.: The Trading Post :.
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The Trading Post is a very popular place in Neopia that allows you to
trade items and neopoints!
You can buy things in bulk with an 800,000 neopoints. Or you could just trade
items instead of raw neopoints. The Trading Post is the sister of the
equally popular
Auction House. However, the Trading Post is home to many scams, but luckily this
guide will teach you how to avoid them (and much more)! |
Creating a Trade
Above is a picture of me making a trade. I'll
break down the process for you to fully understand how to make a successful
trade.
.:.
First, you need to select which items you wish
to put up for trade. A list will be displayed showing you all the items in your
inventory. Check the boxes by the items you want to trade. Remember, you can
only have up to 10 items per trade! After doing this, move on to writing your
wishlist.
Now you can start writing your wishlist! Your
wishlist is a section where you can type what you want in exchange for the items
you put up for trade. Normally people just say how many neopoints people want in
exchange. If a user says something like: "55k 60k=AUTO" in their wishlist, that
means that they want about 55,000 neopoints for the item, and will automatically
accept any offers that have 60,000 neopoints.
Now you can create your trade and hope people
offer on your lot! If anybody does so, you can either accept it or decline it.
If you accept it the trade is successful and everyone's happy. Getting an offer
will look like this:
(I got this just a
few seconds after it was created! I rejected both of them. *evil laughter*)
Below is a picture of my trade. It shows the lot
number, how many offers it has, what items are in the lot, the wishlist, a link
to the lot, and a link to all your lots. You can also cancel your trade and
create new ones!
Here are the different icons you get in the
corner of the layout whenever something 'trading post related' happens. On the
actual layout it appears smaller, but when you go to see all your events they
enlarge.
Neopets Default
(There are also
many different versions of the default layout that include: Yellow, Red, Blue,
and Green. To change your layout, go to site preferences and select your desired
layout. The icons are the same on those layouts, but are different colours)
Birthday Theme
Valentines Day Theme
Halloween Theme
Winter Theme
Curse of Maraqua Theme
Premium Theme
Qasalan Theme
Altador Cup Theme
Altador Constellations
Cyodrake's Gaze Theme
Tale of Woe Theme
.:.
One last thing before we move on to the next
section, if you do want to reject an offer, do it quickly, as some players get
very anxious and you don't want to leave them hanging.
Browsing the Lots
Okay, now that you know how to create trades,
it's time to browse the Trading Post for any items your interested in. For this
guide I'll use a Vux Codestone as an example.
The search bar is very important when searching
for certain items. When searching, it's best to search with the circle next to
'Newest' filled in (look at above picture). This will arrange the lots from
newest to oldest. It's best to trade with lots that are newer because the prices
are more recent. If you offer on some item on an old lot, the price you offered
might be off.
It's also important to search with
'identical to my phrase' instead of 'containing my phrase' because for example.
If you were looking for an Everlasting Apple, and you searched 'containing my
phrase', almost all of the trades would be swarmed with Essence of Everlasting
Apple. You don't want this. If you search identical, you'll get the results you
want! Also, if you actually want to 'browse' and you're not sure what you're
looking for, you can look at the newest 20 lots by clicking on the link above
the search bar. Once you've found the item you're looking for, it's time to move
on to the next part!
Okay, so you've found the lot you're
going to offer on. Now what? It's time to make an offer!
Click on the button to start making
your offer. Offer the items you wish to trade, you can even offer any neopoints
you have!
Please check what the owner of the
item(s) has put on their wishlist before officially making the offer. Many of
the trades will have some things that you may not understand. Here is a small
list so that you know what people are saying on the Trading Post.
-
NFT - Do not offer on a lot that has this
in its wishlist. NFT stands for "Not-for-trade" and offering anyway usually
results in a block from the user.
-
Reserved - If someone says that the item(s)
is reserved, that mean that it's reserved for someone, so don't offer on it.
-
Auto - The word Auto or AUTO will be
followed by an amount of neopoints. This mean that the first person to offer
the neopoint amount by the 'AUTO', will be guaranteed a successful trade.
