Scanning Shops
When you scan the shops, it's pretty easy. You just search in the shop wizard for the item, and get a display of a certain grouping. You then and hit refresh (F5), followed by the space bar or the enter key to get rid of the annoying popup, shown below.
Both newbies and experienced players do it. Just type in an item, and search, and if you find it really cheap, buy it. My favorites are scratchcards and dubloons. For some reasons, they are underpriced a lot, but you might have your own favorites. If you do, more power to you.
The best way to scan is type in part of the name of the item (don't have to type the full name), and hit F5 with your middle finger to refresh, and keep your thumb on the space bar till you're done, then go back.
If you are going to scan shops, the day time, or peak time is the best. More people are trying to sell, so the prices drop slightly (more supply), and people accidentally put items up for a really low price. However, you have to be faster when grabbing cheap items cause more people are also searching.
But generally when more people are on, the difference between the cheapest ones is greater, and prices among different groupings are very skewed. As less and less people restock their shops (when less people are playing), the cheapest price tends to be about the same across all 8 groupings.
If you find a super cheap item, but he has a ton of items in his shop, do a ctrl - F to find the item. Then it'll take you right to it, and you can buy it. Always check though, to make sure he hasn't raised the price on a cheap item . I fell for that a few times. Had a codestone for 2,500, but he raised it to 25,000 when I got there, grr.
It only happened a few times though. Be especially careful if they have a dark background, trying to hide their prices. It's worth the extra second to check. Don't be so greedy for that extra few hundred points, when it may cost you thousands because they scammed you.
If you find a shop with an unusually low priced item, stay in the shop for a while. I always check to see if other items might be lower too. He might be having a clearance sale, and pricing everything low. This is especially true if the item you just found is like 30% lower than the market price.
Don't rush out of the shop, stay a while, even open another window to search the shop wizard for items in his shop. If you search a few and they are cheaper, buy it. If they are more expensive, or just at market value, he may have just priced one item too low. I've found tons of good deals this way, and it just took a few extra seconds.
You are never in too much of a hurry to leave a shop when someone one item at an usually low price, and other items for sale.
If you find like 10 of the items really cheap, buy them all. Just click on it, and when the confirmation box comes up, hit enter, then click on the item and hit enter, etc. Don't wait for the shop to refresh. If there's 10 items, don't click, hit enter for the prompt, then wait for it to refresh, and show there are 9 items left.
There are lots of other people shopping too, and the longer you take buying these cheap items, the less of them you are going to get. Just click with your mouse, then hit enter (or space bar) to get rid of the prompt, click, hit enter, etc. Do this for as many items as there are. Even if he sells out halfway (you only technically buy 5 of the 10), you want to be so fast that you do it 10 times, then check to see how many of the 10 you grabbed. Basically, just do it 10 times if there are 10 items.
Also, you can just click back, or alt-left arrow (to go back) to the main shop search page. You don't have to see whether you bought the item, or if it was one of those "the item you are looking for no longer exists in this shop". It doesn't matter. Just click on it with your mouse, hit enter for the prompt, and go back to search for more. You don't need to know if you got it or not.
Waiting for it to refresh will not help or hurt you. You either got it or not. Move on, and check your supply later. (This applies if you are hunting for one thing, like trying to buy a whole lot at a cheap price, like codestones or scratchcards.)