5 Phases of "The Merch Clan Rip-Off" - Runescape Merchanting Guide

FIVE PHASES Of THE MERCH CLAN RIP-OFF 

THANK YOU for downloading my FREE report on the FIVE PHASES Of THE 

MERCH CLAN RIP-OFF! 

By reading this report, and going through each Phase of the Merch Clan 

Scam, you will gain a clear perception of the “big picture” of how a 

typical Merch Clan Scam begins, what really makes prices rise, and 

exactly when the Clan Leaders are making billions, from ripping off their 

own loyal Clan Members. 

By www.lumbridgecity.com www.youtube.com/user/lumbridgecity March 2010

In addition, I'm also providing a straight-to-the-point introduction to 

proven methods for Solo Merchanting successfully - that anyone can 

follow and profit from - without the need to scam anyone. 

I wrote this report by drawing on my experience with trading in the real 

world, and my understanding of the workings of the Grand Exchange. I 

posted videos on YouTube to document and PROVE that I merchanted my 

main account from 13.5mil up to over 223mil in just over a half year's 

time! 

Other Income Of Any Kind! 

I have also merchanted a 

brand new character 

from a starting amount of 

just ONE BONE that he 

picked up from the 

ground. That was his 

only income EVER - and 

by Flipping alone, his 

account started with 

110gp has just 

surpassed 2.5 million 

gold pieces! We are 

now Flipping our way up 

to 100 million as our next 

goal! No Skilling. No 

With each of my new merchanting experiences, my understanding and 

confidence in the process grows stronger, and my profit increases too! 

This Guide offers a concise and powerful review of the knowledge I 

gained about the workings of price manipulating Merch Clans. It is my 

hope that this knowledge will save you the demoralizing effect of trading 

with a Merch Clan, and provide you with working alternatives to really 

start making some money! 

What Can You Do With This Guide? 

You are welcome to share this Guide with anyone, reprint portions of it on 

your blog or website, and basically do anything, except sell it for profit. If 

you do reprint content from this Guide I’d appreciate an attribution link to: 

http://www.lumbridgcity.com 

Affiliate Program - If you want to join my affiliate program, you can do so 

here. 


Price Manipulating Merch Clans 

Price Manipulating Merch Clans in Runescape are not against the 

Jagex Rules. This means Jagex will not help you if you lose money 

or get stuck with junk by one of their scams. And the MOD's are 

powerless to stop the agrevating Merch Clan Spam in the public chat. 

Clan Leaders publicly flaunt the fact that Jagex can't touch them. 

In my opinion, the Leaders of Price Manipulating Merch Clans are 

unethical people. 

They pray on the uneducated and make false promises in order 

to make themselves fantastically rich. 

Price Manipulating Merch Clans rip you off in more than one 

way. They steal hours of your time and cause you to disrupt the 

game-play of the people around you - just by offering the illusive 

promise of, one day, maybe, becoming a Ranked member in the 

Clan. 

Merch Clans rip you off because they pick items that are useless in 

the game and merch clans rip you off because you never see an item 

- ever- making it to the stated dump price - leaving the ranks of the 

clan stuck holding vast quantities of useless junk that won't even sell 

for min in the G.E. 

In this Guide, I'm going to completely expose The FIVE 

PHASES that a Merch Clans follows in order to soak you for your 

time - and - how they soak you for your cash in two different ways. 

Merch Clan Busting 

Our Merch Clan Busting Guides have over 20,000 views on YouTube, 

and have already closed down a big, and well-known merch clan. 

Our goal is to clean up the Grand Exchange where Jagex can't, 

or won't. 

By bringing the tactics of Merch Clans into the open, 

Lumbrigecity.com is shining the light on the truth - and may 

save you from stuffing the pockets of greedy Merch Clan Leaders 

with your hard-earned gold pieces. 


How Merch Clans Work 

Merch Clans Rip you off by manipulating the prices on the G.E. They 

can manipulate the prices because they know how the Grand 

Exchange works. 

There are two key principals that are pretty easy to understand. 

They are called Volume and Liquidity. 

