lab map and unbuyables

[Siniri]

I had the bright idea to buy up all the lab map pieces separately and sell them as a set for profit. When I bought my pieces a month ago, the individual pieces had a combined total of 400-450K. Since someone mentioned the set was trading at 550K, I thought -- wow, 100K easy profit. I started snapping up the pieces at the lowest prices I could find (not buying until after two hours of research). When I added the prices, I spent 527K. I'd at least like to make a few thousand NP profit for my time, and at the very least recoup my investment.

Now I'm getting offers of all sorts of items plus NP, and some of them are unbuyables. How do I know how much an item's really worth? I've never much ventured into unbuyables. Some for instances are snow petpet paintbrushes and a usuki paintbrush. Is there some database that gives approximate values of items? Or do I have to troll through trades and auctions to guess? And if I'm looking at auctions, do I base it on the asking price? I thought I might be able to get more stuff if I didn't ask for pure NP, but some of these lists are ridiculous (one had twenty items, mostly cheap stuff I could SW, but still).

I'm beginning to think I should just put the pieces in my SDB for a month, then sell them individually after they've risen more. But if I can successfully trade the full set, I can repeat the process tomorrow re-investing my earnings, but with less time spent on researching/buying -- kind of like house-flipping.

Thanks for any help.

P.S. For those looking for a full map: If you can snag one for 530K or less, you've gotten a great deal! In the same amount of time, you could win more in games than you save buying it in pieces.

EDIT: I was just offered Halloween Moehog Plushie, Orange Central History, Vo Codestone, Tai-Kai Codestone, and 100,000 Neopoints. The user claims the plushie is worth 450K. I found one on the TP at this price, but no others in TP or auctions -- is this a legitimate price? I don't want to accept then find out it's only worth 100K or something and that's why the other one's not trading...

[Officer 1BDI]

I was faced with a similar problem: while trading off a Lutari Bead, someone offered me a Negg worth, supposedly, 400k. Checking the trades led me to see that it was worth between 300-500k, which would have still been a great deal for the bead. I turned it down, though, because it was considered a HTS item, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to sell it for that price, if I'd ever be able to sell it at all.

To be honest, I wouldn't take the current offer. Even if the plushie really is worth 450k, it's difficult to say if you'd be able to sell it.

[Siniri]

I was faced with a similar problem: while trading off a Lutari Bead, someone offered me a Negg worth, supposedly, 400k. Checking the trades led me to see that it was worth between 300-500k, which would have still been a great deal for the bead. I turned it down, though, because it was considered a HTS item, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to sell it for that price, if I'd ever be able to sell it at all.

To be honest, I wouldn't take the current offer. Even if the plushie really is worth 450k, it's difficult to say if you'd be able to sell it.

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll withdraw the trade and ask for pure NP only -- since I want to reinvest in new lab maps with the profit, it makes more sense. How do you know what items are HTS?

[kimiko_00]

Why not ask the bidder to sell their items first, and bid only neopoints? If they're sure their item is worth 450k, they should be able to sell it for that price and then get back to you..

I think TNT should remove the 100k limit on shops.

[thelilbear]

I just did the same thing with the lab pieces. I had pure neopoints in my wishlist, but of course no one who actually offer that. I wouldn't accept any items unless the neopoints are the bulk of the offer. I finally got rid of mine for a less than I was asking in points plus a spotted paint brush, which was one of the colors I was considering one of my pets
However, in the case of the plushie, I wouldn't trust it. I wouldn't accept any items unless you are absolutely sure of the value (such as codestones).
My best suggestion is to consider all offers carefully, and let the trade stay up for a while. If it doesn't go quickly, you can always put it up again.
And don't know if you did this, but I put "FULL LAB SET" in my wish list, so people knew it was the whole thing and didn't have to count.

[Cranberry]

My rule of thumb: I don't accept any items unless I know they are very easy to sell and have a stable value. This isn't true of many items, so I normally insist on pure np only. It may take a couple extra days to get pure for an item, but it's worth it -- it takes much more than a couple days to sell some random high-rarity plushie or petpet or species weapon (NEVER ACCEPT SPECIES WEAPONS -- most are r99, completely weak, and nobody wants them).

[Officer 1BDI]

How do you know what items are HTS?

My rule of thumb is, after 10 months of playing Neopets, if I don't recognize it, it's probably HTS. It's not a good rule, but it works for me.

[Alex]

Yep, like others have said, I'd just ask for pure NP.

You can try advertising on the Trading Neoboards though - they're pretty good.

[Siniri]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've changed the trade to say pure NP only -- it hasn't changed the types of offers, but I'm hopeful I'll eventually get there. I did say it was a complete map set. I'll try posting on the boards.

Thanks again.

[amandajolong]

yea, unless you know enough about the exact item they're trying to trade you, np only... even IF it was actually worth what they're saying, it's probably HTS, which usually means you can't get what it's worth, which is why they want rid of it... not always but in general.. or at least from what i've seen.. i've been duped many times on the tp.. so i just stick to shops lol... unless i HAVE to...

[Siniri]

UPDATE: I posted on the boards (thanks for the suggestion) and had 4 competing offers. I accepted a frozen negg and 125k NP -- there were a lot of frozen neggs going for 500K, and it's a kad food, so I figured I could sell it quick. Sure enough, I just sold it for 470K, so my net profit is 68000 NP! That was about 4 hours of work (2 hours research, 2 hours fretting and selling), but next time it should only be about 1-2 hours of work). I also snatched up a few discount lab pieces on trades, so my profit next time will be bigger. Let the flipping begin -- I'm hooked.

Thanks again for all your help. I'm sure I'll accept a bad trade here and there, but that's how you learn. But I'll definitely keep in mind the advice -- no rare plushies or species weapons for me.

[_B4U_]

I used to sell lab maps to make money by doing just what you described. Of course, this was back in the day when they cost around 240k or so... But still, if you have the time and dedication, you can easily make a couple thousand off of every lab map you sell. I found that it's generally better not to accept items, because then you risk taking a loss. If you can get someone to offer you pure np, and trust me, it might take a few days before you can finally sell for pure np, it will be much safer. Also, not like it's unobvious or anything, but make sure you don't refresh too fast on the shop wiz or you'll get shop wiz banned.

And finally, if someone offers you some item, and you browse the trading post and all the prices you see are in the millions, or drastically higher than what a normal lab map goes for, don't bother selling since the item is most likely HTS. Now, of course, if someone offers you something crazy like a Maraquan Paint Brush, then go ahead and accept. Good luck! I know I always loved selling lab maps, it was just the time commitment that turned me off after a while.