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When you get items at Neopets that you don't want, such as Gross Food, or Battledome items that you can't use, there are few ways you can get rid of the items:

1. Simply Dispose of the item(s).
2. Give the item(s) to a Neofriend.
3. Put the item(s) up for Trade.
4. Put the item(s) up for Auction.
5. Put the item(s) up for sale in your shop.

A word of warning about Trading: Only trade using the Trading Post on Mystery Island. Don't let anyone trick you into trading through neomail. That's how I got scammed out of a Brown Paintbrush, a Spooky Treasure Map piece, and another item that I don't remember. At the time, I was looking for a Lost Desert Paintbrush to paint Cleopatra2264, my Aisha, and I was very desperate. It's an extremely rare and hard to find item, and usually very expensive. So desperate was I to get one, that when someone neomailed me about trading, I lept at the chance. Only, he said that the link to my trades wasn't working. So I canceled the trade and sent them to him through the neofriend link (you have to make someone your neofriend before you can send them anything, and they have to make you their neofriend before they can send you anything). He claimed he never got them. But I had no trouble with anyone else.

I did find the Lost Desert Paintbrush I was looking for. I found it in a shop. It was expensive, like I said, but I took a chance and bought it. So I did get the Desert Aisha that I wanted, no thanks to that skunk of a scammer!

Now, on to the shops.

When designing your shop (and your User-Lookup, for that matter) consider the following tips:

• Avoid dark or cluttered backgrounds. It makes the print difficult to see, causing the person looking into the shop to have to highlight the page in order to see the writing. Not many people will want to waste time in a shop where they can't see the item names and the prices. If you must have a background (image or otherwise), other than the regular white, put the sale items in a white-background table.
• Avoid backgrounds that flash or have blinking effects. That's worse than the dark/cluttered backgrounds, because even the items in a table are affected. It makes it very difficult to buy anything.
• Avoid over-sizing the shop. Large shops with lots of items tend to use up memory. I've had my browser to close because of shops that were over Size 100. I try to avoid such shops whenever possible.
• Avoid putting too many "extras", like music or other graphics. Like large shops, they tend to use up memory. And you only have 4Ks of space for your shop discription.
• Do not overprice items. Use either the Shop Wizard or the Estimated Value of the item as a guide. I prefer the Estimated Value if I need to price anything above 300nps.
• Avoid pricing anything 100,000 NPs (Neopoints) or over. At 100,000nps, the item becomes UNBUYABLE. So, unless you are making a gallery, do not price anything above 99,999 nps.
• There is no limit on how low you can price things, although anything with no price will not show up in your shop.
• 300nps is the bare minimum price you can have and have the sale recorded in your Sales History. Any lower, and it won't be recorded.
• No matter what your prices are, have sales every once in a while.
• Advertise, either on the notice board, or on chatboards. There is a chatboard for Shop Ads. Just go and post.
• You can use other people's shops as the sourse for your stock. If you sell grooming items, for example, and you find items like makeup, shampoo, brushes, etc. for 10 - and 50 nps, you can buy these and use them to stock your own shop. Don't worry: It's fair. That's how shops in the "real world" do it.
• Be nice and at least visit the shops of people who buy from you. Just go to your Sales History and click on their name. You'll go to their User Look-up. Click on where it says, "Shop: Size #", and you will go to their shop.
• If the name is not in your Sales History, and you find a shop you like to visit, make a note of the person's username. Along the left side of the screen at the Neopets site is a link-strip to various parts of the site, like the games or shops. At the bottom, near where your username, active neopet, and NP total is a little box where you can search for things on the site. Type in the username you want, and a page with a link to that use will come up. Click on the link, then follow the directions in the tip above.

More tips will be added as I discover them. I can't guarentee that your shop will do well if you follow these tips, but I hope they help.

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