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The Restocker's Road Is Paved With Gold


by tallydepp

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My name is Tallydepp and I am a Restocker. There, I have finally admitted it! I am one of those growing number of Neopians who has come to realise that, due to a quite frankly embarrassing inaptitude and clumsiness at game-playing, there is a far better standard of living to be achieved by trawling through the Neopian shops for hours on end, buying rare items and then selling them on for a nice little profit. Or in some cases, a great big stinking enormous profit!

I am by no means rich but now I am able to afford to send all of my Neopets on regular holidays to the Neolodge's Astrovilla (which at 500 NP a night, doesn't come cheap), complete with all of the optional extras, which is includes maid service, Neopian Times delivery, and access to the fitness center. And believe me, now that my pets are eating such scrumptious, expensive gourmet food and no longer relying on handouts from the Soup Faerie, access to the fitness center is an absolute necessity!

My pets no longer growl at me when I hand them the same old tatty blue Ixi plushie to play with. Instead they have a large, varied selection of toys to choose from and this ensures a better mood for both them and myself. Moreover, they no longer get laughed at when they go to school. Once known as dim-witted, my pets are now ultimate geniuses because I can buy them lovely books which they all read eagerly. Having pets who are so well-read enables us to have witty and sparkling conversations about all manner of things, whereas before I was lucky to get a grunt out of them in response to most questions.

Jealous much?

Well, you needn't be!

Becoming a restocker has changed my Neopian life (and therefore the lives of my pets) and as such I feel obligated to share everything I know about being a good restocker, so you can enjoy the same success as myself. Here I will give you a few handy restocking hints which should hopefully help you on your way to that better standard of living you always dreamed of.

The restocker's road is paved with gold, you know!

1 Some restocking guides will tell you to always have lots of neopoints handy. I would advise against this as you are likely to encounter all manner of people and ghosts who take your money and put it on the Money Tree. Additionally, you are also susceptible to giving money to the Tax Beast should he so desire it. My advice, then, is to have no more than 8,000 NP on hand. Of course, some items in the shops sell for more than that, but we will discuss this later. The main thing is not to have too much moolah lying around.

2 It has been suggested that you need to research the shops and the items they sell before you start restocking. The idea behind this is so you don't make the mistake of buying an expensive item which sells for a fraction of what you bought it for. What nonsense! There are literally thousands of items for sale in the many, many Neopian shops. Such research would take years. I believe the notion of researching the shop and its stock is merely a ploy to stop you restocking straight away. My advice is to just dive straight in. Why waste valuable time?

3 Some restockers like to limit the number of shops in which they restock. I know someone who only ever restocks in the same three shops. They claim that by only having three shops to concentrate on, they are less likely to miss a restock. I say - how boring! What you need to do is open up as many windows as you possibly can. Why restock in three shops when you can restock in twenty? It might get a bit confusing at times and possibly slows things down for you, but at least you have lots more items to choose from, and this can only be a good thing!

4 One restocker I know (who is incidentally an advocate of researching the items - duh!) buys only certain things from the shops, for example items that cost 5,000 or 10,000 NP or items they know have a rarity of r90 or higher. Tut tut tut. My advice is, don't buy expensive items - it will cost you all your money! If you stick to the 8k NP rule, you won't be able to afford the 10k items anyway. Why buy one expensive item, when you can buy hundreds of cheap items? Trust me, quantity over quality is the key thing to remember here.

5 Join a Neopets chat board! You might find a board actually dedicated to restocking but I would advise that you ignore those because they are full of conflicting advice and ideas which will only confuse and confound you. The best boards to join are ones which are likely to distract you, because restocking can be a terribly boring activity and, let's face it, if you are busy chatting on a chat board, you probably won't realise just how tedious restocking is. A little distraction is a good thing for a restocker.

6 Refresh at all your restocking shops constantly. And I mean constantly. As in ALL THE TIME (when you are not being pleasantly distracted by the chat boards, that is!) If you don't refresh constantly, you will miss all the good restocks. Some restockers can be hesitant with their refreshing because they are wary of getting restock-banned. We will discuss this next.

7 Let me tell you a secret: restock bans are a myth. Some people believe that if their Neopian shops don't have any items to sell and don't restock for a long time, then they have been restock-banned which means (they say) that they can't restock for a certain length of time. It is claimed that a sure way of seeing if you are restock-banned is going to the Tiki Tack shop on Mystery Island - if the Tiki Tack man has no items to sell, then you have a ban. Again, this is a myth. Like any shop, the Tiki Tack shop is bound to sell out from time to time. I believe that the restock ban myth has been created and perpetuated by restockers who don't want people to refresh all the time and get all the good items. If you have been waiting a while, say a few hours, for a shop to restock, keep refreshing - it just means a really big restock is due!

8 Many restockers are now Tarla-aware. What this means is they try and keep up-to-date with items Tarla has given out. There is a misunderstanding that buying such items is bad for restockers because the price plummets. In reality, restockers should make a special effort to buy items from the shops that Tarla has restocked because not everyone gets the Tarla Alert and, as such, people are desperate to buy them and will pay lots of neopoints for them.

9 You may have heard some people talk about "UBs". A UB is an "unbuyable" item - an item you buy in the Neopian shops but can't sell in your own shop because it sells for more than 100k (remember, your shop will only carry items costing up to 99,999 neopoints.) So obviously, a UB is very bad news for a restocker if they manage to buy one. Of course, you can put the UB item in the Trading Post, but chances are it won't sell. Unbuyable items are so called for a reason - quite simply because no one wants to buy them! My advice is, buy only the cheaper items - they are unlikely to be unbuyables.

10 Some restockers like to keep an eye on the New Features page to see which items are newly-released, so they can look out for them in the shops. I actually think this is good practice. Once you know which items are new, you can then avoid buying them in shops. Most Neopians don't read the New Features page and have no idea about new items, so if you are unlucky enough to buy something that is newly-released, you are likely to be stuck with it for a long, long time. After all, no one will buy something if they don't know that it exists.

So, there you have it, 10 handy hints to help you restock. If you follow all of this advice, then soon you will be an expert restocker, living a life of luxury and be able to provide the very best for your pets.

***Disclaimer: Following this advice won't actually make you an expert restocker and give you a life of luxury. It may actually harm your chances of restocking good items and result in a life of poverty***

Well, you didn't think I was going to give away all of my REAL tips, did you? After all, I am a restocker, you know, and I want the good items for myself!

 
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