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Restocking

The word "restocking" refers to two different concepts:

1. When more items appear in the official Neopian shops (shops not run by users), it's called a "restock."
2. When Neopets users buy any items from the official Neopian shops, the activity is called "restocking."

So, in short, "restocking" refers to shops putting up new stock and users buying that stock; generally, people aim to restock the items that they can sell for a good profit. That means that "restockers" are simply people who restock.

Restocking Terms

Every time you open or refresh a shop page, there is a very tiny and random chance that you will become "restock banned." When this happens, you will no longer be able to view any items in any shops. TNT put this in place to prevent some players (and bots!) from grabbing too many items throughout the day. These bans last around 24 hours.

In 2014, shops were updated to clear all leftover items at random intervals. This happens to all shops at the same time and is referred to as a "clear." It is common to see users ask for a "shop with items" or "SWI" when this happens; another user will respond with a link to a shop where items are currently stocked. If the shop with stocked items appears empty for you, you're banned. If not, you're able to continue restocking.

An "unbuyable" is an item that's too valuable to sell in regular, user-run Neopian shops; items can't be priced above 999,999 NPs in user shops, so any item that doesn't show up on the Shop Wizard is an unbuyable; something worth 1,000,000 Neopoints or more. (You will need to use the Trading Post or the Auction House to sell them instead.) So, when you hear about people "restocking" an "unbuyable," now you'll know what they're talking about.

Timing

When there is a "clear", all shops will clear at the same time. However, "restocks" will occur at separate times for each shop.

Despite the message on empty shop pages, restocks do not happen every eight minutes! There are no specific times when restocks occur in the shops; restock times are random and may or may not happen more or less often than every eight minutes. It's pure chance.

Prices

The price an item stocks for is based on its Estimated Value. However, some rarities have minimum prices they can appear for. Items r85-89 will never stock for less than 2,500 Neopoints; r90-94 will never stock for less than 5,000 Neopoints; r95-99 will never stock for less than 10,000 Neopoints. However, items in each of these ranges can stock for much more than these minimum values.

Items costing 10,000 Neopoints aren't always worth it...but they can be!

Tips

The most important tip for restocking is simple patience. Anyone who restocks has got to be either lucky or patient. You could pass the time waiting for a restock by playing a game, but that would risk missing the first few seconds of a restock, in which all of the good items will be snatched up by other restockers. So, it's better just to keep at it, maybe listening to some nice music, and keep refreshing for the next restock.

A shop can only hold a maximum of 46 items, or 5 rows of 8 items plus another 6 items on the 6th row. If a shop is full, it can no longer restock until some of its inventory has been bought or until the shop clears on its own. Occasionally shops may glitch and stock more than 46 items, but this happens very rarely.

Books are good items to restock; most are worth at least a bit more than what you pay for them!

Refresh the page by clicking on the shopkeeper or using the F5 key on your keyboard; the shopkeeper picture is actually a link to the shop page you're on, so when you click them the page will refresh! The F5 button is an alternate method for refreshing, albeit slower than clicking on the shopkeeper. (You lose precious milliseconds going from the F5 key to the Num Pad.) It's better to use that method that the usual Refresh/Reload button in your browser because it keeps your mouse cursor closer to the items that will eventually be restocked; when restocking, every second counts.

When a restock occurs, you've got only seconds to restock a good, expensive item (if any appear in that restock). Sometimes there won't be anything good, and you should go ahead and familiarize yourself with all, or at least most, of the items that sell for the most Neopoints. However, when something good has restocked, here's what happens:

• Click on the item you want to buy. A pop-up box will appear and ask if you're sure you want to buy the item.
• When you click "Yes", you'll be taken to a page where you can haggle with the shop owner. To save time, don't haggle; instead just type in a pattern of numbers that you can type quickly and is pretty close to the amount of Neopoints requested. For example, if they ask for 5,000, just offer 5454 or 5432.
• Click on a small, slightly faded image of a Neopet in a box below. (This is the Neopets version of a Captcha to stop some automated cheater programs.)
• You'll be taken to a page that either says the shopkeeper isn't satisfied with your price and wants more Neopoints (which won't happen if you didn't really haggle, or if you correctly clicked the pet) or a page that says you got the item! If you were too slow, a different page will appear and say that the item has already sold out and that you didn't manage to buy one in time (meaning another user bought it faster than you).

Clicking any part of the image other than the Neopet will only delay you.

Also when a restock occurs, keep in mind that no matter how fast you are, you can only buy one item every five seconds. Even if you got one in half a second, you'll have to wait five more seconds before you can get to the haggling page again.

Getting Started

Take a look at our Neopian Shops Directory. Any shops where you feel some familiarity with the inventory being sold are great places to start.

To get an idea of what items to buy, our Item Database is very useful! Select the category you are interested in and sort by price to get an idea of which items will be most profitable. Since new items are added to shops on a daily basis, this is the best way to stay informed.

While you're still a restocking newbie, you should try sticking to places with lots of opportunities to snag good items, even if other shops have much more valuable items. When you've gotten a lot of practice, you might try going for some more difficult places that yield better return.

If you are still stumped, the Pharmacy, Kayla's Potion Shop, Chocolate Factory, and Book Shop are all decent choices for beginners. There aren't any perfect places to practice, because there are always other restockers just like you at every shop in Neopia. You just need practice and patience to get better and get the good items before they do!

Restock Bans

A "restock ban" is something you usually get when you've been restocking for hours. There is a random chance every time you load or refresh a shop page that you will receive one. When you are restock banned, you will not be able to see any items stocked in any shop.

Restock bans are temporary. How long the ban is in place is completely random, but generally in the range of 18 to 30 hours. The ban was made so that the most elite restockers couldn't go on restocking all of the good items. It is also a crude anti-bot measure. The more you refresh the sooner you'll get it, so there's no way around it. If you are restock banned on your account, you are not allowed to use another account to get around it.

Restrictions

Depending on the age of your account, you will only see certain items when they stock in the shops. Below are the age restrictions for different rarities:

The Restocking Boons

Every two weeks, you can take part in battles at the Battleground of the Obelisk. If you join the Awakened, Thieves, or Sway, and participate in the required number of battles, and your faction wins, you may be given the opportunity to claim the Five Finger Discount or Black Market Goods boons. These special bonuses will give you enhanced Restocking abilities for one week, until the truce ends and the factions begin preparing for the next round of battles.

Five Finger Discount

When activated, this boon will give you a 10% discount on the starting price when haggling for goods in any Neopian shop.

Black Market Goods

This boon causes exclusive items to appear in shops during restocks. These extra items will be highlighted like the Dazzling Blue Mussel Shell below. The items are always rarity 83 or above and any Neopians with the Black Market Goods boon activated can see and purchase them, so you are competing with fewer people to purchase the highlighted items.

Below is a list of all shops & items we have seen to restock with the Black Market Goods boon. If you've encountered an item not listed here, please let us know!

This page was written by Daniel and last updated on August 27, 2024.