Neocash Trading Guide

Do you have a dream customization for your Neopet that requires neocash items and you don’t know how to get them since they are not in the neomall? Do you have some NC wearable that you never use and you wish you could change them by others? Then you are in the right place! In this guide I’ll show you all you need to know about NC trading and how to do it successfully, without chances of people taking advantage of you or of over-offering for their items.

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To start this journey, the first thing you need to know is where NC trading happens, and this is the NC Mall Neoboard. When you first enter this place, you’ll notice many abbreviations that can be quite confusing for people that are new in the subject. But fear not! Here is a small list explaining their meanings:

1) GBC stands for Gift Box Capsules and is probably the thing you’ll see mentioned the most, since is considered the basic currency of neocash trading. They cost 200NC in the neomall and restock at the end of the month for two weeks, after which they get retired until next restock. When opened, they give out Gift Boxes, necessary to send NC items, which cannot be sent to other accounts by their own. At the same time, all items are priced in caps (caps = GBC) and is the standard way to know the value of a certain NC item.

2) UFT stands for Up For Trade, which is also a common acronym used in the Pound Chat for Neopet trading. People use it to let others know which of their items they are willing to trade for others or for GBC.

3) WL stands for Wishlist, and is referred to the NC items the user wants to get or have as a goal to archive. People usually make petpages that lists their WL so others can check them out when offering items to trade with them. Sometimes people will only be willing to trade for items listed on their WL.

4) TL stands for trade list and they are the pages where users put the items they have UFT. They can either be petpages, jellyneo pages, dresstoimpress or galleries with the items in them. Is very important you build up a TL if you want to trade NC items, since this will be much easier for others and for you to keep track on what you have or not.

5) HTPW or Hard to Part With is used commonly in TL for items that the user might be able to trade for WL priority items but that they are not likely to trade for anything else since they tend to be items that they use or enjoy.

6) LE / Capsule LE stands for Limited Edition, and usually refers to the bonus prizes given out by capsules. It can also be used to refer to other limited edition items, but this is its most common use.

7) O is used for offering and S for seeking. This two are most commonly used on the topic titles in order to shorter the message and make more room for the name of the NC items themselves.

By knowing these acronyms, you’ll be ready to start trading. People tend to use many other acronyms to represent popular NC items or events, which I’ll later on this guide share with you, but for now, is time to teach you how NC trading works.

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How to start NC trading?

NC trading is very simple: you trade neocash items with another user for items they own that you want! In order to trade you’re going to need a Gift Box. Gift Boxes allow you send items to other users, one item per box. There are 3 ways to get gift boxes:

1) You can get gift boxes when you redeem a Neocash Card: 2 Basic Gift Boxes for a 1000NC Card, 3 boxes for a 1500NC Card, and 5 boxes for a 2500NC Card.

2) You can buy Gift Box Capsules (GBC) from the mall, which give 1-5 boxes randomly. They cost 200NC and restock in the mall at the end of the month, for about 2 weeks, and then they get retired. Sometimes the Neomall has some discounted events where you can buy them for less than 200NC (usually 100NC or 150NC) and those are the best times to stock yourself on them!

3) You can also get boxes with the Trudy Surprise daily, this is random though and you won’t be getting boxes every day you spin the wheel, but they are free anyway so is worth visiting your account daily to get the chance of getting one. You are only allowed to visit this on your main account, for side accounts you can disable the daily on your account preferences.

Now that you have boxes, is time for you to plan what you’re going to do with them. In this stage is suggested that you create yourself a WL, which can be easily done with Jellyneo or DTI. If the item you want is buyable from the mall, you can buy it directly with NC. However, most NC items are retired. This means the only way to get them is to trade with other players that have them. The easiest way to check if an item is retired is to check the Jellyneo Items Database. It will tell you if the item is a buyable, a game prize, a collector item/bonus, or a capsule LE, or if it is retired.