Volume is the number of items that are traded back and forth each 

day, and liquidity is the total number of items that are available to 

be traded. 

Let's go on now, and I'll explain how Merch clans use this to their 

advantage to make even greater profits that you might imagine. 

PHASE ONE of "The Merch Clan Rip-Off" 

The Rip-Off starts by gathering Generals and creating a Clan Chat 

where nobody can speak but the leader. 

Abusive people, liars and thieves are the kind of Thugs that like to 

control communication. It keeps the truth from being told. 

PHASE ONE gets underway when the new Generals start promising 

to give people Rank if they advertise for the Clan. 


Why would you want to advertise to get a Rank in the Clan? 

Here's the lure: Here's the carrot before the Donkey: 

If you are a Ranked Member of the Clan, you're promised to gain 

'early notice' about the next item to be merchanted - with the idea 

that you get to buy in before the rest of the public - and you will gain 

HUGE profits as the public drives the prices up. 

But we all know that donkey can never reach the carrot... 

don't we. 

The truth is, 99% of people who advertise for a merch clan NEVER 

get noticed by the merch clan leaders. 

You waste your time - and you annoy the people around you. You 

could have been doing some skills and earning some money. But 

instead, you fell victim to PHASE ONE of THE MERCH CLAN RIP-OFF. 

How does that make you feel? 

PHASE TWO of THE MERCH CLAN RIP-OFF. 

Phase two is often happening at the same time as Phase One, but it 

is a very different activity - and it happens very quietly. 

This is when the Clan Leaders are pre-buying the secret item before 

it is released to the Generals and Ranked members, and before it is 

released to the public. 

Often, a lot of planning will go into this phase - and sometimes, the 

highest form of trickery and underhanded deals are brokered 

when planning which are the next two or three items to merchant. 

Merch Clan leaders have been know to do a double-switch on their 

own generals at the last minute!! Hording all the profits for 

themselves - while making up a lame excuse to appease the angry 

generals. 

Some important things go on within the Grand Exchange during 

Phase Two of the Merch Clan Scam 

Typically, a merch clan leader selects an item that is NOT a 

commodity in the game. (A commodity is any item that is used up 

when you use it - and you`ll need more of it tomorrow. These are 

things like food and gas in the real world - and things like coal, and 

logs in the game) 


Instead of merchanting these high volume, common commodity 

items as a Solo-Merchanter would, the price manipulating merch 

clans tend to select items that have a limited or specialzed use in the 

game - and especially those items that have a limited supply. 

This limited supply is the hidden key to why you can never make 

substantial profits when trading on the public advice of a merch 

clan. The clan leaders and insiders have already bought up most of 

the supply of the item - and are holding it. This reduces the liquidity 

of the market (not many items are flowing back and forth between 

buyers and sellers), and makes the market vulnerable to price 

spikes. 

We`ll come back to this idea of volume and liquidity in a moment. 

PHASE TWO is almost complete when the leaders have soaked up 

almost all the available inventory for the item. Sometimes Phase 

Two can take two or three weeks as the Clan Leaders slowly buy 

everything at the minimum price possible - they want to buy 

everything possible without pushing the prices up at this point. 

Remember, they already know which item will be merched as long as 

a month in advance. 

During the last few days of Phase Two, the clan leader tells the 

Generals what the item will be.The generals sometimes have a day 

or two to stock up before Phase Three begins and the item is 

announced to the public.The generals don`t have as much time as 

the leaders, so they buy everything at max price - and the price of 

the item starts to go up just before the item is announced to the 

public. 

You can tell when a Merch is at the end of Phase Two when their clan 

chat is posting a date and time for the next item to be announced. 

At this time, you`ll also hear the clan auto-talker saying that 

Generals are out looking to give Ranks to advertisers... and a new 

raft of noobs listen to the Clan auto-chatter, and fall for the Scam 

in Phase One - making a bunch of noise on behalf of the Clan - in 

the futile hope of becoming a Ranked Member. 


PHASE THREE of THE MERCH CLAN RIP-OFF. 

