apranum wrote:
Useful and unique war/plot/game/code/other prizes and restocking r99+ and cove items (again with the useful and unique) will also get you rich fast.
A good point. For example, I finished fairly low in terms of percentile in the first Meridell War, and received a Darigan Skeith Tongue. Cost me nothing, now worth millions.
Now, imagine that you've done this in the 6 or 7 plots that Neopets has had in the last few years. Brucey B, two Meridell plots, Tyrannian War, Hannah and the Ice Caves, Pirate War, Lost Desert Plot, and now Altador.
If you can do well in these plots, or even above average, and you have the patience to stick around (I'm waiting for that skeith tongue to hit 10 million before I sell it), then you will get wealthy, for multiple reasons:
1) War prizes are fairly rare, especially the decent ones. Books are especially good, although BD items may be even better.
2) People quit, get frozen, or forget about items all the time. Thus, they increase in actual rarity. Think of the Jade Scorchstone, or Jeran's Sword. Same thing happens with rare Lenny conundrum prizes, like the Holographic Coltzan Stamp, which you can now expect to pay 20 million for.
3) Collectors desire these items, especially as they get rarer, further driving up the price. I want the HCStamp for my gallery, and I might actually be willing to pay that 20 million (if I didn't want a dozen other things, too).
And so on and so forth.
As for money, most top players don't need to cheat. They can make money faster by having a huge shop.
Take a look at any of the top 10 shops in the marketplace. Look at how freaking huge they are. They've got 1000 different items, and
they're all overpriced. Newbies shop in those malls because they don't know where else to go. Some people shop there because they're on a quest and can't use the wizard. In both cases, those people are willing to pay 5 or 10 times the actual value of an item in order to get it, netting these sellers huge profits on items that in my shop or yours would be exceptionally unprofitable.
EDIT: To follow up, I have a pretty sizable bank account, but I don't have anywhere near a billion nps.