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The Neopian Auction House

GOING ONCE... GOING TWICE... SOLD!

Located in Neopia Central, the Neopian Auction House is a marketplace to buy and sell Neopoint items. Here, you may be able to buy items for fewer Neopoints (or more) than you would in a normal shop or a user shop, or buy things from users that exceed the Trading Post's limit of 2 million Neopoints plus up to 10 items.

The Auction House

The Auction House has a few pages that you'll need to learn how to use in order to use it well.

The first page you need to know is the Auctions 1 - 20 page. This page is useful for auction snipers (users who buy items for a cheaper cost than usual by "sniping" them) since it lists the auctions closing the soonest. These auctions tend to close fast, usually in a matter of minutes, which is useful for the snipers (who want the auctions to close on their own name.)

The second page you need to know is the My Auctioned Items page. This page lists all of your current auctions and each's last bidder.

The third page you need to know is the My Bids page. This page lists all the auctions that are still active that you have placed a bid on.

The fourth page you need to know is the Auction Genie page. You can use this to search for items to bid on. There is more explanation on utilizing this feature in the Bidding section further below.

The final page you need to know is the Status page. This just shows how many auctions are still pending processing and not able to be bid on yet. In the heyday of Neopets this number would often be large, and sometimes wait times would exceed an hour, but these days it rarely gets over 1 minute.

Auctioning Items

Starting auctions is a bit counterintuitive as it is done solely from your Inventory and not at the Auction House. To auction an item, you click the item in your inventory and select Put up for Auction! and submit. You then have two text boxes to fill in for Start Price and Minimum Increment, a drop-down for Auction Length, and a checkbox option for Neofriends Only auctions.

Auction Fields

Start Price

One of those boxes is the Start Price. The name is a bit misleading, as this amount can never actually be bid—the first bid will need to be an increment on top of this amount. The maximum starting price is 50 million NP.

Minimum Increment

The second text box you need to fill in is the Minimum Increment amount. This is how much your auction will increase by with each bid: people must bid at least that increment, and can bid up to 5,000 NP above that increment. If your Increment is 15,000 NP, people can increase the bid anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 NP each time. The minimum increment cannot be more than the starting price, and likewise has a 50 million NP limit—this means the maximum possible first bid is 100 million Neopoints.

Auction Length

The dropdown you need to select is the Auction Length. You can choose from the following lengths of time:

• One Hour
• Two Hours
• Three Hours
• Four Hours
• Six Hours
• Nine Hours
• Twelve Hours
• Eighteen Hours
• One Day
• Two Days

Auctions lasting 1-hour are recommended since the auction front pages only show soon-to-end auctions (those with about 15 minutes or less left). Since the auction searching with the Genie is limited (more on that later), most people just browse the front pages in search of deals. If you put your item into 1-hour auctions until it sells, it will spend the most time being visible on the front pages. Timing is also important as the peak time with the most players active is during the evening hours of NST.

If you have a prearranged auction, a longer length may be more fitting to ensure the buyer won't miss the auction, especially if they're in a different time zone.

Neofriends Only

The final box is the "Neofriends Only?" box. Check that if you want your auction to be Neofriends only. Basically, nobody else can bid unless they're your Neofriend. In addition to using a high increment, this is a great way to help ensure that your auction can only be bought by a specific person, even if you only become Neofriends to complete the transaction. Be mindful that someone will be able to bid on your Neofriend-only auction even if you become Neofriends after the auction starts.

How to Price

If you're doing an auction to sell an item for specific amount of Neopoints (perhaps to get around the Trading Post's Neopoint limit), you will want to choose these numbers such that after one person bids, no one else will be interested. To do this, take your desired payment and divide it by 2, and put this value in each box. For example, if you are trying to sell an item for 10 million NP, the start price should be 5 million NP with a 5 million NP increment.

Make sure that your start price and minimum increment add up to equal the lowest amount you'd be happy to sell your item for, unless you're confident a bidding war will ensue to get the auction price to your goal. Think carefully about how big to make the Minimum Increment—if it's too low, then the price won't increase much above the first bid, and if it's too high, then it will likely get fewer bids. Be sure to double-check your amounts to avoid mistakes.

