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Sniping is one of the most useful ways of making neopoints on Neopets. Once mastered it can be very profitable.

The following are some frequently asked questions on sniping, please neomail me if you have a question that isn't answered below and I would be happy to consider adding it.




What exactly IS Sniping?
What is the difference between the Shop Wizard and the Super Shop Wizard?
How exactly do you Snipe?
How many neopoints do you need to start Sniping?
What classes as a 'Snipe'?
How much profit do i need to make on an item for it to be called a Snipe?
Why am I not allowed to search for some items on the Super Shop Wizard?
So what CAN you search for on the Super Shop Wizard?
How come i get a 'too many searches' message after refreshing for a while?
If I am 'Wiz Banned' have I broken a rule? What will happen?
Why does it say I am banned for 40 minutes and other times it only says for 10 minutes?
How can I stop myself getting Wiz Banned? Is there a way around it?
How do you snipe paint brushes then? What is the trick to it?
Is there anything I SHOULDNT be Sniping?
I just sniped a (insert sniped item here) and the user neomailed me asking for the item back! What do I do?
Which is the best browser for Sniping?
How safe is sniping??

Scroll down for all the answers!! :)


1. What exactly IS Sniping?

Sniping is when you search the Neopets user shops, trades or auctions and buy an item for a lot cheaper than it is actually worth. This guide will answer the frequently asked questions on Shop Wizard sniping.


What is the difference between the Super Shop Wizard and the Shop Wizard?

This is the Super Shop Wizard!! *pokes below* Only Neopets Premium members have access to it.If for example you search for 'Leaf Shield' it will find the 10 cheapest Leaf Shields currently for sale and list them for you.

This is the Super Shop Wizard. It automatically finds the 10 cheapest user shops which are selling the item you are looking for.

Below is the regular Shop Wizard. It is different because it finds a totally random selection of shops selling Leaf Shield's at a variety of prices so you may not necessarily get the best price straight away.

See the difference in price! The regular shop wizard can also display up to 20 listed shops. Rarer items will show up as having fewer listed shops when you do a search.



How exactly do you snipe?

The official Wiz(z)ing Hour guide which we recommend is Tulio_1000's petpage this will teach you the basics.

How many Neopoints do you need to start Sniping?

There isnt really a set amount. It really depends on what you hope to snipe and what you are searching for.

For example:

Items worth less than 20k
(Codestones, Dubloons, Bottled Faeries, neggs, low rarity, toys, stamps or plushies etc)

Start sniping with a minimum of 50k on hand

Items worth between 50-100k, so still buyable on the shop wizard
(Some Lutari Beads, job coupons, some lab map pieces, petpetpets, rarer petpets, weapons, stamps etc)

Have AT LEAST 200k on hand.

Anything above and beyond 100k - so only technically buyable in trades and auctions
(Many paint brushes, Nerkmids, Some Lab Map Pieces, Trans Potions)

I would strongly advise you have at least 300k on hand or in the bank.

Basically there is no rule. You can start sniping with 10k on hand.
However, the more neopoints you have, the more items you can Snipe!
Alot of the rarer items pop up snipable in shops priced around 99,999 NP so make sure you have enough to grab that snipe, possiby have it sitting in trades waiting to sell, and still be able to continue finding other items.
Otherwise you could miss out on a big snipe because you didnt have enough neopoints on hand!


What classes as a 'snipe?

There are several different types of snipes.

For example, you can search the Super Shop Wizard (SSW) for common items and find one which is priced much cheaper:


This is a typical SSW snipe. Look at the difference in price between the one highlighted and the next cheapest one!

You could also search the SSW and find an item which is the only one buyable at the time. This is also classed as a snipe:


Note: Be very careful if you see one item priced 99,999 NP. Check the trading post for the item to see if there is any profit to actually be made.(Sometimes the same item can be bought on the trading post for 100-110k in which there isn't much profit to be made so its not technically a snipe)

The other main type of sniping is Shop Wizard Sniping. This is only useful if you do not have Neopets Premium or are searching for restricted items (see question below) such as Paint Brushes, Transmogrification Potions, Lab map pieces or Nerkmids.


