Prizes - Keep, Sell, or Use?

Prizes are awarded for an accomplishment- for doing something deserving of them. But what do you DO with the prize? Let's say you want to sell the prize. The value of a prize is determined by many factors and, by reviewing these factors, I hope to help show you if that 'Reject Goparokko Plushie' is worth keeping in your deposit box or not.

Time of prize released

The time the prize is released is a factor all on its own. As with any item, when it first comes out, the first person selling it will usually overcharge for a fortune. As time goes on and more people get the same prize, the value decreases because more and more people undercut in hopes to sell faster until it gets so low people buy it, then it will gradually rise in price again.

In short, the prizes will be high in price, quickly crash, then slowly rise back up.

Amount of people getting the prize

This was already mentioned a bit before, but the amount of people that have the prize also determines the price. Obviously, if only a few people have it, then it will be priced very very high. If no one else gets the prize, then it stays at a high price. It may gradually fall or rise depending on the other factors about it, though.

The NAME of the item

I know what you may be thinking- "WHAT does the NAME have to do with anything?" and to be blunt- galleries.

Many Neopians have a gallery of one theme of another, usually they'll have something similar in name as well. For instance, let's take the 'Holiday Mecha Nova Plushie' as an example. (An advent calendar prize) Because of the two words 'Nova' and 'Plushie' it could be collected by anyone hoping to put them in a gallery, thereby raising the price because people put them in their gallery and don't intend on taking them out soon.

Usage of the item

This is divided into a variety of things. For instance: IS this a Battledome item? If so, how useful is it? The 'Randomly Firing Freeze Ray' for example has a 50%~ freeze chance. It's a very high freeze chance, one of the highest compared to frost cannons, and it raises the price even more because of it. Not everyone got the item as well which only raises it more. However, something like 'Hansos Legitimately Acquired Dagger' isn't very powerful and therefore has a lower price.

But then again, look at the stamps released. When a stamp is given out as a prize, its price will only increase as when it's used, it's gone- in the Neopian's album. If every Neopian got one, the price would initially be low, but over time, it would only increase unless sold by a shop. The same situation goes for books released. When a book is read, it (usually) vanishes. Like stamps, if EVERY Neopian got a book, it wouldn't be worth much. But over time, it would increase. Cards, like stamps, can go into an album- but they can eventually be removed which makes them worth less. Special cards can rise in price over time, just not as quick as a stamp.

The amount of time it takes to increase depends on how many got it in the first place. If not every Neopian got it, either stamps or books would be worth quite a lot and rise faster; otherwise it would start slow and rise slower.

But what about food? Food is a special exception because it doesn't do anything that special other than fill a neopet's belly, which isn't hard to do nowadays. Sure, given time, the food item will increase - but in the end it will be fairly useless for others to specifically search for and buy unless for a gallery.

Toys are unlikely to rise in price unless, like food, they're gallery specific. Toys would actually rise SLOWER compared to food if they were released similarly due to the fact that most toys cannot be broken or 'used' in any sort of way that would make them vanish, other than freezing the account or discarding the items.

Then you have the wearables and neohome items. These are actually difficult to figure out because it depends on the item 'look' itself. Some of the wearables that look fantastic would be worth more than an item that looked horrible. The same applies to neohomes. It simply depends upon the users' tastes if they would want to have it or not. If not many have it, though, it will be worth something either way since it does have a purpose- to make everything look spiffier! Do not expect it to rise in price significantly over time, though.

Rarely, though, special petpets may be given as a prize. Petpets fall under a special collectables category as I've known people to collect them. They have a usage- equip them to your neopet and someday you may get some neopoints from the PPL award. Petpets can rise in price quickly because many of them are special- they may be gold, or fire, and they cannot be painted that way- or maybe they'll get new colors! It's a special little pet that may someday be worth a fortune. Petpets tend to rise higher than toys due to their usage, but slower than one use items since, like toys, the only way to get rid of a petpet is discard or freezing (or the Turmaculus).

Prizes on Neopets are awarded frequently- more than a weekly basis with the contests they have! What you choose to do with the prize is up to you. I just hope that, when you're looking through your SDB to clean out the junk, you refer back to this article to determine what you want to do with your prize.