iDB Community Forum

To refrain from eating my pm'ers alive I figured I'd start a topic about how to rs since I keep getting multitudes of questions o.O... not that I don't love you but I max out my windows on the bottom so popping up pm condenses everything.. usually right when a rs starts.. So this is tiniful detailed description on the great ominous thing called rs.

Ok, first of all speed is somewhat essential for any restocker. Note- this isn't the final essential, but it is important depending on the shops you pick. Too much under 1000 Kbps and you will find yourself lagging behind in restock- unable to restock snorkel snouts or bags of peanuts, especially with evil competition of ab'ers (people who use an auto-buying program, which is illegal). Lately due to changes in restocking, the ab'ers are the worse with profitable items that are under r90. Rule of thumb: the faster the better... check out your speed at 2wire.com For an idea of a good speed to be at around 2000. I run at 3000 when I haven't been crashing my comp. And yes there are many who run slower and are good, however they know how to work with what they have very well (and they've been doing it for years).

Speeding Up Your Computer
If you find you run slow there are a few little tricks that help the speed a bit. The most obvious trick of all is to reboot before you start rs'ing. Along with rebooting, minimize the number of programs you run while restocking. Windows Media Player and other music programs take up a lot of computer resources (which slows the computer down). MSN and AIM also eat away at your computer's resources. Often, a lot of programs install themselves so that they open upon startup when they are not needed. To fix this, go to the start menu, click Run. In the box that shows up, type in msconfig then hit okay. Do not touch anything else except the furthest tab on the right, which says Startup. The items with check marks are the programs, which run on startup. Take off any you don't need but MAKE SURE that you know what they are. You can take off programs like msnmsgr, which is MSN Messenger. If you're not sure, do not unclick the arrow. To monitor what is running on your computer, hit Ctrl Alt Delete at once and it'll show you what programs are running. End useless tasks you do not need. Another trick is to make sure you run cleanup and defrag your computer routinely. Programs like Norton System Works are priceless (very good at finding Trojans ect…), however it is a costly program. You can use programs such as Tuneup Utilities on a temporary basis (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3891.html). For disk cleanup and defragging without any programs: Start Menu, Programs, Accessories, System Tools: First do system Disc Cleanup than Disk Defragmenter. This should be done on a routine basis to keep performance up. Also make sure you use Spyware (which can be gotten at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html) and AdAware (which can be gotten at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/). Second trick is if you are running windows XP, set (right click, properties) Windows themes to classic. Another memory trick is under properties, use a solid colour as the background. Also setting your colour back to 16 bit rather than 32 bit can speed up the computer.

Browser to Use
Out of all the browsers, Mozilla Fire Fox is the best to use with restocking via my own experience and I have used all of the most popular browsers. It is also the most highly rated by PC World Magazine for speed, trimness, cleanliness and decrease of clutter. (Overall an excellent browser) IE, still incredibly popular- has a lot of problems with crashing. Its lag is not too bad, but the crashing can get annoying.

Another key reason Fire Fox is the leading restocking browser is its easy-to-use ad-block program.??First, if you do not have Mozilla Fire Fox, go to http://www.getfirefox.com. Once downloading Fire Fox, go to https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/mo...n=firefox. This will get you the ad-block program. Once the program is downloaded and installed, it can accessed through the ToolsMenu, Adblock, List All Blockable Elements. Or it can be accessed by doing Ctrl Shift A on the keyboard. If you accidentally block something you did not mean to, go to the Tools, Adblock menu and hit preferences. Scroll down the list and find the image you blocked. To get rid of the block, right click the mouse then hit delete. When done, press done on the window.

Basic Information
As far as what rs is.. yes all the basics skip this if you already know. Rs is a short version of the word restock. In neo, restock means that the neo run shops restock items at certain times. In each shop when it restocks, new items pop up all at once as of right now with the newer version of rs (during lag the items will pop up in clusters). The idea of rs is to quickly find the items that when bought, will sell for higher in your user shop. When I say selling for higher, I mean more then just 200 np. Usually I refrain from buying anything with less then a 5k profit, because with the new rs, because the items pop up all at once, it's harder to get as many items as you once could. Not all the shops restock at once. This is an important factor when picking which shops to rs in. Some shops such as the lower number shops (food, magic, toy, clothes ect) restock first. I use those at alerter shops to know restock has happened.

