Trading items with other players is a big and important part of the RuneScape experience.

Trading will often allow you to buy and sell your items at a better price than the shops offer. Many items cannot be purchased in the shops at all and can only be obtained by finding them, making them yourself, or by purchasing them from other players.

An effective means of buying and selling items and services is to use our Marketplace forums. You can post a message in the right section, stating what you want to buy or sell and how much you are willing to pay. If you can not post a message, you can still read other players’ messages. You can access our forums at the following Marketplace forums link.

The ‘Trade/Compete’ button at the bottom of your game window, controls whether players can send you trade requests or challenge you for duels and other games. The options are On, Friends Only or Off.

Turn this to On if you want to trade with anyone or Friends Only to only trade with your friends.

Before you start trading you need to find a buyer (or seller). For instance, if you have mined some coal and you want to sell it, you could try standing in a busy area and saying “Coal for sale!”

Once you have found someone to trade with, click on their character with the right mouse button, and select the ‘Trade’ option. The other player will be informed of your request. To accept your trade they may click on your character and also select the ‘Trade’ option.

At this point a screen similar to the one shown above will appear. All the items in the left-hand side of the screen are what you are offering in the trade, the items in the right-hand side are what your trading partner is offering you.

To add an item to your offer click on it in your inventory box. If you wish to add multiple items (e.g. a stack of coins) right click the object and select the ‘offer x’ option to manually select the number you wish to offer. To remove an item from your offer, just click on it in the offer window and it will be removed.

Once you are happy with the proposed exchange, press the green ‘Accept’ button. If you aren’t happy for any reason, press the red ‘Decline button to cancel the trade.

If you select the ‘Accept’ button, a final confirmation screen will appear (see image below). This clearly lists everything which is being swapped and gives you one last chance to check you are getting the trade you expected. You should read this information carefully, and then once you are sure you are happy with the trade, press the green ‘Accept’ button.

Remember that there is no way to reverse a trade if you later change your mind. So be careful! Giving items in return for information, or with the promise of getting them back is very risky, please remember that not all RuneScape players are honest, and you could end up losing your items for nothing if you do this!