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When you get the list of items you are seeking for, be sure to seek how many caps they are worth. For this, the best guide and the one most NC traders use is Clara (/~Clara petpage) which gives you the value of all NC items. Is suggested you bookmark that page since it will help you give you an estimate value of any item you wonder about, which will help you avoiding under-offers on your items or over-offering for other’s.

Once you have all this details sorted out, is time to start trading. You can take two roads here: if your plan in NC trading is just getting the items of your WL, then offering their value on GBCs is the best option to archive them fast. If instead, you want to build up and become a regular trader, the best is to start hoarding items that people are trading for customs. Since most likely people who start trading don’t have many NC items to offer, customs will be your way to begin. A custom is when someone is seeking items that are buyable from the NC mall but don’t have pure NC to buy them. Seek for people who are seeking for customs and have on their TL items that you’re seeking.

When you and the other person agree on a trade, send your items in a timely manner. Most people understand that the trade may take a few minutes because of a slow internet connection, or maybe your items are in your SDB and you need to get them out. Sadly there is no safer way to make a NC transfer, one person must send their item and same with the other, there is nothing like a TP where both offers get accepted at the same time.

What happens if the other person hasn’t sent you their part of the deal?

Well, first of all wait a reasonable amount of time before doing anything, since as said, accidents occurs and they might be offline for real life situations or problems. If you already sent your items and the other person doesn’t accept, you’ll get them back after a couple days but if they did accept and they don’t send you their part of the trade for a while, be sure to report them to TNT including their username and screenshots of you two agreeing to the trade. Those situations are not very common but when they do happen, TNT can give you back the things you sent to them.

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After a while of trading, you’ll have some items you no longer wish to use on your pets. You can use these items to trade for ones you want! When trading with items, it is important you look at Clara guide of values, so you know how much your items are worth. Once you know this, it’s more likely you’ll make better trades. Combining multiple items into a trade is the easiest way to get more elusive and valuable items. If you have a 2 cap item and a 3 cap item, you can trade them together for a larger item worth 5/6 caps. The idea is that you trade items similar in value to what you want.

About discounted items and 2:1 trades

Sometimes traders realize they have too many items and they make discounts in order to change them for GBCs, this are the so called 2:1 Sales or the 4:1/5:1 games. The first one is very self-explicatory, you offer 1 GBC for 2 items on their sale list. When users have 4:1/5:1 games up it doesn’t mean you’ll be getting 4 or 5 items for sure, this ones have a little of luck factor on their side. You will select 4 or 5 items from their TL and give them 1 GBC, then, the other user will open your GBC and they will send you the equivalent number of items depending on how many boxes they got.

This kind of sales are perfect when you are starting on NC trading, since some users can have pretty decent items that you will be able to trade later for more than what you gave them for it, but, be careful with which ones you join and which items you select. Many times this sales will have mostly junk items, means, items that are often given like extra gifts when opening GBCs or on wonderclaw games. You might notice that the Clara guide will tell you they are worth 1cap since that’s the lowest the guide shows, but in reality some items are exclusively worth 2:1 or less, for which might not be a good investment to select them on 2:1 sales.

If you plan on using sales like a way to stock and trade later, be sure to investigate the worth of the items beforehand. If many sale TL have the same items and nobody asks for them, that would be a clear sign that they are HTT (hard to trade) or extremely common. With time, you’ll get used to them and you’ll be able to notice the rare items between the junk, the ones you must grab ASAP in order to make good deals.

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We’ve gone through a ton of basics with NC Trading and I hope by this point you have a better ides of how things work and you feel better by starting your journey in NC trading! At this point, I leave this section with a little lasting advice:

1) Go slow: Don’t just jump right in and trade all your items and GBCs at the first thing you see. You’ll need time to get used to NC trading and on learning about items. Start little, trade once in a while, and read a lot before accepting a trade.

2) Be patient: Take it one day at a time. Take a break from trying to get that WL item. Work on updating your pages, make them pretty, or add/remove items. It’s okay if you don’t get that priority item TODAY. You have tomorrow.

3) You be the judge: You’re not just trading FOR an item, you’re trading YOUR items too. Know the value and really gauge what you think is fair or unfair. Do not accept pression of others to trade with them, you choose.

