Scattered throughout RuneScape are many shops where you can buy and sell items. Most shops will specialise in a certain type of item, for instance, the sword shop will only buy and sell swords. In addition to these specialist shops there are several “General stores” which will buy and sell almost anything. However, items in the general stores normally cost slightly more, and they will pay less for items that you sell to them. If you take the trouble to find the right shop you can often get a better deal.

To access the shop you must talk to the shopkeeper in the store and choose the conversation option to indicate that you wish to buy or sell.

Alternatively, players using a multiple button mouse can right-click and choose the “trade” option to go straight to the shop screen, without having any prior conversation. Single button mouse users should click on the shopkeeper and select the “trade” option. A screen like the one shown below will appear.

This window shows all the items you can buy and sell at the current shop. In the example here the player is using an archery store which has various ranging equipment for sale.

Next to each item is a number that indicates the quantity the shop has in stock. This is the quantity of that item that is available for purchase. If there is no number next to the item you wish to buy, that means it is the last one in stock, so buy it quickly if you want it!

Whenever you are in a shop screen your inventory will be displayed in the interface, so you will always know whether or not you have room to buy what you want.

For multiple button mouse users, left clicking with the mouse button on any item will give its value in gold pieces; clicking an item in your inventory will tell you how much the shop is prepared to pay you for the item(if at all), clicking in the shop window will show how much the shop will sell for.

These two prices will not be the same since the shop buys items at a lower price than it sells them - the shopkeeper needs to make some profit!

For multiple button mouse users, right-clicking on the item will open a selection options to value, examine and buy different number of the item selected. If you wish to sell an item from your inventory, simply right-click on the item you wish to sell, then choose the amount you wish to sell from the list.

Single button mouse users will always get a menu of options to choose from when they click in their inventory or in the shop screen.

The prices for items are dynamic, they are not static. Prices are determined by the store’s stock levels. For example, if you sell ten items to the store, you could get 5gp for the first three, 4gp for the next five and 3gp for the final two. For your next sale of the same item, the store could reduce the price it will pay to 2gp per item. So if you sell another ten of the same item to the store, you will get less money than before. This also applies to buying items from the store, low stock levels leads to higher selling prices while high stock levels lead to lower prices.

When buying items, if you select to buy say ten pieces of an item from the store and there are only five pieces available, the store will only charge for, and sell five pieces of that item to you because that is quantity available at the time. Also note that the price could increase as you purchase these five items.