-
Neomail to Haggle - This means that you can
haggle the price a bit lower by neomailing the owner. Haggling is when you
keep on offering a slightly lower price to try to make it a bit cheaper. If
you do want to haggle, then just click on their username to link to their user
lookup. Scroll to the bottom and click on the 'Neomail' icon.
-
No Junk Items - What is a 'junk item'?
Pretty much any item on the site that can be gotten for free. Some of these
include Tombola booby prizes, advent calendar prizes, Underwater Fishing
prizes, Coltzan's Shrine food, Giant Jelly jelly, Giant Omelette omelettes.
The reason why these items are 'junk' is because since they're given free to
every Neopian in Neopia there is mass inflation, so the prices of these items
go way down.
-
Pure - Usually followed by a number of
neopoints. This means that the person would prefer only neopoints in your
offer and not items.
-
Rot - This refers to when a trader will not
respond (they won't accept nor reject it) to any junk offers (see 'No Junk
Items'). If a person doesn't respond to an offer in a while, don't think
that they're letting your offer rot, they're probably just busy deciding
between different offers, or is simply offline.
So in summary, be patient when waiting
for responses, don't get too depressed if your offer is rejected, and if it's
not, good job! :)
Trading Post Scams
As fun and useful as the Trading Post
can be, it is one of the few places on Neopets that has many different scams to
take other people's neopoints. Here, we will cover many of the most common
Trading Post scams and how to avoid them!
The 'Switcheroo' Scam
This scam is when the scammer puts up
and item for trade in the Trading Post. For this part, I'll be using a Mystery
Island Paint Brush as an example. Someone will then offer on it, and the scammer
will immediately delete the trade. The scammer will then neomail the user saying that
they're sorry and it was an accident and to offer and another trade they made
with the "same" item. The other item she replaced it with is a plushie version
of the item. It looks very much like the other one, so they don't notice it and
spend money on something not worth half of what they wanted.
The scammer will then put up a new trade similar to the one below.
Keep in mind that
this scam can be made by nay two items that are similar. Another example is a
Plushie Paint Brush and a Plushie Paint Brush Plushie.
False Item Traits
The title
is pretty much self-explanatory.
This scammer is saying that an item will grant
you three wishes when it won't. Nothing will happen when you buy it and it is
just scam to get you to give them neopoints. This can be done with any items
that 'look' like they could grant you wishes, such as the Cherry and Oak Wish
Sticks. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
(Once, when I first
started playing Neopets, I fell for this scam...)
Another
scam that is related to this is when a scammer puts up and item, says a few lies
about it, and says it's worth much more than it really is.
(I fell for this
one too)
Chain Letters
Chain Letters are pointless annoying messages
that people read and do what it says, to make an even longer chain of pointless
words. For example, look at the following picture.
(I found this
scammer on the post and reported him/her)
The are called Chain Letters because
people do what it says and then people do what they say and ends up in a huge
chain of utter nonsense. It's up to you to break the chain! Report the
scammer and go on with your life. :D
Some people say things like, "DON'T COPY AND
PASTE THIS MESSAGE INTO 10 OF YOUR TRADES! YOU WON'T GET 1 MILLION NP BREAK THE
CHAIN!"
Even if they clearly stated that you shouldn't,
scammers say this to try and make chain letters and not get frozen for it.
Miscellaneous Scams
(I found another
scammer on the post and this is what they said, look above! Yes I did report
him/her)
The above picture shows a miscellaneous scam in
which the scammer promises a rare item for lots of neopoints. They won't give
you anything in return, so you shouldn't offer. This is obviously a scam, and
you should simply report the lot!
This scam can also be done if you tell them to
bid instead of giving a price, and can also be done if you say you'll give out
cheats to other players. This will result in a ban if you're caught cheating.
.:.
So in conclusion, remember! Don't fall
for scams and report any you may see. If I missed out any piece of information
don't hesitate to inform us! Don't forget anything we've told you! I'm always
watching you! *stares*
Back
.: Credits
:.
The guide has been written by: Gene
The guide has been extended slightly by: Kenny
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