A Beginner’s Guide to Collectables

     The Stamp Album is the most iconic album for collectors. As of writing, there are 47 pages! Each page has up to 25 items, and there are currently 862 items that can be placed into the stamp album, with more being released every year. There are also 26 avatars awarded for completing specific pages of the Stamp Album, making these items highly desirable and valuable. An important note about the Stamp Album is that once an item has been added to it, it cannot be removed!

     Although it is called the Stamp Album, it actually holds more than just stamps! The other items that can be added include Collectable Coins, Sea Shells, Scarabs, Evil Coconuts, and Collectable Charms. Most Stamp Album items are still available today, but many were released in limited time events such as the Lenny Conundrum, Altador Cup, Daily Dare, Festival of Neggs, and Advent Calendar. Hopefully these stamps will be re-released in the future, but since the only way to get them right now is from other players, I will ignore them for now. A quick way to tell whether a collectable is from a limited time release is by looking at the rarity - these items all have a rarity of 101 (r101).

     The most common way to buy album items is from Neopian Shops, also known as restocking. You can find Stamp Album items at the following shops:

     a) Neopian Post Office sells stamps of r20-99.

     b) Collectable Coins sells items for the Coins, Space Station Coins, and Scarabs pages.

     c) Collectable Sea Shells sells items for the Sea Shells, Treasures of the Deep, and Maractite Coins pages.

     d) Toy Shop sells collectable charms for the Charms pages.

     Restocking can be very competitive, so fortunately, there are still ways to collect Stamp Album items besides restocking. You can play Coconut Shy, a daily game, for a chance to win evil coconuts. You can also ask the Wishing Well for any item up to r89, including stamps. Several r89 stamps are currently valued at over 1 million Neopoints!

     Very rare and valuable Stamp Album collectables are also being released in the Quest Log. Sometimes these are awarded as daily prizes, but most often they are the weekly prize. Be sure to check if you get a stamp as a weekly prize; you can always re-roll your prize if you don’t like what you have. Once you have a collectable as the reward, make sure you complete your daily tasks for the entire week! Even if you are unlucky and don’t get a stamp as a weekly prize, keep a watchful eye on which items are released this way because very expensive stamps become much more affordable. If you have Neopoints saved up, this would be the time to buy these items because the price will only go up once they are no longer in the Quest Log!

     The best way to keep up with the release of new stamps, especially ones from new limited time events, is to participate and play! The current plot is The Void Within. So far, there have been 9 Stamp Album collectables exclusively released as part of The Void Within plot. There have also been several extremely rare collectables offered as prizes, such as the King Kelpbeard Stamp and Smiling Space Faerie Coin. The plot will return soon, so be sure to keep up with the events!

     Another collectable album is the Neodeck. The Neodeck is for any collectable card, and there are currently 365 different collectable cards. Unlike the Stamp Album, you can have more than 1 of each item in the Neodeck, and these cards can be freely removed at any time. This means if your collectable card suddenly multiplies in value, you will be able to sell it! There are currently 3 avatars associated with collectable cards, and they are all easy to obtain.

     The best way to acquire cards for your Neodeck is by restocking. All the items below r101 that go into your Neodeck can be bought from the Collectable Card Shop. Restocking at the Collectable Card Shop is a lot easier than restocking at the Neopian Post Office. Firstly, it is less competitive so you will have an easier time buying the collectables that you want. Secondly, the collectable card rarities are color coded! The rarities are highly correlated with market value, so if you aren’t sure which cards are worth more, buy the one that has a higher rarity. The highest rarity cards (r91-99) are gold and next rarest are grey (r81-90). The stocks of less rare cards are usually not bought out by other players. Therefore, if you want to buy these cards, I recommend waiting until Half Price Day, which is the 3rd day of every month. This is the cheapest way you’ll be able to get these cards!

     Many rare and expensive collectable cards are also being released in the Quest Log. If you want to collect these cards for your Neodeck, follow my advice above about re-rolling for these cards or buying them while they’re cheap!

     The Neopets Trading Card Game (TCG) Album is becoming increasingly popular for collectors. Although it also contains cards, it is not to be confused with the collectable cards that go into your Neodeck. All of the items for the TCG Album have “(TCG)” at the end of their name. These online TCG cards are based on real-life TCG cards. They were obtained from item codes when buying real-life cards and booster packs. Currently, there is no way to collect these cards other than buying them from other players or waiting for TNT to re-release them.

     Other collectable items include books and gourmet foods. Although these items aren’t “displayed” in an album, there is a record of how many of these items your Pet has read or eaten. Importantly, these items are consumable, so once used, there is no way to get the item back. There are also high scores for these lists, so Pets with the most books read and gourmet food eaten get a sweet trophy on their lookup!

     Good luck collectors!