Small-Scale (Beginner) Restocking
This section of my restocking guide is directed at restockers who are not obsessed with restocking unbuyables, but still make a nice regular profit restocking buyable items. While this is not my restocking style of choice, I know several friends who are content with, or forced to settle for, restocking in shops that stock few unbuyables. I will discuss some advantages and disadvantages of a style I have coined "small-scale restocking" as this may help you decide which shops you choose to restock in. In addition, this is a nice style of restocking to learn the techniques if you are new to restocking.
Advantages
- Easier and slower shops. Because the shops of choice for small-scale restocking (for example Pharmacy, Kayla's, Chocolate Factor, Bakery, Spooky Foods, Clothes) typically do not boast attractive, multi-million NP unbuyables, such shops tend to be less competitive. In addition, usually many items worth restocking will appear in the same restock, so you have a chance to grab several, or at least a second chance if your first attempt was a sold out. Many people do not have a connection fast enough to be competitive in the most popular shops, but will do okay in these shops, so they can still consider restocking as an option for making NP.
- Easier and faster to sell. Because the vast majority of items you will be restocking are buyable, they are a lot easier to sell since you can just throw them into your own shop, price them accordingly from the Shop Wizard, and leave them to sell. Buyables also tend to sell faster so you will get your NP faster. Unbuyables are not as painless to sell since trading post items only stay on the trading post for 2 weeks. Also it can be hard to gauge the price of an item based on trading post prices. Hard to sell unbuyables typically require you to advertise on chat boards or to keep reposting them on the trading post hoping a buyer with a serious offer contacts you.
- Good for learning to restock. The small-scale shops are good shops in which to learn how to restock if you are just beginning. Mistakes are not costly and it is encouraging to make some decent profits quickly after beginning. These shops are also competitive enough that they force you to become better, fast.
- Good shops for young accounts. If your account is too young to see high rarity items, these shops offer many relative low-rarity items you can profit nicely off of as you wait for your account to age.
- Less frustrating and stressful. When you mishaggle or miss a restock, the frustration does not compare to the same level as when you do so on say, a Leaded Elemental Vial or Draik Morphing Potion. It is really hard at times to get back into restocking when you miss something like that. But with the items you are dealing with in the small-scale shops, such a miss can be easily brushed off. No anger. =P
Disadvantages
- Low profit. Obviously the reason that these shops are slower is because they do not have attractive enough profits to become extremely popular. Restocking is one of most popular, and arguably the most profitable, method of making NP because it is possible to make millions in profit off of one single item. If you stick with small-scale restocking, you will never be able to tap into the true money-making potential of restocking.
- Boring. So maybe camping a shop waiting for that one awesome profitable item isn't that exciting, but in my opinion, neither is stocking buyables all the time. You will never have that thrill of restocking a hugely profitable item and knowing you beat dozens of other restockers going for the exact same item. And of course, stocking such items comes with bragging rights should you choose to exercise them. =P
These are the main arguments I could make for and against small-scale restocking. If you should choose to try this style out, please continue reading for some tips.
Shop Choices
As a rough criteria based on my shop ratings, you should be considering shops with a profit rating of 2.5-3.5 and a competition level rating of 1.5-2.0. You'll notice these ratings translate into mediocre profits at reasonable competition levels. The following shops are among the popular choices for small-scale restocking:
Tips
All the tips I have already discussed in my restock guide apply, but just to hammer a few points home:
- Know your shop. Do the research and look up the profitable items. These shops typically are not difficult to learn, but if you want to take full advantage of these shops and grab more than one profitable item per restock, you should be able to pinpoint the good items quickly.
- Don't be picky. When a shop restocks, just go for anything profitable - don't stop to make sure you are getting the most profitable item in the shop as this usually means you end up with nothing. While this may risk losing an UB, it should guarantee you constant profit. Besides, with time and practice you will be able to zero in on the best items faster.
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