Some more pricing examples are as follows:

• 1,000,000 Start Price + 100,000 Minimum Increment = 1,100,000 first bid. Then 1,200,000 second bid, etc.
• 10,900,000 Start Price + 100,000 Minimum Increment = 11,000,000 first bid. Then 11,100,000 second bid, etc.
• 50,000,000 Start Price + 50,000,000 Minimum Increment [these are the maximum values you can enter for both fields] = 100,000,000 first bid. Then 150,000,000 second bid. Then 200,000,000 third bid, etc.

There is no limit to the final bid an item may sell for.

As of December 17, 2024, commas now automatically appear!

Selling Expensive Items

There are different strategies for pricing more expensive items (50m+) to help you earn the most for your item, or to sell something at a specific price that isn't an even multiple of 50 million.

For an item that is worth less than 100 million NP and isn't going to a specific buyer, consider the following for an example worth of 75 million, where having a larger increment (at least 1,000,000) is key:

If you want 75 million NP:

• 50,000,000 Start Price + 25,000,000 Minimum Increment = 75,000,000 first bid.
• It's unlikely someone will bid 100m, but the option still exists.

If you want to create bidding interest with options:

• 50,000,000 Start Price + 10,000,000 Minimum Increment = 60,000,000 first bid.
• Then 70,000,000 second bid is likely to be placed.
• Then 80,000,000 third bid is slightly less likely but still possible.

If you want to be slightly riskier but possibly start a bidding frenzy:

• 50,000,000 Start Price + 1,000,000 Minimum Increment = 51,000,000 first bid.
• Subsequent bids at 52m, 53m, etc are likely to come in.
• If done during the evening prime time, you have a good chance of getting above 75m with someone willing to pay between 76-80 million NP.

For an item that is worth more than 100 million NP and isn't going to a specific buyer, you'll want to list it during the peak user hours and think carefully about the increment amount to help the auction end in your goal range. See the following options for an item worth around 125-150 million NP that carry varying amounts of risk and reward potential:

• 50,000,000 Start Price + 50,0000,000 Minimum Increment = 100,000,000 first bid.
• Then 150,000,000 second bid, but this is risky if 150 million is on the high end since it may end at 100 million even instead.
• 50,000,000 Start Price + 40,000,000 Minimum Increment = 90,000,000 first bid.
• Then 130,000,000 second bid is likely to be placed. Then 170,000,000 third bid is very unlikely to be placed.
• 50,000,000 Start Price + 25,000,000 Minimum Increment = 75,000,000 first bid.
• Then 100,000,000 second bid. Then 125,000,000 third bid is likely to be placed. Then 150,000,000 fourth bid is possible.
• 50,000,000 Start Price + 15,000,000 Minimum Increment = 65,000,000 first bid.
• Then 80,000,000 second bid. Then 95,000,000 third bid. Then 110,000,000 fourth bid is likely to be placed, as well as 125,000,000 fifth bid and 140,000,000 sixth bid. Then 150,000,000 seventh bid is possible, while 165,000,000 eighth bid is unlikely.

For an item that is worth more than 100 million NP and is part of an agreed-upon sale, you may need to utilize junk auctions to complete the transaction. This requires an incredible amount of trust in the seller, but friendly reminder that scamming is freezable offense. To execute an auction for an agreed-upon 175 million Neopoints for example, you'll need to set up two junk items in auctions (with enough of a time limit for the buyer to see them) with these values:

1. 50,000,000 Start Price + 50,000,000 Minimum Increment = 100,000,000 first bid.
2. 50,000,000 Start Price + 25,000,000 Minimum Increment = 75,000,000 first bid.
   (or other combo that adds up to 75 million.)

Once the buyer bids on both auctions to lock in their Neopoints, they should offer a junk item for your rare item on Trading Post. Verify that it's actually them and accept their trade. They will get the item, and you'll receive the NP when the junk auctions end.

Yes, we're sitting pretty!

Other Selling Basics

You can have only eight items up for auction at a time, regardless of what they are or how long each auction is, so if you have a lot of items to sell, you'll need to use other methods (or just be patient as you wait for each set of eight to finish).