Phase Three begins when the new item starts to go public. 

Sophisticated merch clans now use Twitter and Facebook to get the 

word out and build their audience. Some Clans even have a website - 

complete with instructions on how to hand over your runescape gold 

pieces to their ponzy scheme. 

The aim of Phase Three is to make a lot of noise and attract a lot of 

attention. They want people to check the clan chat, maybe check 

the price charts - and they get all excited and greedy. 

MERCH CLANS: INSTRUCTIONS TO RIP YOU OFF. 

Have you seen the instructions that a Merch Clan gives to its public 

Members? 

These instructions are - exactly - dead - opposite - to what a realworld 

investment advisor would tell you - and it also happens to be 

opposite to the strategies of most Solo Merchanters as well. 

First - they tell you to invest every bit of cash that you have into this 

item. An experienced merchanter will only invest 10% to 25% of his 

cash into any one item. This is a risk control rule that can act like a 

seat belt to save you if prices crash unexpectedly. 

Second, the merch clans teach you a little-known trick for buying 

items faster on the Grand Exchange. 

Here's how it works: 

Lets say you and I were to both try to buy 1200 items that are in hot 

demand and rising fast in price. You put in an order to buy 1200 

items in one slot, and I put in six orders of 200 items in each one of 

my six slots. At the same time that I hit 200 items in each on my six 

slots, you would also ge reaching 200 items filled in your order - but 

then you would still have to wait for the rest of your order to be 

filled. 

If you want to buy faster, buy in smaller lots and use more slots in 

the GE. 

When hundreds of people are buying an item at max price, using all 

six slots - the G.E. will increase the price of the item on the next 

update by as much as 5% of the item's value. 


During Phase three - the actual volume of trade, the number of 

items bought at max price, is barely a trickle. 

This is really important to know about - because it's not something 

you can see on the charts. It is this market condition that drives 

prices to their maximum extremes: There is almost no volume of 

trade and there is no liquidity in the market (because the clan 

leaders are holding all of the limited inventory) and at the same 

time, an enormous demand with hundereds of players trying to buy 

at max price. 

Remember now, in Phase Three, as the prices are going up the 

fastest, very few items are actually being traded - and this 

tilts the profits even more in favor of the Merch Clan leaders - 

much more than you might realize. 

PHASE FOUR of THE MERCH CLAN RIP-OFF. 

Phase Three turns into Phase Four really quietly. It's often hard to 

tell when this begins to occur. 

Most Clan Leaders won't even admit that Phase four even 

happens. In fact, they go to great lengths to convince you that this 

does NOT happen! 

But I'm here to tell ya! IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME! 

I'm here to hold up the light of truth! 

I'm here to lift up the rock and show you the creepy crawly 

things! 

LOOK how they scurry away and find cover behind some 

other lie and excuse. 


What Happens During Phase Four 

Phase 4 looks just like Phase 3 to the untrained eye because prices 

are still going up. This is slight-of-hand... 'almost Chris Angel 

style' - and they are NOT going to be happy that I'm giving away 

the secrets to their magic tricks. 

During Phase 4, the clan leaders are slowly, very slowly dumping 

their items a little at a time throughout the day -- for a very 

handsome profit. The prices are still rising - and people are still 

buying... while the clan leaders slowly collect their profits. 

People keep buying from the Clan Leaders at max price, day after 

day - until finally something breaks. The Clan Leaders and generals 

try to sell a little at max and it doesn't sell right away. Soon they are 

selling for med price, and then at min price - so they can get as 

much out of the market as possible. 

PHASE FIVE of THE MERCH CLAN RIP-OFF. 

Price is crashing, everyone is selling at min - and people are 

deparetely trying to sell their items - at any price. 

You may think the Clan leaders are done ripping you off... but that's 

not the case at all. These greedy, rich clan leaders have just made 

another fortune off the backs of there Clan. But if they actually do 

actually get stuck with items before they could unload on the public 

merchanters, now they turn and skillfully rip off a completely 

different crowd of unsuspecting people. 

