now there are some items which are blatantly obvious as investments, such as most edibles or any partyhat which will almost always increase over the long run. Long term investments are good for some people who don't want to put in the time or effort to try out the other methods; however in my opinion, if your money is sitting around not being used, then you are using it inefficiently. The best long term investment I ever made was purchasing a red H'ween for 120k in RSC then recovering my old main many years later to find it at a nice 40m (lucky eh?). I do not have experience with long term merching, so i will not advise on it. Here is a picture of what your ideal long term investment graph will look like.
Buyout variants
There are two types of buyouts really, although there are many ways normal folk can exploit these as well. For this guides purposes, we will discuss solo buyouts, and clan merching.
Clan merching is basically any time a clan stocks up on an item, then releases it to their clan, who in turn will buy it for max, raising the items price. These are typically where you will find the corrupt leaders who will dump early on their clan and what not. In general, I would advise to stay away from merch clans if you are a normal players. If you think that by joining a merch CC and buying into their item you will profit, 9/10 times you will be wrong. If you are ranked in a good clan and receive early stock of an item, then there is a good chance you will make some profit. Clan merching is general though is somewhat risky, as most of the times the item rise is dependent solely on the members of the clan buying it out. If one person dumps a large quantity, then it may cause a chain panic reaction, leading to everyone dumping and crashing the merch. I have not included a graph of clan merching, because the graphs for it will look the exact same for a successful or failed solo buyout as well, depending on the quality and skill of the clan doing it.
A good way to take advantage of clan merching is to stock on an item that is commonly used by manipulation clans and buying it after it has crashed, or when it is at its normal price. This can be very effective, since if you buy it at normal price your chances for losing GP are minimal, and if a clan happens to pick the item up, you will most likely gain a fair sum of GP. Unless you are ranked in a clan or are friends with an owner, then stocking on a likely item is the only real way i suggest you involve yourselves in a merch clan. Private clans are a whole different matter, and those typically fall into the next category of buyouts, since it is usually a smaller amount of people who trust each other.
Solo (or duo/trio etc) buyouts are essentially when you, and your partners if you have them, attempt to get a large stock of an item, then manipulate the GE into raising the value of the item by creating a false demand. Novice players who attempt a solo buyout will usually fail after achieving a small rise on their item, considering it is very difficult to actually acquire a majority stock of the item.
The ideal picture for a solo buyout is that you gain most of the stock in game which as small a rise to the item as possible, THEN you begin rising the item buy buying it for max in the GE. There are a few problems with solo buyouts though. The first and biggest issue is trying to figure out how much of the item you want to buyout is in game. One way of doing this is by simply asking around and trying to find other merchers who have attempted that item. Another way is to look at the GE graph and determine the level of "steppedness" that the graph shows. This concept is a bit more advanced than I would like to venture though. The last way is just to guess, and that is how the majority of people end up doing it. Here is an ideal looking graph of a buyout when it is well prepared, done by a gent named kevsredsox. Notice the small changes in prices before it began to rise, undoubtedly the time frame in which the item was being stocked.
Another big problem is being able to keep the item bought out. Unless you planned and prepared the merch well by gathering most of the stock, then chances are once you have risen the item a bit, then other people who have some of that item will dump it, taking advantage of the inflated price and running off with their profit. Here is an example of that happening recently with a few friends of mine who underestimated the size of the stock and could not keep the item bought out. They attempted to stock it after it was merched first, then the recent fail after a small rise is due to not being able to keep it bought out. I imagine they were off on their estimation by around 4 bill.
That basically concludes my very brief explanation for now. As you can see there are alot more types of merching than one would imagine, and each one requires different skill sets and resources to be able to accomplish. I hope this has helped at least some people, obviously for those already familiar with the concept then this will seem like old news to you, but for you experienced merchants please feel free to offer suggestions so as to help improve the thread for everyone else. Enjoy!
