A Handy Guide to Getting Rich the Slow Way

My method may not be as fast as, say, going to the Wheel of Excitement at designated times and winning ten thousand Neopoints, but it is no less effective, and it’s almost always guaranteed! It is the secret to how I have made all of my Neopoints, and it can work for you if you have the patience. Just follow the following easy tips:

1. Buy food items that are named “such and such day item” from the food shop. Take, for example, the Lenny day strawberry cheesecake. At the food shop, they are worth no more than 600 NP. each. However, the cheapest on the shop wizard is between 8.5 and 13 thousand Neopoints- that’s almost 22 times what you would pay for it!

The only downside is that you have to wait for the selected day to arrive, beat all the other players to the item, and wait to sell it for a few days. (No one will want to buy it when there are a great number of them floating around.)

2. Save items given out in either promotions or that you gain from virtual prize codes.

Awhile ago, Neopets was giving out stamps as part of a promotional deal. At the time, such stamps such as the Tyrannia Stamp were being sold on the wizard for only a couple of hundred Neopoints each. However, I kept mine and was able to sell it a week ago for 10 thousand Neopoints!

Also, dubloons were once given out for receiving a high enough score at games like Deckswabber. Each one dubloon coin is worth about 3 thousand on the wizard- a pretty good price for something that was given out for free. And even though Neopets no longer has such an offer, it could return in other worlds, if they are discovered!

3. Go to the Hidden Tower and buy an item to save in your safety deposit box.

Items in the Hidden Tower are both rare and valuable, and once in awhile Fyora decides to retire one of them. When she does, the price instantly skyrockets.

The Faerie Paint Brush, for example, once existed in the Hidden Tower for about 400 thousand. And although no shop is willing to sell it (items over 99,999 NP can’t be bought), users on the trading post are asking for at least a million for it.

And even when items don’t get retired, inflation eventually drives their prices up. Look at the Baby Paint Brush; it raised 200 thousand NP from the time it was first introduced into the Hidden Tower.

4. Save any map pieces you stumble across on your travels throughout Neopia.

When I bought the entire Secret Laboratory map, I had to spend about 75 thousand on it. At the time, it seemed like a high price for me because I only had 150 thousand in my bank account. However, demand for the map drove its cost to an extreme high. A full Secret Lab map now averages over 400 thousand!

You may be thinking what I thought when I first came up with this idea: “That’s all well and good, but how do I get my hands on even one map piece?” Well, as this is a guide to making Neopoints in a slow manner, I shall give you my approach.

The secret to getting a map piece is in a random event. The secret to getting a random event is visiting more pages on Neopets. The more times you refresh the screen, the more chances you have of getting a random event. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to stick you mouse on the refresh button and keep it there. That can get horribly boring. The key to having maximum fun while viewing maximum pages lies within playing games such as “Cheat” and “Go Go Go!”, games which refresh the page every time someone takes a turn. This method doesn’t guarantee you’ll find a map piece every game, but you will find a fair number of items lying on the ground.

5. Look through your safety deposit box for hidden treasures.

If you are like me, you save up almost every item that you get that isn’t immediately worth at least 3 thousand NP. After several months to several years, you begin to acquire items that have become quite valuable over time. The problem is that often you’ll forget what you have, and some truly wonderful item could be lost in a pile of toy sail boats and bottles of sand. A word of caution, though: Don’t sell every item in your safety deposit box that is valuable. If you do, there will be nothing left for the next time you really need NP. Sell only one or two of your treasures at once and only when you need to.

While these are the basics to successful long term investments that may bring you your fortune, keep in mind a few warnings; there are risks to this business. Never keep your valuables in your inventory; the Pant Devil is ever looking out for items to steal. Also, collecting items is not unlike playing the stock market; prices may rise or fall, depending on the times. Don’t get too greedy and hold your items forever or you’ll never make a profit. At the same time, don’t get worried if the price goes too low and try to sell your item before the price reaches zero; it is possible the price will rise again. Knowing when to buy and when to sell is key in any long term investment.