Generally, these are lower level players who borrow costly items and 

weapons to work on their skills. If you borrow an item for 150k, the 

loaner will give you junk in trade for your cash, along with loaning 

the item to you. This is high-priced junk is dropping in price, and it 

may end up losing 50% of it's value before you can finally sell it and 

recover some of your cash. 

In reality, you paid much more to borrow that god sword that you 

might think. 


AND - you may not have realized that you were the last person - in a 

long line of people - to get ripped off by that merch. 

I'm not holding anything back here. 

I'm telling you ALL the truths about Merch Clans because, once you 

know this - it's acutally pretty easy to protect yourself against these 

multi-faceted scams. 

Finding A Reputable Merchanting Guide 

You CAN find reputable Guides and Coaches who will teach you 

how to Solo-Merch on the Runescape Grand Exchange. 

Check these out: 

Glen Smith's - How To 

Find Profitable 

Merch In Minutes 


Finding A Reputable Merchanting Guide 

(cont.) 

Rich Noob's - 

Runescape Gold 

Making Guide 

With all the hype and attention that merch Clans get - it's 

important to expose the scam because it takes away their power. 

In reality - the big truth is - Merch Clans only have a temporary 

effect on the price of any one item - and they have absolutely NO 

impact on the overall economy in Runecape. 

That's right, merch clans are a scam that makes a few people rich by 

ripping of thousands. But they have no impact on the overall 

economy in runecape - they are just a bunch of noise. 


My Recommendation 

I recommend that you ignore merch clans altogether, and focus your 

time on two simple, PROVEN methods for Solo-Merchanting on the 

G.E. 

The first method is called FLIPPING 

The second method is called EXPLOITING THE UPDATES 

Flipping: 

Flipping is reliable income - every day. It can be the lowest risk 

method of merchanting in Runescape, and it can also be the 

FASTEST way to earn money from merchanting - depending on the 

items you choose to flip. 

Here is a really basic example I like to use: 

Buy cooked trout at minimum price (or 1 gp above min), then, four 

hours later, sell them back to the G.E. at max price (or 1gp below 

max) You should expect that your order will be filled slowly but 

surely - and sold off slowly but surely... this way you earn the most 

profit! Play with the buy and sell price by a few gp and you'll soon 

have a feel for the market. 

When you are flipping a commodity like trout, you are buying from 

and selling to two different groups of people. 

When you are buying trout at min, you are buying from skillers who 

are raising their cooking levels and probably their fishing levels 

tooThey have cooked the trout - and they are done with them. They 

sell their trout at minimum price to get their cash fast. 

When you are selling the trout for max price, the buyers are leveling 

their combat skills. They need lots of food - and trout is cheap - 

even at max price. They want the food now, and they are happy to 

pay. 

When you flip items this way, you are giving two different groups of 

people exactly what they want - and making a steady profit as well. 

You are not ripping anyone off. It's a rewarding way to make money 

while you do other things (like while you are sleeping). 


EXPLOITING THE UPDATES 

The second method of merchanting in Runecape that I recommend is 

called EXPLOITING THE UPDATES - but - it's not as sinister as it 

might sound! 

What do I mean by EXPLOITING THE UPDATES? 

Well, it certainly is nothing against the Jagex Rules: they run a tight 

ship, and I'm not here to rock the boat... this can be a fun cruise for 

everyone! 

How To Exploit The Updates for Profits 

Almost every week, there is an update to the game of 

runescape. Some improvement or an expansion to the game. 

Sometimes, this creates new opportunities for skill advancement, 

which in turn, changes the ballance of supply and demand for some 

items in the game. 

Now that you know about Volume and Liquidity, it's easy to see that 

the volume of buyers will be strong when the new update comes out, 

then all the available supplies will be used up. And now you know 

what happens when volume and liquidity go down? That's right - 

prices go up. 

Experienced merchanters know that prices for an item can rise - 

or fall - for 2 to 3 MONTHS after a critical update buy Jagex! 


Herblore Update 

Look at the price of Herbs after the new potions were introduced to 

the Herblore skill in October of '09. 

