Unbiased Reviews by Real People
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Unbiased Reviews by Real People
So You Want To Be A Restocking Guru At Neopets?Sep 26, 2006 (Updated Apr 26, 2008) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line There is no short cut to restocking, play it safe and avoid the scams and auto buying programs.
If you are a NeoAddict then you know that having a well stocked shop is a necessity. I'm the type of player that can't log out until my shop is full but sometimes that can be a tough thing to do. When I started getting serious about restocking I came up with a pretty simple plan on how to build up a huge inventory in the least amount of time. No this has nothing to do with autobuyer programs [use them and your account will get frozen in a heartbeat], scamming or using bots to duplicate items in your inventory [that too is something that will get you frozen]. So what plan did I come up with? Well, you'll have to read on to get those details. Before you do anything you have to open a shop; I thought I was all cool, big and bad with a size 50 shop. Then I saw people with size 400 shops and felt really, really inferior. Now I try to enlarge my shop by one size each week. Right now I am at size 100 and to move up to 101 [505 items] it's going to cost me 20,000 NP. I can't imagine what lambchops [an Epinions member and Neopet player] pays for her shop enlargements but maybe she'll post up her cost for us. So far I have had three random events where my shop size was increased but that averages out to one a year so if you are hoping for that to happen all the time, you might be disappointed. The Basics The shops around the site restock at random times; some people sit there and try to figure out the schedule of when they restock or in what order but Neopets does change it around every few days. I was on a hot streak for a while; I had it down to a science. First the bakery then the toy shop, about 30 seconds later hit the Igloo for some reduced items then the main food shop. From there you could hit the less frequently visited shops like grooming or health foods and there would always be something good left to grab. That lasted about three days before the schedule changed. If you think you are going to sit there and try to figure out the "system" that is used, let me be brutally honest and say that you are wasting your time. Most people go with the motto of "Buy low, sell high" but that isn't always the best strategy to go with. Sometimes you have to buy something at a little bit higher of a price and sell it for a loss to get people into your shop. I did this with the "Rainbow Doughnuts"; instead of buying them in the Bakery for about 120 NP I opted to hit the Shop Wizard and buy them for about 300 NP [this was when there was a slump in sales]. I sold about 20 of them right off the bat but stored most of them in my SDB until the price went up. Low and behold, less than a week later the price was up over 360 NP so I sold about 50% of the ones I had and made a nice little profit on them. So how do I build up a hefty stock of items? I have a list of things that I buy every day when I am at the site. Some things I buy five of, some of them ten. That might not sound like a lot but over a weeks time, you end up with 35 to 70 of a single item. That makes restocking a large shop easy, especially if the price went up. Try looking for cheap items like "Beefy Broccoli", "Red Bandana", "Sausage & Cheese Rolls", "Churros" and "Jalapeno Poppers". You can sell these for a small profit and since they are items that are almost always in need at the Employment Agency, there are always people looking to buy multiples of them quickly. If you hit the shops and get five to ten of an item a day and save it up, you can restock your shop with one single item at a time or larger lots. These are really nice if you have people that are packrats or have monster sized shops [size 300 and larger] and sell things for 100 times the normal price [usually marketplace shops]. That was something that no one ever bothered to explain to me, how shops that were selling things like milkshakes and doughnuts for 3,000 NP ever managed to sell anything. How do they do it? These are the shops that you can hit when you have a Quests but don't have the item that you need in your inventory. Alas, I learned the hard way about overpriced items. I got into the routine of buying a list of things; stuff like gift boxes, grooming items, toys and basic food. I'd go though the Shop Wizard and buy things that were selling for below normal prices and turf them into my SDB then I'd hit the shops to get a few extras. I almost fell over when I started poking around my SDB when I was looking for stuff to restock with. Does any one Neopet player really have the need for over 400 "Chocolate Tacos"? Well, when they were selling for 10 NP a piece, it was a bargain that I couldn't pass up. Every day I buy one "Negg"; nothing fancy, just the run of the mill brown Neggs. At