Ways to make a little extra at Auction
When I was a newbie, I got my first quest. It asked me for a hail mote. I couldn't use the shop wiz, and was perplexed as to how to get one, since I couldn't find one in the auctions either. I didn't know about chat at the time, so I just gave up and didn't do the quest.
I took it at a learning experience, . . . an experience in how to make tons of money. Ever since that time, for the next month, I put up hail motes for auction. I bought it for around 2,500 and auctioned them off for 5,000. Newbies like myself, or people who didn't seek help on chat would bid on them, and I would make tens of thousands of points a week. Every time I had a spare slot in auctions, I would put one up, and stagger the times.
I would also put a notice in my user profile, that "If you need a rock mote or a hail mote for a quest, check my shop". You wouldn't believe how many overpriced motes I sold in those few weeks . . .
I can't do the motes now cause they dropped in value down to like 1,000 so it's not worth it anymore, since usually half a dozen people auction them off at all times of the day now. When I was the only one doing it though, I made a killing.
I'm not too sure what some good, cheap, rarely auctioned quest items are, but if you find one, it might be something you would like to consider.
Now days I put up christmas petpet paintbrushes. I have no idea why they sell so much, but they do. The current price is about 3,000, but I auction them for 1900/1900. I think people think they cost 1900, so they bid, but it actually costs 3800. I sometimes have people bid over, and go 5,700. Unbelievable . . . I don't know why they do it, frankly, I don't give a damn. I just make money off of it.
1900/1900 sells at a little under 50% of the time. If you do 2900/2900, it drops to about 25%, though the profit margin is higher. At 3900/3900, the percent is about 15%. Up to you what you want to try. =) Try different numbers, see what works best.
I tend to stagger my auctions, so I can always have something up to bid on. I suppose you could try putting them all up for 1 hour. I like my steady stream of money though, cause sometimes I will get bids from people searching the auction genie. So stupid these people. If you are searching the auction genie, search the shop wizard too. . . . gosh. Whatever, I don't give a damn. It makes me money.
I probably go through about 100 of these brushes a week. That's about 900np per brush profit, sometimes more, let's say 1,000 profit per brush (cause quite a bit bid it up to 5,700). That's a hundred thousand points a week with stupid brushes. Not bad huh?
You can also put them in trades, I've seen people put them up, and after neomailing some of them, yes, they do sell, sometimes people give them codestones, or map pieces, or twice its value. Don't question it. Just make money off of it.
This can also be done with things such as codestones, where I've seen people pay hundreds extra, especially for lu codestones, the cheap ones. It doesn't cost you anything to try, and you can sell items for a bit extra at auction sometimes. Generally, you won't make thousands and thousands of any item, but every bit helps.
If you haven't figured it out already, I'm trying to do more than just tell you how to make money. I'm trying to show you how to expand your mind. How to be more creative at making money, rather than just "playing games", or even "winning auctions" or "doing trades". I want you to think outside the neoland box and be creative in your ideas.
I'm serious, I want you to think of things that hardly anyone else is doing, and do it too. Each of these ideas is going to be seen by others, and they are going to do it too. Each person that does it makes it that much harder for you to do them, (which is why I don't want you to share these ideas, it hurts me and it hurts you). But seriously, try and think of new things. I spent a couple months in neopets and thought of most of these ideas and strategies up on my own. There's no reason you can't do the same.