Shopping is an activity which neopians practice to purchase for their neopets toys, food and various other items. Many people also use this option to stock their own stores so they can resell their bought items. Unless you don’t mind watching your neopoints unnecessarily spill down the drain, learning haggling and shopping skills is a must – at official shops anyway.
Shop Restocking
Often when a neopian visits official stores, they will find that the store is empty of items. This is usually because the store items were so popular, that they were cleaned out (the book shop is a classic example of this)! Neopets shops usually restock their items every eight minutes, so stick around and you’ll have a chance of being one of the first people with first pick of items when they do restock. Just ensure you buy the items quickly before anyone else can!
Haggling
Haggling is the art of effectively bringing down the price of an item before paying for it. The shopkeepers never expect people to buy items for the price they advertise the items at and nor should you! They set higher prices, expecting that you will try to bargain it down by a few hundred to a few thousand depending on how much the initial price is.
When haggling, make an initial bid of half the price. Now gradually make increments of 100 neopoints or a fraction of the remaining asking price until both customer and shopkeeper are happy. Remember that the shopkeeper will always pretend to act outraged at your ‘ridiculous’ offers, however this is just an act to make you offer more! Be forewarned, if you waste too much of the shopkeepers time, they’ll simply refuse to sell you the item and during this time, someone else may have bought the item you wanted!
If you happen to be going after very rare and valuable items, it is very likely that there will be other people trying to get them too. So sometimes a more forward approach will be required for Haggling. Instead of starting at half the original price, try going straight for the price. This will guarantee that you haggle enough money to receive the item. After that, clicking the neopet in the image will lock the agreement causing the transfer to occur. At this point, it has more to do with the speed of your internet connection than anything, so cross your fingers! To speed yourself up, try using numbers that are close to the original value but not necessarily it. For example, it the price is 2659, Try 2626. It’s easier to type than the original and will cut time especially if you tend to search for the numbers. An even easier haggling option would be buying at a uniform price like 2222 or 5555, just make sure you don’t type in too many of the number, as you will be kicked out of the store if you don’t have that amount on hand.
The Shop Wizard
The shop wizard is an invaluable resource which is free to utilize and accessible by all neopians. The brain behind this ingenuity is the magical JubJub, who is able to search all privately owned stores for any item you ask. After the searches, it will return with a complete list of the least expensive prices currently set for that item.
Using the shop wizard to check if an item is overpriced or under priced is strongly recommended as it can save a lot of neopoints.
When using the shop wizard, it is general practice to ask for the same item to be searched three times. This is done so that a more clear indication of the current selling price of any item can be gained. When searching for your item, the JubJub will only search a sector of privately owned shops. Asking it to search the item again will ask it to search for the same item in a different sector. This is important, because at times, one sector may collude, and price the item considerably higher than another sector.
What to Watch out For
When you are buying items, be wary that you are not buying items that are overpriced. This caution is emphasized because in various shops, especially in the battle and defense shops, items tend to be sold overpriced. A better option is to buy them in privately owned shops. A good indication if an item is overpriced is the time it takes for it to go out of stock. Items, which disappear quickly, are under priced items, which everyone wants!
Often, rare items and items which are under priced are highly sought after by neopians, as they can be resold in private stores for a handy little profit. If you are lucky enough to find these items, it might not be too prudent to just skip haggling for the item, and straight out go for buying it for the asking price before another neopian grabs the item before you do.
Shop Related – How to Price Items
Once you have opened a private shop and stocked it with items you wish to sell, your next task is to sell the items. If priced correctly, most items will sell out within twenty-four hours.
To ensure that a price is sold, send the shop wizard on a search for the average price of items you are selling. Once he comes back with the relevant information, price your item one neopoint below the lowest price. This encourages people to visit your shop over other shops!
How to Build a Shop
To build a shop, enter the shopping area in Neopets, and then apply to open a private store by clicking on the shop menu icon on the quick links bar near the top of the page. Once there, you will be asked if you will accept the start-up fee. If you accept, click yes and you’ll have your shop!
Why a Shop Should be Built
Considered one of the best ways to gain neopoints, shops allow neopians to sell and resell their items so they can make a handy little profit. Most people who utilize the shops are ‘restockers’ – people who purchase under priced items from the official Neopian stores and resell them in their own stores at a higher price. – Shoyru_Lover