My Quest for Books

Not surprisingly, since I love books, I sell a lot of them in my neoshop. Since I have learned a lot from buying all these volumes, I would like to share with you my ‘tricks’ for buying books. I have a unique re-sale philosophy, and my shop is small but successful. I probably make about 300,000 in sales each month, mostly books, collector’s cards, petpets and a few specialty items I acquire but do not need each month.

Books are easy to find in Neopia

You can buy titles in many different places, and for a wide range of different prices. What follows are my own personal tricks for getting the most number of books for the least number of neopoints.

Igloo Garage Sale- As you may have read any number of times, those of us, myself included, with dial-up connections to the internet, should not be able to acquire any item of any value anywhere in the Neo-world. The Igloo Garage sale located on top of Terror Mountain is my favorite place to buy things. Offered really cheap, you can buy all sorts of great stuff at the garage sale. They often include books and at the lowest prices, anywhere. You can only buy a limited number of items per hour, (one each time the sale is re-stocked) which makes this the great dial-up equalizer.

Neo-world Book Shops - There are several places you can buy books if you go exploring the Neo-world. The largest of these is the book shop on the High Street which offers both the widest variety of titles and the largest amount of stock. It is also very busy at times. The prices are reasonable, although the mark-up for re-sale is far less than some of the other ways you can buy titles.

More specialized shops with a less varied selection include:

Booktastic Books on Kreludor. Prices are a little higher but far fewer people come to buy books here and the selection of titles is great. Galactic Adventures is one of many compelling tales available at this shop.

Faerie Bookshop. With titles like Breathe, the Faerie Bookshop sells a number of new age and self help books for your pets. Less selection than on the high street but far fewer customers to deal with.

Brightvale Books. I rarely visit here, as I seem to get a lot of the titles offered at this shop other ways (see below) but I do mention it as it does exist and is a place to buy various titles.

Sutek’s Scrolls. (Presently missing with much of the rest of the Lost Desert). I have bought tons of titles here and it is my second favorite book shop after Booktastic for inexpensive titles and shorter lines to purchase things. If they do find the missing parts of the Lost Desert and it is returned, I recommend looking at the scrolls for titles such as Sakhmet’s Petpets, a favorite of all my pets.

Half-Price day: The merchants of Neopia have set aside the third day of each month as half-price day in the shops, and I always buy a lot on this day. You get a much better mark up when you buy your items cheaper. And I buy from the bookshop, card shop and pharmacy (to re-supply my own stocks mainly).

Shop Wizard- You can sometimes find great deals on books by using the Shop Wizard and finding titles at prices so low, that you can make some money by reselling them in your shop. Anytime I need to buy something in a shop, I look at everything that is for sale and hope to find some bargains. If your stock is low and you know certain titles have sold before look for them in other shops and buy those that are selling for an amount you think is lower than what you sold the same title for in the past.

Games- Some games offer books as prizes; if you play them often enough all your pets will have read all the titles and then you can sell any you win at a profit. Impress King Hagan with your wisdom, for example, and he gives you a book. Wake the Turmaculus and you may win one too. Several of the various quests in Neopia also give books as prizes.

A few quick words of advice

You can have hundreds of books in your own shop, but it is little more than a gallery unless you sell what you have in stock. To do that, people need to know about your shop and what you have to sell. I personally try to offer my goods for as low a price as possible and folks then can find the items by searching on the Shop Wizard.

The size of your shop can vary but a lot depends on how quickly you want to sell things. Mine can only hold 25 items at a time but because many of my titles move so quickly, I am rarely full. You may need a larger shop for your needs if things do not move as fast or if you can acquire more titles than I do.

Internet speed. I tend to go to shops where there are fewer people at busy times as faster internet connections do tend to get all the best buys and most expensive titles. But if you are quick you can do well in the book shops no matter how fast or slow your connection is. I can buy several books at each restock in any of the neo-shops even with my slow connection.

The other way to get business is to advertise. You can list your shop on the neo-board section designed for this, have a shop blog or try to get a link from other shop owners selling the same things. In each case, by letting people know you are in business and offering books for sale, you will sell books. Good luck and may you find the perfect titles for your pets and your shop.