Living Rock Caverns 

Look at the price of gold after the living rock caverns were added in 

November of '09 


And - after RS was over-filled with gold bars - look at what happened 

to the price of gems from December until February as people used 

up their gold bars for crafting. 

Review: Two Recommended Merchanting 

Styles 

Flipping low-priced commodity items every 4 hours is the safest 

way to merch. Or instead, you may find profit and excitement in 

Flipping Trimmed Rune Armor Sets... or another item altogether... 

there are opportunities to Flip every item that has steady or rising 

prices! Each item has it's own characteristics. Start small and test 

the waters, then do more of the things that work... soon it becomes 

routine to collect money every time you login to the game! 

However, investing in items that are involved in an update to the 

game - can be the way to become more wealthy than you've ever 

imagined! 



Conclusion: See The Big Picture 

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of my Guide on the FIVE 

PHASES Of THE MERCH CLAN SCAM - and you've had an introduction 

to some proven alternatives for Solo Merchanting 

successfully, and without scamming anyone. 

By going through each Phase of the Scam, you now have a clear 

perception of the “big picture” of how a typical Merch Clan Scam 

begins, what really makes prices rise, and and exactly who the clan 

leaders are making their money from. 

I wrote this report by drawing on my experience with years of 

research, learning and paper trading commodities in the real world 

and my knowledge to the workings of the Grand Exchange. I publicly 

posted merchanting results and Bank Videos on YouTube as I 

merchanted my main account from 13.5mil up to over 223mil in just 

over a half year's time. I have also merchanted a character from a 

starting amount of just ONE BONE that he picked up on his way to 

the GE. He sold the bone for 110 gold pieces, and, using nothing but 

the Merchanting Method of Flipping, his account has grown from 

110gp and just surpassed 2.5 million gold pieces! His Character 

Name is Merchfire - and he is my 'Merch Pure'. You'll never find him 

on the high scores, he doesn't have ANY experince in ANY skill! We 

are now Flipping our way up to 100 million as our next goal! 

With each new merchanting experience, my understanding and 

confidence in the process grows stronger, and my profit increases 

too. 

Focus On Your Strengths 

Don’t underestimate the potential of a strategically planned and 

implemented Solo-Merchanting Strategy for your extra gold pieces. 

Your job now is to choose your item, plan how you will get out of the 

trade if the trade goes against you, then just get to work buying and 

selling. 

It can be a long and intensive process to get comfortable with 

Merchanting, but the end result is a solid method that produces 

ongoing value for you, both with gold pieces and with some very 

presegious bragging rights! 


Would You Like To Work With Me To Plan Your Merchanting 

Strategy? 

I didn’t hold anything back in this report. I’ve given you all the 

pieces to complete the puzzle, and I hope you get out there and 

make a pile of gold pieces! 

There are many layers to all fields of study, and there is always more 

you can learn. My system for merchanting is reasonably straight 

forward, however I realize everyone is coming at this from a 

different place and some require more help. 

If you are motivated to watch the charts each day, like the system 

I’ve presented to you in this report, want more training and 

resources to help finally realize success with the best money making 

method there is today, and would like help from me on a more 

personal level, then I offer you exclusive support in the 

LumbridgeCity Monthly Full Clan Membership Area. 

You don’t have to be the best at merchanting, you only need to know 

enough so you can start making your first successful trades - and 

build from there! 

Peek “Under The Hood” of a Successful Solo-Merchanter 

If you love case studies, by far the biggest benefit of the Full 

Members Area is that I take you behind the scenes of everything I do 

to review the price charts and select items to merch. 

If you ever wanted the insider scoop from a Solo-Merchanter who 

tells all, broken down into easy to follow steps and presented in a 

clear and straight to the point, practical breakdown, this is THE 

Merchanting Guide for you. 

Plus, if you’re already a fan of my work, like the style of this report 

and find how I teach effective for you, you will love 

LumbridgeCity.com. Click the link below for more details and to sign 

up - 


What Do You Get? 

