What to do with gold bars?

Lots of people buy gold ore to smelt into gold bars while wearing their goldsmithing gauntlets for huge smithing experience. The problem with this is, there is no market for gold bars, barely anybody ever buys them. What can be done with all of those gold bars collecting dust?

I have had some success buying rubies, emeralds, and sapphires (by advertising on the Runescape forums) and then making recoil rings, duel rings, rings of forging, and games necklaces. None of these items "sell like hotcakes", but they do sell, you'll get crafting and magic experience, and you can make a small profit.

In my experience, rings of forging are the easiest to sell, followed by the duels and recoils. I don't bother with diamonds, they're too expensive and the jewelry doesn't sell well. None of the amulets sell in bulk, don't make them.

Be patient when selling. Sometimes I think I'll never sell my rings, then *boom*, someone buys 100 at once. I always advertise duel rings when I'm fletching at castlewars, it would probably be effective to advertise forging rings while smleting at port p or another popular furnace. Always advertise on the Runescape forums.

Lastly, every now and then you'll get lucky and someone will actually want to buy gold bars. When this happens, thank Guthix for your luck and then sell, sell, SELL!

Santa Hat

For the longest time, I've wanted a Santa Hat.

A while back, someone held a contest on the tip-it message boards and the top prize was a santa hat. One had to write a story using innumerable criteria laid out by the contest organizer. I put together what I thought for sure would be the winning tale, posted it, and waited for the contest to end so I could collect my coveted prize. Only a day or two before the contest ended, tip-it shut it down because it was considered trading real world items (stories) for Runescape items (santa hat, cash, etc).

I grumbled, pouted, and moaned before I eventually decided that tip-it was right to shut the contest down. Anyhow, recently I decided that a santa hat would be mine and that I'd do whatever it took to get one.

Starting with about 1.5 mil, I began buying various treasure trail items. I bought trimmed wizard robes of all varieties low and then sold high. As I accrued cash, I added zamorak pages, black cavaliers, ranger boots, berets, etc to my repetoire. Things were going ok, I was making decent money and then construction was introduced into the game.

The Runescape economy crashed.

As quickly as I could, I liquidated all of my assets. I quickly realized that merchanting trail items was too risky and time consuming considering the profit to be made.

At some point, I noticed that yew prices had fallen drastically from the formerly standard 300ea. I was able to buy yews for 200 to 210ea and then sell for 250ea in quantities of 1000. I spent every cent I had on yews, sold them all, and then repeated until I had enough for my santa.

Goal accomplished.

I've noticed that the question, "How do I make money?" appears with great frequency on the tip-it forums. For p2pers, the answer to that question is easy.

• Run laws on world 66.
• Pick flax and spin it into strings.
• Buy water filled vials in Ardougne.
• Collect snape grass near the crafting guild.
• Buy just about anything from f2pers at a low rate and then sell it (if commodities, buy in bulk) to p2pers using the official Runescape forums.

I could go on and on (and maybe I'll add more ideas later), but I think you get the idea.

When f2p players ask the same question, the answer is not so easy.

• Buy coal and iron cheaply and then sell in bulk.
• Buy coal and iron cheaply, make into steel bars, and then sell.
• Run airs on world 16.

Um.. Hmm.. Other ideas such as willows and feathers are so small-time. Selling items in bulk to p2pers seems difficult as f2pers only have read access to the official forums.