Restocking Times
Now, as far as timing of the rs's. Yes neo now has rs's happening at a set time.
There are several ways to check. Neo now provides a clock on the side bar. For an alert shop, it is best to start refreshing at :00 and to refresh three times each minute because sometimes depending on lag it rs's a bit later. Because some people have problems with the clock skipping around and lagging and in some cases disappearing, there are two other options. The first shops, (food, magic, toy, clothes ect.) restock usually between :00 and :05 seconds on the clock.. generally though they restock in the first three seconds. There's more to it, but that's the essential need to know. Shops do not rs at set intervals though. This means they do not rs every five minutes. All you can do is refresh each time the clock hits :00 and wait until it rs's
Option 1) I do not recommend keeping up an additional browser window for clutter, but you can use this site http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8/java. When it is set at pacific time zone (since neo runs on pacific but that doesn't matter much).
Option 2) If you wish to use for your system tray which is in sync with universal (aka also Neo timing), download the Atomic Clock Sync at http://www.worldtimeserver.com/. I prefer this method due to the fact it does not take up an additional amount of space on the bottom bar because it does not need its own window. To keep it up to date, simply click the green arrow and the words Ping Now in the upper left hand corner. I recommend Pinging every 5 rs's because the time easily gets messed up slightly. Always make sure to Ping before you start rs'ing with the clock. The advantages of using this clock is that it fits neatly in the system tray, it's small and you do not have to put it down because it floats in the background if you click off it. Keep in mind that if you ping, you must press 'Okay' because when it goes back to floating in the background with the message System Clock has been adjusted…' you cannot retrieve the clock and ping it by clicking on the system tray. The message will still be floating in the background even though you called the clock up so you will only see the clock and be unable to use any options unless you minimize all your windows until you reach the area where it floated to and click 'Okay'.

Haggling
Now, onto the actual haggling part of it. I am one of the few people in my crowd who rs well that prefer the top of the keyboard so unfortunately my comments are solely for the top keyboard… You may want to experiment with the right side number pad though (the majority of rs'ers use it). When you are waiting to refresh make sure you are scrolled down on the page so you see more of the shop then the top neo bar and the shopkeeper. This will allow you to see the items quicker. Due to the new top banners, setting the screen at a bigger size is incredibly helpful so you can haggle faster and see more items. (Right click, Properties, Settings, Screen Resolution- do not increase too much. I run mine at 1152x864). Never use the scrollbar... always use your scroll wheel on the mouse. The moment you think you have a profit item (usually they stock in ones in places like bakery they'll go as high as stocking in 3's or in pharmacy small profit stock at 15 or more), click on it and have your thumb over the space bar, this takes practice to get fast. A message comes up 'Are you sure you want to purchase ___ at ___ NP?' The 'OK' button is highlighted already so as soon as that message pops up press space and it will accept. If you click too fast (before the okay window comes up) your screen will scroll down the page instead of going to the next page so be careful. The next window should be the number haggle page. You should already have looked over the number when you first pressed the item so have your left hand poised ready over numbers you know you'll need. Keep your mouse in the center so you can click in the haggle box as fast as possible and have your fingers haggle as close to the price the shop wizard wants as you can in a smooth motion. If the price is 5362, use something like 5433. I have found doing a smooth countdown or up on the keyboard is faster then going 5555. Lil tip: My favorite and fastest is anything around 1k use 1232. Many ub's or expensive items over r89 stock at 5000 now, so keeping 5000 on the cut and paste is also another trick. Simply type 5000, control c to copy and every time you haggle for 5k, control v and it'll paste all four numbers instantly in the box. This trick can be used for any value (such as 10000) however. After you have entered the number (your right hand should still be on mouse) comes the current restocking way. Basically it's a picture of a scene with a neopet in it. All I can advise is to have your right hand ready on the mouse the whole time while haggling. Generally you should be able to be moving your mouse towards the picture as your haggling. There will be a neopet in the picture, which you must click on to put your haggle in. If you missclick on the picture, it will not accept your haggle and you have to click again. Over half of the neopets will appear at the top of the box via my experience. The pets are all the normal colours of either blue, red, green or yellow. There will only be one neopet in the picture as of right now. You do not have to click exactly on the image, but click as close as possible. After that, it's goes to the next page and its either offer accepted or sold out.

F.A.Q
Now my most frequent question: what shops should I use? Well it is truly a big experiment on what you like the most. Key shops to avoid if you're a beginner generally and looking for the bigger profits: magic (shop 2) and stamp (shop 58) and main petpet (25). Those are favorite shops of the best rs'ers and the prolific ab'ers. Toy is semi-hard but it's do-able for nearly everyone. Booktastic (70) is also a very fast shop, but good profit. If you are not a very good rs'er do not expect to get the ub books (any of the newer books that are r90+) but there are several lower profit books that sell well. The competition is fierce and sometimes impossible. The classic joke- do not go to tiki tack (shop 21) It rs's one ub.. the rest of the items are useless. What you need to do is as far as your bar at the bottom goes.. have up a internet browser with an 'alert shop' first. Those are the lowest shop numbers. If you choose to rs in one of those: Food (1) has collected more ab'ers recently but it is still one of the best choices if you are not looking for serious haggling such as in toy. Book (7) is also a very good option. Those are the shops that start the rs at :00-:05 seconds. Next you will have a shop that rs's after the 'alert shops.' I most often use spooky foods. If you're new, I do not recommend it, competition is fierce. Many beginners use chocolate (14) or bakery (15). It's been a while since I've been there though because the profit is usually only 6-8k'ish per item. The one thing to watch out for is with this style of rs'ing now, you only have time to rs one thing so even though 8k profits add up, it's not much for the hours you spend rs'ing. To newer rs'ers, I recommend keeping up 3 shops and your clock if you use one. Your last shop(s) past the first three should generally be less popular shops that rarely rs, but when they do it'll be most likely a profit. Examples: Brightvale Fruits (81), the specialty petpet shops ect. As you become more used to it, you may want to use more shops. And don't stick with a set of shops.. explore. I usually rotate my shops. I try to change my shops once ever few days. A great tip to watch out for, new items like when the neocola tokens came out- they rs'ed a lot in bigger quantities, go to those shops, new items bring in great profit. I went later even after they had deflated and pulled in over a million. Things like some newer shops (i.e. Brightvale Armoury #80) every item that stocks is profitable. Also watch the news for newer low rarity items. When they first come out like the sloth food in Food (1), they can sell for 99k. Tip on that is to sell newer items of lower rarity for around 20k under what you see posted on the shop wiz or you wont' get rid of it faster than it deflates. If it's selling for 99k, put it up for around 70k is your best bet. Another key shop tip: Watch seasons. Near Christmas, Winter Petpet (61) is an awesome place to be. Everyone's buying winter petpets for xmas gifts and their value inflates. Same with Valentine's stuff ect... Key shops to avoid due to difficulty are battle magic and defense due to difficulty and the fact they are the two shops you can lose the most from.

