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Shop Stocking


Guide to a Successful Shop

Many people have wondered how to make a decent profit from using their personal site shop, and some have the misconception that you need hundreds of items in stock or a ton of time and MC. This is not true! It’s surprisingly simple and quick to make a good profit from your shop. This guide should help you on your way, but please keep in mind these are mainly basic/general methods, and not the only right way. Feel free to experiment on your own!

There are two things to consider when building and maintaining a shop: items and price.

Items -

What do you stock your shop with? This part requires a little bit of research at first, but soon you’ll be able to quickly spot desirable items.

The best way to start is to do quests and see what they are asking for. Keep in mind that super rare/rare items may go for a good profit, but they probably won’t sell as quickly, as there are more common/uncommon/semi-rare items to “pick” from when giving out quests. You’ll want to keep the bulk of your shop stocked with uncommon/semi-rare items, with a few common and rare/super rare ones. This is a method of simply playing the odds.

Plushies and beanbags are really good sellers as they’re the majority of what BenBaggz quest asks for along with sometimes Volcan and Traveler, so I suggest keeping your shop stocked heavily with them. Furniture and toys also sell fairly well once you figure out what items are requested most. If you’re a bit more daring, you can buy newly released items and try to sell them for a high profit - but keep in mind others will have this same strategy, and the price could drop extremely low very quickly! I usually only do this if it’s a highly sought after collections item, Exotic Foods (Super Rare/Special/Premium rarities) or books. Generally the profits on those items are good, but can fade once there are more in circulation as time goes on.

You will probably spend a lot of mc at first to stock your shop, but you won’t need to fill it completely every day, and the profit is definitely worth it! I would suggest keeping your shop stocked with at least 50-60 buyable items - meaning items that are currently cheapest in user shops and ready to sell. Items that are priced above other shops will not sell and would be considered “rotting” inventory. This is something you want to avoid. You will find more information about this in the Pricing section of this guide.

Remember to price check before buying anything! Many items are under priced for quick sale in user shops and won’t make a good profit.
 

For those of you who are not familiar with the site’s rarity on items. Here is the newly revised chart:

Rarity Chart:

R1- Common
R2- Uncommon
R3- Semi-Rare
R4- Rare
R5- Super Rare
R6- Games
R7- Special
R8- Seasonal
R9- Retired
R10 - Premium

Rarities -

When looking on the Help site for pricing, you may notice some items are set to 0. These items will be either Premium or Special items. They are bought in the Credit Shop (Premiums) or, gifted in special events, plots, Charitee Shop, etc. Those will need a bit more experience to price easily. Until you are more experienced and ready for those, members of the site will be glad to help out. You can post on the Pricing Help thread in Advertising Alley, or contact members you know, or members of staff for assistance. 

Pricing -

Again, quests are the key here. If you’re selling mainly quest items, you’ll want to keep your prices a little under Traveler or Volcan rewards, or else no one will buy from you because the profit to them in the game, won’t be worth it. To find out what the exact reward for any item is, check out the official help site, or Kauris Quest Calculator. Search for your item and you’ll be told the base price. Using the Help Site, multiply this by three or five and you have the quest reward. Kauris Quest Calculator, will have the profit information already available to you.

When quest stocking, a good strategy is to buy an item, round down to the nearest hundred (after figuring out what 3x the price is), and then go 100mc below that.

When pricing, watch out for undercutting! As you price your shop, it is a good idea to see if others are pricing way below the suggested margin. If so, this is a chance to buy another item for your stock, and a larger profit. It is also a flag that you should not price so low, if they are sitting out there alone.

A note on Autopricers

 Autopricers now have two options on how to restock your shop. They are:

 - Use AP to set prices 1 MC point below other member shops

When using the "1 pt below" option, any item not already posted in another members shop, will price at 0, and need to be hand priced.

OR                                                  

 - Use AP to set items 3x the site shop purchase MC prices

When using the 3x shop price option your AutoPricer will price rarities 1-5 only (Common - Super Rare site shop stock) all other ratings will need to be hand priced.

So, if you do not have the time to review your shop pricing after using this item, you risk a great deal of losses.

The AutoPricer also sets any item not sold elsewhere, to 0. This means it will not appear in your shop, until you set a price for those items by hand.

It is best to use the AutoPricer when you have time to use it wisely and do some added research.

Once you get to know the site, and its items, this won't be as big of a task as it may seem.

Undercutting -

Undercutting is devaluing items by a large amount, to make a quick sale.
Some things to think about,
1. Doing this will never guarantee you fast income.
2. Devaluing in this way will drop an items worth, only making it harder to sell the item in your shop at later times.
3. Undercutting will have a long term effect on not only your shop, but the ability for others to sell items to build their own accounts. When this happens, in the long run, members will not continue to shop.
* If you want to set your price below others to make yourself top the list of sales locations, you can do so by setting your prices lower than others as little as 1mc - 25mc under the lowest current listed price. Lowering by hundreds, or thousands, is proven to have long standing negative effects on all members site wide.

With this guide and a little experimenting, you’ll be making plenty of profit in just a few days!

 

H.S. Items: http://www.misticpetshelp.com/search_items.php
Kauris Quest Calculator: http://arc-night.net/mp/quest.html

 

Original Guide Written By Caustic
Edited and updated by staff 9/25/2013



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