An INTENSIVE Four-Week Merchanting Course Including: 

• Exclusive video presentations broken down into simple parts to 

make it easier for you to “read” the price charts for a different 

strategy each week. 

• Each weekly presentation is 100% content from me (you will 

see or hear me talking to you in the video) as I walk you through a 

presentation, including live demonstrations from my desktop and 

inside my Runescape Bank Account as I make my trades on the 

Grand Exchange. 

• The videos are available to stream online, which work on 

Windows or Mac computers. 

• Each Course Members gains direct, real-time access to 

Merchanting Advice via our Private Twitter account - ask any 

Merchanting question! 

• Graduates also gain LIFETIME access to my hidden, private 

forums that are only for my Merch Course Graduates. This is a great 

opportunity to network, support and get help from a high-quality 

group of people who are motivated to succeed in Merchanting. You 

will find a team of helpful mentors, including myself, who spend time 

every day responding to questions. This is another way to get in 

touch with me that only my Full Clan Members have access to, 24 

hours a day. 

To join or for more information, go here - http://www.lumbridgecity.com 


How Much Time And Work Is Required? 

I understand you are considering joining my site in conjunction with 

other work, school, other plans in the game, or commitments you 

have going on in your life. My course is NOT intended to take over 

your gaming life or feel anything like a job. You can definitely work 

my strategies in just a few minutes each day, on the side of your 

regular gaming time, and personal life. 

Lumbridgecity.com is the most straight forward Merchanting course 

that I could create. As long as you watch the new video Guides each 

month, and stay in contact with the Forums, you will get results with 

this program. 

The majority of your time won’t be spent studying my course, 

instead, your time will go into finding an item showing conditions 

that indicate a 'buy signal'. This can happen very quickly if you put in 

the time, or you can lurk for a while, and put your gold pieces up 

when you feel more comfortable with the process. 

Set aside a few mintues a day for concentrated effort and you will 

get results. How fast you get there is entirely up to you, but I can 

promise you will have the exact steps to Solo-Merchant successfully 

as a Full Member of LumbridgeCity.com 

My system is deliberately simple, so you don’t need much money to 

start, and once you have everything up and running it will turn out 

profit - almost on autopilot. 


What Costs Are Involved? 

Just $4.95 for a 7 Day Trail - Then $8 Per Month. NEW LIFETIME 

MEMBERSHIP! 

You Asked - We Listened. 

Course Graduates gain lifetime access to all of the training 

materials, tutorials, guides, and most importantly, you gain full 

access to the growing archive of 60 historical training videos! 

These archival Merchanting Guides are case studies that bring you 

behind the scenes to really get to know the thinking that goes 

behind reading the price charts! You'll never find these videos 

anywhere else. 

When Does It Start? 

Coming Soon! LumbridgeCity.com is An Intensive Four-Week 

Merchanting Course, followed by a Lifetime Membership! 

The prices on the Grand Exchange are changing every day. New 

opportunities spring up and many items are starting to crash with 

each and every update. Register Today, and keep up with new 

recommendations about the latest exciting, HOT markets! 

See LumbridgeCity.com for available course dates! 


Good luck! 

That’s it from me. I hope you enjoyed "The Five Phases Of The Merch 

Clan Rip-Off", and now have a much greater sense of clarity 

regarding how Price Manipulating Merch Clans successfully steal 

your time and money with false claims and underhanded 

dealings. 

From here on it’s up to you. If you decide to join LumbridgeCity.com, 

that’s great and I look forward to working with you very soon. If not, 

don’t let go of the dream and keep striving towards your 

Merchanting goals - you will get there. 

Here’s to your Wealth , 

Linkbuilder 

Lumbridgecity.com 

What Can You Do With This 

Guide? 

You are welcome to share this Guide with 

anyone, reprint portions of it on your blog or 

website, and basically do anything, except 

sell it for profit. 

If you do reprint content from this Guide I’d 

appreciate an attribution link to 

http://www.lumbridgcity.com 

Affiliate Program - If you want to join my affiliate program, you can do 

so here.

5 Phases of "The Merch Clan Rip-Off" - Runescape Merchanting Guide

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