Do take time to get to know a shop, do not get frustrated when buying many non-profit items. If you really have the wish to learn fast, http://www.neoitems.net inventories most items in different shops. Look those items over especially the ones for specialty shops and find out which are profit and which are not. You have to have an account because it is no longer public. It is free, all you have to do is sign up. If you have hotmail~ the verification of your password will go to your junk inbox!!! Make sure to look there or you will think you did not recieve it.

As a final note... when you are restocking, do not spend three hours straight just refreshing and waiting around for rs then come complaining how boring it is. The rs only happens in a five second slot. Use the other 55 seconds each minute to do something else! It may sound like a short amount of time but you'd be amazed what you can do in 55 seconds. I personally consider sitting there not multi-tasking is a waste of time.

*Sigh.. if I have in some way managed to not answer any of the questions you wish to know- Either reply to this board, or if you really need my attention pm me.

Mike: Continued from http://forums.finalhit.org/showthread.php?tid=40.

Having looked Maractite Weaponry up on neoitems and then checked them on IDB, most of them dotn seem very good (the only half-decent would be the frosty maractite bow). So are most maraweaps HTS, or ddo they still miraculously sell well and for good profit?

Also, when does it stock (the times are different now)? And how much profit can I expect from each item? Thanks very much for help

HTS... good profit but usually hts. Times aren't different except neo is being glitchy lately. From each item? Well it depends on the item o_O Need more specific than that

Maractite Weaponry are very HTS. Unless you stumble upon r99s, expect low profit (5k-20k) per item. Don't get the net, the helmet, the dagger, the boomberange. Everything else is fine, methinks.

My computer runs at a speed of 100kb (if im lucky) but yet I seem to make about 50k a day by restocking at the spooky foods how you may ask? well its because instead of clicking on the refresh button I click on the shopkeeper which is WAY faster! And since I live in holland when im on neopets its about 4 o' clock in the morning for you guys so I doubt there are alot of people on (unless there die-hard members) and I always use the space bar to scroll down to get an item. and I have the ability to know which item im gonna buy in an instant for example I almost never buy the items which come in 1 like the bogie berry you have to be an expert to get one of those but I go for the items that come in large numbers and while everyone is trying to get the bogie berry im buying out all the items tat are still very profitable and I JUST started restocking! I hope I could have helped you new restockers!
so actually its all about timing speed is usefull but not nesecarry if 6 candy corn classics restcok at the spooky food I get 5 of them because im like the only one awake:thumbup:

when do the shops restock?

Ermmm... Actually, it's because they are only ~300np profit.

well I make 500 nps profit BUT if I buy ten of them its 5k profit!
I never restock when its rush hour thats why I got 2x fhroty fruite juice when only 2 of them restocked or the time I got a chocalte ice cream apple lantern which is worth 20k and only two restocked! and my pc isnt that fast its all about skills


yes there are many who run slower and are good, however they know how to work with what they have very well (and they’ve been doing it for years)

I havent been restocking for years I have a gift for it

You should really try for the harder items... Bogie Berries make 120x as much profit as a single 500 NP item can. It's worth a shot, and you can earn much more. Trust me, you don't have to be an expert to get one.

I know but can I see them? and they mostly restock in ones I once almost got a eliv thade shake but I ruined it I was new and my fingers didnt do what I wanted and the funny thing was that the shake was still in the shop for like 5 seconds

Refer to the first page to understand what you can see. You must try to restock higher rarity items, especially ones in 1-in-stock. Most unbuyables (except for new low-rarity ones that will deflate fast) are 1-in-stock. If you never try for those items, you'll nerver get an unbuyable.

I trully became a master in restocking I get all the good items except when theres a aber with me I hate them :S thanks sexy your article really helped me