the end of the year I have about 300 of them in my SDB and use them at the Neggery to buy a special Negg. You can use that strategy with any item; buy one a day and hoard it. If you eventually hope to have a massive shop and don't want to spend forever and a day stocking and pricing items, this is a great way to build up inventory. One thing that I learned the hard way was that I had to rotate what I was selling. I'd save up 200 "Beefy Broccoli", "Churros" and "Fajita Chips" and think I was on easy street selling them for 95 NP, that was fine until I ran out and needed to find more stuff to sell. Now I rotate things until I have a "safe zone" of about 100 of any given item; that's when I'll stock 40 to 60 of something and be done restocking and pricing in a matter of minutes. Great things to stock up on if you come across them for a reasonable price are vitamins, grooming items, toys, special items and seasonal things. The Safety Deposit Box can get cluttered from time to time if you are just randomly buying things so make sure you spend an hour or so every few months going through it to find those high priced items you forgot about. This is where having multiple windows open is a necessity. If you come across a shop that is selling things way below the market value and you want to try to get all that you can, you will reach your 50 item limit in short order. Have a window open to the quick stock screen and dump your inventory on a regular basis. The 50 item carry count does include things that you have in your trades so keep that in mind if you are going shopping and bargain hunting. Seasonal Items Just like in the real world, the best time to get seasonal items is in the off season. With Halloween about a month away you can see the prices of things like Spooky Doughnuts, Spooky Shakes and Peanut Butter Spiders slowly creeping up. The danger here is that these items will be in the Halloween gift bags that are hidden around the site. The past two years saw some great new items [special items not available in shops] added to the inventory; "Snotty Ghost Toast" and "Ichor Ghost Toast" were selling for under 100 NP and are now both over 1,000 NP so that is a huge profit margin for those who stocked up when people were selling them the first few weeks after Halloween. The same can be said for the "Toy Spider Rings"; you could get them for about 5 to 10 NP and now they are around 200 NP. Food items disappear once you feed them to a pet so their price goes up a lot quicker than toys or furniture. This past Easter the price of "Kacheeps" went through the roof; this was an item that was selling for 15 to 20 NP when they were in the "Ghosty Trick or Treat Bags" but they were selling for 800 to 1,000 NP during Easter. Again, this is an item that is fed to a pet so once you use it, it is gone from your inventory. Since this is a "special" item, eventually the demand for them is going to dictate that the price goes up more and more with each passing holiday. Then there are the cookies and Neggs that are released for Easter; "Blue and Red Checkered Easter Negg", "Spring Flowers Easter Negg", "Pink Easter Negg Cookie" and "Jazzy Easter Negg" are just a few that are always good sellers. Since these can be had through random events, they don't cost you anything to get them so it's pure profit. Then there are the people that get them as random events and have no idea how much they are worth and sell them for a couple hundred NP, if you comb the Shop Wizard you can find them dirt cheap and sell them for a nice profit. Christmas items are always great to stock up on because they almost always increase in price. This goes hand in hand with the Advent Calendar that you can visit once a day to get free items and sometimes NP. Most of the time you can get multiple of things by looking on the Shop Wizard or in the trades. A few years ago [Advent Calendar Year 4] the "Mint Chocolate Tree" was released and was selling for about 50 NP; price them now on the Shop Wizard and the average selling price is between 700 and 800 NP and that will go up with December hits. Sometimes you have to wait for things to increase but then there are items that are considered rare because not everyone got one; these include the "Gigantic Decorated Christmas Tree" and "Snow Covered Tree". "Candy Canes" are always huge sellers; people like to send them as gifts and feed them to their pets and you never know where there is going to be an avatar that requires one or more of them. If you want to really clean up, stick around the Gift Shop and grab anything that is seasonal but know the prices before you hit that buy button. Things like the "Valentines Day T-Shirt", "Bottle of Love" and "Valentines Earrings" are huge money makers for Valentine's Day. Stock up on them in the off season and you will make a tremendous amount of NP. Other great items to grab and hoard include the Christmas Stockings [red, blue, purple and green], "Three Red Roses", greeting cards [including the "Mysterious