The same rule as the SSW sniping applies if you are searching for buyable paint brushes or lab map pieces etc. Search for one noticeably cheaper.

You may also find a one off snipe (such as the Krawk Trans above) which is clearly the only one of its kind buyable and will usually make a massive (sometimes millions of neopoints) profit. These are the Snipers dream snipes and will get snapped up quickly so speed is of the essence!





How much profit do i need to make on an item for it to be called a Snipe?

Technically profit is profit and if you buy something and are happy to make a few hundred neopoints profit then fine.

Speaking as a Sniper, I would say that a true Snipe gives you at least a 30% profit from the original price or more. A Snipe which only makes a thousand neopoints profit if it is an item worth 10-100k is not enough for me to consider it a Snipe. Just a good value purchase. At the end of the day though, only you can determine what is a good buy.


Why am I not allowed to search for some items on the Super Shop Wizard?

TNT felt that Premium members were gaining an unfair advantage over players by being able to use the Super Shop Wizard to search for certain very expensive items. To make it fairer for people who didn't have premium, they made these rare and expensive items unsearchable on the Super Shop Wizard. The restricted items are:

ANY Paint Brush
ANY Transmogrification Potion
ANY Nerkmid
ANY Secret Laboratory Map

If you try and search these items you will get a message saying:

The ONLYway to search for these items is by searching on the regular shop wizard.




So what can you snipe on the Super Shop Wizard?

This really is up to the individual. Other than the restricted items, you can search for absolutely anything!

You might find it useful to make a list of different items which you will look through to see if any pop-up snipeable.

TIP: Some good starter things to look for are things which pop up in random events often. Items such as:

Codestones
Dubloons
Bottled Faeries
Talisman Beads
Job Coupons
Neggs
Food
Spooky Map pieces

These kind of items are often mispriced so pop up snipable regulary

Other people search for certain types of items, like petpet's or weapons which they will use to search for snipes.

TIP: Try making a list of 20-30 items which you will look for each hour. Here are some ideas:

Petpets
Plushies
Petpetpets
Furniture
Stamps

You can also get ideas for items by looking at peoples galleries or wishlists. You never know,you might accidentally stumble upon the very item they have been searching for!

Alternatively, some people find it more fun to type in a random word (minimum of 3 letters) and search to see if anything comes up.

TIP: Try typing the word 'ing' or 'star' into the Super Shop Wizard and see how many items you find!




How come after searching for a while it says it says:


Whoa there, too many searches!


I am too busy right now, please come back in about 30 minutes and I can help you out.

As with the restricted items, TNT found that if Premium Members were able to search constantly for items, it would give them an unfair advantage against non-paying players. To prevent an unfair advantage they made the Super Shop Wizard 'ban' (snipers call it Wiz Ban you from searching again until the top of the next hour.


If I am Wiz Banned, have I broken a rule? What will happen?

Don't worry, you are not in trouble! This is a normal occurrence with Wiz Sniping. It just means that you have searched enough for the current hour, and when the new hour begins, you will be able to search again!


Why does it say I am banned for 40 minutes and other times it only says for 10 minutes?

The Wiz Ban system works based on a one hour system.

If you have been busy searching and you get banned at, say, 10:42am, you will get a message saying:


Whoa there, too many searches!

I am too busy right now, please come back
in about 20 minutes and I can help you out.

When the clock hits 11:00am you will be able to search again!

The number of minutes you get banned by depends on how close it is until the next new hour and it is updated every 10 minutes (so the time you get banned for is never an exact number, only 60,50,40,30,20 or 10 minutes)


How can I stop myself getting Wiz Banned? Is there a way around it?

Unfortunately how quickly you get banned seems to be prety random! What or when you search doesnt affect how quickly you will be banned.
It does appear that the quicker you refresh, the quicker you will get banned, however, the number of searches you can do doesnt affect whether you get banned in an hour or not.

