NeoCash: Buying Cyber Items For Cyber Pets With Real World Cash
Jul 11 '07
The Bottom Line Is The NeoMall A Great Concept or Another Money Making Scheme?
Neopets is one of my favorite sites but that doesn’t mean that I can't be objective about it when they pull a lame brain idea like their new NeoMall. It is a virtual store where you can purchase items to customize your Neopet; everything from shoes to backgrounds to toys and trinkets. What's the point of all this? Some people are way into the site, so much so that they are willing to dole out cash to customize their pets. That sounds like a great concept but there are some things that you need to know before you drop some cash on this idea.
The NeoMall can be found on the top right corner of your toolbar. Unless you fund your NeoCash account with money via PayPal, you won't be able to shop there. These items are not transferable nor can they be sold, traded or given to someone. One last thing, don’t get too attached to the items you buy at the NeoMall. Three months [ninety days] after you make the purchase, the items are removed from your 'closet' [this is where purchased items are kept]. There are wearable items that you can put on your pets without having to buy them at the NeoMall, there is a small list but you never know when more items will be added to it so the price of some clothing items have been increasing over the past few weeks.
The cash value [all NeoCash purchases are non-refundable] is one penny per NC so if you added $5.00 to your account you would have 500 NC to shop with. At this time they only accept PayPal to buy NeoCash is it should show up in your account shortly after you make your PayPal payment. Neopets is also working on a real world NeoCash Card; one would have to assume that these would be sold at Limited Too, one of the retail stores that carry a lot of Neopet items. I doubt they will ever add credit cards to the list of options; that is welcoming fraud on a whole new level. They will accept it for the Premium service but not for the NeoMall. Puzzling.
What can you buy and what are the prices? Here is a short list of things that you can buy at the NeoMall. Please remember, one NC is equal to one penny so something that costs 350 NC will cost you $3.50 in cash to buy.
Haunted Graveyard Background - 100 NC
Pulsing Brain Tree Hat - 50 NC
Maraquan Exploration Superpack - 350 NC
Floating Fyora Faerie Doll - 75 NC
Non-Ionising Lab Ray T-Shirt - 75 NC
Almost every pet can be customized at the NeoMall except pets that have been painted Baby, Mutant or Maraqua as well as all forms of Fruit and Vegetable Chias. You do have the option to try items on before you buy them, this allows you to see what your pet will look like and if the item is going to be worth it. You do not have to have funds in your NeoCash account to try items on but you do need to have funds in your account to purchase them.
The NeoMall follows the much anticipated Neopet Premium Membership. This was a much hyped and heavily pimped concept to make money, attract new advertisers and "enhance the site for members". Having a few extra random events, getting a special scratchcard and being able to use the Super Shop Wizard don't warrant the monthly fee even if you have tons of people that sign up with your referral email. So why do people continue to pay the Premium price? Much like that gym membership that never gets used, it can be hard to cancel and since it is automatically billed to a credit card every month, some people can't be bothered trying to cancel it.
What does the NeoMall mean for long time players? Nothing really. It won't change your prospects at winning any trophies or getting your pet into the final round of a contest and seeing as how the items only last for ninety days, it's not something I see myself investing in any time soon. Even though it is still in the beta testing phase and they say that things are "on sale" [meaning a cheaper than normal price], that only means that when it is up and running, the prices will be higher. I am still waiting for them to open the NeoSchool … another idea that never came to see the light of day.
Several friends have sunk huge sums of money into customizing their pets using the NeoMall and they don't complain the least about having to pay for something that you can't keep. There are spending limits too; you can't spend more than $75.00 the first thirty days your NeoCash account is open but after that you can spend up to $150.00. That might sound nearly impossible to do but if you have four pets you can buy a lot of different things for them to wear as well as backgrounds for them.
The Bottom Line
If the NeoMall allowed you to convert NeoPoints to NeoCash then we'd be NeoCooking but until that happens, I am going to have to pass on shopping at the NeoMall. It was the same thing as the Premium membership. I tried it and didn’t really see a huge benefit for what I was paying every month. That doesn’t mean it's a bad idea but it just wasn't for me.
As always, thanks for the visit…
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2007 Freak369
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Read about Mobiprof's success at the Neopet Stock Market here: How I Became A Stock Market Millionaire
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