The Life of an Auction Dealer by silverstar22090 |  |
AUCTIONS - Everyone wants to make lots and lots of Neopoints and there are
many ways to do that. Most earn NP from games, but I earn mine from buying and
selling items through auctions. Why auctions, you ask? Because items are often
underpriced and you can easily overprice an item and still have lots of people
bid!
Some may call me a cold-hearted peddler, trying to scam others out of their
hard-earned NP, but I beg to differ. I am simply a dealer who is always on the
lookout for bargains and ways to make profits. Even though the life of a dealer
may seem simple, even crude, but it requires more shrewdness, more speed, more
knowledge, and more flexibility than making a living through games requires.
In this article, I will be discussing the four qualities that I just mentioned,
some secrets of the trade, and more insight on the life of an auction dealer!
Step I: Finding the Right Item
As a dealer, I buy items that are really under priced. Then, I sell them for
a very reasonable, yet profitable amount for both the buyer and the seller (which
would be me). To make a profit as a dealer, I just hang around the auctions
at the items that will be closing soon. Then, whenever I see an item I believe
to be under priced, I check on the Shop Wizard to find the lowest price. If
the price of the item on the Shop Wizard is 2000 NP or more than that of the
item that is being auctioned, I will make a bid on it and continue to do that
until I can no longer bid on the item. If I am lucky, I win the item.
Step 2: Selling the Item
To sell the item, I usually put it in my shop at an even cheaper price than
the lowest one of the Shop Wizard. If nobody buys it after a day or two, I put
it in the auctions at a price that is about 1000 NP less than what I want to
get from it. I then post a few messages about the low price of the item, and
then, as they say in France, voila! I’m a few thousand Neopoints richer and
some Neopian is happy because of their new item.
The Four Qualities
There are four qualities that all experienced dealers have are very important
to their success. As I previously mentioned, they are shrewdness (or cleverness),
speed and agility, knowledge, and flexibility.
Shrewdness: Both when buying and selling, shrewdness is absolutely vital!
To sell an item that is slightly overpriced, one needs to know how to make momentum.
Never, never, NEVER overprice the starting price of bids on the auctions. When
you sell your items on the auctions, make sure that they’re less than those
on the Shop Wizard. Most people check on the Shop Wizard before they buy something
and pretty much nobody will buy an item that is overpriced when they could buy
it for much less NP in a shop and get it immediately!
Shrewdness on how to get people to bid is also important. Once a lot of
people bid an item, the amount of NP you get from the item tends to escalate.
For example, when I was selling a Deaver on the auctions at 800 NP, I posted
lots of messages on the Trading/Auctions chat so that everyone would know the
deal they would be getting if they bought my Deaver since it costs more than
8,000 on the Shop Wizard. Almost immediately, the price of the petpet rose from
800 to 4,000! At closing time, the price was a nice 7,000 NP! Considering that
I had bought it for 3,000 NP, I was extremely pleased.
Speed: The life of an auction dealer isn’t for those with slow 48k modems.
Even though you can still make a profit with slow modems, I suggest that most
people have high speed Internet such as DSL or cable. I can’t even recall just
how many times I won an auction since I had DSL and the other bidders didn’t.
To be truly successful, a dealer must know exactly how fast their Internet is
and how to use that to their advantage. Since I have bid on so many items, I
know exactly when I should bid to get the item.
Knowledge: To save time and many Neopoints, a dealer needs to know how the
prices are of common auction items such as scratchcards and codestones. If you
know that an average codestone goes for 3500 NP, you won’t be looking up the
Mau Codestone that is at 3800 NP and possibly missing a deal that could earn
you thousands! Knowledge of when the auctions are busy is also extremely important
because it’ll allow you to make sure there are lots of people looking at your
item. It’ll also let you have a better chance at getting a good item.
Flexibility: This is one of the most important qualities for a person to
have, even if he or she is not an auction dealer. Flexibility allows me to sell
an item at an extremely cheap price and not feel bad when I see the same item
going for lots more. Flexibility also allows me to empty out my bank account
when I see an item that could possibly double it.
Secrets of the Trade
Like any occupation, there are secrets that will help you. For example, the
times when there are the least number of Neopians in the auctions are from midnight
to noon. The busiest times are probably from 6:00 NST to 9:00 during the summer
and 3:00 to 6:00 during the school year. Another secret is have three windows
open at all times: one for the auctions, one for the Shop Wizard, and one for
the Bank in case you need more NP. Staying alert is also very important. But
most important of all, HAVE FUN!
|
