Neopoints (pronounced knee-oh-points) is the currency system in Neopia. Using Neopoints, a person can buy items, stock from the stock market, bid in auctions and trade for other items on Neopets. While the prices of individual items vary, the trading, which occurs within shops and auctions, are what keeps the economy alive and well.
How Do I Get Them?
Neopoints can be gained from many different activities. Initially, players will make most of their income from playing games in Neopets. The higher a person scores, the greater the point returns. If a person excels at such games, it is not uncommon to see that person make his/her entire earnings off these games.
After a small amount of neopoints has been saved up, players have various options open to them. They can either choose to spend it all on more items, or they can choose to invest it in the banking system, which give interest returns every day for keeping the money in the bank! For budding business enthusiasts, there is also an option to open a store, which allows the user to resell items they gain either from finding or buying them. There are many other forms of neopoint gaining activities, which will be explored below.
Getting Neopoints through Games
While gaining neopoints through games may be what many people initially do to stockpile their overall funds, this method of gaining income is extremely popular with gaming enthusiasts and if played properly, can be a very big source of a player’s overall income. Generally, Neopets provides every user with access to games with differing difficulty ratings. Typically, the harder a game is, the greater the neopoint returns. Many neopians who play by this method choose two or three games to specialize in. These games are played over and over again until every known nook and cranny is uncovered. Then using this information, they start piling up their scores, eventually hitting a score on the High Score Table. While they gain neopoints for playing these games, their increasing scores give them high neopoint returns, while landing on the High Score Table ensures they will receive a base neopoint return everyday for the remainder of the current month. Once players achieve this, they move onto the next game. Theoretically, if a player masters all the games, he/she could be drawing in 100,000+ neopoints a day, which is what some players on Neopets do! As Neopets allows a person to receive neopoint returns from a game three times a day per individual game, the neopoints can add up very quickly! This method however is very time-consuming, and not recommended to people who want to see the neopoints quickly.
Getting Neopoints through Opening a Store
This is often cited as the best method of gaining the much-coveted neopoints. When a user chooses to open a shop, he/she pays a small deposit to reserve a piece of land for the shop. Initially, the shop can only hold a set number of items to sell, but the shop is able to be permanently upgraded. Some users have even upgraded their shop into large convenience stores, boasting shop sizes of 200+ units, which enable the user to stock their shop with thousands of items!
A user stocks his/her stop by either finding or buying items in other shops. Users gain neopoints by reselling these items. The official Neopets shops are often inundated with other players, waiting for the shops to stock, so they can quickly grab items to stock their own stores with as the official Neopets Stores are notoriously known for under pricing items which players are willing to pay in the thousands for! A player however, who chooses this method of playing, unfortunately, require a very fast internet connection (cable or faster) and the knowledge of which items are the best to buy.
Essentially, players who play this method are called ‘restockers’. Haggling skills are not important here, as you are attempting to grab the item before another player does. ‘Restocking’ is a very popular method and used by the majority of players, as it enables new players to effectively become rich overnight!
Neopets shops also stocks items that can be resold for millions, so keep a good look out for them if you decide to become a storeowner!
How to Effectively Set Your Prices
Buying an expensive item in the official stores is all well and good, but there is no point if you cannot sell the item. When selling through your own private store, you are competing with every other private storeowner out there, so you’ll need to price your products accordingly so the public is encouraged to buy your product first.
Visit the shop wizard in Neopia Central and ask him to bring you back a listing of the price in a handful of privately owned stores for your particular good. Once he has that list, price your product in your own store a few neopoints lower than the cheapest priced item. This will ensure that passersby, looking to make a saving, very quickly, grab your item.
Getting Neopoints through Investing
People who have built up a considerable sum of neopoints should only use this method. With countless millions in their pocket, they simply deposit all their neopoints in the neopian bank and retrieve their daily interest from their sum to use for whatever they want. Because their initial deposit is so large, their interest returns are also considerable, and the banks don’t charge fees! Most restockers who have made it big, have resorted to this method, as it is similar to the restocking and game playing method, except the hard work has initially been done, and now all they need to do is sit back and enjoy the ride!
Getting Neopoints through Investing: Part 2
Investing in the neopian stock market has a certain degree of risk, but played properly, the returns can be potentially phenomenal! In the space of one month, a player can turn 1,000,000 neopoints into 3,000,000 neopoints by investing in the right stocks! This method of playing for neopoints is most effective when a user has at least 1,000,000 neopoints on hand to continually invest while they wait for their current stocks to rise before they sell! Be also forewarned that this form of neopoint gaining can take a considerable amount of time.
Getting Neopoints through Auctions
A cousin to the restocking method, a user will prowl through the auctions, searching for the best deals. For some strange reason, items in the auctions tend to be under priced, so a user can easily bid on items, win auctions and then resell that item for a higher price in their stores!
Auctioneers should exercise caution when bidding, as they could be bidding on an item, which is overpriced. Additionally, bidding can become quite competitive, so people who plan to play with this method should polish up their auctioning skills! This means they should pretend that they’re not interested in the item, thus making other bidders relax because they think there is no competition, enabling you to run in on the last minute and make the winning bid!
Getting Neopoints through Trading
Also a method where a good base of neopoints is recommended, this strategy is best suited to players who know his/her items should only play this method, as the potential to lose a lot of neopoints on this venture is very real and very possible.
If a player is smart and knows his/her items, he/she could easily trade items that are worth millions, for items they own which can be worth less, thereby making a gain of the difference between item one and item two. Traders who can sense when a player needs an item urgent, can up the prices for their items, safe with the knowledge that their items will be sold!
This method of playing is very similar to ‘restocking’, however the time in which an item is gained and sold is considerably longer. Therefore, many players who play with this method like to combine the restocking method and the trading method to help bolster their potential gains.
Getting Neopoints through Investing in Weapons
Generally frowned upon as a way to make profit and restricted to those who have a large sum of Neopoints that they don’t plan on doing much with, investing in weapons can sometimes lead to doubled or even tripled returns. The idea follows that one buys a weapon at a lower price after a war or major event in Neopia, then waits for the next war to occur. Since inflation generally increases the value of all weapons, selling at this time will lead to a large return.
This is best reserved for weapons such as the H4000 Helmet or Leaf Shields. This is because these are weapons which are commonly found in Neopian’s battlesets regardless of beginner, intermediate or advanced fighting.
Another way to Invest during major Neopian events is codestones. When Neopians know that a great battle is coming, they will begin to train. By stocking codestones before this occurs, and selling at inflated levels, profit is made.