I'm L/E and this is RSE

Runescape Bonds (released 25th of September, 2013).

Apologies for using USD.

What are bonds?
Tradable Runescape Items which are also redeemable for Membership, SoF spins, or RuneCoins.

Where can you get them?
You can buy them from the Runescape website (under "Shop") for $5 each.

Can I buy them for Runescape coins?
Only from other players, who either bought them from someone else, or paid $5 to Jagex at the shop.  This is how Jagex makes their money off of Bonds, since every Bond that appears in the game will have at one point been purchased for $5.

Why did Jagex create Bonds?
In attempt to curb RWT by allowing a cash-valued item to be tradable for in-game items, and potentially underselling the bots and gold farmers.  They are also intended as a money sink.

Money sink?
Jagex want to remove money from the economy to lower inflation and the cost of all items across the board.  This is generally considered healthy for the Runescape economy.  The money sink comes in the form of a 20% tax on the SECOND trade of a RS Bond.  (It can be traded once without paying the tax).

But is this effective?

To examine this we need to examine the RS Bonds more closely.

Where do Runescape Bonds get their value from?

1: They cost $5 to buy.  NO VALUE
2: They are tradable for any item in game. NO VALUE
3: They are reedemable for the following:
 a. Membership at $0.36/day
 b. SoF Spins at $0.63/spin
 c. RuneCoins for $0.03/coin
4: GE Price.  Their value is not fixed, but depends on the value of RW currency.


The fact that RS Bonds cost $5 IRL does not give them value either.

That leaves you with a, b, and c.

a: Runescape Membership.
My monthly Runescape Membership costs $7.95/month monthly.  Also available is a yearly subscription for $74.95.
$7.95/month is $0.27/day, or 75% of the cost using bonds.
$74.95 a year is $0.21/day, or 58% the cost of using bonds.
Therefore, buying a bond for membership purposes is not worth it.

But you might say, "Aha! I can get my friend a membership!" - this is true, but you could also do that using Runescape Membership cards which are available in many retail stores and online and simply tell your friend the PIN via PM.

b: SoF spins.
This is the crux of the RS Bonds issue.  You can indirectly convert money ($5) into 8 spins worth of items and xp.  This is a bad idea for two reasons.

Reason #1: Spins have a low rate of return (think: small cash bags, cosmetic items, junk items, etc).
Reason #2: A bond give syou 8 spins for $5.00.  That's $0.63/spin.  10 spins currently cost $4.99.  That's $0.50/spin, or 79% of the cost.  Why spend more money for less spins?

But you might say, "Aha! I can get my friend spins!" - this is true, but so what?  You can give your friends items or coins directly.  Why give them a chance of an item when you could give them the actual thing?
This is where the Bond does best.  You can give your friend potential items or coins by spending $5 IRL.  Note that you could also buy the spins for yourself and then give them whatever tradable items you win.

c: RuneCoins

I bet you know where I'm going with this.  Once again, RuneCoins are cheaper if you buy them directly versus using bonds. (0.031c/spin vs 0.025c/spin).

You can trade this to your friends who may not have the money for RuneCoins.  Since a lot of the items on Solomon's General Store are not tradable, this allows you to indirectly trade the collectables on SGS using real life money.


So are Bonds a worthwhile investment?

Yes if:
1) You cannot afford a membership IRL, but want to.
2) You cannot afford RuneCoins IRL, but want to.
3) You cannot afford to purchase spins, but want to.
4) You want to give a friend any of the above items.
5) You are a merchanter and think you can make more than 10% off reselling Bonds.


It is NOT worth holding onto the RS Bonds if they truly end up deflating the economy, because the value will constantly be going down along with most other items.  It is also not worth buying bonds with cash if you can afford to buy a membership normally.

Will this stop RWT?

Probably not.  RWT-ers can simply buy up bonds from other players and resell to you at a very cheap price.  Then you pay the tax but resell the bonds at full price.  Additionally, gold farmers may be willing to sell their gold at a cheaper price than whatever a RS Bond is currently worth.

How could Jagex make the Runescape Bonds more effective against RWT'ers?

1) Allow bonds to be directly redeemed for GP.  This will not happen, because Jagex would be directly selling gold which they have agreed to not do.
2) Make Bonds give the same amount of Membership, Spins, or Runecoins as buying them directly would.
3) Give some extra benefit to buying bonds that you cannot get any other way to give it more inherent value.
4) Increase the resale tax dramatically (50%).  This would make reselling the bond much less profitable for the gold buyer, but also drive less incentive to buy an already traded bond.  It is imperitave to have the BUYER pay a tax, because the seller would gladly absorb the costs - and someone who is buying gold is unlikely to have the money for the tax in the first place.

So in conclusion, I'm pretty excited about the bonds, but will not be paying cash for them anytime soon.