The Shop Wizard
One of the best friends you will ever find on NeoPets is the Shop Wizard. While shop owners may spam the Chat Boards with their adds whilst
"screaming" out in high pitched voices about how much cheaper their shops are
compared to others (we all know how annoying that can get), the Shop Wizard
can quickly determine whether this is true or not for you with merely a few
clicks.
Just type in the item you are searching for in the blank field, whether it's
a PetPet, food item or other, and you are bound to get at least a few hits on
your search criteria. The Shop Wizard is even so kind that he lists up the cheapest
shops first, now if that ain't convenient I don't know what is!
Here is a brief explanation on how to use the Shop Wizard as efficient as
possible:
Containing my phrase
If you want to do a more random search, for example if you are looking
for cheap food, you can type only parts of the name of the item you are looking
for. Let's say I wanted to find some cheap omelettes, I type in 'omelette'
in the blank field and press the 'Search Shops' button. I would keep getting
random hits, Cheese Omelettes, Bacon Omelettes etc. each time I did a search
on 'omelette'.
Identical to my phrase
This little feat is very useful if you know exactly what are looking for. Let's
say I was looking for a Cheese Omelette. I type in the name of the item I am
searching for, choose the 'identical to my phrase' option and start my search.
Once I have done this, I will only find items that match my search criteria
exactly.
Min Price (optional)
I have never really seen the point in this particular option. It sets
the minimum amount of NP you want the item you are searching for to cost, so
if you want an item that's not supposed to cost anything less than 1,000 NP,
you put 1,000 in the blank field and start your search.
Max Price (optional)
This option sets the max price of the item you are searching for. For
example, if you are looking for omelettes, but you do not want to pay more than
20 NP per piece, you simply type in the max amount of NP you want the item to
cost, and start the search. The Shop Wizard will only list up items matching
that specific criterion, and by doing this you may run across some great bargains.
Some people are also so sloppy that they accidentally price certain items
wrong, meaning that if you are lucky enough you can find rare Paint Brushes
at prices as low as 10K! This, however, is very rare, so I wouldn't rely on
this little trick.
So whenever you see someone advertise their shop as the cheapest in Neopia,
don't just follow blindly, but pay your little friend the Shop Wizard a visit
and let him seek out the bargains for you. | 
