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Neopia's Fill in the Blank News Source | 29th day of Running, Yr 26
The Neopian Times Week 24 > Articles > Running Your Shop Like a Millionaire

Running Your Shop Like a Millionaire

by spacetwixie

I've been reading lots lately about the "right" way to run a shop. This subject comes up over and over again, but last week there was a stand-off. One way versus another. I thought it was very interesting, but needed my input. This is only my opinion- and I am only one humble shop keeper.... but I AM a millionaire, so you might want to listen up. Both rainbow_star_baby ("Running Your Shop Like an Elephante") and gameboybluehippo ("Running Your Shop Like a Moehog") had very good strategies. I'm not disagreeing with them at all--I just don't see why they disagree so much. They were both right. It depends on you, and the risks you're willing to take. I've done some of both.

The Moehog's way, of buying out all the lower shops (ensuring that his is the cheapest price), makes absolute sense, and generally works. It's just like the stock market- buy low, sell high. But the difference is that stocks never go below 6. Buy at 6 and you can't lose money. The shops don't work that way. There is a risk that once you've bought out a dozen or more of some expensive item, even more will flood in and you can't possibly buy them all. You simply have to take a loss. If you're very familiar with a certain item's supply vs. demand then that's a smaller risk, but if you're going solely on the advice of one of our articles, then you probably don't know about that (and maybe don't know what I'm talking about). But I'll get to familiarity and market values later. If you don't know those things, then you take a bigger risk. I'm a millionaire and I don't take that risk often. I've got the money; I just like a safer bet.

The Elephante's way (playing games, selling your free/extra items) is very safe. Very good for Newbies and other timid money-makers. But most of you are looking for a "get-rich-quick" scheme. Even those of us that are rich look for easy ways to get even richer. I'm not going to argue about priorities and values, because NeoPets IS about the pets and people, but I'll still admit I feel proud of all my imaginary trophies and imaginary money. Out in the real world, hopefully, I'll be less capitalistic, all right? But the fact remains, no matter what you think of it, everyone wants to make a little more NP, as easily as possible. The Elephante's way is probably just too slow for most of you.

That's why I recommend is a combination of these strategies, plus a bit of my own. First, begin like the Elephante. Get daily freebies, and sell them. Play whatever games work for you (I recommend Switch-A-Roo, but payoff depends on the time you've been a member of NeoPets, so it's not worth it for everyone). Get interest from the bank (I think that only works on accounts over $15 thousand though). I also use the stock market as much as they'll let me. Buy at six, sell at something higher. How high you aim for is up to you--just remember it might go down again. Sometimes it can be slow, but the payoffs can be huge, and the risk is virtually none. Then, I recommend picking some type of item from the main shops to specialise in. I do books and scratchcards, but books sell out fast, and scratchcards aren't so easy to get. I still do well though, because I've been selling books so long I know the market pretty well. Occasionally something makes a major change- like when they started giving out the Neopian Encyclopedia A-E in Newbie Packs. It's price plummeted. Supply was greater than the demand. But because I buy and sell books so frequently (pricing them on the Shop Wizard) I generally know what is rare and what has a high mark-up value (if the difference between what I'd pay and what I could sell for is big). Then when the shop stocks, I can see very quickly which book is a good buy. If I didn't know that, then it'd be much harder to make NP. I also know how much haggling I can get away with. Most of that is experience. You won't have that right away, but that's why you specialise in one thing. If you're always buying and pricing the same things (with a few other mixed in) then you know what price they usually sell for, and what kinds of profit you'll make, without hours of research (in which time an item would certainly sell out of a shop). Things can still change dramatically, but there's much less risk of it. There's even less if you're updating your shop frequently (which I admit I don't do so often anymore) because pricing your items helps you keep up with their market values. Even if you do lose some money on a quick market change, it won't be too much, and you'll know from then on what that item's new market value is.

Remember, just because I sell books doesn't mean it'll work for you. We can't ALL sell them--and they're more of a risk if you don't know the market. Something cheap doesn't have as quick a profit, but there's less risk. If there's something you already know some about then that's a great place to start. Otherwise, just ask yourself what you want to sell. Have you noticed any of the shops that don't sell out too fast? Maybe that's a good place to start, since you know you can get supplies. Just be sure to check the prices on the Shop Wizard, so you know you can make a profit too.

Good luck. I hope I was of some help.


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