Using the Shop Wizard

Using the Shop Wizard effectively

The Shop Wizard can be found by clicking on the conical hat on the tool bar at the top of the Your Items page and many other pages on Neopets.

The important thing to remember about the shop wiz is that there is more than one list. Which list a shop is on is determined by the first character in the shop owner's name. The combinations are listed below. You need to keep refreshing to see the different lists.

0 A N
1 B O
2 C P
3 D Q
4 E R
5 F S
6 G T

7 H U
8 I V
9 J W
_ K X
L Y
M Z

If you are buying something and looking for the lowest price you should refresh quite a few times. When you spot a low price, mark and copy the shopowner's name, but keep refreshing a few more times in case you find a lower one.

If you're pricing something for your shop, the important list is the one that your name would appear on. If your price is the lowest on your list it may sell quickly even though your price is higher than the lowest on some other lists. Refresh enough to get to your own list. You can get an idea of the prices on other lists along the way, but price the item according to your own list.

NOTE: When you click on an item in Your Items, there is an "Est. value" in the window. Don't rely on this information! Checking the shop wiz is the only way to know what the real value of an item is at any given time.

Another thing to watch out for is the difference between "containing my phrase" and "identical to my phrase". The shop wiz searches for the string of characters you type in no matter where they appear in the name of the item. For example, if you're shopping for a Tent to take your pet camping and don't select "identical to my phrase" from the drop down menu, you'll also get Tentacle Sprout and Omnipotent Onion Grarrl Gobstopper. On the other hand, if you don't know the exact name of the item you're looking for, the default (containing my phrase) can be very useful.

"Containing my phrase" is the default. To search for a Tent select "identical to my phrase".

Also remember that the wiz is fussy about spaces. For example, Neopian Encyclopedia A - E must have spaces on both sides of the hyphen.

Unbuyables

Items in user shops that are priced at 100,000 NP or more cannot be purchased. They may be items that the shopowner just wants to display or they may be items that are worth more than 100,000 NP.

To price these items you should use the Trading Post and the Auctions. At the Trading Post click on 'Browse Lots' and type the name of the item in the search box. At the Auctions click on 'Auction Genie' and type the name of the item in the search box.

If you don't find many (or any) of the item, keep searching these places for a few days. You can also try contacting shopowners via neomail asking them if they are willing to sell and at what price.

Super Shop Wizard

Players who pay for the premium neopets service can us the Super Shop Wizard. The SSW displays one list of the lowest prices from all user shops instead of the thirteen separate lists described above. Although it sounds terrific, there are drawbacks. You can only do a few searches every hour before you are banned from using it. And it will not do searches containing certain words, including paint brush, map, morphing, transmogrification, and nerkmid.

It can be useful if used wisely. Only use it to search for items that you know the exact name of. It would be a good idea to copy/paste the name from another neopets page if possible to avoid typing errors. And always select 'identical to my phrase' from the drop down menu to avoid wasting a search on irrelevant items. For example, you never know what items will also turn up as TCG cards!

The SSW is useful for voluntary quests (Esophagar, Snow Faerie, etc.) or for helping friends with quests. It's less useful for pricing items in your shop if you are pricing a lot at one time because of the quick search ban.

When pricing for your shop for quick sale you may want to price lower than the lowest price on the SSW, but remember that the number of players using the premium service is relatively small so you may want to look through the SSW list to find what would be the lowest price on your list on the regular shop wiz.

Hope this helps, and happy shopping!