Valentine" that can nab you and a friend an avatar], "Merry Christmas Card" [retired] and one of my personal favorites, "Winter Card". As I said, 99% of the food items that are released for a holiday are worth stocking up on. As much as I hate to admit it, I have 851 "Cranberry Gummy Slorgs" and 130 "Lime Gummy Slorgs" saved up. I bought them when they were extremely cheap and the price on the Lime ones has gone through the roof over the past few months. This is one of the many situations when I feel like kicking myself because I didn't go hog wild when they were selling for a couple NP. The Half Off Sale! The third of every month is when all the shops [at least the main ones] have their prices slashed. Sure it is pretty hard to get things if you have a slow connection but even with that, you can still get a lot of bargains that can help make restocking your shop a profitable venture. Things go very quickly once the shop restocks but if you aren't having any luck catching them, try looking on the Shop Wizard. As cruel as it sounds, a lot of new people join every day and don't know about the sale so they sell things for a lot less than the SW average. The danger is getting a "shop ban"; this happens if you refresh a shop too often [there is no defined number of refreshes so you will have to learn by trial and error]. You won't know if you are under a shop ban until you visit a lot of the shops that are usually stocked with items because they are overpriced [Tiki Tak]. If you do happen to get a shop ban you have to stay out of the shops, all the shops for 24 to 48 hours. I haven't had a shop ban for a couple of years now but I do get scared when I hit one of the stores and see nothing, then I go to the Tiki Tak and it is empty and I start to break out into a sweat. Even though I don't refresh the shops that often, once you get a shop ban, you don't soon forget it. Other NP Makers I've already talked about food but books are another great thing to stock up on. You never know when one of the titles are going to retire and when they do, the price on them goes up because there are always new people joining the site and trying to get a book trophy. Seasonal books aren't all that cheap to buy from the Shop Wizard so expect to pay about 200 to 400 NP for them but you are almost guaranteed to quadruple your money in less than a year, even more so if they book is retired which they almost always are when the season ends. Then there are 'special' books that you can get from the Fish Hole and a few of the wheels [Wheel of Knowledge and Wheel of Excitement]. Books like "The Tournament Handbook", "GoGoGo Handbook", "Waterlogged Book" and "Mystery Of The Kougra Paw" are all worth trying to get multiples of because their price will increase. When The Magic Paw was given out with the newbie packs [for new members of the site] you could find them for 25 – 100 NP, when they changed the contents of the pack the price slowly started to increase so now they are in the 850 to 950 price range. A very nice profit if you got them for less than 100 NP each. One time use battle items are worth stocking up on in case there is ever another major war at the site. The only time my pets venture into the Battledome is if there is an avatar to be had so most of the weapons that I come across get tossed into the SDB until the price increases. One item that was in great demand was the Radioactive Muffin [retired], I bought a ton of these when they were pretty cheap and the price has slowly been increasing over the past year or so. Then there are some that are considered 'seasonal' like the Evil Muffin; until a few weeks ago you could get these for about 500 NP, now they are in the 800 NP range and sure to increase the closer we get to Halloween. Even so, cheap ones like the "Battle Muffin" and "Jelly Muffin" are a nice find under 100 NP; stock up on them and sell them for a small profit or save them up until there is a demand for them. So, I've covered books, food and battle items but what about stamps? Well, this is something that I had to learn the hard way. Once you put a stamp into your album it is there for good, there is no way to remove it. This is one of the reasons that seasonal stamps like "Ring of Sloth" [not the toy, the stamp] and last years "Seasonal Stamp" are such great sellers. People know what they are going to be in high demand, especially if they are retired. Players want to complete and album and in order to do that, there are some stamps that cost an arm and a leg to obtain. I had the hope of completing a few albums to get avatars but gave up. I'd have to say that 80% of the players at the site aren't thinking about "the long haul" so they sell the stamps or seasonal things for a couple hundred NP. Ready to fall over? Seasonal Stamps are now selling for over 7,000 NP and considering that it was free in the first place, it's pure profit. So now maybe you are starting to understand why some people hoard things and have SDB's that make people cringe. What Not To Do