The Art of Sniping

First things first, what is Sniping, exactly? Sniping is the art of buying low and selling high… a sniper searches user shops for items which have been, either as an advertising ploy or by accident, priced greatly below the retail value. The sniper then snatches up that item and puts it in his or her own shop, often making thousands of Neopoints in the process.

Words to Know

Buyable - an item which sells for less than 99,999 NP, and thus can be found in user shops.

Shop Wizard (SW)- the fluffy guy in the cape and hat found by clicking on the wizard’s hat from the shop screen’s navigation bar. This feature is available to all players.

Snipe - (v) to buy items below retail using the SW or SSW, then resell them for actual cost.

Snipe - (n) an item that has been sniped.

Super Shop Wizard (SSW)- This upgraded version of the SW has his own set of advantages and limitations, and is available only to Premium Neopet members.

Unbuyable - an item which generally sells for more than 99,999 NP, and is thus not usually available through user shops.

The Methods of Sniping & the Advantages

There are two ways of sniping; using the standard Shop Wizard, or using the Super Shop Wizard. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and neither is necessarily better than the other. Here are the main differences:

Standard Shop Wizard
The Standard Shop Wizard

Advantages:

  • Available to all players, whether Premium or not.
  • No limitations on what can be searched for.
  • Nearly impossible to get banned from.

Disadvantages:

  • Shows only limited groups of user shops at a time.
  • Has no Sniperspace feature.

The Super Shop Wizard
The Super Shop Wizard

Advantages:

  • Sniperspace feature makes sniping a breeze.
  • Shows every user shop in Neopia, not groups.
  • Price Only feature makes pricing easier.

Disadvantages:

  • Strict limitations on what can be searched for.
  • Banning happens regularly.
  • Only available to Premium Members.

Both systems have their quirks, but a good sniper knows how to use both to his or her best advantage.

How to Snipe using the Super Shop Wizard

The Super Shop Wizard (SSW) is best for sniping smaller but easily lucrative goods. Most SSW snipes aren’t multi-million NP hauls, but rather little earnings of 2-15k. These quickly add up, however, and are the main bread and butter of many snipers. It’s important to note, though, that the SSW is only available to Premium members.

There are two ways to snipe with the SSW. Either way requires visiting your portal page where you should find a mod called “Super Shop Wizard”.

If the mod is not there click on Portal Preferences at the top of the page, then Home Page on the left. Select Super Wiz from the drop down menu, and click add module. This will add the Super Shop Wizard to your portal page.

The page is nearly identical to the regular shop wizard, with two main differences: The Price Only button, which gives you the average of the ten lowest prices in Neopia of the item you searched for, and the Launch button, which launches the SSW into Sniperspace by opening a new window.

It is highly recommended that you always snipe in Sniperspace. As a rule of thumb, Sniperspace runs more quickly because the page has less to load. It also opens all shops in a new window or tab, making it easy to return to your search for multiple snipes. The Super Wiz module is best used only for pricing purposes.

Once the Sniperspace window pops up, close out your portal. The fewer screens you have running, the quicker the SSW will run.

Now, enter the name of what you’re searching for. If it is a specific item, like Angelpuss or Easter Negg, enter the name and select Identical to my Phrase from the drop-down list. If you’re looking for items within a category, like Dubloon or Codestone, enter that and leave Containing my Phrase selected.

Once you click Search or hit Enter the SSW goes to work looking through each and every user shop in Neopia and compiling a list of the 10 lowest prices.

Occasionally you may stumble upon a windfall item using this method. A good rule of thumb for the SSW is if there is only one of an item listed, it can generally be traded or auctioned for a much higher price. Recently a SSW sniper located a Cracker for 500 NP, the only one listed of it’s kind. The lowest priced of these Crackers in the Trading Post was 500K. The sniper played with the Cracker and found a rare book which was quickly sold for 1 million NP!

But, as stated earlier, there are distinct disadvantages to the SSW. Banning, or being unable to look up items on the SSW for the rest of the hour, happens frequently, sometimes after five searches and sometimes after twenty-five, but it does happen. Being banned does not mean that you’ve done something wrong; it is simply one of several measures taken by tNT to keep the game from being unbalanced by Premium players.

The other big downside is the list of items you CANNOT search for. There is a filter for these items built in to the SSW, and trying to circumvent this filter is a freezable offense. These include:

  • Paint Brushes
  • Nerkmids
  • Transmogrification Potions
  • Secret Laboratory Map Pieces

Good Things to Search for are items that can be searched under a general term and net a variety results. Some of these are:

  • Neggs
  • Codestones
  • Bottled Faeries
  • Dubloons

In other words, while the SSW is a great way to make quick NP in small amounts, if you want the big stuff, there’s only one place to go for it.

How to Snipe with the Shop Wizard
In a lot of ways, sniping with the Shop Wizard is just like using the SSW. You can choose whether to look for specific items or to use general search terms like faerie or codestone. The biggest disadvantage lies in the fact that you cannot see all of the shops at once, rather, the SW pulls up stores in groups, and you are shown the lowest price from that group.

As such, it is very important to know the average selling prices of the items you are trying to snipe. People who intend to snipe buyable items on the shop wiz would do well to specialize in specific item types, like petpets or battle equipment. Knowing how much things sell for and how quickly they go are the two keys to success on the SW.

Of course, the best thing about the Shop Wizard is that there is absolutely no restriction on what you can search for. Paintbrushes, map pieces, and any other unbuyable item that you can think of is fully searchable. While items like these don’t pop up very often, it does happen, and a dedicated sniper could very well make more than a million NP with a lucky snipe. If you see one of these, snatch it up, quick!

Despite their many drawbacks, the Super Shop Wizard and The Shop Wizard can be a Neopian’s best friend. Learn what makes them tick and what to look for, and soon you, too, will join the ranks of the proud, the elite, the snipers.