While an item is in auction, it will be displayed in your inventory with a label as such. You will not be able to interact with it to use it, move it, or complete any other action with it, and it will remain safe from thieving Random Events.

If you have multiple of me in your inventory, view it unstacked to use the other ones—although none other compare!

Auctions cannot be canceled once they have been started, so take extra care in ensuring your auction is properly set up with the correct desired price and increment to avoid losing out on potentially millions of Neopoints!

Auction Ending

After your auction ends, it takes a little time (can be a few minutes to a couple hours) for everything to finish processing. After the processing is complete, you will receive a neomail with the auction status.

Auction Successful

If the auction was successful, meaning it had at least one qualifying bid before the allotted time expired, after the processing time you will receive a Neomail with the subject "Auction Successful!" and the Neopoints will automatically be deposited into your on hand total. Unless you're trying for one of the tax trophies, you might want to quickly make a deposit at the bank!

Dear {Profile Name}

You will be pleased to know that your Neopets auction Lot No. ######### ({Item Name}) has been successful, and that 10000000 NeoPoints have been credited to your account. Below is a list of the bids and other information.

Bid : 10000000 NeoPoints, placed by {Username2}.
Bid : 9000000 NeoPoints, placed by {Username1}.

We hope that you had fun participating in this auction! If you have any comments or suggestions on things we can do to improve the world of Neopia then email us at: //www.neopets.com/contact.phtml

Yours Sincerely,
The Neopets Team!

Auction Unsuccessful

If the auction was unsuccessful, meaning there were no bids placed before the allotted time expired, after the processing time you will receive a Neomail with the subject "Unsuccessful Auction :(" and your item will be active in your inventory again. You can restart the process to list your item again, or move it to the safety of your Safety Deposit Box, Shop stock, Gallery, etc.

Dear {Profile Name},

Oops! This is a mail to tell you that Auction ID # ######### ({Item Name}), has not been successful, because nobody placed a bid. Never mind :) The object has been returned to your possession and better luck next time!

Yours Sincerely,
The Neopets Team

Bidding on Auctions

(This section is still under construction, thanks for your patience!)

Finding Auctions

The Auction Genie can be a finicky fellow, but may help you find desired auctions.

Searching for "Blue Draik Egg" (without quotes) will get you both Neofriend and non-Neofriend auctions. If you want JUST non-Neofriend auctions, check the box that says "Ignore Neofriend-only auctions" and you'll get non-Neofriend auctions. Under this is a box so you can also search for auctions by username.

Search results are shown sorted by Last Bid, which jumbles the order of items by name, time left, and current bid price (Asking), which can make it difficult to find what you want. But if this helps you narrow your search, it's best to search for an exact item name. It's also important to know that the returned results are capped at 30 even if there are more matching auctions.

Auction Ending

After an auction ends, it takes a little time (can be a few minutes to a couple hours) for everything to finish processing.

Auction Won

If you successfully placed a winning bid on an auction, after the processing time you will receive a Neomail with the subject "Winning Bid!" and the item will automatically be deposited into your Inventory.

Dear {Profile Name},

Congratulations! You have been successful the Neopets Auction Lot No. ######### (for {Item Name}). We have added this to your inventory (check it out at //www.neopets.com/objects.phtml?type=inventory). Below is a list of all the bids in the auction.

Bid : 10000000 NeoPoints, placed by {Your Username}.
Bid : 9000000 NeoPoints, placed by {Username1}.

We hope that you had fun participating in this auction! If you have any comments or suggestions on things we can do to improve the world of Neopia then email us at: //www.neopets.com/contact.phtml

Yours Sincerely,
The Neopets Team!

Auction Not Won

When you do not place the winning bid on an auction, there is no notification or communication. If you still have the direct link to the auction, the bidding information will be available for a brief time after. After the processing time, the Neopoints you had bid will automatically be deposited into your on hand total. Unless you're trying for one of the tax trophies, you might want to quickly make a deposit at the bank or bid on another auction.

Try again later!

This page was written by Terry, Quail & Daino and last updated on December 17, 2024.