4) Ask for thelp: The Neoboards were put in place to create a community of Neopians respecting each other, helping one another, and fueling relationships with one another. The NC Chat is no different. If you aren’t sure, just ask.

Neocash Item abbreviations

As a way to finish this guide, I’ll share with you a list of the most common items abbreviations used in the NC trade world that will help you understand neoboard titles and people’s posts. Sometimes people make up their own abbreviations, in case of not understanding them or being unable to link them to any item, just ask!

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– AC Wig: Altadorian Wig with Gold Ribbon

– AOTR: Attack of the Revenge Background

– BBoBF: Balthazars Bag of Bottled Faeries

– BF Dress: Butterfly Dress

– Balloon BG: Hot Air Balloon Adventure Background

– Blooming: Blooming Garden

– Bodyguards: Jhudoras Bodyguards

– Brill Wings: Brilliant Yellow/Green/Blue/Red/Purple Faerie Wings

– CBG: Cherry Blossom Garland

– CWWWB: Curly White Wig With Ribbon

– Carm Wig/Sparkling Wig: Sparkling Carmariller Wig

– Corridor: Corridor 317B Background

– Fairgrounds: Deserted Fairgrounds Background

– Fish Shield: MME2-B1: Gold and Maractite Fish Shield

– FitC: Feet in the Clouds Foreground

– FQC:Faerie Quest Cookie

– GT Dress/Shoes/Gloves: Garden Tea Dress/Garden Tea Shoes/Garden Tea Gloves.

– GMC Wig: Games Master Challenge NC Challenge 2010 Lulu Wig

– Gingy Wings: Gingerbread Wings

– Greenhouse: Greenhouse Background

– Gulp: Gulp… Underwater Reef Background

– HS FG: Healing Springs Foreground

– HS Wig: Healing Springs Collectors Wig

– ICC Lights: Ice Cream Cone String Lights

– Isca: Isca Wig (make SURE it is the Isca Wig they mean and NOT the Isca Dress).

– KI Sword: Krawk Island Adventure Sword

– Lulus: Pink Lulus Contacts

– MME Rain: MME2-S1: Mystical Rain Shower

– NQ Wand: Neoquest Wizard Wand

– NY in ##: New Years in Faerieland/Haunted Woods/Shenkuu/Meridell/Brightvale/Mystery Island/Krawk Island/Moltara/Darigan Citadel/Roo Island/Neopia Central/Terror Mountain/Space Station/Maraqua/Lost Desert/Altador

– Novas: Shooting Novas

– Nutty: Nutcracker Facepaint

– Nutty Gloves: Golden Nutcracker Gloves

– Nutty Sword: Nutcracker Toy Sword

– PLD: Pretty Little Daisy

– PLS: Paper Lantern Staff

– PMC: Pink Mountain and Cloud Background

– Phantom: Phantom of the Background

– QFK BG: Quest for Knowledge Background

– QFK Boots: Quest for Knowledge Boots

– QoH: Queen of Hearts Dress

– Radiant: Radiant Sun Rise Background

– Robertas: Robertas Collectors Contacts

– Rose Top: Shimmery Rose Top

– Rosy: Rosy Cheeks Face Paint

– SSS: Sentient Subservient Stone

– SWS: Spyder Web Staff

– Sewing: Sewing Room Background

– Skelly: Skeletal Face Paint

– Smugglers: Smugglers Cove Background

– Sparkling BG/Sparkling Snow: MME4-B1: Sparkling Snow Background

– Tasty: Tasty Bakery Background

– TNT Smasher: TNT Staff Smasher Home Edition

– Thade FP: Eliv Thade Make-Up Kit

– Thespian: Thespian Background

– ToT: Trick or Treat Doorstep Background OR

– ToT*: Tunnel of Trees Background

– Whimsy: Whimsical Garden Background

– WoaS/Wish BG: Wish on a Star Background

– Zencos: Zenco the Magnificent Contacts