Up until recently, my Pets and I have noticed a sharp decline in our customers.
When we first opened our shop on the Mystery Island, we were flooded with people
and pets wanting to buy everything we had! Now a days, we're lucky enough just
to get a window shopper. Thaigra8, my eldest pet, confronted me one day. He
said to me, "zeekslider? Remember when we were the cheapest place on the Shop
Wizard's list? What happened?"
What did happen? Well, to answer him, I decided that when closing time came
around, I'd gather him and rest of my seemingly depressed pets to explain something
to them.
When the sun went down on Mystery Island and everyone went back to their NeoHome,
we went to the attic to help our friend PackRaty clean. There I explained everything
to my pets.
I saw in a pervious issue of The Neopian Times that someone said shops should
have items at fair prices. I can understand that. Being a shopper myself, I
remember several times where I would buy an item I thought was cheap and then
run into the Wizard who would say, "You know, if you went to so-and-so's shop,
you would have gotten it for a fraction the price you just paid for."
Yes, fairness is a must when pricing an item, but what is considered fair?
I've seen things people call junk that are rather useful. The majority of them
are Tombola items at 1 NP cause no one wants them, unless they are Skeith owners.
"Then how come you are charging 200 NP for something that someone else is selling
for only 20?" asked Sianath, one of my more active workers. Here's my reason.
One word: PROFIT! After doing some thinking prior to raising my prices, I realised
that I'm actually loosing NP rather than gaining it. Sure, one could go play
some games to make up the difference, but that takes time! (Plus none of my
pets like to play Poogle Solitaire or Kacheek Seek with me, but that's another
story) The best way to get some NP as well as what you spent is to price things
in your shop just a little over what you bought them at. Then Thaigra8 had to
remind me about those shops that charge 100 NP for a bottle of sand everyone
is selling at 1 NP.
The key thing here is to keep in mind what something is worth when you buy
it. Player shops, as I call them, tend to over guess or under guess the worth
of an item. The Shop Wizard is only interesting in deals and bargains, not
worth. The best place to set your price is in the world shops that sell the
items you have! I'm not saying that you should start charging 1000 NP for a
bottle of sand you got at the Garage Sale, but rather that you charge the 100
NP you PAID Chef Grundo for the Cheese Manicotti so you can get it back plus
a little extra. That's what other shops do in Neopia.
Then silly Zeek3311983 had to say, "Yeah, but you know no one will do that.
They are more interested in the number of sales rather than the amount of NP
they get."
That's when I pointed to the sleeping Warf in our front window and said, "True,
but someone is always willing to buy something no matter how much if they want
it badly enough."
To which my young Grundo DrAJK added, "Or if they are a Neomillionaire." | 
