The Importance of a Large Shop

In my opinion, creating & re-stocking your shop is the most important thing you can do to quickly earn LOTS of neopoints. It is very important to grow the size of your shop as quickly as possible. I cannot emphasize this enough. I think this is the #1 mistake many Neopians make, by not having their shop large enough. The more space you have in your shop, the more NPS you can make. Once you get your shop size to 50 or over, I think you will be amazed at how rapidly the NPS roll in, especially if you keep your prices in line with the shop wizard. I notice a difference every time I increase the size of my shop. Before long, the money you make off your shop will pay for you to upgrade your shop to the next size. Of course, the bigger your shop, the longer it will take to re-stock your shop! But I think you will find the rewards will be well worth it! The best time to look for deals is late at night Neopian time or during the day Neopian time (when many people are working). If this isn't possible, I find that re-stocking as soon as you get home from work (in the US) allows you to still find many deals. Be careful when re-stocking on weekends - especially Sundays. The prices of items typically skyrocket Sunday afternoon through Monday morning as many people are online during this time, so demand is high. My advice is to buy up lots of cheap items during the week and keep them in your Safety Deposit Box (SDB) until the weekend.

Also, do NOT overprice items in your shop. You must price your items at, or just below, the lowest price you find on the shop wizard. Pricing with the shop wizard will quickly get people into your shop, especially if you sell high demand items. Keep in mind though, the more the item costs, the riskier it is to buy & sell. The price of expensive items can fluctuate rapidly in the Neopian economy, so be very careful when purchasing 2 or more of expensive items to sell in your shop. I recommend never having more than 2 of most items, particularly expensive ones, in your shop. If you have say 50 of any particular item in your shop, you will probably notice that you hardly ever sell more than 1 or 2 and that the price of the item on the shop wizard keeps being driven down. It is better to put 48 of them in your SDB and bring them out 2 at a time after the other 2 sell.

I think there is also value in joining a neocircle (please Neopets, bring them back!!) to help increase traffic to your shop. A neocircle links your shop to other similar shops very quickly and easily, and best of all, it's free... so you have absolutely nothing to lose, and only NPS to gain. After all, more traffic = more NPS! I invite you to join my neocircle by clicking here. (***This link will no longer work, unless Neopets brings back Neocircles!)

Please be careful of people trying to "scam" you when restocking. For example, a particular item, such as a codestone, may be averaging around 6000 NPS. You find one on the Shop Wizard for 5500 NPS and quickly go to the shop to buy it, clicking on it quickly. All of a sudden, you have spent 55000 NPS because the shop owner increased the price from 5500 to 55000. The shop owner got you into his/her shop thinking you were getting a deal, and in the time it takes you to go to the shop & click the item to buy it, the price has been increased dramatically. Thus, you must be very careful and make sure the price has not changed since you saw it on the shop wizard. (When you click on an item to purchase it, the price will be displayed again - confirm it there.) Please be careful - I have been caught several times in these disgusting pricing scams.

I also think it's a good idea to advertise your shop regularly (at least once a day) on the Shop Ads Message Board. You can get there by clicking here. It's totally FREE to advertise and chances are someone will visit your shop because of the ad, especially if you put a catchy title on the post. Don't waste time posting a shop ad on the Notice Board because it costs at least several hundred or thousand NPS - better to place a free ad!

Some people like to use their shops for galleries, but my advice is do NOT do this until you have been playing for quite some time. As far as earning NPS goes, galleries have no value... so if it's NPS you're after, don't waste time with a gallery. If you're satisfied with the amount of NPS you have, then you may want to consider a gallery.

If you have any questions at all regarding shop re-stocking or bargain hunting on Neopets, please feel free to neomail thetxcowgirl.

Now go increase your shop size & re-stock it... go!!! :)