How To Tell If Your Item Is Hard To Sell

First, every seller and buyer needs to learn some of the short hand. Here’s a little list of common abbreviated words used by most buyers and sellers in neopia.

ETS – Easy To Sell

HTS – Hard To Sell

NTY – No Thank You

NFT/NFS – Not For Trade/Not For Sale

QS – Quick Sale (meaning the person wants to sell quickly and will usually sell cheap)

NP - Neopoints

K – One thousand (100k = 100,000)

Mil or m – Million (1m or 1 mil = 1,000,000)

There are certainly many more shortened words and phrases. If you don’t know what the abbreviation means, just ask. Most people are very friendly and will explain.

Now, what exactly does hard to sell mean? Hard to sell means that the item will take a longer time to sell and some work or will sell for lower than you expected. Hard to sell items are not bad. In fact, I like to buy hard to sell items sometimes because I like the challenge. However, it does take more skill and patience to sell them. It’s taken me several months to sell some of the hard to sell items I’ve gotten over the years. So, unless you’re willing to do more than simply put the item into trades or auction, you probably shouldn’t buy them.

Now, how can you tell if your item is hard to sell? Here’s a list of questions that should help narrow it down for you:

1. Is there only one or two of the items that have prices in the wish-list on the trading post?

2. Is there more than 1 page of the item in the trading post?

3. Is the item rarity 85 or lower?

4. Have you seen people or the boards or in the trading post listing the item for half price or less?

5. Are there several in auctions with no bids and less than 2 hours left on the auction?

6. Have you tried to sell it on the trading/auctions board and been told it’s HTS?

If you answered yes to 4 or more of these questions your item is probably hard to sell. Don’t panic, unless you really need the neopoints right away. Just start advertising the item on the boards and be willing to discuss/drop the price some. If you are still not sure or you are trying to decide if you should accept that offer on your trade, a great idea is to go to the trading/auction board and post a topic asking for a price check. People will typically come to your board and tell you what the item usually sells for. You can also ask them if they think it is hard to sell. Most people are very helpful and honest. You may even find someone looking to buy. :)

Here are a few items that are typically hard to sell. Before I start, remember, just because I mention it here does not mean all of that type of item are hard to sell!

Morphing Potions: These are not actually all that hard to sell. However, people often are trying to sell them for more than the price of the same color paint brush. If you have a plushie bori morphing potion it is very unlikely that it will sell for as much as a plushie paint brush. It will sell close to, but certainly not high than, the price of the paint brush. There are cases where collectors are willing to pay a lot for rare morphing potions. But it takes some work to find a collector who has the neopoints and is interested in buying.

TCG: I personally have always found it difficult to sell TCGs that are not retired or avatar related. In fact, I do not buy them anymore because I don’t collect them and I don’t want to do the work to sell them. Again, this doesn’t mean they are always hard to sell. But be wary and do your research before buying any.

Plushies: Any high priced plushie (priced over 500,000 np) takes some work to sell for the values listed on the trading post. There are collectors out there but they are smart and they will look for the very best deal or try to buy the item from the shop (since it is much cheaper that way). It is easier to sell retired plushies, but still it usually takes more than simply putting it on the trading post.

Keep in mind there are many more hard to sell items than just these 3 kinds. This is just to serve as an example. And I must repeat – hard to sell does not mean it’s a bad buy! And it does not mean you can’t get the price listed on the trading post or close to it! It just means it will take some work to find a buyer.

One last piece of advise, some people will tell you that your item is hard to sell even if it is not. This is a way to get people to sell for cheaper. If you didn’t answer yes to any of those questions, chances are your item is not hard to sell. Don’t let people talk you into selling for insanely low prices. And even if it is hard to sell you can usually find a collector or someone who will pay the price you’re looking for if you are willing to take the time and effort.

In the end, it’s experience that will help you the most. All of us have made bad buys at one point or another. Over time you’ll become better and better at knowing what’s easy to sell and what you like to sell. Hanging out on the trading/auctions board is a great way to pick up on some of how it’s done. And like I said at the beginning, you can make a lot of neopoints doing this. You just have to be smart about it. Best of luck to all the restockers, traders, and sellers out there!