I was just looking through my gold log and some of the first numbers that came up were NP trades I did back in 2006.

Hard to believe that I actually purchased at 1:1000 and 1:1500 for a while before the ratio went up to 1:2000.

Being the nerd I am, it'd be interesting to plot the ratio changes among the years as well as possible causes for each (if not just obvious natural fluctuation due to changes in demand/supply).

Also, in Neopets itself, many items have gone up drastically in price. I remember "back in the day" when the whole lab map was about 250k or so and where you'd get a magical meerca plushie if you got more than 1000 in the original Meerca Chase. When you could get your strength up initially by going to the Grundo Gym. When the countless retired items weren't retired Meowclops was below 400k for instance.

Anyone have their "old fart" stories to share? Any tips on what to invest in for the future? If only I had known that it made more sense to buy lab map pieces and sit on them rather than sit on NP (without even playing the stocks, which stole all my game profit )

This post was edited by Valefar on Feb 25 2011 09:32pm

Meowclops may be my fault, I hoarded them when they were 400k. Had 43ish, and got frozen the price started rising literally right after my trades were going. I stopped watching them rise when they hit 1.2m like 2 months later.

H4K's used to be hypno helmets, and were like 400k.

faerie pbs were 200k in the tower.

Prices inflated because as more people started playing neopets, more neopoints were generated, therefor making the value less. 5 years ago if you had 10 million you were pretty well off. Now if you have 10 million you're just an average player if not considered poor among traders/restockers

I remember when:

- Everyone had Hypno Helmets in the TP, trying to trade them off for 80-110k, as plentiful as Baby PBs now. Hence everyone thought they were trash and rejected any offer with them in it (including myself)
- Faerie PBs were 200k as said above, then briefly retired and brought back at about 400 or 600k?, before being retired again
- Flizzardos were 14k
- Solid color PBs were 5k
- PBs were 25-75k (eg. Fire PB being 75k)
- Purple Scorchstone 500k, Rainbow SS 800k
- Jade SS 2m in tower
- Mono Claw 24m in tower
- G-Sword 13m in tower
- Rod Nova either 8, 10, or 12m in tower
- RoDN 13 or 15m in tower
- SuAP started at 40m in TP when it was in circulation
- Meowclops 200k (shortly after retirement status)
- Krawk Trans 700k
- Purple Draik MPs and another color (I think Ghost, don't ask why these 2 colors were common at release) 125k
- Non-limited Trans potions were 5-10k
- Limited MPs (eg. Red Jetsam) were ~40k
- Complete Lab, 80k (year 2001)
- Skarrl's Sword @ 250m (which at the time was the most expensive thing ever asked for, G-Swords were 40m at that time, SuAPs 70m)
- When r99 items were less than 50k (before Jhudora and Illusen came into existence)
- Dark Faerie Eraser 8m in tower
- Codestones were all 3 to 3.3k across the board
- FSS sold at 25-30m

Essentially everything that wasn't a Tower item could be had for less than a mil, and Cove items cost anywhere from 200k to 3m (exception being the APs).

Things to invest for in the future are plot prizes that don't suck, new cove items, items being retired, limited avatar items, and stock.

My last old fart story to share was when I saw a Seasonal AP at the cove (Dec. 2002) by chance, but at the time had no Dubs and had no idea how beast it was in the BD; SuAP did not come into existence until May or June 2004.

Items that tend to inflate
- Plot items. Always, always, ALWAYS keep these. Never sell them right away. They will be worth fortunes.
- Event items. Rewards from events such as Altador Cup, KEEP. They will inflate!!!
- Popular, but rare items. Paintbrushes like the Pirate (Pet and petpet) will always inflate. Laboratory sets will always inflate. Save them if you wish for profit.
- Battledome items. Right before a new plot is about to start, these babies will inflate anywhere from 30-80%. Massive profit.

Items that tend to deflate
- Easy to obtain. Anything that gets pumped into the market
- Plot items. They deflate the most the first week. Buy them, wait few months, profit.
- Battledome items. When neopets comes out with better weapons, the old ones deflate so incredibly fast it's ridiculous.