[quote=slaygal_of_sunnydale]I agree that you should upgrade first. Your shop itself is the most important thing, then advertising it. If you concentrate on growing, then your market position will help sales. And once you're comfortable with your size, then you can do NB ads and see if they help. I'm actually having the same dilemma as you. To upgrade a lot now or not? I usually upgrade about five times a week, using the profits I've made in my shop till. I have some nps saved up. If I spent it all, I would be near size 400. I don't want to do that, though, as I'd be broke. My goal was to save up 10 million nps in my bank and then use that to upgrade and buy books for my Bruce. I'm about halfway there. Sales have been slow the past two weeks, though, and I haven't made enough to do my usual five upgrades. I love my sandwich gallery on my main, so I'm not selling that even though I know I would get at least 2 million from it. I do have a sword gallery on my side collecting dust. I used to love it but haven't even paid attention to it in a while (pretty much since I started my sandwich gallery). I think I'm going to add up my swords and see how much I can get. Good luck with your upgrading, 1434sweet. And also, yes, don't sell your items for less than their value. Pick what you'd like to hang on to, and the ones you sell, go with the lowest shop wizard price.[/quote] Thanks for the luck! I will try my best to upgrade then. Will see after the peak this Saturday if the advertisement will boost my sales up or if slough off because it may have been posted prematurely. If it stays on Saturday and will boost my sales up, I might be able to upgrade and rethink this dilemma. You're in for a surprise. Your wish has just been granted! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=1434sweet Do you need more shop sales? Come participate in a 4 million shop advertisement! Check my neopet's page for more details.

[quote=Sophie703]Ditto what Kristy said. I'd sell the stuff first.... rebuilding your stocks is a slow and painful process. The stuff will always be there. I think there's one thing that I sold for 800k which doubled in price by the time I was able to buy it back, but other than that I'm glad I did it. Main is wonderful![/quote] I have a question about being in a "Main market". What is the average sale do you guys usually get? (I'm all about the money) +) You're in for a surprise. Your wish has just been granted! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=1434sweet Do you need more shop sales? Come participate in a 4 million shop advertisement! Check my neopet's page for more details.

[quote=temps_bons][quote=1434neopets]Hello all, Perhaps you could help me here with my dilemma. I'm contemplating with these options: 1) Upgrade my shop to 400 from 274. OR 2) Participate in a 4 million advertisement. ---------------------------- 3) Sell all of my rare items half priced for quick sell amounting to only around 10 million np instead of 20 million np for my shop upgrades. OR 4) Not selling the rare items and retaining a small shop with few upgrades every month. [/quote] Here are my two cents. I think maybe you are getting impatient though you are doing just fine. I have been struggling with this as well but I realize it has taken these players many hours to get to their size and I don't want to kill myself to get ahead when I have a great profit margin, am upgrading quickly AND banking my profits. I can get where I want to go at a very fast pace but not immediately. So, take my experience and see if you are trying to do too much too soon... The 4 MIL Ad will get you some sales but the bottom line is: will it get you the cost you paid for it plus a lot of profit? You have to think in terms of profits you make from the Ad -- so if it brings in 1M in Sales, subtract your cost for those items and the Ad.... and think if you had not spent that chunk on the Ad what your profits would have been. If you upgrade your shop you can stock more and get in a marketplace but if you aren't first in the market place how many people will find you there? Again, it depends on how much sales & profit that brings you, minus cost of upgrading to get there. *I personally NEVER use the marketplace even when I had a faerie quest and couldn't use the boards I bookmarked a mall and went back to it again and again. And gosh, this is NOT to say that marketplace status doesn't matter or anything else...just my experience. My suggestions: Sell you items and shop wizard/ssw everything for one month -- if you do this your profit margin will actually go up because you'll find so many great deals! Also, just buy what you need, try not to go crazy and go through your SDB and get rid of some of the stuff that's in there that you don't really need. The idea is to sell (liquify your SDB) to free-up the NPs you have stored in there. Each morning, take your shop till and bank 1/3 (after you collect your interest :) ) and upgrade with 1/3 and buy new shop stock with 1/3 - what is left. If you need more to buy stock, play games....whaaaa???? Yep, do it! I have done this and I have upgraded 10 times in a very short time, have a great balance in the bank and an over flowing SDB. Before this I dunno where all those nps went. After 1 month (or a week or two, you decide) of doing this without advertizing through an ad you will know how much comes from shop wizard/SSW. Also, you have replenished your SDB and built a good bank account that you can use to upgrade your shop all at once or continue to advertize. Since many are having slow sales and it's spring break, exams, getting warmer, etc. all reasons people are not on their computers I would go into maintain (save) and rake the profits into your bank account. FINALLY: DO NOT TAKE A LOSS ON ANYTHING...Maybe less profit and I think that's probably what you mean anyway, so not 20M but 15M. If by rare items you mean items you have that are worth a lot that you found on the floor, bought for peanuts in a restock, etc. I would sell some of them (the restocks and most expensive ones) and put the nps in the bank and put the rest in your gallery to show them off and hope they get more valuable. Also, Tarla & Key Quest keeps giving rare/expensive items away so whatever is in that category -- get rid of it before the value bottoms out. ~ Mimi (Please read my Guest Book: Requesting Guide Help) _____________________________________________________ Mimi's Ménagerie: Healthy Tastes Good Here! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=temps_bons[/quote] Thank you for such long reply. I currently do not have the time to read it right now but I will definitely read it after my exam. You're in for a surprise. Your wish has just been granted! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=1434sweet Do you need more shop sales? Come participate in a 4 million shop advertisement! Check my neopet's page for more details.