Weird Shop Wiz Secrets!

One day, I was pricing the items in my shop using Shop Wizard and wondering why some people hoarded Codestones in their shop (sometimes more than 100) and offered them at a 2,000 Neopoint markup compared to the cheapest offers. Wouldn't they sell more Codestones by lowering their prices?

Then I realized: Battledomers have a lot of Neopoints, a lot of amazing battle pets, and not a lot of time. Perhaps it's easier for them to use Shop Wizard to find shops that contain dozens of each Codestone and then quickly buy out the entire supply. Easy peasy, and it only cost 20k more than refreshing the Shop Wizard over and over again for the cheapest Codestones!

Happy that I stumbled onto this interesting secret, I wondered what other secrets the Shop Wizard held. I wandered over to the Help Neoboard to ask my fellow players what they've personally discovered about the mysterious Shop Wizard!

First, if you search over 360 times in an hour, you will be banned from using Shop Wizard. I realized this early on; the Shop Wizard was a temperamental creature who disliked frequent searches and often kicked me off the search page. What I *didn't* realize, however, was that the bans are lifted every hour. So if you're banned at 6:15, you would be unbanned at 7:00. Thanks for telling me, fellow players! I'd always thought the ending times were random instead!

Another interesting secret that the players told me is that if you have foods in your shop that are commonly fed to the Kadoaties at the Kadoatery, don't bother trying to price your foods as the lowest on Shop Wizard. Just price your foods as the lowest on your particular marketplace section. (Remember, each section is a particular group of usernames, such as those starting with "I, V, 8.") Instead of seeing the lowest item on Shop Wizard priced at 5,402 Neopoints and pricing your own item at 5,401 Neopoints, try pricing your item at 18,777 if that will be the lowest price on your particular marketplace section. Those Kadoatie feeders are trying to buy food for, and feed, those hungry Kadoaties as quickly as possible, and money is no object!

Another interesting Shop Wizard secret is the "search Gallery" option. If you're having difficulty coming up with a good gallery theme and need to brainstorm, or if you just want to check if others are already using your theme, use the "search Gallery" option to check out the other players' galleries! For instance, I once began a gallery with the intention of submitting it to the Gallery Spotlight, but was quickly disheartened when I realized that ten different galleries (found through Shop Wizard) were already using my theme. (It was all about "items that are wrong and twisted.") So I sold off all of my gallery items and am now starting fresh with a new theme. I'm glad I searched the Shop Wizard before attempting to finish my gallery! I must have saved myself millions of Neopoints, plus I would never have won the Gallery Spotlight, since the other galleries were nearly complete and were five times bigger than my own!

And if you're really bored, the way I get sometimes, try doing a gallery search of really expensive items, like the Malevolent Sentient Poogle Plushie (TCG). You'll get directed to amazing galleries worth billions of Neopoints! Have fun stalking your rich fellow players, and enjoy this Shop Wizard quirk!

Everyone loves to get Faerie quests, since completing them means your pets' stats will improve. There's a new trick to finishing a Faerie quest nowadays, and it involves the Faerie Quest Fortune Cookie. Apparently, if you open the Shop Wizard page before accepting the daily Faerie quest from the cookie, you'll be able to use Shop Wizard to search for the items that the Faeries want. Isn't that awesome? (Normally, getting a Faerie quest bans you from using the Shop Wizard.) And no, it's not against TNT's rules!

I thought it would be fun to mention the secret history of the Shop Wizard, something not many Neopians know about. Apparently, the Shop Wizard first came into being on May 29, 2001. The marketplace sections were created on October 28, 2002. Gallery searching was put into place on May 20, 2005. And on June 27, 2006, the Shop Wizard was updated into the sleek, colorful search page we know today. Our friendly wizard JubJub is quite old!

Interestingly enough, despite the Shop Wizard being such a large and ubiquitous part of the players' lives, there are only five items featuring the Shop Wizard: a card titled "The Shop Wizard"; a stamp titled "Shop Wizard Stamp"; a plushie named "Shop Wizard Plushie"; a book titled "Shop Wizard Tips"; and an Usuki named "Shop Wizard Usuki." You'd think there would be more, but no, there are only five! What a strange occurrence!

Weren't these Shop Wizard secrets absolutely bizarre and unique? I thought so! A hearty thanks to all the people on the Help Neoboard who took time out from their busy day to chat on my thread. It was incredible and fun to learn new things about the Shop Wizard, a fixture on the site that we all know and love.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, dear readers! If you come up with any other weird and freaky aspects of the Neopets website, please drop me a line! I'm always on the lookout for new article ideas, and writing about weird quirks is my favorite thing to do on here!

Enjoy your week, and may your time on Neopets be ever quirky and fun!