Cornering the market is sure to work against you every single time. Since there are so many members and your Shop Wizard searches only cover a certain area, there's almost no way to buy a certain item under a certain price to try and drive the market value up. Confusing statement? Let me explain. If you are buying "Chocolate Chip Cookies" and set the Wiz to search for items under 350 NP you will get a good listing but that isn't a good representation of what is out there for sale. How many times have you been looking to stock up on one thing and then come across something dirt cheap in a shop but that user never appeared on the Shop Wizard. It happens a lot, that is why it is important to know the going prices for things. When the Toasty avatar was out, anything with the word 'bread' in it could be fed to a pet when you went to Techo Mountain. The prices on things did eventually drop but the price of 'bread' [a retired food item] is still incredibly high. In the past I have gotten NeoMail from people asking me to raise prices in my shop to try and drive up the going price of things. The Pea Eraser was one of them. I can't remember the exact price I was selling them for but it was comparable to the going Shop Wiz average. A person contacted me and said that he and a few others were buying them and selling them for ten to fifteen thousand points higher than the average hoping to corner the market and drive up the demand for them. Well, if you have half a brain you already know what is going to happen. If TNT [The Neopets Team] doesn't freeze you for doing this you are going to cut your own throat. When ever anything is in great demand people start unloading what they have and it floods the market. This is nice if you are someone like me that wants to packrat a lot of stuff but for the casual player, it really makes it hard to price things. The Bottom Line I have what is called a "seasoned account"; over 100 avatars, 32 months, painted pets etc. I have put some time and effort into my shop and gallery and wouldn't risk it with auto buying programs or running scams. I search the Shop Wizard for bargains and stock up on things that I know are going to increase in price. You have to stay on top of "hot items" or things that are bring used for avatars when you are pricing so you aren't cutting yourself short. Right now I am averaging about 100,000 in sales a day and spending about 30,000 stocking up on things to be sold in the future. Add that up with the interest that you get at the Bank every day and you come up with a nice little nest egg [or in this case a nest negg]. Sure I end up blowing obscene amounts of money with my Spooky Gallery but hey, it's not like you can use your Neopoints in the real world! As always, thanks for the visit… ~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~ © 2006 Freak369 Neopets, Neopets Official Magazine, Deluxe World Meridell Game, Deluxe World Faerie Land Game, Talking Shoyru Plushie, Talking Uni Plushie, Mutant Kacheek Interactive Game, Krawk Island Pocket Neopet, Neopets Islandberry Crunch Cereal, Red Shoyru NeoPen, Pirate Blumaroo Plushie, Purple Grundo Plushie, Hasee PetPet Plushie, Neopet Notebooks, Neopet Binder & Folder Set, Aisha Sticker Set Neopet Mc Donald's 2004 Plushie Collection Battle For Meridell TCG Card Reviews "The Bat Thing" 1/140, "Darigan Paint Brush" 3/140, "Golden Negg" 9/140, "Lisha" 13/140, "Meridell Castle" Holofoil 16/140, "Meridell Gardens" 17/140, "Nova Storm" 19/140, "Book of Law" 34/140, "Contest of Champions" 35/140, "Darigan Gardens" 36/140, "Draik Skeleton" 41/140, "Jeran Plushie" 47/140, "Yellow Draik Egg" 58/140, "Zafara Double Agent" 59/140, "Zombie Moltenore" 60/140, "Blumaroo Squire" 65/140, "Bomberry" 66/140, "Count Boris" 69/140, "Flying Potion" 74/140, "Illusen's Glade" 78/140, "Kass's Charm" 81/140, "Meerca Spy" 85/140, "Morris" 87/140, "Oubliette" 90/140, "Quiggle Scout" 92/140, "Skarl's Banquet" 95/140, "Red Meerca" 110/140, "Crop Failure" 120/140, "Locked In The Dungeon" 126/140, "Makeshift Sword" 127/140, "Petpet Growth Syrup" 129/140, "Pupplyblew" 131/140, "Regulation Chainmail" 132/140, "Tangle Net Gun" 138/140, "Uni Charm" 140/140 And the editorials ... Neopet Scams, Hacks, Cheats & Darkside of Neopia The Pant Devil, Dr. Sloth, Boo Brothers, Esophagor & Tax Beast! The Neopets Primer: Getting Stared On That First Million! The Neopet Primer II: Making The Second Million! So You Want To Get Rich At Neopets? Quests, Quests & More Quests! Spoil Your Neopet! Get Them Their Very Own Petpet! So You Want To Be A Restocking Guru At Neopets? Restocking Seasonal Items At Neopets: Making A Killing Without Cutting Your Throat NeoCash: Buying Cyber Items For Cyber Pets With Real World Cash NeoCash Cards Arrive Just In Time For The Holidays! Neopet Food Finds: From Budget To Gourmet & Everything In Between Making The Most of The "Neopets 2007 Advent Calendar" Neopets Trading Post: Making The Most of Your Unwanted Items  |
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