TIP: Try spacing out your searches and taking your time rather than just repeatedly refreshing, the SSW seems to tire a bit less this way.


How do you snipe paint brushes then? What is the trick to it?

Theres no 'trick' to sniping paint brushes. Fact is, there USED to be a technique, but like alot of things TNT put a stop to that because they found people to be abusing the system.

The TRUE technique to sniping paint brushes is....PERSISTENCE!!

Snipers have their own ways of searching for the restricted items (and they prefer to keep it to themselves thankyouverymuch) however.... THE ONLY WAY TO SEARCH FOR PAINT BRUSHES AND RESTRICTED ITEMS IS BY USING THE REGULAR SHOP WIZARD!

Some people find that they just type in 'paint brush' and see what comes up works for them. Others prefer to type in a specific paint brush and refresh to see if one comes up snipable.

At the end of the day, either way is a long and sometimes monotonous process and 99% of the time it comes up with nothing.


Is there anything I SHOULDNT be Sniping?

Technically you can Snipe whatever you want! HOWEVER...there are certain items (known in Sniping as HTS - hard to sell) that most experienced Snipers will NOT go near! You should take great caution in buying the following items:

TCG's - Trading Cards are notoriously HTS. Not popular items and stick in trades for a long time.
Morphing Potions - The prices fluctuate so much that they are very hard to sell on and can stay in trades for a long time.
Collectible Cards - There's no market for them really so there isnt a great deal of interest in paying big neopoints.
World Challenge Pieces - Again, the prices are very unstable and theyre not really a popular item for people to buy.



I just sniped a (insert sniped item here) and the user neomailed me asking for the item back! What do I do?

This is a moral choice. Youre within your rights to keep the item as you bought it fair and square, but if you feel bad and the person seemed to have made a genuine mistake in pricing or accidentally selling, then you could do the nice thing and let them buy it back for the price you paid.
If once you tell them your decision they keep pestering for it back, you are within your rights to report them if they begin harassing you.


Which is the best browser for Sniping?

Different browsers such as Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Sefari all offer the user different features. I would say stick to what you already know and are comfortable using. Most browsers offer a tab feature which some people find helpful when sniping. Other browsers can bypass the POSTDATA message you get when you are using the SSW. At the end of the day, you can only refresh as quickly as your internet so give a couple of browsers a try and stick with what you prefer.




How safe is sniping??

Sniping is considered generally 'safe' and TNT accept it as a perfectly legal thing to do on the game.

However....like all things, there is a certain amount of caution you must take. Below are my top tips for being a 'safe' sniper :)

CLAREDALES TOP 'SAFE SNIPING' TIPS

1. Keep an eye on the neopets message boards for alerts to CG'ing attacks.
A CGer is a Cookie Grabber. This is a piece of melicious coding that are inserted into user lookups and shops by scammers that can steal your account information. They often target and CG people by putting very cheap items in shops to get people to visit the shop. Snipers are particulary at risk because cheap items and snipes is exactly what they are looking for!
When you hear of a CGing risk, it is much safer to stop sniping for a few days until TNT have time to sort the risk out.

2. Keep a note of the shop you bought the snipe from!
Sounds a bit random but it can be extremely handy if you keep a note of the last shop you sniped from. Again, if anything bad should happen to your account shortly after sniping an item, the last shop you sniped from could be the very user who caused the problem! Its also handy because if someone mispriced an item, they may do so again in the future and you can check back and see! :))

3. Keep a stockpile of snipes on a side account!
A very useful thing for the sniper is to have a stockpile of rare items on a side account for safe keeping. If anything should ever happen to your account and you loose access to it, you have a ready-made pile of items which you can sell for quick neopoints. Remember, no selling on side accounts! Only your MAIN account can make neopoints!

4. DO NOT!!! SNIPE ON SIDE ACCOUNTS
You WILL get frozen! This is just the same as making money on a side and TNT have their own way of testing for these things. TNT will know if you have been using the Shop Wizard on a side. Do NOT even try it.




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